BIM – It’s all about the information

May 14, 2012 by Leave a comment

There are clearly many advantages to be gained from producing a co-ordinated, data rich model.  Early 3D visualisation can help the client understand what they are getting, the design team to see how their particular systems and components fit within the structure, and various arrangements or ideas can be investigated virtually before getting to site.

However, it is important to realise that the core objective of BIM is the management of information, and this should include all relevant information produced throughout the life of the building or construction entity, not just the model – or data held within the model.

The UK Government has identified their need to have the right level of information about a project available at the right point in the procurement process to enable them to make better informed decisions which, in turn, should result in cost savings through reduction of abortive work, reworking and wastage.  The adoption of BIM for all relevant information, from inception to demolition, can only help this process, but to maximise the benefits available, the information must be accessible to all the intended users.  In view of this, perhaps a wider debate is yet to be had on what should be in the model and what simply linked to.

The management of information is not a new idea.  In fact, all major construction projects employ a document management system to arrange and make available the vast number of documents and data generated as part of the design and construction processes.  The key is to capture this and make it available in a readily accessible format to the team charged with operating the building throughout its life.  A robust system introduced at an early stage can avoid having to reproduce data again after handover.

Further information:

Software for the Future . Call for participants for 31 May 2012 workshop. Closing date: 16:00 15 May 2013

BIM – management for value, cost and carbon improvement. A report for the Government Construction Client Group Building Information Modelling (BIM) Working Party Strategy Paper

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The most important BIM survey yet

January 31, 2012 by Leave a comment

Hi all and Happy NewYear!

You’ll be pleased to know that both CIBSE and BSRIA work together for the better of BIM, and that members of CIBSE’s BIM group cross reference with, and in some cases appear on BSRIA’s BIM group also. Who says BIM doesn’t improve collaboration?!! The BSRIA and CIBSE groups are careful not to duplicate effort – CIBSE’s group is concentrating on defining the information parameters to be embedded or attached to building services BIM objects at different levels of development, while the BSRIA group is concentrating on setting out the characteristics of BIM models at different project stages and developing exemplar illustrations of what different stages of a BIM model should look like. Both of these initiatives will provide valuable assistance to the building services sector, including design consultants, contractors, specialists and equipment manufacturers.

You will hopefully have seen in January’s CIBSE Journal, an excellent article by Tim Dwyer on the state of the nation of BIM in Building Services terms. If you haven’t already I recommend you take a look.

As part of that article, probably the most important Building Services BIM survey yet has been launched and I urge you all to complete the survey yourselves and pass it onto your colleagues.

The results of this survey will directly affect how CIBSE (and others) look at BIM from your point of view, and will help to shape the plans in the coming years, so it’s essential that the Building Services community take this seriously and as many as possible take part. In particular the survey will help identify the most popular mechanisms for improving the skills and capability of our sector, as well as gauge the level of expertise already achieved.

You can take the survey here: http://goo.gl/W5lb8 and it should take less than five minutes. One thing, some corporate IT networks will not allow you to access this – so try it from home if you have trouble.

Finally, both CIBSE and BSRIA are participating in the BIMForum that has been established by the Construction Industry Council to bring together points of view from across the construction sector, including contractors and facilities managers. The current focus of this Forum is the definition of an industry-wide set of data exchange points that will formalise the BIM relationship between client and supply chain, and which is very closely linked to the ongoing development of BSRIA’s Design Framework document (BG6/2009).

 

 

 

 

 

Gary Ross (Capita Symonds)

David Churcher (BSRIA)

 

Filed under BIM, Building services, Construction, Contractors, Design, Survey Tagged with ,

Are you ready for the Government strategy on BIM?

October 18, 2011 by 1 Comment

There has been much comment, speculation and debate recently about the Government BIM strategy and all that it implies and demands. I was at the launch in London and just looking at the crowd who turned up and reading some of the name badges you could tell that on the surface at least, we as UK Plc are beginning to take this thing called Building Information Modelling (BIM) seriously.

My question therefore is not about paying BIM lip service, but are we actually ready as a nation to grab hold of this new process and way of working and make best use of it?

In the past we have come up with some revolutionary ideas, inventions etc, and have all but given them away, or allowed other countries to become world leaders in lets face it, “our” technology.
BIM may not be ours, but that does not stop us being the best in the world at it. Look West and you will see the US has a two year jump start over the rest of us. Look East and you will see nations such as Germany, Russia and China already gaining pace and I do not think they will hand the baton to us if we just ask nicely.
 

