Construction Operations Building Information Exchange (COBIE)

by E. William East, PE, PhD
Engineer Research and Development Center, U.S. Army, Corps of Engineers

Last updated: 05-06-2008

Introduction

Today, most contracts require the handover of paper documents containing equipment lists, product data sheets, warranties, spare part lists, preventive maintenance schedules, and other information. This information is essential to support the operations, maintenance, and the management of the facilities assets by the owner and/or property manager.

Gathering this information at the end of the job, today's standard practice, is expensive, since most of the information has to be recreated from information created earlier. COBIE simplifies the work required to capture and record project handover data.

The COBIE approach is to enter the data as it is created during design, construction, and commissioning, see Figure 1. Designers provide floor, space, and equipment layouts. Contractors provide make, model, and serial numbers of installed equipment. Much of the data provided by contractors comes directly from product manufacturers who can also participate in COBIE. Please see Project Delivery Teams for more information.

Fig. 1. COBIE Process Overview

While COBIE is designed to work with Building Information Models (BIMs), COBIE data may also be created and exchanged using simple spreadsheets. The COBIE team selected spreadsheets so that the benefits of the COBIE approach can be widely used throughout the facility acquisition industry, not just on large, high-visibility projects. By allowing the exchange of COBIE data using spreadsheets even small homebuilders can provide a simplified as-built BIM to their customers along with the keys.

Description

This is a general description of COBIE. Detailed information and a step-by-step guide (PDF 481 KB, 38 pgs) may be found through documents identified in the Reference section of this document.

A. Early Design Stage

As the design begins the vertical and horizontal spaces that are necessary to fulfill the owner's requirements for the building, facility, or infrastructure project are defined. Within these buildings, facilities, or projects are also defined the different types of systems that are needed to satisfy the owner's requirements. Please see Project Planning & Development for more information.

Figure 2 illustrates how this information is provided through COBIE. COBIE data begins with the listing of one or more Facilities (i.e. buildings or projects). Each of these facilities has one or more Floors. Within each floor there are Spaces. In buildings, these spaces will typically have room numbers. Outside the building, spaces can be referenced by function, such as "parking lot" or "patio seating." For non-building projects COBIE users can create "floors" and "spaces" that provide the most meaningful partition of the physical regions that comprise those projects.

Fig. 2. Early Design Stage Information

Early in the design, projects are developed by listing spaces and identifying specific functions required to meet the owner's requirements. To allow these spaces to perform as intended, specific building Systems, are also required for all projects. For buildings, these systems include: electrical, heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC), potable water, wastewater, fire protection, intrusion detection and alarms and other systems. In COBIE, there must be at least one System for each Facility.

Since a significant benefit can be achieved for Asset Managers, COBIE allows the exchange of space function and area calculations provided directly by the designers' CAD or BIM software.

B. Construction Documents Design Stage

As the design progresses the products (including materials and equipment) needed to create the systems are specified. Typical construction projects require the designer to create a "submittal register" listing these products and the necessary information that will ensure their installation. This list, the Register, is the catalog of all the types of items to be installed in the project.

Some products, particularly equipment, are identified by name. These are specific instances of items found in the Register. For example, HVAC equipment may have products called "Air Handling Unit 1" and shown as "AHU-1" on the plans. In COBIE, specifically named products or equipment are called Components.

Figure 3 illustrates the Register and Components identified in the COBIE standard. The only difference between the traditional submittal register (currently created during the construction documents phase) and the requirements for COBIE is that each register item references its relevant system.

Fig. 3. Construction Documents Stage Information

Since the designer creates the information provided in the design stages, if the data is provided by the designer, then it need not be recreated during a post-construction site survey.

From the point of view of the owner or property manager, the products identified in the design represent a significant investment. In COBIE, products are identified as fixed or moveable assets. Please see Real Property Inventory (RPI) for more information.

C. Contractor Quality Control Stage

Fig. 4. Contractor Quality Control Stage Information

As the project progresses from design to construction, the next stage of the project that contains COBIE-related data occurs when the contractor provides submittals for the items identified in the Register. This is illustrated in Figure 4. While the COBIE format can support the entire submittal process, the typical use of COBIE information exchange will be to provide copies of information that has been acknowledged or approved by the owner for installation in the facility, building, or project.

The majority of construction submittals are provided as PDF files from documents already created by product manufacturers. Shop drawings are submitted in their native CAD/BIM formats as well as in PDF-views. Scanned or photographic images are required for submittals that require physical samples. When the COBIE data is transmitted these files are provided with the COBIE file on a single COBIE data disk.

Inquiries to large and small general contractors across the country have indicated that they are ready to provide electronic submittals, if only construction managers and owners would accept such submittals. In many cases, the ability of contractors to meet the requirements of COBIE exceeds the current level of expertise of owners to accept and process electronic submittals.

The COBIE methodology can provide motivation for owners to change their information systems and standard operating procedures to accommodate electronic submittal processing.

