INTERVIEW – John Turner

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Sinclair; John, you are the CEO of Gafcon Digital Inc.  Please introduce yourself and the company.

Sinclair; You describe Gafcon Digital as a Digital Twin Systems Integrator.  Why are your services needed?

Digital Twins are a new concept for the Owners and Operators, the serial builders, of the built environment.  Digital Twins are on every owner’s agenda.  We have supported some of the most advanced applications of Digital Twins and so have unique experience and expertise that can assist Owners attain their goals.  Few understand what Digital Twins really are and the value that they can unlock.  Our first task is to explain the What, the Why and the How of Digital Twins.

I would first of all like to explain what a Digital Twin is not!  It is not a virtual representation of a physical building.  It is not a BIM or a representation captured by reality capture.  The vast majority of vendors are selling digital twins without understanding some core components.  Let me address those.

The traditional view of a digital twin is that it has three components:  The physical, the virtual and the link between them.  We add two additional components.  The first is the use case.  The digital twin must create value for the owner and without a defined use case the digital twin approach cannot be aligned to deliver that value.  The second is the digital thread. It is unlikely that there will be a single digital twin in the digital building lifecycle.   If the digital twin is aligned with the use case and it starts in planning then the data collected will be aligned with planning and not operations, however the data structure is relevant and the downstream digital twins will be reliant on the data created upstream and so all must be connected using a digital thread.   Support for the lifecycle hence requires multiple digital twins and a system of systems approach.

I use the analogy of a smart phone to explain what we do.  We integrate systems, processes and data into the digital thread which is analogous to the smart phone.  Once the functionality and associated data has been aggregated and correlated, just like on a smart phone, value can be created by building applications on that smart phone platform far more effectively than developing separate siloed applications.  There are three main things that prevent this approach:

·        The first is that the digital building lifecycle is siloed or fragmented.  Planning does not communicate with Design.  Design does not communicate with Construction.  Construction with Operations etc.  There is a need for a data standard and process reengineering to enable that communication.

·        The second is that there is no single software vendor that can provide everything necessary to support a digital twin across the complete lifecycle.  Software vendors are aligned with the existing silos and have no interest in cooperating with their competitors.  There is a need to think end to end across the whole lifecycle rather than within these silos.

·        The third is that the industry has a project mentality.  Our conventional processes focus on the need to bring in the project within budget and schedule but very rarely does an owner question the format and approach to that budget and schedule.  Part of this is because of the cost and length of a project.  If we were manufacturing widgets on an hourly basis we would want to optimize the approach and we would have the data and analysis to do that.  Our focus on serial builders and owner operators brings us closer to that manufacturing perspective so that we can focus on the process as well as the content of a project.

Sinclair; Why should an Owner be interested in this approach?

I will sum it up in one word – predictability.  Predictability covers many areas:  Cost, Schedule, Safety, Quality as well as sustainability, employee productivity, carbon footprint, competitiveness etc.

Sinclair; So how do you advise Owners to start the journey?

We summarize our approach into three phases:  Communicate, Collaborate and Correlate.

In practice it is more complex and the overall transformation is generally delivered by a Program Management Office focused on People, Process and Technology.  We believe that there are nine critical elements in this approach but the most important are:

·        The necessity to introduce BIM and data standards that will support the complete digital building lifecycle.

·        The need to establish a steering committee that can address the integration of the silos.

·        The focus on the virtual as well as the physical.  Most owners would not even consider delivering a project without an owner project or construction manager for the physical building.  We believe that there is a need to do this for the virtual building.

I would like to emphasize the Correlate phase.  This allows us to align the performing twin with the simulated twin and so perform closed loop analysis to further improve the performance of the built asset.  The digital twin hence moves from largely reactive, in that it provides the data on how a building is performing though a series of Internet of Things or Internet of Activity sensors, into being proactive.  This is of particular benefit in evaluating energy conservation measures and tracking the carbon footprint of a building.

Sinclair; How do you address the differing requirements of the stakeholder groups that cover the complete lifecycle?

That is a very important question.  The system that is used to interface with the digital twin will be different for each stakeholder group.  While BIM and Reality Capture approaches are important for the design and construction phases of both new and existing buildings, they are not optimized for operations and maintenance.  Going back to our smart phone analogy the same data can be used in many different applications which are aligned with many different users.  Our approach allows the selection of the best user interface for the user.  This may be graphic such as a real time or gaming engine, of a dashboard like Power BI, or it may be a GIS or BIM system.   Our approach allows all the required data to be available through the user interface that is most familiar to the user. Several graphic approaches have been illustrated.  All use the same data.

Sinclair; What final advice do you have for our readers?

Implementing a digital twin approach to the digital building lifecycle is not just about technology.  Start with standards, focus on value and demonstrate that this can be created with a proof of concept that can be quickly piloted.  And be prepared for the people, process and organizational changes that will be required as this is a transformational approach, not just an incremental improvement to the existing process.

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