IT & SOFTWARE 1 BUILDING INFORMATION MODELLING
model, which can be exploited and developed by the whole construction team and enables contractors and building operators to get earlier involvement in the process. This requires appropriate contributions from relevant parties throughout all stages of the project delivery. Construction and facilities management (FM) organisations also need to be involved earlier in a more integrated fashion than most traditional procurement processes permit. Building information
modelling (BIM) is seen by some as a simple ‘add-on’ to a 3D design to provide a data trove for subsequent interrogation and manipulation. For others it is just a fancy tool for creating 3D building models and accurate photo- realistic renderings. But BIM should be seen as a process and an enabler, a catalyst for truly integrated working in a collaborative design and supply chain between all the stakeholders in a construction project. In an ideal project BIM underlies a
project from conception through design, manufacture and construction, to life-long operation and eventual decommissioning, demolition and recycling. But this is a world away from the ‘lonely BIM’ that exists in many of today’s disparate individual applications.
Differentiator By proper integration into business methods, BIM has the potential to speed up decision-making and remove unnecessary processes that don’t add value – improving the cost-effectiveness of the construction process and increasing industry profitability. But the push for BIM by some clients, architectural and engineering firms, and forward-looking contractors can mean that other project members are chasing to catch up with BIM competencies so that they can work meaningfully – or, in some cases, so that they can work at all. BIM is appearing as a differentiator
between organisations in the supply chain. Sometimes, however, the result is marketing puff – or ‘BIMwash’ – rather than the real thing.
What is clear is that BIM cannot be
an exclusive tool and still deliver the wide-ranging benefits that clients are increasingly seeking. BIM will drive the
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Ideally BIM should underlie a project from conception, design, manufacture and construction to life-long operation and eventual decommissioning, strip-out and recycling
whole construction chain towards reviewing and updating its processes and technology, as well as its methods of collaboration with its project partners. BIM presents a new opportunity for the whole industry to embrace and reap mutual benefits, but unlike the move from drawing boards to CAD seen over the last generation, BIM truly requires a paradigm shift. It will prove a challenging task to try to directly map BIM in terms of specific return on investment or productivity gains. But BIM is a global phenomenon, potentially providing opportunities in new markets. Early adopters of BIM can help others in the construction sector to get on board;
and there is a vital role to be played by the industry’s institutions and associations to help their members get up to speed with the process.
Re-skilling Increasingly there is a need for BIM capability within projects. But real BIM is not a simple add-on to the skill-set of existing building professionals: it requires significant investment in ‘retooling’ the teams with methods, skills and resources. Many larger contractors have seen themselves as bearing the brunt of early development costs. After the initial business costs, it is estimated that it costs around £12,000 per ‘BIM-enabled engineer’ for the software, training, set-up and support needed. This may be seen as a ‘show stopper’, especially for small businesses, but the real contention is that this is an upfront investment, not only to gain work, but also to unlock efficiencies of BIM workflows. And the training need not stop there: BIM will require new ways of working, and therefore training is needed in the new processes and attitudes – at all levels of the industry – to successfully adopt BIM. To move forward there needs to be a top-down commitment by industry to re- skill the workforce, together with a can-do attitude from those developing and using the technology and processes at the grass roots. BIM will not thrive with small pockets of CAD users or engineers getting excited and trying to justify business cases driven by glamorous software purchases.
UNFOLDING OF BIM ‘ROADMAP’
In September 2009 the Department of Business Innovation and Skills commissioned an industry working group to provide a report on the potential future use of BIM.
The Government Construction Clients board adopted the working group and agreed to receive its final report, which was presented in March 2011.
The report sets out a suggested roadmap and strategy to enable the progressive use of BIM on government building programmes, as well as providing a framework for procurement and delivery standards.
The report also considers the training and support required to enable the industry to rise to the BIM challenge.
The Government Construction Strategy, published by the Cabinet office on 31 May 2011, sets out the government’s intention to require collaborative 3D BIM with fully digital data by 2016.
l To download the full BIM report go to
http://goo.gl/acAC8
January 2012 CIBSE Journal 35
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