Taking BIM From Design to Reality

How BIM can live up to its fullest potential by applying new technologies.

Shifting technology, accelerating building schedules and increasing profit pressure create a demand for radical changes in building construction. For some contractors, Building Information Management (BIM) answers their need for a faster and better way to construct buildings. Moving BIM into the field can have even greater advantages.

BIM’s 3-D elements help users identify and resolve conflicts with building systems. Project stakeholders model the various building systems to determine if the systems can be constructed as planned. This helps identify and resolve clash between building systems in virtual space before the clash actually happens in physical space. Many contractors currently use BIM information this way but applying 4-D and 5-D technology is much less common.

The Time Element

Adding elements of 4-D and 5-D design into the model incorporates time and cost elements. Only with these added elements can BIM fully live up to its promise. The application of 4-D design brings time into the building model. Effectively coordinating between each project stakeholder is one of the challenges stakeholders face. Often, representatives of various trades find themselves competing with other trades for space and time. It becomes a race to see which group can install their construction elements first. This approach creates inefficiencies in the building process, and it affects the overall cost and project profitability.

With 4-D elements, work activity can be coordinated so that each stakeholder knows the optimum schedule, sequence and work locations. Some contractors leverage this planned work approach by fabricating building elements ahead of time to minimize the custom-built job elements. While some contractors have fabricated building elements for a while, BIM provides other contractors the opportunity to create construction elements ahead of time in a production environment. This change can speed up projects and provide greater consistency in work output. T. McCuen, author of Scheduling, Estimating, and BIM: a Profitable Combination, conducted a case study in 2008 on a project involving BIM 4-D applications and found that 4-D resulted in the project being completed 40 percent faster than it would have been without BIM. Applying the 4-D design also resulted in an 80 percent reduction in requests for information (RFIs).

The Cost Element

The 4-D elements in BIM prove to be beneficial, but the 5-D applications still face challenges. From a theoretical perspective, adding cost to time and sequence elements makes logical sense. Changes in one part of the BIM model result in corresponding cost changes. A full integration of 5-D into BIM would produce reliable cost data, but a lack of standardized costing elements constrains integrating 5-D elements. Stakeholders using BIM apply different costs to the various building elements. Therefore, all contractors cannot rely on a shared understanding of how 5-D integrates into BIM. Integrating 5-D into BIM models represents an area for future development.

Despite the 5-D limitations, integrating BIM from design to the field might be a business imperative. Winning or losing projects could depend on how one contractor integrates BIM versus another. Contractors moving BIM to the field do so with the expectation of seeing an improvement in their technical capabilities, operational capabilities and business capabilities.

Total Stations

Several applications perform various functions within BIM to take the virtual model into physical space. Total Stations have become popular tools for facilitating this move. Total stations come in two main categories: mechanical and robotic. Contractors responsible for initial jobsite layout (i.e., control lines) often use mechanical total stations, while contractors responsible for high volumes of points (often MEP- mechanical, electrical, plumbing- trades) use robotic total stations. Full BIM integration is a critical feature for contractors evaluating total stations. Data from BIM must be easy to upload to the total station. Simplicity, ease of use, strong on-site service and support are additional factors that drive the decision related to which specific mechanical total station manufacturer contractors should pick.

BIM Research

Literature offers conflicting views of BIM. A 2009 article titled “Building Information Modeling Demystified: Does It Make Business Sense to Adopt BIM?,” published in the International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, indicates that most stakeholders view BIM as a software for building design, a process for design and documentation or a new approach to building design that requires different systems and coordination among all parties. According to this research, business owners and other stakeholders who desire to take BIM from design to the field should consider nine factors:

1. Initiatives – How well does implementing BIM fit into the company’s strategic efforts?
2. Alignment – How well does BIM integrate into existing hardware, software and tools? Do existing tools, such as total stations, fully support BIM integration?   How well do existing systems, policies and procedures work within a BIM framework?
3. Efficiency – What improvements in design and construction can be expected from integrating BIM into the company?
4. Design – By implementing BIM, what design improvements can be delivered to customers?
5. Collaboration – To what extent will BIM improve cooperation and coordination among stakeholders responsible for the company’s projects?
6. Other benefits – What collateral benefits will the company derive from implementing BIM?
7. Resources – What are the resources (human, financial, technical and others) required for implementing BIM?
8. Risk – What risks are associated with implementing BIM? How can the risks be managed? What risks are associated with not implementing BIM?
9. Assumptions – What constraints does the implementation of BIM produce?

Construction Business Owner, June 2011