The MIH
30 Jan 2025
A consortium of digital leaders across Europe, headed up by Tata Steel, Saint-Gobain and Kingspan, are developing a product information hub that could address the Grenfell Inquiry’s call for a construction data library. A minimum viable product (MVP) version of the hub could be ready next year.
The Manufacturers’ Information Hub development is being spearheaded by Tata Steel digital platforms and innovation lead Alex Small, Saint-Gobain Interior Solutions head of digital construction Paul French and Kingspan head of digital strategy - built environment Brian Glancy. Their proposal has already attracted interest from consultants, contractors, academia, trade associations and government departments, and it has secured initial funding.
Speaking to BIMplus exclusively ahead of the public announcement at UK Construction Week, Small explained:
“The Manufacturers’ Information Hub is a central access point for all construction product manufacturers’ information across Europe. It’s not a data repository, it’s not a database: it is simply a routeing tool, a conduit, whereby all manufacturers have one link into the hub, and anyone that wants manufacturers’ information also has one link to extract from the hub. And the mapping is done in each person's link into the hub.”
Small is keen that the hub should not require manufacturers to reinvent the wheel in terms of data structure:
“For core standards-based information properties, the hub should adopt the international standards on data structure - ISO 23387. There are other data pools around where structure is set by others; for example, the Electrical Distributors’ Association has its own data structure (eDATA / ETIM), so we would enable access to that, rather forcing them to change their methodology.”
The proposal recognises the severe imbalance in the industry not just in the UK, but also in Europe. “In the UK, there are 24,500 manufacturers, 17,500 of whom employ less than 10 people. In Europe, there are 430,000 manufacturers, nearly half of whom employ less than 10 people,” Small said. “Thus, the hub must work for all manufacturers. If you’re the size of Tata Steel with a fully-fledged product information management (PIM) system, you can have one mapped API from that PIM into the hub.
“If you're a small company, then you could go to one of the several mini-PIM system suppliers or PIM platforms, and you can get an account on one of those, and those systems will do the mapping from there into the hub. So, it can be affordable and usable for small manufacturers as well.”
The hub would address manufacturers’ concerns about their publicly available product information being up to date and accurate. At the moment, information on a specific product can be found on the manufacturer’s website, on a builders’ merchant’s website and an information aggregator’s site (as well as information retained by architects, consultants and contractors), leaving tremendous scope for information to be out of date and inaccurate.
Small ventured that if the industry doesn’t develop the hub itself, one or more disruptors (Amazon for example) might wade in with their own hubs, causing further headaches about product information accuracy, and generating further costs for the industry.
Wild West
The hub proposal not only represents a direct post-Grenfell response, but also addresses increasing uncertainties that construction product manufacturers face. Small noted that since the introduction of the BIM mandate in the UK (and the increasing digital adoption across Europe), manufacturers have had to develop BIM objects with questionable adoption by customers, and seen the launch of the BSI Identify product identification system and the Code for Construction Product Information. Next on the horizon is digital product passports: the Construction Products Regulations update in 2026 will introduce passports in Europe; harmonisation of the relevant standards will follow, and then passports will be mandated from 2028.
Small said:
“It's looking likely that GS1’s GTIN [global trade item number] will form the product identifier part of that, which would probably be displayed on our products as a QR code. It is therefore not helpful to have an additional QR code and identifier (UPIN [unique property identification number]) on our products through the BSI Identify scheme which would also give us another data repository that that we would need to maintain. All in all, tthere’s a lot going on and it’s all a bit of a mess – it’s the Wild West.”
That said, he noted: “The hub could provide the data back-up for digital product passports, as per the current thought process for making sure you’ve got longevity of information.”
The hub could also save manufacturers significant sums. “There are tens if not hundreds of thousands of organisations (clients, architects, consultants and contractors) that might want our product information. If Tata Steel developed a mapped API to all its customers, the annual cost would be £3m to £8m.”
Funding and governance
BAM and Kier are among the major contractors keen to test the hub, Small said. He has presented the hub proposal to several government departments, which are keen on it. Small has secured £50,000 to scope out the requirements and understand the cost, the timeframe and the complexity in building the hub, and he is in discussions with an un-named government department to secure funding to develop an MVP, which if secured quickly enough could lead to an MVP being ready by the summer of 2025.
Small said: “We're proposing every manufacturer that uses the hub will pay a small amount of money per month just to keep it operating and growing.”
It would be set up as not-for-profit organisation. It would have a board and operate under a one member, one vote system. “Every construction product manufacturer that links their information through the hub would own one share, whether they’re Tata Steel or a bloke making nose housings,” Small said.
He further suggested that a technical committee could be created from hub members to help the “(mostly) small companies understand what their digital journey needs to be, and get them on board with doing this, as well as the larger ones”.
Small noted that 19 of the 20 largest UK construction product manufacturers are headquartered in Europe. “And with digital product passports coming from the European Commission, there is absolutely no point in us doing something in the UK just for the UK when most of the products come from companies headquartered in Europe - we would be naive and stupid,” Small declared.
Travel industry inspiration
Small wondered how other industries have overcome this data challenge. His inspiration was the travel industry.
“What you have on one side is the likes of Expedia, Trivago, booking.com and all those other websites from which you can access the information from any bed and breakfast, any hotel, any hire car company, any airline, all linked up, all seamlessly, all giving exactly the same information. And that isn't achieved by Expedia having hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of individual two-way APIs into every single one of these small or micro- or huge businesses.
“The travel sector has a common set of rules and standards, and they have a few hubs, basically connected points that sit in the middle. So that Expedia will connect into one of the hubs, and that hub will connect into, say, all the hotels, or all of the hire car companies, all structured the same, all with a common language, so that they can then build a system based on pulling that information and displaying it.”