2016 is fast approaching and the year of mandated BIM is soon to begin, however the world of BIM is still in flux, the market certainly is not in sync and the messaging surrounding the purpose of BIM seems lost, even at this late stage.
Granted, with what seems like graceful execution, the classification system has been published, which is a major hurdle removed for the collaboration element of BIM, but the main message of reduced waste is still not reaching into the daily practice in the real world market.
The government target of reducing wastage by 20% by streamlining processes, flows and activities, whilst also embedding a culture of accuracy within everything we do as an industry, amounts to nothing more than a massive cultural change. If the industry was a company we would have created champions and ambassadors to help spread the message and remove the blockages we faced to ensure the goal was achieved, but this is not a company, it’s an industry, and a very slow to change one at that. It’s made up of many different stakeholders, all wanting to do the very best they can whilst managing costs, training and service levels.
Richard commented:
“I have recently met with an architect who disclosed, proudly, that they used BIM, but that they used CAD for the robust details. Surely the conflict in this statement is evident enough, but when pressed; the architect confessed that it was what his people were most comfortable and familiar with. Surely this allowance goes against the very nature of saving time, minimising wastage of duplicating work. I am sure this is not an
“The other area for concern surrounds the roles of BIM. Many practices direct individuals to their BIM manager, and extoll the virtues that they manage BIM for the firm, but the roles of BIM, as outlined in PAS:1192, are not for one person to manage. That’s like asking a criminal to police himself, many of us get very close to our work and struggle to see the imperfections in what we have created, or consider the perspective from a different angle, it’s for this reason that you cannot check and submit your own work. Attention to detail and the hunt for accuracy is not a simple matter of running a sense check over the design, the devil as always is in the detail.”
The management of the information helped within the CDE (Common Data Environment) is becoming the point of greatest evolution, with models and technology being driven at different rates we are seeing evolution of what is expected, from one single federated model to the acceptance that file sizes and technology for sharing is not yet capable of managing such a mammoth task, and the market is moving towards multiple federated models broken into relevant and pre-defined sections. But this process in itself creates greater complications for the EIR. The need to define exactly how to break the project down into stages for all parties to follow and agree is another level where without collaboration further mistakes can occur.
The process of BIM not only helps to eliminate mistakes, but if not used correctly brings greater risks where the myth of savings and reduced wastage are easily ignored in favour of older methods and duplication.
The industry as a whole has a long way to move, and a very short time to do it in.
For more information on this story, please contact Laura Coyne or Andrew Peacock at Manifest Communications on 0113 2429 174 or email: laura@manifestcomms.co.uk or andrew@manifestcomms.co.uk .
Richard Bishop
Category Marketing Manager for Roof at Wienerberger
Wienerberger Ltd
Tel: 01427 871200
Richard.Bishop@wienerberger.com
