Asset Commissioning: Implementation of BIM Technologies in a Large Water and Wastewater Company

CAHUE RANDO CAROLINO: Hello, everyone. My name is Cahue. And in this presentation, I will show you a little bit of our work at SABESP, the largest sanitation company in Latin America.

It's a pleasure to be here and show part of our work, and an honor to be able to represent the team behind all this work, show a little bit of our experience of implementing digital processes engineering that you are having. SABESP perhaps the most advanced in ambitious BIM programmed in the sanitation sector in Brazil, what I come from.

We are in the first wave of implementation of the BIM program that concentrated efforts in designing stage for structuring and organizing the information for commissioning the assets at the end of the execution stage through the use of digital models.

Our focus was the inclusion of the information required by the regulatory agency in BIM modeling process, for the accounting mobilization of the asset, and its integration with the companies registration basis. This is the main topic we came to present today.

So let's start it. So, how I said, my name is Cahue. And I'm currently the leader of the BIM program at SABESP, which was created to support the implementation of BIM process in the company. I'm an architect and urbanist and also have a master in public health and other master in project management. I have worked in SABESP BIM programmed since its formation 2018. So, Paulo, please, could you present yourself now?

PAULO HENRIQUE MACEDO: I'm Paulo Macedo. I'm from FX solutions, an Autodesk platinum partner. And I'm leading the team of consultants assisting SABESP in the corporate implementation of BIM. So Cahue, let's move on and show who is SABESP.

CAHUE RANDO CAROLINO: Thank you, Paulo. But before we get into the specific work, I would like to contextualize a little bit of SABESP and Brazil. So I'm currently speaking direct from Brazil, a country in Latin America with more than 200 million people. And the more specific, I'm speaking from the city of Sao Paulo, capital of the state of Sao Paulo, and where SABESP operates.

Here in this slide, you can see the map of Brazil. So in this, and you can see the Sao Paulo state in the light blue here. So the state of Sao Paulo concentrates more than 20% of the country's population and the Metropolitan region. Where its capital is located concentrates 50% of this contingent. With more than 20 million people, it's the largest metropolitan region in Latin America and one of the largest in the world.

So we're speaking a little about the status and social capital of SABESP. SABESP is a 50 years old public company. It has a market value of almost $5.6 billion and more than 12,000 employees today.

It's a mixed capital company, most of which is owned by the government of Sao Paulo, the state of Sao Paulo, with shares traded on Sao Paulo, and New York Stock Exchange. An important thing is it's that was the first company in the sanitation sector to be listed on New York Stock Exchange.

So basic operational numbers are quite relevant and partly show the size of the challenge posed by the work I present now. SABESP operates in 375 municipalities in the state of Sao Paulo, which represent 70% of the urban population. SABESP is also the fourth-largest sanitation company in the world in terms of number of clients with more than 57 million people served by water supply and more than 24 million by sewage collection.

In terms of physical infrastructure installed, we have more than 50,000 miles of water distribution network and 39,000 miles of sewage collection networks, 90 million of water connections and 80 million of sewage collections. In terms of investments, SABESP is responsible for 30% of all investments in sanitation made in Brazil. It's quite relevant with the investment forecast of almost $5 billion from the last year, 2022, to 2026.

And now, speaking about the BIM program itself. This is entire scenario I show you was to show the size of the challenge of implementing SABESP program. But before we get into the technical presentation itself, I always like to bring the team that I represent here and that is behind all the work in SABESP program.

So we start with our leadership. The manager of the department that I work, Alessandro Paixao. And below I show the members of the BIM team, my colleagues Andréia Guaracho and Silvana Corsaro, who run the BIM program with me. And in addition to this, the internal SABESP team, the program is also made up of an outsourced team represented here by Paulo, my colleague, who is speaking some.

Now, speaking about the BIM program, its main objective is to improve asset management and operation of assets. And its first wave of implementing to structure the asset information necessary for its commissioning. The program is supported by three classical pillars of approach management, technologies standards, and processes, and people.

So the first stage of development consisted-- of the program consisted of a broad diagnosis with more than 300 people interviewed, including a members of SABESP internal team, outsourced team, and institutions in sanitation sector.

