Blog:
How much is poor-quality asset information costing asset owners?
In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, asset owners face a myriad of challenges in maintaining and managing their built assets. From energy efficiency and maintenance and repairs to rising costs and risk management, the accuracy and accessibility of asset information plays a pivotal role in ensuring operational efficiency. However, many asset owners struggle with poor or incomplete asset information. A problem that can be avoided with an Asset Information Management Common Data Environment (AIM CDE).
The cost of poor-quality building information is costing asset owners
Asset information requirements should be defined and communicated. This usually happens during the construction phase, or maybe even during refurbishment works. Little focus is paid to this beyond handover but whoever is operating or maintaining the building will require this information. As the physical asset is maintained and evolves, so should the digital asset information.
Poor asset information can have costly consequences for asset owners, stemming from a variety of factors. These may include manual record-keeping processes, disparate data sources, a lack of standardised procedures and inadequate technology for storing and maintaining the data.
The impact of poor information management
One of the most significant costs incurred by asset owners due to poor asset information is the impact on maintenance and repair activities. Inaccurate or outdated data can lead to inefficiencies in scheduling preventive maintenance. This results in downtime, unexpected breakdowns and often costly emergency repairs.
Poor asset information can also impede an asset owner’s ability to make informed decisions regarding asset utilisation, optimisation and strategic planning. Without reliable data on asset performance, condition and lifecycle costs, asset owners may miss opportunities to optimise asset usage, reduce operating costs and align asset management strategies with organisational goals. This lack of visibility into asset information can also hinder compliance efforts, exposing asset owners to regulatory risks and potential penalties.
The ripple effects of poor built asset information go beyond the building operations. Delays, disruptions and quality issues resulting from inaccurate asset data can erode tenant/occupant trust and damage brand reputation. It can even lead to lost revenue at sale/disposal.
The solution
When it comes to the cost of this, ultimately the building will need to be re-surveyed. This will involve a walk-through of the premises to identify all the maintainable assets to produce a new asset inventory. This is an exercise that can take up to 90 days. The level of detail captured, unless defined by the asset owner, will be subjective to the surveyor and may exclude vital information regarding design specification and asset history.
- An AIM CDE can eliminate the need for a survey and help with communicating information requirements and establish clear policies and procedures for capturing, validating and maintaining asset information during the managed service period. With complete and accurate asset information register, asset owners can gain:
- A complete view of maintenance schedules and breakdown histories
- Visibility of building and health and safety information to demonstrate compliance
- Up-to-date O&M manuals
- A component and space naming convention that structures and coordinates the thousands of data points within the asset that produce data
By prioritising data quality, visibility and governance, asset owners can mitigate risks and unlock the full potential of their assets through data exploitation and ultimately increase building value.
To discover how implementing an Asset Information Management Common Data Environment (AIM CDE) can help you to manage your built assets, get in touch.