Schemi Information Systems

Inventory Definition

An inventory is a system of activities and procedures aiming to provide the knowledge of the dimensional and physical characteristics of a Real Estate. The goal of a Real Estate inventory is to gather the information useful for planning, managing, and checking the provision of facility services. This goal is achievable through a plurality of integrated activities, such as analysis, audits, surveys, collection, and selection of technical, administrative, and legal data and documents. These data and documents are acquired, managed, and progressively updated within a systematic process. It is a continuous process of retrieval, selection, validation, acquisition, and updating of information.

Gradualism

The inventory system must be dynamic and should not be interpreted as an operation that is done una tantum, but should be progressively updated within a systematic process, after, of course, having acquired and managed data. That’s the reason why it is considered a long-term process.

Characteristics

• Progression: Defining in advance the purposes and the characteristics of the information to be acquired and the criteria of priority, in order to determine the timing of the progressive acquisition in relation to available resources. It’s a continuous process of acquiring and updating information, not an operation that is done una tantum.
• Dynamism: The contents of the inventory might be defined based on the purposes of the services and the characteristics of the real estate, as well as the information already in possession.
• Specificity: The level of detail in relation to the needs and resources. Since the complete collection of information requires significant time and costs, the inventory procedure should be planned in advance and the extent of the collection evaluated on a case-by-case basis, considering both functions and uses, and the resources available.
• Suitability: The multiplicity of resources. The information to be collected through an inventory can be different in type and derived from various sources (i.e., surveys, documents audit, regulatory audits, overview, etc.). Consequently, in the design and planning of the inventory, the source of the information should be clearly specified.

Inventory Process

Preliminary Phase

A preliminary definition of the overall framework of the information that has to be acquired. It focuses primarily on some preliminary investigations, mainly concerning: characteristics of the services and priority objectives of clients’ requirements; existing management; characteristics of the Real Estate (i.e., age, technical characteristics); information, documents, and drawings already available. These investigations are carried out primarily through interviews with the client, visits to the archives of documents, and building surveys.

Planning Phase

On the basis of what has been acquired in the preliminary phase, the construction of a taxonomy that illustrates the overall list of the information to be acquired. The development of the information taxonomy has to be integrated by some activities: acquisition, organization, and assessment of the available existing documents; development of the classification and coding system for space and technical elements; definition of priority criteria (immediately necessary information and information that can be collected in a further phase); and definition of human and economic resources.

Programming Phase

Scheduling of the activities to be carried out in relation to the available resources.

Implementation Phase

All the scheduled activities will be carried out, as well as monitoring the progress and verification of data usability.

Category of Information

• Quantitative data (quantitative consistency)
• Technical characteristics of the building

Availability of Information

• The available information is sufficient for the development of the contract specification. In this case, inventory activities are necessary for integration and revision.
• The information available is not exhaustive or unusable. Therefore, it is necessary to start an inventory.
• The information is missing.

Activities to be Done in the Inventory Phase

• The documents audit for the realization and management of archives. It consists first of all in the collection and consultation of available documentations, and subsequently in the possible search of the missing documents considered necessary for specific goals of knowledge and control.
• The regulatory review (assessment of compliance). This review is usually carried out with the purpose of determining the status of compliance with respect to mandatory regulations.
• The evaluation of contracts, aimed at rebuilding the overall situation of existing contracts.
• The diagnostic investigation. The identification of the state and the interpretation of conditions and causes of degradation of a building require the availability of descriptive information, characteristics, and performances of technical elements.
• The acquisition of information about the "history" of the building, which is information on events that have affected the building throughout its life cycle, such as transformations of use, replacements, repairs, recurring failures, consumption, cost of intervention, etc.

Registry Definition

A framework of criteria useful for the classification and coding of spatial and technical elements and an apparatus of sheets, useful for collecting information over time according to the same formalized scheme. It is a database supported by appropriate methods for the classification of the buildings' technical components and spaces, containing the information necessary to describe the consistency, the functional and the technical characteristics of the built assets; collects and organizes information on buildings regarding the identification, the location, the destination, the sizes, the legal and administrative conditions, the technological characteristics, and the performances; contains and makes available information regarding the history of the buildings and their current state of operation.

Inefficiency Risk in Collecting Infos (Inventory vs Registry)

• Inventories may result excessively expensive and difficult to bring to completion since excessive amounts of data have been collected.
• On the same building, different operators may collect - independently and in an uncoordinated manner - information with various purposes.
• Dispersion of information.
• During the realization of a building inventory, other processes, information collecting are ongoing (due diligence, diagnostic, analysis for energy performance assessment, risk assessments).

Basic Actions

• Classification: Systematic identification and arrangement of business activities and/or records into categories according to logically structured conventions, methods, and procedural rules represented in a classification system.
• Indexing: Process of establishing access points to facilitate retrieval of records and/or information.
• Coding: The means for indexing. The purpose of coding is associated with a location function, where the number or code indicates the “address” of the record, so that the record may be retrieved by specifying the residence within the records system.

Classification + Coding + System of Sheets = Registry System Building Registry

Key Concepts

• Audit (revision/controllo): Systematic, independent and documented process for obtaining audit evidence and evaluating it objectively to determine the extent to which the audit criteria are fulfilled.
• Due Diligence: A tool to assist buyers in assessing realistic values of target companies by evaluating their strengths, weaknesses, risks, synergies and overall fit within the buyer’s strategic plan. For this reason, during the process of due diligence, a large amount of information can be collected.
• Physical Data Room (PDR) / Virtual Data Room (VDR)

Standard References for the Breakdown

The standard considers the whole life cycle of the construction process by ISO 12006 (Building construction) - including design, production, maintenance, and demolition, in relation to both building and civil engineering.