Public Consultation on the proposed LEXiCON Methodology

Public Consultation on the proposed LEXiCON Methodology

Overview

The Construction Innovation Hub (CI Hub) and the Construction Products Association (CPA) have launched an open consultation on the report: ‘LEXiCON Methodology: Creating Relevant Authorities and Achieving Consensus’.

The success of the LEXiCON project is dependent on the processes and structures outlined in this report adequately reflecting the requirements of the built environment, both providers and users of product information. As such, the CI Hub and CPA would like to hear back from the wider industry on the proposed methodology for the LEXiCON project, comprising the process, platform, and people.

The consultation is seeking a breadth of feedback from UK Construction industry stakeholders, including designers, constructors, commissioning engineers, architects, and contractors; Relevant Authorities; and UK Manufacturers. 

The review period for responses will run until Wednesday 18 August 2021.

Results will inform the next critical phases of this project, with a public update on the consultation results release in September and the proof of concept demonstrator and early adopters programme launched in November 2021.

Background

There are considerable benefits to the construction industry, and wider sectors, of having well-structured and reliable digital construction product data. This can support improvements in productivity, safety and wider social, economic and environmental outcomes.

The Construction Products Association (CPA) and BRE have worked together in the past on the LEXiCON initiative with the aim of developing a definitive approach to managing the creation, use, storage and preservation of manufacturers product data via product data templates. Many other initiatives and precedents have also emerged in this area in the past few years, and it will be important to both acknowledge and build upon them.

The aim of the LEXiCON project is to support international best practice for the creation and management of product data by standardising the production, use, and management of product data. This will be achieved through the development of a consensus process for the collaborative formation of product data templates and a software platform with a free-to-access industry portal to facilitate the creation, grouping, filtering and verification of parameters to form Product Data Templates. The templates and properties will be made available on a free-to access software platform for wider industry, which will be created by BRE as part of the Construction Innovation Hub programme.

LEXiCON builds on existing efforts and will highlight through demonstrator projects the value of collating and publishing product data templates, taking industry on a journey to align to data dictionary standards and processes, and facilitating the distribution of these to be used throughout the industry.

The Consultation can be accessed here-