December 18, 2025 in News
Celebrating Excellence at the 2025 AMCA National Indust...
A.G. Coombs is proud to announce that six of our team members have been recognised at the 2025 AMCA National Industry Excellence Awards, held in Melbo...
August 20, 2019
Building Information Modelling (BIM) continues to revolutionise the building and construction industry.
Hosted by the Air Conditioning and Mechanical Contractors’ Association (AMCA), the Construction Innovation 2019 Forum is designed to promote better understanding and preparation for the technological advances that are rapidly changing our industry. Hear the world thought leaders in this area provide insight into the ways that leading firms are utilising the latest innovations, including robotics, augmented reality and automation, and coding to deliver efficient, accurate and productive best practice.
Virtual Buildings Information System Team Up With BIM-MEPAUS
VBIS provides another component to the BIM‑MEPAUS initiative, supporting ongoing facilities and asset management.
Attend this year’s Construction Innovation Forum to learn more.
The Issue
There remains a significant gap between the models and data sets being used for construction and the hand-over of useful information to facility managers. There is also a functional disconnect between the modelling and the data set content that is useful to facility managers including operating and maintenance procedures, technical data sheets, schedules of equipment and asset information, commissioning and warranty information.
As a consequence, digital models and their associated data sets are significantly under-utilised post construction and their potential to support improved ongoing facility management, operation and maintenance is largely unrealised.
The Solution
Virtual Buildings Information System (VBIS) has formed a partnership with the AMCA through the BIM-MEPAUS initiative to help address the need of referencing and linking digital models from design and construction into facility management and thereby providing a practical means to draw useful data from construction into the operational facility management environment.
The VBIS codes and syntax construction used to support this work are vendor agnostic and flexible to support transportability between any client maintenance software package and application.
Industry recognises the significant benefit this approach offers with its alignment to the recently released Victorian Digital Asset Strategy (VDAS).
About VDAS
The Victorian Digital Asset Strategy (VDAS) aims to improve the way infrastructure projects are defined, delivered and maintained. At the 2019 Forum, Dr Collette Burke, Victorian Chief Engineer, Department of Treasury and Finance will present VDAS.
About VBIS
The Virtual Buildings Information System (VBIS) facilitates transfer of valuable information from digital construction processes to building owners and facility managers. Developed in line with the Victorian Government’s VDAS and significant assistance from the Victorian Government’s Future Industries Sector Growth Program, VBIS is based on an open syntax standard and codes that will be freely available to the market. At the 2019 Forum, Carl Agar, Senior Consultant – Asset and Facilities, A.G. Coombs Advisory will present VBIS.
About BIM-MEPAUS
BIM-MEPAUS was conceived by and is currently managed through the Air Conditioning and Mechanical Contractors’ Association (AMCA).
BIM-MEPAUS aims to provide the Australian Construction Industry with a best-of-breed National BIM practice that supports designers, constructors and ultimately Facility Managers to leverage BIM and Integrated Project Delivery.
