Client Success:
Information Management for HM Prison Service estates
Glider has been appointed by Kier to work with the Ministry of Justice to deliver projects for HMP Five Wells. Implementing Glider’s flagship Common Data Environment (CDE), gliderbim®, this complex project involved one of the biggest data sets Glider has worked on to date.
Due to the extent of data involved, and being a mandated ISO 19650-4 deliverable, COBie (Construction Operations Building Information Exchange) was a briefed requirement, minimising risk and ensuring the efficient construction of the new prison.
Supporting the building of new prisons
The Ministry of Justice principal delivery partners turned to Glider for support with the building of the new prison at HMP Five Wells, replacing facilities that were closed down in 2012. The prison is part of the government’s ‘Prison Estate Transformation Programme’.
The new prison is made up of several buildings following a standard structure, but with its own complex sets of requirements. The facility is now the biggest prison in England, with a unique design enabling more direct contact between staff and prisoners.
Glider consultants provided digital handover documentation management and COBie information management services utilising the gliderbim® information management platform.
Keeping large quantities of data accurate and clean
When information requirements are specified and handover delivered correctly, facilities management (FM) can complete their job in an easier, more efficient way. For this HMP project, extensive asset information requirement documents covered everything from nomenclature to measurements – with vast amounts of data needing to be accurate and clean.
One challenge on this project was ensuring that all data handed over by trade suppliers and subcontractors was accurate and correct. Lining all of this data up with the COBie requirements and O&M was imperative to ensure there were no inconsistencies threatening to make the project fallible.
Future-proofing the projects
In order to make sure the project is future-proof, Glider knew to provide more data than was needed. While that data may not be needed immediately, collating all of the data during the build means that there will be no need to retrospectively find data as technology improves and upgrades.
Typically, data for construction projects is contained in drawings, bills of quantities and specifications that are often completed retrospectively. This process relies on all parties involved with the project to update the documentation, which can often leave room for error and miscommunication. During the construction process, especially for large projects such as those at HMP Five Wells, it is vital that everything possible is done to minimise this risk.
This is where COBie as a recognised industry data exchange standard comes in. On this HMP project, data requirements were specified and distributed to project parties for completion. Data from each trade contractor was submitted at agreed and regular intervals for verification and acceptance. In this process, the submitted data was passed through gliderbim® information delivery plan (IDP) rules engines to ensure each contact, component down to data attribute level-detail, e.g., warranty data or maintenance regime, was populated correctly.
Trade contractors and suppliers could instantly see any anomalies with their submission and correct missing or incorrect data via the gliderbim® auditable RFI log process. Once verified and accepted, these parcels of trade and supplier data were federated into a modelled dataset, representative of the as-built asset. This was vital when engaging the operational teams before and during handover who want to make use of (or integrate) this data with their facilities management and building operating systems.
Using gliderbim® to further ensure accuracy and data transparency
Glider carried out an IFC enrichment piece, whereby all data gathered from contractors through the gliderbim® RFI tool was exported through its unique export tool to create fully data-complete IFC models.
As the client required IFC models rich with data, Glider wanted to do more than just COBie spreadsheets. The client will now receive the IFC models with data included, covering every base and ensuring a soft landing for operational teams.
Processing this much data would not have been possible without the unique data management capabilities of gliderbim® and Glider’s skilled information managers and consultants.
Prison projects are enormous undertakings that require a lot of know-how, skill and attention to detail to deliver – but the outcome is that the Ministry of Justice can be completely confident in the quality and completeness of data and handover information for HMP Five Wells.