“But what on earth
is it?” and “How can you use 5D cost modelling?”– I keep hearing this in
relation to BIM to the point where I thought I would set out some points,
particularly given in May-11 the UK Government called for BIM adoption on UK government construction
projects > £5m and requiring collaborative 3D BIM (with all project and
asset information, documentation and data being electronic) on its projects by
2016.
Building
information modeling (BIM)
is the generation and management of digital representations of physical and
functional characteristics of places. Basically they are files used to support
decision-making. The use of BIM is applied across the building life cycle and
can support cost management, project management and even facility operation.
Now having seen
this in action I guess I take away one point – it needs a strong project
manager or a “BIM Manager”. BIM covers the inception through to occupation and
therefore needs focus.
But why did BIM
come about. Well I can’t pretend to know the precise reason but logically
thinking the industry has been under pressure for a number of years to deliver
exceptional projects under tight budgets and skills shortage – the industry
needed to address this and through BIM virtual construction before physical can
reduce uncertainty, highlight problems to be addressed and improve safety on
the construction phase. BIM works to bring together all parties including sub
contractors to input and ultimately will provide opportunities to
pre-fabricate.
To me it is the collaborative approach BIM provides. I often am amazed at how close-knit the construction community is and BIM simple promotes this further. It’s all very much technologic advances but there are clear benefits for all parties:
- By using BIM it will provide a longer term view of the project, which will lead to clearer benefits or consequences of design decisions;
- The availability of clearer information at the start up will reduce costs;
- Widely believed that BIM reduced construction defects and therefore reduced costs;
- BIM provides a single source of data vastly improving life cycle management of an asset;
The key things to
think about right now are developing policies that address BIM, a framework
will aid the future introduction. BIM is important and this should be
communicated without your organisation and developed into staff training. Take
the time to invest in systems and processes in advance of implementation
Feel free to contact me 0113 288 2276 or lee.a.wilkinson@uk.pwc.com if you wish to discuss this blog or
anything relevant to property and construction.
Enjoy
the weekend
Lee
Follow me on Twitter
Connect with me on LinkedIn
No comments:
Post a Comment