What is Drawings-as-a-Service in Facility Management?
- Blog
- January 8, 2024
Owners and facility managers rely on as-built drawings to record project components, including location, dimensions, and related measurements. It also provides essential project information such as wall specifications, door types, HVAC systems, electrical fixtures, and more. As-built drawing services provide detailed documentation of every structure and element involved in the building project.
What are As-built Drawings?
The as-built drawing illustrates the differences between the final construction and the original plan. It is common for construction projects to experience unforeseen issues during the design stage, regardless of the quality of the initial drawings. Changes and adjustments to the original plan must be made due to supply chain disruption and structural problems.
The as-built drawing displays all the changes, highlighting the differences between the final building and the original plan. An as-built drawing, in its simplest form, is a written annotation on a paper blueprint, denoting any modifications and their specific locations.
What is the importance of as-built drawings?
There are several benefits to using as-built drawings:
Better building maintenance
It is crucial for facility management teams to know the accurate layout of a building. Accurate information on location and dimensions is required for tasks like wiring, replacing paneling, or installing new windows. If changes to the original plan go unrecorded, maintenance teams waste time and lose money.
Health and safety
It is important for contractors to provide accurate details about the location and layout of fire alarms, smoke detectors, and emergency lighting. Lives could be at risk if these changes are not properly documented.
Future work and demolition
Having an accurate view of the building’s interior is crucial if future contractors need to make changes or if the structure is demolished. The use of asbestos in older buildings is a prime example. If the original sketch didn’t mention anything about asbestos but the contractor decided to add it, the future builders or demolition teams would have to be aware that this change was made.
Who Creates As-Built Drawings?
In most cases, the original project architects or designers will be responsible for creating the as-builts. Because they know the original specifications, they are the best at documenting changes. Having detailed notes from every construction phase makes completing as-builts much easier. Recording changes along the way is simpler than recovering details afterward for truly useful as-builts. Construction software, combined with mobile technology, allows for immediate tracking of changes, and eliminates errors in recording.
The challenge with as-built drawings in the present day
Though not always required, submitting as-built drawings is a beneficial aspect of any finished project and demonstrates your company’s professionalism when executed accurately. As designers, architects, and contractors move forward from the project, as-builts ensure a lasting resource beyond the original blueprints. Having high-quality as-built drawings can work wonders for your company’s reputation and long-term business growth.
While there are clear benefits to using as-built drawings, their production methods today are far from ideal. Studies indicate that as-built drawings are often inaccurate, even when provided. So, what are the flaws in our current approach to documenting alterations made to the initial sketches?
Produced on completion
To create as-built drawings for clients, some projects employ contractors or external architects. As a result, many as-built drawings are only created once the project is finished. However, when working on a lengthy project that takes months or even years, it becomes challenging to recall every single deviation from the original drawing, leaving an outsider without the necessary information.
Confusing to understand
The method of documenting changes in initial drawings can differ from building to building. While one contractor’s notes may be difficult to read, another contractor’s drawings may lack written descriptions.
Lack of consistency
Likewise, as-built drawings are frequently created inconsistently. It creates challenges for future readers to grasp the decisions made. The materials used might not have clear descriptions, changes may not be explained, and iterations may not be recorded.
What is drawings-as-a-service in facility management?
VLogic’s Drawings-as-a-Service (DaaS) subscription allows customers to tap into unexplored savings and efficiency. They achieve this by utilizing a powerful combination of facility drawing development services and cloud-based software. This integration allows for standardized drawing upkeep, precise accuracy, and seamless accessibility.
VLogic DaaS is an all-in-one solution that eliminates the need for multiple vendors and their costly administration fees, offering competitive rates. By relying on a single vendor, compliance accuracy improves, and the chances of costly failures decrease. By providing easy, 24/7 access to a centralized drawings repository, all enterprise stakeholders can efficiently access drawings without involving the Facility group, resulting in significant time savings. Although DaaS can benefit single facilities such as individual medical centers, multi facility sites such as multi-site hospital systems will find the greatest value when implemented across multiple facilities.
Why Choose VLogic’s Drawing as a Service?
Our comprehensive service teams seamlessly convert paper, pdf, or other versions into digital formats, ensuring a smooth transition from paper to CAD. If As-Builts do not exist, our services teamwork with customers to provide new original drawings which are provided by our dedicated drafting team. Once your master composite drawings are created, transferring essential customer space data to VLogicFM, including room numbers, space functions, and room descriptions, is a vital part of what we provide. Drawings are prepared and uploaded to the cloud for accessibility and efficiency. We ensure a tailored experience by configuring the software with customer user information. We provide training sessions to ensure customers are proficient in using the software.
VLogic System’s DaaS software offers a Cloud-based as-built repository to store and access CAD as-built files. The features include:
- Rapid search, beyond file names, by site, building, floor, discipline, description, etc.
- Centralized access, 24/7 on Web browsers or mobile devices — no complex CAD software needed.
- Built-in version control to eliminate drawing version confusion.
- Intelligent drawings connected to a facility database that contains: IDs, departments, descriptions, dimensions, functions, risk profiles, photos, and more.
- Perform a drawings-oriented search by leveraging any of the mentioned data fields.
- Reports on space utilization, perfect for Medicare/Medicaid reimbursements and department charge-offs.
- Maintain a record of space usage expenses categorized by square footage and cost line item/service line.
The periodic subscription fee for all DaaS components can be paid monthly, quarterly, or annually according to customer preference. With DaaS, customers can achieve uniform drafting services throughout the enterprise, resulting in cost savings, consistent drawings, and faster turnaround times. Our focus is on providing as-built drawings that are updated in real-time, faster, better, and at a more reasonable cost. Reach out to VLogic to avail drawing as-a-service for your facility.
