BIM for General Contractor-Deriving the Best Project Outcomes

General contractors are in charge of construction projects, and are responsible for day to day site surveys, cost estimations, project scheduling and monitoring, liaisons across multiple disciplines and applying for various permits and licenses.

Higher predictability and on time completion of projects remains a major concern for General contractors. As the general contractors have volley of tasks that are based on predictions and assumptions, these are the people who value higher predictability in a project. And this is precisely the reason why, BIM for general contractors is an ideal solution.

Benefits of using BIM for general contractors include:

• Better construction planning – in terms of scheduling and workflow
• Higher collaboration and liaisons across disciplines
• Reduced risks
• Increased productivity
• Desired project outcomes

BIM allows the main contractors, create a virtual mock up for the construction process design, detect work flow based conflicts, and manage the man power and supply chain for materials on site.

However, while BIM is widely accepted by general contractors, the full benefits of 4D BIM (simulation based modeling for project scheduling) have not yet been fully realized across projects. One of the major challenges that hamper extraction of the best benefits from 4D BIM is to get their supply chain use BIM.

Now we call it as a challenge because although the adoption of is widespread it is still not standardized. Lack of software hardware interoperability also poses a problem. Additionally it is important to have experts who can use BIM to extract its full benefits. It is seen that when all those involved in the supply chain adopt BIM, there is definitely better collaboration and hence improved performance.

BIM adoption further helps the main contractors take better and informed decisions, as VDC capabilities offer greater predictability. As a result the projects are also completed on time, within the given cost constraints and as desired. Hence, general contractors can manage the projects well, and execute them for the best business outcomes.

NBS BIM Object Standard shortlisted for BIM Initiative of the Year

The open standard for BIM Objects was launched by NBS in September last year with the hope it would play a major role in accelerating wider industry take up of BIM and secure the UK’s place at the forefront of the global race to develop industry-leading BIM tools and standards.

The free-to-use NBS BIM Object Standard covers both generic and manufacturers’ BIM objects and defines what constitutes a high quality BIM object, providing consistency to both content and structure.

The Building Awards, now in their 21st year, exist to celebrate excellence across the construction industry.

The BIM Initiative of the Year category showcases the achievements of those organisations that have pioneered new ways of working in a BIM-enabled environment – be this through software, tools and process, data mining and management or new ways of working.

Aside from NBS, other shortlisted organisations include:

• Laing O’Rourke – BIM. Now it’s personal
• AECOM – The BIM Playbook
• Virtual Viewing – SlimBIM
• BIM Academy’s BAFM Solution
• Arup – UK BIM Taskforce
• Turner & Townsend – DaTTum

Over 1,000 industry leaders from across a range of construction areas will converge on the Grosvenor Hotel in London on April 22 for the awards ceremony when the winner will be revealed. You can find more information about the event at www.building-awards.com.

Roca launches its first products as BIM objects

Roca, the world reference company for comprehensive bathroom products, will release their full range catalogue as BIM objects, thanks to the framework agreement with BIMobject®.

Since early 2014 Roca and BIMobject have been working with this project which will run throughout 2015 and beyond with the continued publishing on the BIMobject Cloud the full range catalogue of Roca products - more than one thousand of products - as BIM objects, available and downloadable for professionals. Roca’s BIM objects are available as both, Revit and ArchiCAD.

A BIM object contains information that includes all relevant data regarding properties of a specific product designed and manufactured by a company. Within the collaborative working environment of BIM technology (Building Information Modeling), BIM objects can be downloaded from the BIMobject Cloud to integrate into any BIM software. This cooperation is to ensure that professionals in the sector have access to the most advanced tools when creating their projects. By downloading Roca’s BIM objects, planners will automatically have access to updated information. This will mean faster processes, lower risks and costs but with higher quality and a more efficient workflow.

Roca and BIMobject® signed a frame agreement last May, this reinforces the Spanish company’s commitment to help the AEC sector providing the most advanced tools to improve their work.

With this launch, Roca is the first major company in the bathroom sector firmly committed to BIM objects as a format. Today, BIM technology is accelerating in use by professionals all around the world because of the power of digital BIM collaborative work environment for the development and management of projects.

Dubai RTA adopts BIM solutions

The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) of Dubai, UAE has launched a new building information modelling (BIM) solution which aims at dealing with assets information in a comprehensive manner starting from the design stage.

BIM is an effective tool for the management, mobility and sharing of engineering information between the owner, architects, engineers, developers, contractors, manufacturers and maintenance officials in an environment customised to ensure the reduction of power wastage, said the RTA in a statement.

Speaking at the launch,Abdullah Ali Al Madani, the CEO of corporate technical support services sector at the RTA, said: "This project offers a kind of platform for broadening the scope of modelling the information of RTA’s facilities to cover all construction projects relating to its infrastructure such as service stations, operational offices, road networks and rail systems."

"The BIM is one of the leading processes across the region, or possibly the world over, as it covers all types of infrastructural projects owned by the RTA and combines them under one platform," stated Al Madani.

  
According to him, BIM comprises a series of processes aimed at creating, saving, and following changes as well as retrieving information about a construction project during the project’s lifecycle starting from the concept till the scrapping or demolition, all under a single platform for all engineering specialties of relevance to the project.

