Why BIM is so important to our industry


I’ve been working on the UK Government’s BIM programme for three years now and learned an immense amount on the way – the rewards, the challenges and the pitfalls of implementing BIM across a wide range of organisations – both from the points of view of the client and the supply chain.


The first thing which has been impressed on me is that BIM demands clear and unambiguous project management, a lean approach and a collaborative engagement throughout the delivery team. The second point is that BIM could and should be used for anything that is built. The fact it considers a project across its whole life cycle and in the wider environment in which it sits makes it a particularly powerful tool. With a BIM project, you start with the end in mind.


The roll-out of BIM should begin with understanding the decision- making process.


Personally I find that Brad Power from Havard Business School sums it up perfectly:


Process is about action….The problem is, in this explicit focus on process-as-action, organizations overlook a much more powerful process performance lever — day- to-day operational decisions.


Drive Performance by Focusing on Routine Decisions”, Brad Power, Harvard Business School, January 2014


Once understood, you can identify what is the minimum data required to support that process, and how that needs to be presented so it is understandable and accessible to the people who need to make the decisions. Ensuring decisions are recorded and retrievable at any stage is key so that the knowledge of how and why a particular part of the infrastructure was developed is preserved for use throughout its operational life. Once you have this defined, then you are in a great place to exploit 3D modelling and visualisation to its maximum potential.


However, if, for example, a client’s desired project outcome is to develop an integrated component of a smart city with in-built sensors and responders a key requirement will be ensuring that the supply chain is incentivised to share longer term objectives with the client. This is why we will continue to see different procurement methods being trialled and collaborative working appearing as an imperative across much of the industry.


8 | BIM Collaborating for success


Industry Insight DR ANNE KEMP


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