April 2008

Major Savings on the horizon by the use of the Code of Practice for Collaborative Production of Construction Information

A British Standard, BS 1192:2007 (now a Code of Practice), has been published to establish the methodology for managing the production, distribution and quality of architectural, engineering and construction information, including that generated by CAD systems. It uses a disciplined process for collaboration and a specified naming policy. BS 1192 is applicable to all parties involved in the preparation and use of information throughout the design, construction, operation and deconstruction in a project lifecycle and the supply chain.

The principles for information sharing and common modelling are equally applicable to building and civil projects. BS 1192 is also a guide for developers of software applications to enable them to support implementation through the provision of configuration files or application add-ons.

The committee were pleased to have a representative on the British Standard committee contributing to the new British Standard.

BS 1192:2007 supersedes BS 1195-5:1998 which has been withdrawn. Among the changes in this revised standard is the incorporation of BS ISO 12006-2 compliant classification tables, including Uniclass.

CPIC holds the copyright for Uniclass and is currently in the process of identifying revisions and additions needed to meet industry requirements. Details of the proposed revisions will be made available on this website for industry comment.

Uniclass has been used successfully in a number of high profile developments as part of the former DTI’s Avanti project and can typically save 10% on cost in a project.

Uniclass is a classification scheme for the construction industry comprising 15 tables, each representing a different broad facet of construction information. Each table can be used as a 'stand alone' table for the classification of a particular type of information, in addition, terms from different tables can be combined to classify complex subjects.

"We welcome the revision of BS 1192:2007” said Douglas Smith, Chairman of CPIC "The Government should be delighted by the initiatives at this critical time of major construction work in the U K with Crossrail, Olympics and Nuclear Power. They are tools that should be used by everyone in the industry including developers. BSI accepted that the CPI initiative in 2003 may make significant cost savings and reduction of waste and this was proved by DTI's Avanti project which confirmed a 10% saving on the project."

For further information on BS 1192:2007 see the BSI website.

Contact: Sarah Delany
Email: sarah.delany@dsl.pipex.com
Tel: 01420 560068