“It is therefore developed electronically through a single platform starting from the developer and including the consultant and the contractor until it is delivered and managed by the concerned personnel at the Asset Management Department who would complement the project till the end of its lifespan,” he added. –TradeArabia News Service

2015 BIM Experience Survey - Preliminary Results

Building information modeling (BIM) is a controversial topic. BIM champions have been extolling its virtues of design efficiency, construction cost and time savings, and maintenance economies for owners. Yet BIM has not become as widely used as expected in the United States.  In the U.K., for example, the government has put into place standards with the goal that all public construction projects utilize collaborative BIM from start to finish, with all project and asset information, documentation, and data being electronic by 2016-2017.  So what seems to be the issues holding BIM back?  With the 2015 BIM Experience survey launched this past month, ConstructionPro Network set out to see what it could learn.

In this first article, we summarize the results of our survey.   A second installment will compile the individual responses and report on the best practices that have been provided by our readers.

Respondents' Demographics
In ConstructionPro Network's Estimating Survey article published last month, results showed that a full 50% of respondents were contractors.  However, only 23% of the BIM survey respondents were contractors and less than 7% were architects or engineers. While estimating may be of more importance to contractors than owners, architects and engineers, we still expected more contractors to weigh in on their thoughts. That may tell us something right there - contractors may just not be interested. 

Architects represented the largest group of respondents at 23% and engineers the second largest group at 18%.  Private owners came in at 2.5% and public owners at 4%. That is another indication of either lack of interest or lack of knowledge of the process.

BIM Experience - Reasons for Using

With 47% of respondents saying they used a BIM tool, process or approach, we do have a rather BIM-experienced group to study.  It is worth noting that a full 63% either voluntarily implemented BIM or it was a company mandate, rather than because it was an owner or general contractor requirement. Here are some of the reasons cited for implementing BIM:

• Prefabrication and increased field production
• Better coordination to reduce "redo" work, increased productivity during construction and better visualization for users
• Visualization and experimentation
• 3D customer reviews, steel fabrication and sub coordination
• Reduce mistakes from lack of A/E coordination
• The ability to demonstrate accessibility issues on complex projects
• Cost savings, pre-fabrication and project scheduling
• Good fit for projects with complex interfaces between components
• Improved workflow, improved constructability and less field rework
• Coordination of trades (multiple responses)
• Improved positioning for design contests
• Help to make complex shapes and predictable models for production of cray buildings
• Estimating and presentation tool
• More efficient design tool than using 3D CAD
• More sales through visualization
• Powerful use enables preparation of construction documents and making visualizations
• Helps communicate 3D ideas to 2D dimensionally challenged decision makers
• 3D modeling and visualization
• Ability to help clients visualize; ability to show materials and colors more easily
• Helps everyone to understand where specified products go and how they work

The survey supports the frequent anecdotal benefits of BIM that we have observed - better coordination and cost savings, but we do see more interest among users for its usefulness in constructability, staging and scheduling tasks.  Another observation is the number of people that cited visualization as a specific benefit, both for working with clients as well as with the construction team.  

Summary
BIM continues to have its supporters and we fully expect to see wider use of the technology, albeit at a slower pace of implementation. As discussed in last week'sConstruction Productivity article, BIM is a critical component in collaborative project delivery methods, and that will be one of the more important drivers for BIM growth.  In future coverage of the BIM Experience Survey, we'll look at some of the BIM tools themselves, the issues users have encountered, as well as what the respondents see for BIM implementation down the road.

Update: Construction Week 2015 UAE Infra Conference

It examined the best way contractors, engineers and architects can combine their expertise in order to realise the best possible building design – as well as how collaboration can cut costs.

The industry can do far more in the fields of collaboration and site safety in order to achieve higher standards, said the panel, which agreed that too often a piecemeal approach is taken to a project.

Ala Hason, vice-president of HKS Architects, said: “As architects, all we care about is the design and it being built according to our vision. Buildings are about dreams for an architect, but for a contractor they about schedules and cost.

“For clients, they would like to have all three.”

One solution to the lack of communication across the industry could be greater use of BIM, the panel agreed.

Members said the contractors and suppliers should be bought into the design process at a far earlier stage and in much greater detail, so that a much more holistic approach is undertaken.

“When you are appointing people, make them part of a global team to achieve project goals,” said Hason. “We are seven years behind the western world when it comes to using BIM. We need to catch up.”

Martin Seward-Case of BWA Middle East defined what is meant by quality. He said: “It is the achievement of a minimum standard by a contractor – one that has been defined by the architect and the client. But we are a very fractured as an industry.

“There is an adversarial nature which results in wastage between the various layers, along with duplication of cost. We are highly inefficient but there are some simple things that we can do.”

Carl McKenzie, a director in Aecom’s healthcare practice, said the client has the job of balancing the various demands of the design team and contractors, but he added that quality control and standards vary across different sectors – with healthcare being the most stringent.

But the panel all agreed that Dubai has largely been successful in its effort to introduce and enforce standards.

Seward-Case said: “Dubai is a young place but it has advanced quite a lot.”

He said inspections of building standards are done online so “de-personalising the process” which he felt was positive, though sometimes inconvenient for project staff.

The panel agreed that more can be done on site to improve standards as well.

“Worker safety is important,” said Hason. “Sometimes [on a construction site] you see no hard hats, no safety glasses and there are cables everywhere.”

DESIGN:BIM

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Author: Jeffrey A. Pinheiro, AIA

This eBook is not meant to be a technical manual but more of a mini-guide. I’ve taken my design process and broke it down in the simplest, systematic way I could. When I released BIM After Dark - Volume 1 the feedback was incredible. Customers who purchased the video series asked if I could break down my design process in an easy-to-follow guide. Well, here it is!

Design is extremely subjective. Therefore, you do not have to agree with or like my design aesthetic to get a feel for my process. This process will work regardless of what building type, design aesthetic, or “ism” you prefer.