Pipelife Norway adopts a standardised
approach to product data management

to improve internal processes and the quality of their product data

Pipelife is Norway’s largest producer and supplier of plastic pipe systems, and is part of Wienerberger AG, a leading international supplier of building materials and infrastructure solutions.

‘The Norwegian market has started on an exciting journey towards a digitised infrastructure, and Pipelife Norway wants to take a lead also in this development, with regards to plastic pipe solutions. We see the cooperation with Cobuilder as instrumental, both in terms of providing complete and standardised information to a variety of customers, and to meet the construction companies’ request for a common information platform. We view Cobuilder and their solution Cobuilder Supply (prev. goBIM) as the base for a digital twin of construction projects, modelled also with our products and solutions.’

Knut Jøssang, Product Manager Digital Products at Pipelife Norway
Pipelife norge product data sheet

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Business Need

Pipelife Norway identified the need to improve their digital readiness and respond to the growing market demand for high-quality data for Building Information Modelling.

Challenges

One of the main challenges was that most of Pipelife’s product information was stored in siloed systems and file formats that hindered the flow of information.

In addition, Pipelife’s web-catalog was maintained by the respective Product Managers responsible for the different product lines, which sometimes led to inconsistencies in the quality and richness of the product information.

Pipelife’s customers often rely on product information available in various industry databases, which is provided and managed by merchants and in many cases contains inaccuracies. Therefore, being able to control and provide up-to-date product information that is machine-readable and consistent is essential for Pipelife.

Solution

For Pipelife Norway, we applied an integrated enterprise solution consisting of two major solutions within the Cobuilder platform: Cobuilder Define and Cobuilder Supply (prev. goBIM)

Cobuilder Define is a data dictionary that allows Pipelife to create standard-based data structures, called data templates. This way they can ensure that their product information is in compliance with all relevant Norwegian and international product standards, and thus cover the informational needs of different industry actors. The data templates are also specifically developed to enable free information flow and ensure that the data can be used in different systems and BIM tools.

Through Cobuilder Supply (prev. goBIM), Pipelife can structure and digitise their product data by using the data templates that they have developed in Define. In addition, all the product data that is stored in Supply (prev. goBIM) will be also available for all clients and contractors who use other solutions that are part of Cobuilder’s integrated platform, such as Collaborate and Cobuilder Pro.

Step by step implementation

  • Through Cobuilder Define, Pipelife Norge gained access to relevant data templates created by Cobuilder. The product properties in these Data Templates are sourced from different international and Norwegian standards as well as market requirements, e.g. in relation to environmental data.

  • Pipelife’s experts were able to create additional data templates and customise the ones they have access to in order to meet their specific needs.

  • With the help of Cobuilder’s experts, Pipelife Norge collected their product data from the different sources and formats in which the information was stored, and the data was captured and stored in Cobuilder Supply (prev. goBIM).

  • Pipelife Norway is currently developing their PIM system. Once it is implemented, they plan to integrate it with Cobuilder’s solutions through an API. This way they will be able to access their data templates directly through their PIM system to structure product information, and on the other hand pull product data that is stored in Cobuilder Supply (prev. goBIM).

  • Pipelife Norway will also be able to take advantage of Supply (prev. goBIM)’s interface and utilise it as a product catalogue embedded on their website in order to provide their customers with all the product information stored in the system. This will allow the users to search and select products based on relevant properties. The catalogue will display all the product data, documentation and CAD objects, which can easily be shared and distributed to different BIM authoring software.

Results

The implementation of Cobuilder’s enterpise solution for manufacturers allowed Pipelife Norway to structure all their product information, ensure data quality and compliance with all relevant industry standards. The planned integration with their PIM system will help them to establish a clear and efficient process for managing their product data in a single source.

Through Cobuilder Supply (prev. goBIM), Pipelife Norway will be able to provide their customers with accurate and up-to-date data and documentation, and make it available both on their website but also on Cobuilder’s integrated platform that provides various solutions to all the different actors in the Norwegian construction industry.