D. Product Installation Stage

Fig. 5. Product Installation Stage (Part 1) Information

Once the construction contractor procures the required products (including materials and equipment) they will be installed during construction. Figure 5 illustrates where the make, model, and serial numbers are found within COBIE. Those items with serial numbers will list the serial number and reference individual Components, such as "AHU-1." The make and model number of products installed across the project (such as paint, carpet, doors, and windows) are provided but linked to the Register only.

Unless there are changes to the location of equipment, or changes to the approved products installed, that designer-created data does not need to be recreated by the contractor.

Contractors will also find value in capturing the make, model, and serial number data as the products are installed. If the data is systematically and accurately captured in COBIE during installation, the extensive site survey needed today could be eliminated.

In discussion with medium-sized contractors, the only requirement identified in COBIE that is not already in most construction contracts is recording the serial number during equipment installation. Owners may want to consider adding clauses in their contracts that ensure the data is captured, prior to paying for installed equipment.

Fig. 6. Product Installation Stage (Part 2) Information

In addition to the make, model, and serial numbers, equipment manufacturers provide operation Manuals, Warranties, and Parts information. Submittal registers currently include these documents to be provided as paper documents. In COBIE, electronic versions of these documents are linked to the submittal register requirements. As shown in Figure 6, COBIE requires that these documents be captured electronically and referenced to the register.

Warranty data regarding start and end dates of warranties is required in COBIE. Parts data requires the identification of both on-site spares and replacement parts. Suppliers for these replacement parts are also identified in COBIE.

E. System Commissioning Stage

Fig. 7. System Commissioning Stage (Part 1) Information

Once the equipment is installed and tested, the systems are turned on and made operational for O&M staff. In COBIE, there are several documents that describe system operations. These documents include Instructions, Tests, and Certifications. COBIE allows these documents to refer to individual Components, product types listed in the Register, and to the Systems. Figure 7 shows how these documents reference the Register.

The final stage of commissioning is to develop scheduled or preventive maintenance and other types of plans that support long-term facility operations. In COBIE there is space for the following types of plans: Preventive Maintenance (PM), Safety Plans, Troubleshooting Plans, Start-Up Procedures, Shut-Down Procedures, and Emergency plans. COBIE associates these plans with individual Components, product types shown in the Register, and the Systems.

In addition to listing specific types of job plans, COBIE requires the identification of critical resources needed for these job plans. Often special Materials, Tools, or Training will be needed before starting a particular job. These resources are identified in COBIE and then referenced by the specific job plan activity that requires those resources.

Figure 8 illustrates two of the job plans types, PM and Safety. The PM job plan shows the link to Materials, Tools, and Training resources. Resources used by different job plan activities need only be listed once in COBIE. This creates an overall list of resources needed to support the entire facility, building, or project. Each job plan that requires that resource will reference the overall project resource list.

Fig. 8. System Commissioning Stage (Part 2) Information

Manufacturers often provide job plans with other product literature. If this is the case, then the job plans need to identify the correct page within this literature within COBIE. The need of construction contractors to look through and reference manufacturer data should be a short-term effort. Once the COBIE format is established in the construction industry, manufacturers will begin to provide COBIE data directly to construction contractors along with PDF catalog cuts. Follow-up efforts with manufacturers are currently being planned.

Application

The COBIE data created from designers and contractors can be captured in CAD and BIM software. Several manufactures have indicated their interest in providing a direct export of COBIE data. On the O&M side, several Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS) vendors have expressed their interest in automatically importing COBIE data.

Until sufficient interest is expressed by software vendors to create the export and import routines, the National Building Information Modeling Standard (NBIMS) Development Team has produced a spreadsheet version of COBIE with step-by-step instructions. You may find these under the references section below.

Implementation

COBIE allows the exchange of IFC-based facility management data. A meeting was held on February 20, 2008 at the U. S. Army, Corps of Engineers, Chicago District Office to discuss the implementation of COBIE. The linked files below document the results of that meeting and provide the presentations and handouts that might be of interest to those using COBIE.

• COBIE Meeting Report (PDF 44 KB)
• COBIE Introduction Presentation (PDF 860 KB)
• COBIE Overview Presentation (PDF 1 MB)
• Concensus COBIE Specification Sections (PDF 39 KB)
• COBIE HTML (ZIP 1.9 MB)

Relevant Codes and Standards

• National Building Information Model Standard, Version 1.0-Part 1 Appendix B, "Construction Operations Building Information Exchange Pilot Implementation Standard." (PDF 2.6 MB)
• COBIE Information Delivery Manual
• COBIE Requirements Analysis Report (PDF 1.1 MB, 201 pgs)

Additional Resources

• COBIE Template Spreadsheet
• "Step-by-Step Guide to COBIE" (PDF 481 KB, 38 pgs)

Briefings

• Overview (for managers) (PDF 588 KB, 26 pgs)
• Data Organization (for information modelers) (PDF 902 KB, 38 pgs)
• Spreadsheet Demo (for designers and contractors) (PDF 5.8 MB, 89 pgs)