Stephen Hamil, Director of Design and Innovation at NBS, discusses the digital toolkit that will complete the Level 2 BIM suite and how it will enable everyone in the industry to use BIM as an integral part of their everyday working lives
The previous issue of BIM Today carried the news that the NBS-led team had been appointed to develop the digital toolkit that will complete Level 2 BIM; now we are almost half way through the process and on track for a Spring 2015 launch.
So what is the toolkit? What will it do and why is it important?
At the outset, it is important to remember that Building Information Modelling (BIM) is not an end in itself. The Government’s Construction Strategy identifies predicted growth of 70% in the global construction market and is determined that UK businesses will be well placed to take advantage of this.
By delivering projects quicker, more cheaply and more sustainably, the industry can take the lead in a market where it already has a strong competitive edge and drive up exports. More broadly, BIM has a role within the burgeoning digital economy, as UK construction businesses need to be in a position to compete for the £200bn per annum market for integrated city systems that is forecast for 2030.
It is within this context that we are developing and delivering the digital toolkit on behalf of the UK BIM Task Group and Department for Business, Industry and Skills to sit alongside the five existing pieces of guidance that make up the Level 2 ‘suite’.
Collaboration is at the heart of BIM and at the heart of the toolkit. As David Philp, Head of UK BIM Task Group, said in BIM Today at the end of last year, BIM is a behavioural change programme which will enable and promote the closer integration of disciplines and it is this that will lead to the improvements in project delivery that lie at the heart of the construction strategy.
Up to now, BIM has been seen by many as the preserve of a few, rather ‘techy’ people, but this misses the point and the industry runs a risk of getting side-tracked by almost endless technical discussions held by small groups.
The digital toolkit is aimed at addressing this: it will simplify processes and be intuitive and easy to use, enabling everyone to use BIM as an integral part of their everyday working lives, whatever stage of BIM adoption they are currently at. The toolkit will be fit for purpose right across the industry, including all disciplines and all scales of projects from large infrastructure schemes to small, domestic scale works, so no-one should feel that it is “not for them”.
While the mandated use of BIM on central-Government funded projects from April next year is clearly providing much momentum, discussions with architects, contractors, engineers, clients, manufacturers and facilities managers have reiterated that there’s a real need for this initiative across the board.
At a recent roundtable held at NBS Live, the widespread view was that, although everyone’s current processes allow projects to get built, there are many holes in these existing methods of working. It’s these holes that the digital toolkit aims to fill, providing the missing pieces of the BIM jigsaw.
This kind of discussion makes the team hugely optimistic that it will be used in the private sector as well as public, because it’s just a smarter way of working.
So what exactly is the digital tookit? Put simply, the project involves devising a standardised and digitally enabled classification system and a digital plan of works tool. This will create a unified, single, classification system for use within construction and will provide an easy to use web portal which guides users through the construction process.
The first piece, the classification system, will be a new version of Uniclass which will be based on the international ISO/DIS 12006-2 framework. This will build on the work NBS has already carried out over recent years under commission from the Construction Information Committee (CPIC). By completing this, the industry will have a unified structure which will provide mapping and guidance so objects can be configured at a project level to have the correct multiple classifications where required.
Some 5,000 templates will be developed, setting out guidance for Levels of Detail (LOD) and Levels of Information (LOI) for construction objects. Initially these will be spaces, systems and products for architecture, building services, structural engineering, landscape design and civil engineering. These will be freely available online and will also be available in both IFC and MS Excel format. These will form the “construction language” that all project teams can use to define their information exchanges for a particular stage of a project.
The second piece, the digital plan of work, will enable the project leader to clearly define the team, responsibilities, and an information delivery plan for each stage of a project, who, what and when – in terms of documents, geometry and property-sets.
Over the next few months the project team will continue conversations with representatives of all disciplines and will be asking for feedback on progress. To assist this, events, webinars and seminars will be organised by NBS in partnership with the professional bodies that sit on our steering group.
The digital toolkit is for the whole industry and to have the greatest chance of success, we want it to be developed by the industry. To get involved and to keep up with latest developments, please visit the NBS website ( www.thenbs.com/bimtoolkit ) and the NBS BIM Toolkit and Digital Plan of Work Discussion Group on LinkedIn.
Stephen Hamil
Director of Design and Innovation NBS
For inquiries
Tel: 0191 244 5500
info@theNBS.com
www.twitter.com/StephenHamilNBS
