Many industrial plants and manufacturing facilities constructed 30–40 years ago and have been in operation for several decades without an accurate as-built asset documentation, where engineering deliverables were only relied on 2D drawings and schematic sketches from a group of contractors, with no centralized 3D model or integrated design database. And during construction phase, a lot of field modifications happened due to constructability constraints, piping reroutes, interference issues, etc., almost none of these modification activites were not captured in the final documentation dataset. These discrepancies between actual site conditions and as-built documents undermines operational efficiency, elevates health, safety, and environmental (HSE) exposure, and drives up maintenance, reliability, and project execution costs.

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With recent rapid technological advancements and modern digital solutions such as terrestrial 3D laser scanning and digital twins, organizations now have robust tools to address asset documentation deficiencies within industrial and manufacturing facilities. Through 3D laser scanning, point cloud data is captured, collected, and subsequently registered to create a highly accurate digital measurements of existing site and assets. Point clouds provide powerful and dynamic information for a project, by capturing spatial geometry as dense sets of XYZ coordinate points, point clouds generate large, high-fidelity datasets that can be systematically analyzed, queried, and leveraged for a wide range of engineering and operational insights.

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Point cloud data has increasingly become the new standard for the architecture, engineering and construction industry. Having a virtual model of the project gives companies the ability to effectively plan, design, construct, and manage projects. Point cloud data aids in analysis, design, construction sequencing, renovation, prefabrication, asset management.