After that, the planning was carried out, considering a short, medium, and a long roadmap that created the program's management structure based on five technical pillars that I show you on the right side. ManualBIM is the first one, which is linked to development of guidelines, specifications, manuals, and business documents relating to BIM.

The second one the second one is VisualBIM, supported by Autodesk Docs was created as the repository of the technical approach information and now integrates this information with other applications and internal system of the company and can therefore be considered the heart of the program because of all these integrations.

Next one is GeoBIM, which defines the integration process between SABESP GIS and the program's BIM definitions. SapBIM is the next, which defines the integration process between our ERP and the program's BIM definitions. And the last one, but not less important, TecBIM, related to development of our library with parametric objects, family of objects, and templates, and where most of the definitions and standardization are put in practice.

In addition to this, four more structuring pillars are also defined to support technical developments linked to change management, governance, technological infrastructure, and, finally, support front for the application pilot projects.

After carrying out the planning, the development of work fronts for each pillar began and the commission has started. To simplify that, what we develop in next two slides I show some videos and highlight VisualBIM and TecBIM, which are more important for this main theme what are talking in this presentation.

So in this first one, the VisualBIM, I bring some-- I show some of VisualBIM functionalities and which are linked to the main subject of this presentation. This features are support for process transition, SABESP transition within 2D and 3D approach of files, a repository of technical VisualBIM is also a repository of technical information, and BIM models. And like we could see, a point of [INAUDIBLE], so point of views climb points.

So the next one is the search portal, where we can find all of our technical information. And last one being libraries of objects, families, and templates. We put our library, our BIM library also in VisualBIM.

This is my last slide where I bring part of the TecBIM work, in which we created the SABESP library. In this video, I show the case of metal [INAUDIBLE] reservoir on the left side created on the technical specification of SABESP's internal states.

In the second video, on the right, perhaps the most interesting, it shows the approach of integrating the BIM process with SABESP internal process, in this case, specifically for the automatic generation of material quantification and budgeting are already structured in accordance with SABESP internal system.

So now, I would like to bring up the Paulo, who will speak a little about our commissioning work. So Paulo, please join us.

PAULO HENRIQUE MACEDO: Thanks, Cahue. We'll talk a bit-- Cahue explained about the structure of the program BIM. And I'll be presenting one of the primary uses of BIM that we have implemented at SABESP.

So over the last 10 years, here in Brazil, we've seen significant changes in the regulation of civil water companies. We started a new regulation. So they started using the weighted average cost of capital method for tariff reviews, which means that a significant part of the tariff is now derived from the return of capital of investments. They recognize it and necessary investments.

Then, local agencies periodically audit these investments, verifying if there is a others from the physical and accounting databases, the physical and accounting compatibility. The challenge arises because SABESP relies on different sources of data to populate the technical and operational database, the GIS system, for example, and the patrimonial accounting database.

In other words, we have DWG drawings fitting the GIS system while, in the other hand, we have spreadsheets fitting SAP. And these updates occur at different times and involve different data. So, as a result, the systems are significantly different. And the auditing agents fails to recognize a substantial portion of the investments made due to those database asymmetries.

What are we done? We done with the implementation of BIM methodology, we have standardized the data source used to populate this database. Now, during the commissioning and handover of assets, we utilize the same data source to record assets in SAP-FI-AA, SAP, BIM, and the GIS system.

Although this process is not simultaneous, it's controlled by workflows within the city, the common data environment though or the Autodesk Construction Cloud that ensure the consistency of the data source. Let's take a look at an example that we prepared to illustrate the entire process here.

We use simple improvement project on an existing pump station that is called GUARATUBA. This pump station need a new set of circuit breakers. So we documented the installation of two new circuit breakers as shown in the illustration. And before commencing the project, we created this as is model of this pump station in Revit. And, subsequently, we designed the new assets, including all the necessary information for the mobilization process.

After the approval of the design, we follow the installations activities. So we visited the installations, inspected all the work done, and record all the issues and observations using the build model of ACC. The issues we noted were addressed and managed within Autodesk Construction Cloud to ensure that all build information was corrected and updated using the [INAUDIBLE] functionalities.

With the CDF, we used the workflows to address the reviews and approvals of the documents required for commissioning. All the steps were recorded in ACC, maintaining a comprehensive record of entire history from the design phase until to the as built approval. When we have the approval of the as build, we started a new phase for commissioning. And the workflows trigger the update of the GIS system.

