SFG20 | News | NBS and BESA partner to join-up digital construction - Mapping Uniclass 2015 to SFG20

NBS, the leading specification platform for the construction industry, has announced its partnership with BESA (Building Engineering Services Association) to help drive digital adoption throughout the building lifecycle.

As part of their joint commitment to digital construction, the link-up will publish mappings between Uniclass 2015 classification codes and SFG20 maintenance schedules.

Uniclass 2015 (authored, published and maintained by NBS) is a consistent classification structure for all disciplines in the construction industry. It has tables classifying items of any scale from a whole building, down to products such as a door hinge. Having a standardised approach to describing things allows for information to be organised and managed, and allows for interoperability.

SFG20 is overseen by BESA and is the standard specification approach to building engineering services to allow for effective building maintenance.

Sarah Delany, Head of Classification at NBS, said: “The construction industry is increasingly digital and by mapping between the two systems it specifiers and clients can more easily take a whole-life approach to their building projects. Thus bringing the golden thread one stitch closer.”

She explains, “On BIM projects, specifications and objects are typically classified by Uniclass 2015. As the project progresses maintenance schedules are developed for the assets described in the specifications. By mapping the two coding systems, this makes life easier for those working on BIM projects. Also, by doing this centrally, NBS and BESA are saving repeat work across many projects.”

Steve Tomkins, Head of Business Development for SFG20 commented: “The partnership between NBS and SFG20 is key to ensuring industry structures align. Thus enabling the transition and sharing of data in a consistent structured way without disrupting the original purpose.”

He adds, “Collaboration is key to ensuring historic mistakes that impacted the sector are not repeated.”

Commenting on the partnership, Sascia Elliott, Head of Partnership, NBS said: ‘By working with BESA, both organisations can amplify their impact and quicken the pace of digital adoption. Providing expert information efficiently and accurately in an integrated way, enables professionals to do their jobs more effectively. Thus driving up quality across the built environment. Our ambition is to that this approach will act as a catalyst to strengthen links with other trade associations and industry bodies so that the wider construction industry may benefit the power of digital.’

NBS Chorus, the flagship specification writing platform, offers the most comprehensive, high-quality content available, with multiple content sets and links to standards and it is the only platform to natively support the leading Uniclass 2015 classification

These mappings will be available to the construction industry to use as part of the Uniclass content that is downloadable from theNBS.com/Uniclass, and included in NBS Chorus.

SFG20 features a growing library of over 1000 dynamically updated maintenance task schedules which allows facilities managers to control costs and pre-emptively allocate resources to maximise asset efficiency.