Public Consultation on Construction Product Information Sharing with LEXiCON

VIEWS ARE BEING SOUGHT on a critical project to revolutionise data management in the construction industry to deliver better productivity, sustainability and safety.

The Construction Innovation Hub and Construction Products Association (CPA) are developing the LEXiCON project to support manufacturers in sharing product information freely across industry.

Golden Thread

The LEXiCON project aims to create a single, data ‘language’ that is common to all construction products and projects. It will help create a golden thread of asset information, streamlining the process of manufacturers sharing information they hold in a standardised way. It will help construction professionals to better use product information to optimise designs and improve digital records.

Construction Product Information Sharing

Peter Caplehorn, Construction Products Association

Peter Caplehorn, Construction Products Association CEO, said: “To date, all the effort the construction industry has put into digitalisation has been an approximation, given that the digital information of products has not been available to join up with the rest of the sector. LEXiCON provides a vehicle to allow that to happen, and for the first time we will have a completely digitalised sector with a consensus-built, consistent language.

“It is vital that we hear back from industry, to reach our goal of producing a process that is both stringent and achievable in the aim of creating structured product information that is trusted, useable and complete. We encourage all those who create and use product information across the built environment to engage and welcome any feedback to help us refine our proposals.”

LEXiCON

In a new report published for consultation, the Hub and the CPA outline the benefits LEXiCON can deliver to:

• Construction Industry Stakeholders, to build consensus about the process of product data management and help establish relevant authorities to facilitate this process;
• Relevant Authorities, by using LEXiCON to create, maintain and publish Product Data Templates (PDTs);
• Manufacturers, by using LEXiCON to retrieve PDTs to create, maintain and publish Product Data Sheets (PDSs); and
• Wider construction industry, including designers, constructors, commissioning engineers, architects, and contractors, through using LEXiCON for a standardised industry approach towards formation and management of product data to request the creation of PDTs for key products and through the use of PDSs.

Keith Waller, Hub programme director, said: “At its core, the LEXiCON project is about standardising product information and ensuring it is computer-readable, accessible, auditable, and traceable.

“LEXiCON will develop best practice for the creation and management of product data, which will ensure construction professionals better use product information to optimise designs and improve digital records as we look to build back better and answer the challenges of an increasingly complex post-pandemic world.

“As we publish this report, we are launching a public consultation on the processes LEXiCON advocates, to ensure we develop consensus with the construction industry and wider stakeholders.”

The consultation on the proposed LEXiCON methods for ‘Relevant Authorities’ and building consensus, which will be open from Wednesday 07 July 2021 to Wednesday 18 August 2021, can be found here.

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