Knowledge / AEC-native data
O&M manuals
The operation and maintenance documentation handed over at completion: asset registers, manufacturer data, commissioning records, warranties and maintenance schedules.
An O&M manual is the building's instruction book, assembled in the final weeks by the contractor or a specialist compiler from whatever the subcontractors sent in. It is organised by system or by work section and runs to volumes: manufacturer literature, installed-product schedules, commissioning certificates, warranties with their start dates and conditions, maintenance schedules and spares lists. O&M manual AI has one job, which is what the FM team that inherits the manual needs to know: what is installed where, who maintains it under which warranty and what maintenance is due. Each answer is spread across a data sheet, a schedule and a certificate that do not refer to one another. Structured knowledge connects those documents and answers for the specific unit, with every fact traceable to its page.
What teams need to ask of it
Which model of this product is installed in this location, and which schedule confirms it?
Which units are still under manufacturer warranty, when does each warranty expire, and what voids it?
What maintenance is due on this plant this quarter, and who is contracted to do it?
Where is the commissioning certificate for this unit, and what did the test record?
Does the installed product match what the specification required, and if not, was the substitution approved?
Which spares are listed as held on site, and where?
Which warranties required registration with the manufacturer, and was it done?
Why generic AI gets it wrong
An O&M manual is not written; it is compiled. The manufacturer's data sheet describes every model in a range, the installed-product schedule says which model went in and where, the commissioning certificate records what one specific unit did on the day, and the warranty sits in a letter with its own numbering. No page refers to the others. A general-purpose tool reading the manual finds the manufacturer's generic maintenance text, which was written for a product line rather than this building, and presents it as the project's maintenance requirement. It reads well because a technical author wrote it, and it says nothing about the unit on your roof.
Warranty conditions are the sharper case. A manufacturer's warranty is a document with terms: it starts from a date that may be delivery, commissioning or practical completion, it runs for the period stated in the letter, and it is conditional on maintenance by an approved contractor at stated intervals with stated consumables. A tool that quotes the headline warranty period from the marketing literature, without the start date on the certificate and the conditions in the letter, gives an FM manager an expiry date and terms that do not apply to this unit. The answer is confident and plausible, and if relied on it leaves the client paying for a repair the warranty should have covered.
One question, answered
QUESTION
ANSWER
SOURCES
We onboard a focused slice of your project data, configure the ingestion paths, extract a structured context graph, and build a workflow against the resulting structured knowledge layer.
Related to
The O&M manual is the counterpart to the record drawings in the handover pack: the drawings say where the plant is and the manual says what it is and how to keep it running. Its contents were first seen as submittals against the construction specification, which is why a mismatch between installed and specified product can be traced. Handover pack structuring builds the asset register from it, and project knowledge search answers the day-to-day questions.
Does it work with a manual that is mostly scanned manufacturer PDFs?
Can it tell us where the installed product differs from the specification?
How do we see it on our own O&M manuals?
Related pages
As-built drawings and handover packs
The record set describing the building as constructed, together with the health and safety file and the information required for the golden thread.
Submittals
Contractor-issued product data, shop drawings and samples submitted for review against the specification before procurement or installation.
Construction specifications
The written performance and prescriptive requirements for materials, workmanship and systems, organised by work section (NBS, CSI MasterFormat, Uniclass).
Handover pack structuring
Turning the handover deliverables into a structured asset and information register, with every record linked to its source document and drawing.
Project knowledge search
Asking questions across the whole project record, drawings, models, specs, contracts and correspondence, and getting answers that cite their source.