Views are being sought on a critical project being developed by the Construction Innovation Hub (the Hub) and the Construction Products Association (CPA). The LEXiCON project is set to revolutionise data management in the construction industry to deliver increased productivity, sustainability and safety. It will standardise construction product data sharing on projects, allowing construction professionals to better use product information to optimise designs and improve digital records.
In a new report published for consultation today (July 7), the Hub and the CPA outline the benefits LEXiCON can deliver to:
- Construction Industry Stakeholders, to build consensus about the process of product data management and help establish relevant authorities to facilitate this process;
- Relevant Authorities, by using LEXiCON to create, maintain and publish Product Data Templates (PDTs);
- Manufacturers, by using LEXiCON to retrieve PDTs to create, maintain and publish Product Data Sheets (PDSs); and
- Wider construction industry, including designers, constructors, commissioning engineers, architects, and contractors, through using LEXiCON for a standardised industry approach towards formation and management of product data to request the creation of PDTs for key products and through the use of PDSs.
Keith Waller, Hub programme director, said:
“At its core, the LEXiCON project is about standardising product information and ensuring it is computer-readable, accessible, auditable, and traceable. LEXiCON will develop best practice for the creation and management of product data, which will ensure construction professionals to better use product information to optimise designs and improve digital records as we look to build back better and answer the challenges of an increasingly complex post-pandemic world.
“As we publish this report, we are launching a public consultation on the processes LEXiCON advocates, to ensure we develop consensus with the construction industry and wider stakeholders.”
Peter Caplehorn, Construction Products Association CEO, said:
“To date, all the effort the construction industry has put into digitalisation has been an approximation given that the digital information of products has not been available to join up with the rest of the sector. LEXiCON provides a vehicle to allow that to happen, and for the first time we will have a completely digitalised sector with a consensus built, consistent language.
“It is vital that we hear back from industry, to reach our goal of producing a process that is both stringent and achievable in the aim of creating structured product information that is trusted, useable and complete. We encourage all those who create and use product information across the built environment to engage and welcome any feedback to help us refine our proposals.”
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
- The consultation on the proposed LEXiCON methods for ‘Relevant Authorities’ and building consensus, which will be open from Wednesday 07 July 2021 to Thursday 30 September 2021, can be found here: constructioninnovationhub.org.uk/lexicon-consultation
- The Construction Innovation Hub and Construction Products Association are developing the LEXiCON project to support manufacturers in sharing product information freely across industry.
- Barriers to obtaining product information also slows the uptake of accurate digital records needed to create a golden thread of asset information. Hence, there is a clear need to streamline this process so that manufacturers can share the data and information they hold in a standardised way allowing construction professionals to better use product information to optimise designs and improve digital records.
- The Government’s Construction Playbook has called for the sector to harmonise, rationalise, and digitise to improve its safety, sustainability, and productivity. Despite various initiatives to harmonise construction product information and make it both human-readable and machine-interpretable, it is still developed and consumed in diverse and unconnected ways. Such fragmentation leads to product data creation and management processes that are inefficient, time consuming, costly, less collaborative, and therefore untraceable and lacking alignment with pending and new regulatory requirements and future working practices.
- Lexicon Project milestones.
- July - Public consultation launched;
- Aug - Public consultation closed;
- Sep - Response to the public consultation reviewed, public update shared; and
- Nov - LEXiCON proof of concept demonstrator and early adopters programme launched.
- For more information please contact: Neil Broadfoot, Media Manager, Construction Innovation Hub, pressoffice@constructioninnovationhub.org.uk.
About the Construction Innovation Hub
The decisions we make today will shape our future. The Construction Innovation Hub’s vision is a world where our built environment improves quality of life, delivers greater social value, reduces environmental impact and is delivered by a world-leading, innovative and sustainable industry.
The Hub is developing solutions that will help drive the transformation of the sector. We’re pioneering ways in which buildings and infrastructure are procured, designed, delivered and operated to deliver market-ready products and processes that will shape our future built environment, ensuring safety, quality and value.
In close collaboration with government, academia, industry and partners across the Transforming Construction Challenge, we are guiding a collaborative programme, using world-leading processes and technologies, to create a market with the capability and capacity needed to deliver the UK’s construction and infrastructure needs.
This collective innovation will drive adoption of manufacturing-led approaches to construction, digital tools and secure, connected data that support sector growth and open export opportunities, accelerating recovery and the transformation to a future-ready sector.
www.constructioninnovationhub.org.uk
About the Construction Products Association
The Construction Products Association is the leading organisation that represents and champions construction product manufacturers and suppliers. This vital UK industry defines our built environment, providing the products and materials needed for homes, offices, shops, roads, railways, schools and hospitals. Our industry directly provides jobs for 373,000 people across 24,000 companies and has an annual turnover of £61 billion.
One of the CPA’s three main objectives is to help drive the adoption of digital technologies and processes to make for a smarter, more efficient construction industry.