Level 2 BIM is today’s target, but Ray Crotty is looking at Level 3 and beyond

What would happen if the information used in construction were fully trustworthy and readily computable, as the BIM vision promises? What would happen if the operation of the construction industry were based on the use of effectively perfect information? A few things come to mind immediately — effective competition, manufactured buildings and guaranteed buildings. Effective competition, in any market,

requires that the customer can specify their requirements accurately and in such a manner that competing suppliers’ proposals can be compared and evaluated transparently, on a true like-for-like basis. This is, almost inherently, impossible to achieve using drawing-based documentation, when the scope of work can be interpreted to mean almost anything a bidder can plausibly claim. This behaviour eliminates the possibility of effective competition for the operations component of construction contracts. Competition among contractors today is mainly about the marketing and estimating skills and commercial nerve required to win work, and the claims management skills required to make money from projects won at cost, or less. Skills in construction operations may

give project teams a sense of pride and achievement, but are largely irrelevant to the survival of the firms they work for. So contractors, with no existential imperative to innovate, avoid innovation risk, and avoid investing in improved production methods. As a result, effective competition exists

only at the top and bottom ends of the construction industry: competition of

government says “we’ll self-insure this project”, the game all of a sudden changes. AV you could have a government-backed project with government-backed insurance. If you also use the project bank account model, then you’ve got an interesting dynamic because the contractors know the money is somewhere and they’re going to get paid. MC For the whole eight years we’ve had the Strategic Alliance, government has never held retentions, and that’s washed all the way through the supply chain. DP Yes, it’s important to see BIM as only one part of the government’s construction strategy. It’s when you bring all these things together that you achieve efficiency savings.

ideas among designers; and product competition among manufacturers. Everyone in between competes to win projects — they do not compete to deliver them. This is a crucial, crippling distinction. Imagine how trustworthy, computable tender documents might transform this situation. With perfect, complete scope definition, bidders are compelled to compete on the basis of their ability to do the construction work. Every line item can be linked directly with a component in the model and must be priced explicitly. Every price can be compared automatically and challenged as appropriate. There are no claims opportunities, so bidders must get it right going in. Contractors will be compelled to

compete directly on the basis of the productivity of their project delivery techniques. Efficient firms will profit greatly — they’re no longer going to be undercut by claims-hunting predators. Construction as a whole will become wealthier, able at last to invest seriously in people, methods and physical capital; labour productivity will soar. The precision and computability of model-based designs enable physical components of buildings to be machine- made directly, using the data contained in the modelling systems. The idea of “tolerance” will disappear; individual objects will be manufactured with perfect precision and pre-assembled in the factory, before being shipped to site. No manufacturing from raw materials and no shaping operations — no pouring, cutting, routing, drilling, bending, folding of components — will take place on site. It will also be a super-fast-track

6. A charter for new consultants? MC People have been talking about model managers and the likes. Do you see this becoming some kind of new profession? Is it the next generation planning supervisor? DP For me, there are people out there, design managers and such like, who actually manage the data management process anyway, especially on larger projects. There’s no reason why the people who exist at the moment can’t be these data managers. AV I think it’ll be a subtle change towards more of a production integrator role. Martin Bew I think we have to be careful. What we’ve actually got to do is get the people doing the kind of jobs that exist today

“Contractors will be compelled to compete directly with each other on the basis of the efficiency and productivity of their project delivery

techniques.”

industry. Knowing that the other elements of the building are being assembled exactly as designed means that, instead of having to wait to check whether earlier elements have been built correctly, the manufacture of all components could, if required, commence simultaneously, and proceed in parallel, as soon as the model has been completed. Just as guarantees are an important

attraction to buyers of cars and other complex products, long guarantees are likely to drive the market for buildings of the future. Suppliers will emerge that will offer, say 20-year guarantees covering all the performance characteristics of a building. This will include the maintenance performance of the fabric of the building and the equipment within it, the building’s energy performance and even the ease with which it can be re-configured for new uses. The suppliers of these buildings will aim

to derive as much of their revenues from servicing the product in its life in use as from the initial sale. This mode of operation will ensure that buildings of the future will be designed and built to optimise their whole-life costs. It will also require that performance feedback loops become an integral part of the operation and maintenance of future buildings, ensuring that their suppliers become real learning organisations, with a commitment to the on-going maintenance and operation of their products. Ray Crotty is BIM consultant at C3 Systems and author of The Impact of Building Information Modelling: Transforming Construction, published by Spon Press

to do them properly and better. You’ve been asking for the right design information for ever, you’ve been asking the specialists for the correct data for ever, so what’s the difference? Do what we asked you to do, but do it properly and check. And then suddenly you are where you thought you were 30 years ago. That’s a much better way of looking at it… rather than creating a new role. AV I don’t disagree, we’re not looking at a new person. But if you just call that person doing the same role a different thing, nothing’s going to change. MB The idea is not to grow the thing, but shrink it. It’s not about growing a new professional layer. CM

CONSTRUCTION MANAGER | APRIL 2012 | 21