The GIS system was updated utilizing an ArcScene routine. ArcScene is an application within the ArcGIS suite, which was triggered and enabled the publication of the as built Revit model in sub SPIS system without needing any rework or complex development. So we just click and send the information to the new system, a quite simple process. And bringing all this information, we got to the GIS.

This film, this movie here, shows the model publishing, sub [INAUDIBLE] GIS online encompassing all the information issues, notes, everything we intended to be displayed. Previously, GIS was limited to displaying only pipes and connections, just the linear structures. Now, in addition, we can access all disciplines, and details, and all information existing in the BIM model. And we can access all this information within the ArcGIS environment. [INAUDIBLE]

On the other hand, we have the asset immobilization process that is also initiated utilizing the same data source, BIM. The BIM information, is it true to fit the asset immobilization process? SABESP has a very well-structured set mobilization process in SAP-FI-AA. This process relies on a standardized spreadsheet known as technical sheet, where asset information is entered and imported into a SAP workflow.

Typically, these, the technical sheet, is filled out by staff members who support the asset immobilization process. And these individuals may not necessarily have technical background. So, as a result, they often encounter challenges in locating information, filling out the technical sheet, and evaluating the assets, turning the process is slow and not reliable.

With Revit model, this video illustrates this process and demonstrating how we can identify assets and complete necessary attributes for asset immobilization directly using the resources of Revit. It's important to note that the parametric object of the model were designed with all the required aspects in mind for this process. This was made in the TecBIM phase that Cahue show us before.

We also develop a Dynamo routine that generates the technical sheet with all specified assets and attributes, eliminating the need for manual data searching in the asset immobilization process.

So here we have the technical sheet generated by Revit. And we need to add some accounting information, such as cost center, cost apportionment, and other information. That still needs to be filled out manually by staff members to complete all the needs of the immobilization process-- asset immobilization process.

Here we have the information loaded into SAP transactions. SAP has a routine to load the information from technical sheet. And confirming the successful import of assets, here we have the screens filled out with the ENF FI-AA using the process we showed before.

It's important to highlight that the seemingly simple case used to take days in the old method. And now, it's not only more reliable, but also much faster. It's a matter of clicks versus days. We used to have to take days. And now it's just a few clicks, we can do the whole process.

It's also a single source versus a manual data mining what puts all the information collected in risk. So that's why we can assure it's more reliable.

So after this, we finished the asset immobilization process. But we have another step here, the last step. And it's very important, because after completing the asset immobilization, SAP generates IDs for the created assets and for the equipment when it's serialized in SAP PM.

So we can export the same technical sheet from SAP but now including the IDs we created. And then we can import it back to the Revit model. So the model can receive those IDs. This process allows us to establish a connection between these systems, enabling us to track updates from the BIM model or vice versa.

For example, we can monitor equipment replacement in SAP PM, looking at the BIM model, or the GIS system. We can consult the depreciated value of the asset in SAP-FI-AA, or in the BIM model, or in the GIS system.

So this connection will be crucial for the next steps we plan for the BIM program SABESP, where we plan to advance the use of BIM into the operational and maintenance fields. It will support decisions regarding renewal or replacement of assets among much other things.

So this integration for commissioning is a simple example, but it's very key to SABESP. It's key to aligning and synchronizing these systems effectively. It will transform the commissioning process into an efficient and reliable base for the sequential phases. As a result, BIM models will support the entire life cycle, ensuring a seamless and reliable process.

Going to the end of the presentation. We achieve some benefits with this new process. And, actually, this comprehensive approach to asset immobilization and GIS update has delivered remarkable results, like the enhancement recognition of the investments by the regulatory agencies, the improvement of the reliability and integrity of the asset information, the significant streamlining of the commissioning process, reducing it from days to clicks, the effective centralization, standardization, and organization of critical information in this important business process, the increase of productivity in the supervision of the projects, and also the efficient resource optimization across various dimensions, including time, cost, hardware, software, and more. And, at least, at the last point here, we have invaluable dissemination of the knowledge across different business areas of SABESP.

So that's a lot for a simple use of BIM. We achieve it. And we plan much more in the next steps. I would like to thank you for the opportunity, and we will be at the show if you have any question. Thank you. Enjoy the day, and bye-bye.