The Golden Thread
Mark Lewis- Senior Engineering Information Consultant
With Digital Twins, Building Information Management (BIM), Digitisation, Digitalisation and other digital initiatives becoming common hashtags and key topics amongst C-suite executives and businesses alike one area that we’ve not seen is talk of The Golden Thread.
So, what is the Gold Thread?
Well, a simple definition is it’s a series of relationships, connections, or links from one widget to another widget.
The golden thread exists in many different industries and sectors, such as Recruitment, Corporate Behaviours, Management Frameworks and Organisational Alignment, however, this blog is going to concentrate on the Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Operations of large infrastructure such as an LNG Facility, FPSO, Oil Rig or a Chemicals plant.
With that in mind, a further definition of the Golden Thread is links, connections, and relationships to other objects, objects such as tagged items, purchasing information, Model numbers, facility hierarchies (Functional, Location or product), incidents, maintenance information, real-time and historical operations information, process design, and simulation information and engineering information.
What does the golden thread do for me?
Let’s say you are looking for a pump on your facility, let’s use P-1024A as its tag.
You start a query in your Digital Twin or other enterprise asset management system for P-1024A. The results of this search are the start of your golden thread as you select related other information sources, you are virtually “pulling the thread” and following the information trail to your final destination, which is your answer.
The golden thread in the diagram shows us some of the relationships of P-1024A such as:
· The Water System in the HP Separation area of the Gas Processing unit on the Central Processing Platform (where in the hierarchy)
· That it is a Centrifugal Pump (it’s equipment type)
· It is represented on a Design Datasheet and Isometrics (which documents its related too)
· Where it exists in the 3D model and the real world (Physical location)
So, the golden thread assists you in finding information about your facilities in a logical way, but most importantly the way that matches the way you think and work.
How do you establish golden threads?
By using standards, metadata, and classification systems which builds the foundation for your Digital Twin and digital initiatives. Standard such as the following:
· CFIHOS (Capital Facilities Information Handover Specification) — which can help to define your Equipment Classifications, Document Types, and information requirements
· Have clear Identification standards for Tagging, Documents and Facility hierarchies (Functional, Location or product)
· Have clear document titling standards to help the humans as we search using natural language such as “Glycol System”
· Capture information about equipment Manufacturer and Model numbers from your suppliers and sub-suppliers
By using and implementing industry available standards users will gain more insight on their information journeys, pulling more golden threads and most importantly gain trust in the information presented to them.
Benefits that come from the Golden Thread?
We have all searched on YouTube or a social media platform where or previous searches have led to suggestions of other information we may be interested in. This is where golden threads start to link together and provide the user with other ideas and search opportunities, maybe an idea or relationship we hadn’t thought about in the first place, almost like a side hierarchy leap (e.g. from Functional hierarchy to locational hierarchy, Switchgear to the Switchgear building).
Furthermore, establishing standards, metadata and classifications allowing the golden threads to develop will also benefit the Artificial Intelligent (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) worlds by giving them more structure and training making them even more powerful while supporting greater facility analytics insights to tracing root causes of any outages within those facilities, faster, safer at a lower cost and risk across the facility and asset lifecycle.
So, where will your golden threads lead you today? Speak to Kraken IM for more information and help to establish your information to take advantage of its golden threads.
Further Golden Thread References (outside of the Oil and Gas Arena)
Grenfell Tower
https://www.grenfelltowerinquiry.org.uk
Report: Chapter 8, Golden Thread of Building Information
Section 8.3: The interim report identified the need for a ‘golden thread’ of information for all higher-risk residential buildings (HRRBs), so that their original design intent is preserved and changes can be managed through a formal review process. Equally, access to up-to-date information is crucial when effectively carrying out a fire risk assessment of a building and determining whether any action is required.
The NBS
https://www.thenbs.com/knowledge/what-is-the-golden-thread
The golden thread is a term used across many business disciplines. In construction, the golden thread of information is used as a shorthand for an accurate and up-to-date record of building data. Although not standard practice yet, it will detail how a building was designed, built, and maintained. The golden thread is a live document, held digitally. The record will capture the digital fingerprints of people, recording their decisions, thus giving a clear accountability trail.
Mckinsey
The ‘golden thread’ that connects all aspects of talent management.
