Real time facility management: Assessing the effectiveness of Digital Twin in the Operation and Maintenance phase of building life cycle

Abstract

The current scenario of the Architecture, Engineering, Construction and Operation (AECO) industry outlines an accelerating approach to digitalisation which is defined PropTech (abbreviation for Property Technologies). Among all the digital innovation brought to AECO, PropTech companies are introducing digital technologies in the Operation and Maintenance (O&M) phase of the building lifecycle to improve operational efficiency, performance of an asset, and effectiveness of provided services and supplies. Analysing the literature scenario of O&M phase, Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Digital Twin (DT) have resulted in a methodological innovation for the entire industry. Thanks to Internet of Things (IoT), the advent of DT makes its way into the building sector allowing among all to monitor the as-is conditions, detect anomalies before they occur, make diagnosis, and give an added value with respect to the BIM. Although DT is in its early stages, in the real estate market, some PropTech companies have embraced the challenge and applied the digital technology for building management. Therefore, the paper aims to analyse the numerous advantages of DT in the management of buildings. For this objective, the authors referred to two case studies, taken from the Italian PropTech Network ecosystem, that implement DT in management of O&M phase. On one hand the authors present the benefits of facility management digitalisation introduced by DT; on the other, they underline the issues faced by the two companies and the future implementations of DT in the O&M field.