Shimizu Introduces Digi-Tori 360

Shimizu Corporation (President: Kazuyuki Inoue) is pleased to announce that clients have positively evaluated Digi-Tori 360, a digitized Building User Guide (BUG) that Shimizu recently released for the purpose of enhancing satisfaction of all stakeholders in a building, from the client to the building’s end users. Shimizu will phase out paper-based BUGs and shift to Digi-Tori 360, which can be stored on tablets.

Conventional paper-based BUGs are provided by contractors and filed physically and manually. A single construction project, depending on its size, could potentially involve numerous BUGs. A residential complex, for example, would have a BUG for each unit. Similarly, for a non-residential project, each contractor would issue a separate BUG. Manually indexing and filing these BUGs is laborious and time consuming. Moreover, because of the cumbersome, user-unfriendly nature of conventional BUGs, building managers often fail to apply them effectively.

Digi-Tori 360 is designed to solve these problems. Shimizu developed the product as part of its efforts to Digital spaces and services provision, in line with its mid-term digital strategy. Digi-Tori 360 consolidates BUG information for the building’s structure, amenities, electricity, and other elements, and integrates all this information in a 360-degree viewer. It also integrates floor plans, structural drawings, and as-built drawings.

Digi-Tori 360 is user-friendly. By simply tapping the plan of interest, the user accesses a 360-degree view. The user can then tap the area of interest to display BUG information for that area. This streamlined design vastly improves the accessibility and practicality of the BUG information.

Digi-Tori 360 also includes other features that enhance its value as digital BUG. For example, for parts of the building that are covered in interior finishing but still require maintenance, Digi-Tori 360 links image data created during construction. Digi-Tori 360 can archive past refurbishments and renovations, giving users an exhaustive record of the building’s history. It can also be used to digitize BUG information for an existing building. Digitization costs depend on the size of the building, but the costs generally start from 700,000 yen for 2,000-3,000m²building.

Shimizu will use Digi-Tori 360 to digitize its building operations. In this way, the company will deliver value that exceeds the expectations of every stakeholder in the building lifecycle and further improve its competitive advantage.