FACILITIES DESIGN & BIM


BUILDING SERVICES GET UP-TO-SPEED


Research from the ECA in the autumn last year, conducted with


partners including CIBSE and BSRIA, found that just one in six firms in the building services sector were ‘fully ready’ to use to Building


Information Modelling (BIM) on construction projects, ECA Head of Energy Solutions Bill Wright explains.


One in four contractors said they were ‘not ready at all’ for BIM, despite a government mandated deadline for its use on all major central government contracts from April this year.


The situation was even more of a concern among small and medium- sized firms, with over half of SME respondents stating they were ‘not ready at all’ to use BIM. This raised the possibility of many SMEs being inadvertently frozen out of competing for a share of tens of billions of pounds of Whitehall-backed procurement.


BIM cannot work properly if the specialist supply chain is not ready, and readiness starts with an understanding of what the likely interactions with BIM projects will be.


When the results came out, the ECA pledged to undertake an action plan to help the building services sector get up-to-speed with the new requirements, which included:


• Releasing a ‘BIM Basics’ checklist, to help firms ensure they are prepared for BIM Level 2.


• Creating a ‘BIM jargon buster’, to help firms navigate through the maze of BIM terminology and acronyms and work out what BIM means.


• Developing case studies to broaden the understanding of what it takes to engage with a BIM project.


Along with CIBSE, the ECA has now made the BIM Basics checklist freely available for anyone in the industry to refer to, including


30 | TOMORROW’S FM


clients. This contains recommendations for those who will have a relatively minor, perhaps lower tier, role in BIM, in four key areas – capability and skills, processes, software and hardware, and digital information.


However, not all contractors need the same level of ‘BIM capability’ - this depends on their actual role in projects. The ECA has also produced a more advanced checklist, covering a broader range of BIM capabilities, which in addition to the ‘BIM jargon buster’, is exclusively available to ECA members.


BIM BASICS Capability and Skills: Do you have...


1.1. A BIM Manager and/or BIM champion?


Does this person have a short CV you can show a buyer/PQQ assessor? Can you show evidence of training and relevant experience?


1.2. Enough trained (preferably, but not exclusively) in-house BIM capability and capacity, which includes staff who can: take part in (respond to) BIM information exchange; read and use BIM software outputs as necessary If yes, can you show evidence of training and experience?


If ‘no’, do you have a means for ensuring the required services will be available from outside your organisation?


While for many in the industry there is a long way to go, we believe that these initial steps detailed in our checklist will help firms to get up- to-speed with the use of BIM Level 2. Ultimately, the use of BIM has the potential to radically improve collaboration and efficiency within our sector.


The ECA’s freely available ‘BIM Basics’ checklist can be viewed by clicking here. A more extensive version, containing more ‘Advanced’ BIM requirements, is available exclusively to ECA Members only.


www.eca.co.uk Processes: Do you have...


2.1. An understanding of Employer Information Requirements (EIRs)? The EIR is where a buyer client or main contractor) presents ‘Plain Language’ Questions that aim to define their BIM needs?


2.2. The ability to understand a buyer’s (client or main contractor) BIM Execution Plan (BEP)?


The BEP will detail aspects such as: Structure of the Common Data Environment (CDE); File naming convention; Roles/Responsibilities for BIM activity; Software Requirements; Overall BIM Objectives?


Software: Do you have... 3.1. Basic BIM reader software?


Working with digital BIM information: Are you able to...


4.1. Apply digital information (outputs) for use on site?


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