Taking Ownership of a BIM Project

Owners are now mandating BIM on projects and though the construction industry is equipping itself with the necessary skills to adhere to BIM requirements, the immediate reaction is that implementing BIM would be costly and therefore outweigh the benefits. Designers add on the cost of building BIM that they need for their design processes, while contractors ask for added funds to recreate models from 2D or 3D models to meet their functional requirements.

Project Managers see managing a BIM project a huge investment in skill sets and time – to understand the BIM data exchange requirements between the project parties. There is an interesting debate within the industry on the amount and quality of data or information being passed on between partners in a project. In the new workflows defined by adoption of BIM processes, designers are often reluctant to offer their Design Information Models (DIM) to the constructors, and are in favour of offering just 2D information.

The industry views this reluctance as stemming from the increased risk related to the design and the fact that they are sharing critical design information. In projects where designers give the constructors the DIM model, the constructors complain about the lack of flexibility and quality of data of the DIM and often develop their own models. Most of the modelling is done without keeping in mind the owner’s motivation to use BIM on the project, but just the mandate to use BIM on the project. Ultimately the owner is faced with an inflated cost just to use BIM on the project, with disparate opinions on how BIM should be used. How does an owner confront the challenges and barriers to adopting BIM?

To seek a solution to this problem, owners should first understand the benefits of using BIM on a project. The owner should then identify key areas where his projects will benefit from the use of BIM. The owner cannot expect to gain the benefits of using BIM, by only mandating BIM on the project, but should take the initiative in leading the implementation of BIM on a project. Owners could examine their internal workflows and identify methods and tools that could deliver projects more efficiently.