Patricia Massey, Product Environmental Technical Officer, Electrium Sales Limited, A Siemens Company is a proactive member of the BIM4BEAMA Working Group and represents BEAMA on CEN TC442 Working Group 4 and its associated sub-groups. Patrica recently interviewed Paul Surin, Head of Built Environment, Wienerberger AG, CWA Chair/convenor and chair of the Digitalization & BIM Task Group for CPE a few key questions regarding the SmartCE marking project
As a member of CEN/TC442/WG4 Data Dictionaries standard creation, I am really excited to be part of The CEN SmartCE Workshop, Supporting the development of a CEN Workshop Agreement, a pre-standardisation document by CEN.
SmartCE marking moves away from yesterday’s traditional PDF document format & introduces a link between physical product & a Construction Product Regulation (CPR), Declaration of Performance (DoP), offering information in a digital way. The future proof link between the physical product and the manufacturer, the standards a product complies with, lifecycle information & BIM data.
You may think rightly that most of BEAMA member products do not require a DoP under our applicable product harmonised standards, most of our obligations are under a simple Declaration of Conformity, SmartCE is not for me, but is it?
I asked Paul Surin, Head of Built Environment, Wienerberger AG, CWA Chair/convenor and chair of the Digitalization & BIM Task Group for CPE a few key questions regarding the project.
I really like the idea of free instantly available standardised information. Will SmartCE provide this? Yes, SmartCE will offer free instantly available standardised information. SmartCE is in a way a Product Data Template based on a declaration of performance document. The CWA document provides a guideline how harmonised XML formats may be developed as part of the harmonised product standards related to the CPR. The initiative is supported by regulators, stakeholders, market surveillance authorities, construction experts, CEN and manufacturers, that include both world-leading companies and SMEs
Once SmartCE is here, will initial voluntary provision be available for members to SmartCE my products that do not fall within the CPR, for example Low Voltage Directive products? The idea behind SmartCE is to bridge the requirements between digital built environment (being it BIM, Virtual Design Construction, CEN TC 442 requirements, buildingSMART product room discussions) and the mandatory standards, regulations. So, the answer to your questions is yes, it will be possible for LVD to adopt SmartCE CWA document.
What benefits do you see Smart CE bringing to the Manufacturer? Smart CE marking aims to digitalise mandatory construction products information provide through the Declaration of Performance (DoP). Availability of SmartCE formats together with the information already available in the standards will allow manufacturers to easily deliver the requested and compulsory information in a way easily managed both by humans and machines. The action will also push the development of electronic tools (mainly BIM tools) and will facilitate the use of current CE label in a "smart way" by creating the digital connection between the construction product and the regulatory information related to it.
What benefits do you see SmartCE bringing to the customer? - This initiative will enhance the existing CE marking as customers will obtain both human and machine readable information. Smart CE marking will facilitate the access to information that is already available but difficult to manage. The current market of construction products is evolving towards digitalisation and SmartCE will guarantee that barriers to trade are not created but also will be accelerate the implementation of digital tools in the construction industry.
What next? How will the standard develop under CPR? – We are going to sign off the CWA in June and start promoting it through our members, TC’s, local governments and organization. I must say and remind people, this is a “live” document and we know we may have to issue updates due to the development at CEN TC 442, revision of the ISO 12006-2 etc. The research covers extensive discussions with CEN/TC 442 experts, and its Working Group 4 dealing with Support Data Dictionaries, which I am a member.
Do you envisage SmartCE development spreading to other Harmonised Standardisation? – SmartCE uses existing standards terminology to produce a product data template, in this case based on DoP. Therefore, there is no reason why this should not spread to harmonised standardisation. It is also important to mention that experts (in this case TC’s, local governing bodies, trading associations such as BEAMA) must get involved in the case of a missing standard to agree on additional attributes for PDT’s related to their products. We cannot have a situation where software vendors or commercial oriented groups invent terms or PDT’s which would not be approved by experts or based on standards. So governance is very important to get a true open BIM.