So are we really ready? Are you really ready? Not your nation, your company – you?
Answers on a postcard please….

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BIM – are we really the trailing edge?

July 5, 2011 by 7 Comments

Hello and welcome to my series of BIM posts. BSRIA have kindly invited me as a guest author, and I’d very much like to hear your views.

But first…an introduction. I am Gary Ross and I’m an Associate Director at Capita Symonds, working in their Building Services section. I cover five offices, driving BIM and smart working across them, as well as linking in with my multi-discipline counterparts across our business.  Most recently I worked for Autodesk, the developers of Revit MEP, and it is here that my passion now lies.

Are we really that far behind? Image Courtesy of Capita Symonds

‘Tail end Charlies’

I’ll go into what Revit means to Capita in a later post, but first I’d like to challenge the view that the Building Services industry are seen by many as the trailing edge of the construction industry – the “tail end Charlies” if you will. With any new technology we seem to be the last to pick it up, the least successful and the slowest to respond to change.

Why are building services behind the times?

Perhaps we don’t promote ourselves as an industry very well? A quick search of the new government Building Information Modelling (BIM) Working Party Strategy Paper reveals just one mention of the term ‘building services’.  Or is it that we really are behind the times generally? Is it just that the technology for Building Services actually lags behind the tools that our counterparts can use months or years earlier?

Do you think it’s a fair representation?

Is it just a case of disciplines bashing disciplines or is it a fair cop? If people say we are behind, are they over egging it for some reason or are they normally being reasonable?

How do you think we can go about improving our image?

Is it just a case of shouting louder? Do we have to radically change our ways or are there just a few tweaks needed?

Filed under BIM Tagged with ,

BIM debate heats up

December 9, 2010 by 1 Comment

Some of us at BSRIA have been talking enthusiastically about Building Information Modelling (BIM) for a while now…industry is asking for change (see BIM 2010 below), and the IGT now proposes to do something about it.

Mandating BIM

You may have read in the press about the launch of the Innovation and Growth Team’s report by Paul Morrell. If you’re a supporter of BIM you may be pleased to note:

“Recommendation 3.11.  That the industry should work, through a collective forum, to identify when the use of BIM is appropriate (in terms of the type or scale of the project), what the barriers to its more widespread take-up are, and how these barriers might be surpassed, leading to an outline protocol for future ways of working.

Recommendation 6.14  That Government should mandate the use of Building Information Modelling for central Government projects with a value greater than £50 million.” [My italics]

Ask the audience

BSRIA (alongside other organisers and sponsors) ran BIM 2010 on 2nd November at the Barbican London – by all accounts a successful gathering of c100 people, with high profile speakers including Paul Morrell. Everyone had the chance to discuss and vote on key issues (BSRIA has published speaker presentations and PDF of the results).

Most delegates familiar with BIM were aged 41-50 (40%), and the least familiar were the youngest delegates (under 30s). The 51+ delegates were more strongly split, with 25% ‘strongly agreeing’, and 46% ‘strongly disagreeing’ about being familiar with BIM.

Here’s what they said about mandating BIM:The audience seemed less sure about whether BIM should be required in submissions to building regs and other statutory duties: 12% strongly agreed, 34% agreed, but 35% were neutral.

Show me the money. 58% felt that it was ‘very likely’ that their organisation would invest in BIM. 15% also agreed, and 17% were neutral. There was a minority who felt that they were unlikely 5% or very unlikely 5% to invest. 46% of delegates also strongly agreed that ‘my organisation would find BIM training valuable’.

Uncertainties over the BIM model

56% delegates agreed that ‘current contracts are not easily translatable for BIM‘, with 38% ‘agreeing’ that ‘uncertainties over ownership of the model will limit the uptake of BIM’ – only 4% ‘strongly disagreed’ with this statement. In answer to the question ‘who should own the model?‘, most believed this should be the client, closely followed by the team. Most delegates agreed 41% or strongly agreed 39% that to influence greater uptake from clients it is important that BIM delivers electronic O&M manuals. 57% also strongly agreed or agreed 30% that we need more good UK case studies to influence greater uptake from clients.

We’ve also published charts in the Process and Operational Efficiency Group via the MBE Knowledge Transfer Network (you may need to register with the site, but it’s free membership).

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