Challenges and lessons in setting new industry datasheet standards

During engineering or maintenance projects, owner operators and contractors communicate technical requirements to third-party vendors with engineering datasheets. While it is a standard practice for suppliers to check for equipment specifications and assess product nominal capacity before responding to proper requests using engineering datasheets, these datasheets do not share common naming conventions. This impairs engineers’ ability to effectively communicate their needs to third-party suppliers for accurate product design and modelling. 

Here at Draga, we recognise the importance of setting up a standardised digital data library in enabling engineers, owner operators and third-party vendors quick access to normalised engineering references, marking the beginning of our Digital Datasheet project.

Creating a standardised digital datasheet 

We embarked on our Digital Datasheet project to produce standardised digital equipment type models according to the Information Modelling Framework and create a formal library of shared technical knowledge. The goal was to build equipment models that are able to sustain the entire equipment lifecycle without information loss while allowing new combinations for more complex facilities or for them to be incorporated into existing work processes. 

The team thoroughly studied individual datasheet documents to find common equipment types. We took these equipment types and reorganised them by category—and to ensure consistency, established common internal names and assigned them relevant aspects.

What is an Information Modelling Framework?

An Information Modelling Framework or IMF refers to the method of establishing formal descriptions for facility assets such as pumps, pipes, and temperature transmitters. Written in an easy-to-understand language, IMF offers engineers and owner operators straightforward and clear understanding of a system which indicates strong relationships between blocks and terminals.

According to the IMF, a system can be viewed from different aspects: 

• Functional: Intended use of the product
• Product: Physical property and availability of the product
• Location: Additional product requirements determined by external environment like ambient temperature
• Installed: Documented component information unique to installed artefacts 
  
  

Challenges we overcame and lessons learned

The team found that some attributes cannot be defined without reference to the IMF element. To solve this issue, we provided semantic IDs to attributes and the relevant aspects, blocks, and terminals. 

Building primary block descriptions around well-defined secondary block attributes produces high quality outcomes. For owner operators and engineers, this means automatic access to useful product details like product composition and functionality.

Additionally, our team noticed that the traditional four IMF aspects were missing a critical aspect that visualises internal connectivities between various engineering elements to fulfil unique function requirements in a facility lifecycle. This prompted us to create the Plant Design aspect. Without it, both engineers and third-party suppliers risk losing sight of specific requirements essential for accurate product selection. 

We also realised that the RDL references for many Mechanical and Main Electrical attributes are not given within the standard references. To tackle this, we made suggestions for related attributes, and quantifiers for a more in-depth description of each RDL reference.

Datasheet standardisation is a crucial first step towards a complete and total digital transformation industry-wide. Looking ahead, we are determined to continue driving greater efficiency and deliver quality digital transformation solutions to companies across all engineering disciplines.

To learn more about our services, please visit our website at www.draga.sg.