The Centre for Digital Built Britain (CDBB), a partner in the Construction Innovation Hub, has published The Building Information Modelling (BIM) Interoperability Report for consultation
The BIM Interoperability Report forms part of the Construction Innovation Hub’s work to grow the digital economy for the construction and infrastructure sector and to develop and promote digital ways of working as enablers of greater whole-life-value in the built environment.
The report has been produced with oversight from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), the Infrastructure Projects Authority (IPA), and support from the UK BIM Alliance.
It gives recommendations to Government on how to continue to support existing BIM policy, referred to as the ‘BIM Mandate’ and implement a series of recommendations in order to achieve interoperable information exchange across the asset lifecycle.
Key themes within the BIM Interoperability Report include:
- The need for continued Government leadership
- Greater standardisation
- Education and upskilling
- Support of the development of the Industry Foundation Class and model view definitions, including COBie, to support all asset types.
The report states: “Open interoperability delivers positive benefits, therefore it is a Government policy objective. The question is how to deliver interoperability and the extent of the intervention required to do so. Existing approaches are likely to be insufficient…
“Therefore, there is a need for Government BIM policy to focus on and drive interoperability.”
The report added: “There is a clear view that central government intervention and public sector client leadership is required in order to achieve the desired outcome.”
Recommendations include:
- To create a new BIM Interoperability Steering Group, herein referred to as the Steering Group, to instigate, engage, lead, manage, coordinate, promote and communicate recommendations across Government and externally, as appropriate. It is proposed that the Steering Group is made up of:
- Members of the BIEG committee in the first instance, but pulling in others from across the industry as and when appropriate. It is proposed this Group would meet once a month and at other times if/when required.
It added: “Doing nothing would erode the UK’s leadership in BIM development and implementation.”
CDBB is interested in feedback on the key enablers of improved interoperability put forward in the BIM Interoperability Report (pages 11-12 and 17-22).
You can submit your response to the consultation here.
