Bentley Systems has announced that Frankfurt Airport is now standardised on Bentley building information modelling (BIM) for operations and facilities management IT. The value of property, plant and equipment exceeds more than R20 billion.

Bentley BIM allows Fraport AG Frankfurt Airport Services Worldwide (FRA) to integrate and visualise large, complex sets of facility data through interactive facility maps (IFMs). Using IFMs, airport workers in engineering, finance, operations, maintenance, security, and emergency response, find their relevant data more quickly and see it in the more useful context of the facility. Mission-critical data hyperlinked to IFMs includes airport spaces, leases, security keycards, and communications cabling.

"Frankfurt Airport, like all major airports, is going through constant upgrade," said Thomas Schulz, system maintenance. "On top of that, we have a multitude of asset types to track and manage. Bentley, with its BIM capabilities, allows us to meet those challenges and manage our airport optimally. Now, IFMs are the clear lenses through which we view and successfully manage our airport assets and related information."

Fraport most recently added its communications-cabling infrastructure, including all of the airport's ducts, cable trusses, distribution outlets and piping related to communications, to its building information model. "Our cabling system serves the entire airport, including the communications tower, so it is critical to keep downtime to an absolute minimum," Schulz said.

"Instead of searching through a maze of drawings and then trying to match them against information in a relational database, our maintenance team goes to one place and easily drills right down into the information it needs."

Bentley BIM aggregates existing documents and data that hold mission-critical facility information, forming a federated database that is visualised through IFMs. These IFMs enable Fraport to immediately identify and locate assets in a single, interactive, visual environment. As a result, Fraport's lease contract agreements and rent charge-back are more accurate, its maintenance response time has increased, and it has improved the efficiency of its FM services overall.

Bentley's BIM solution will play a major role in the Frankfurt Airport R25 billion expansion project, the largest in the airport's history. From the first plans and drawings, Fraport's building information model will provide visual context for all spaces and cabling by visually combining distributed datasets into a cohesive whole.

"We are considered a pioneer in the global airport management industry, and the technology we employ is one reason why," Schulz said. "As our airport continues to grow, so does our building information model - helping us make quicker, more informed decisions."

All IFMs are generated by Bentley Facilities, a leading facility and asset management system for the operations and management of airports, automotive plants, retail chains, hospitals, financial institutions, government buildings, universities, and other large building portfolios. Bentley Facilities also provides IFMs that connect with other engineering and enterprise systems, thereby providing an 'electronic operating manual' for facilities.

For more information contact Bentley Systems, 011 462 5811.