Amec Foster Wheeler Environment & Infrastructure Europe progressed the adoption of BIM through 2014 as part of a standard approach to project delivery and data management within the architectural, buildings and civil construction sectors. With the mandating of BIM Level 2 on all government projects by 2016, we have seen a substantial increase in public sector infrastructure projects requiring evidence of BIM capability within the PQQ stages of project bidding. Although the focus is on public sector projects, it is widely recognised that BIM will become the default way of working, a shift equivalent from drawing board to computer aided design, and an expectation for all consultancies to have BIM capability.
Amec Foster Wheeler E&I Europe BIM Strategy
Our short term strategy set out to meet both the requirements of the BIM Level 2 mandate in line with PAS 1192-2 and 3, and the cultural changes required to ensure BIM is fully engaged and adopted sustainably within our business. The objectives of our BIM strategy identified the following critical success factors: – – – Understanding the BIM requirements of sectors and clients
– Change management within project teams
– Project delivery processes
– Technology requirements
– Staff knowledge and training
– On-going research and development
To begin the process, we formed a BIM Implementation Team which included external BIM consultants and global software partners to propose a roadmap outlining our transition into BIM describing short, medium, and long term goals. As part of our strategy, the BIM Implementation Team identified trial projects within the waste infrastructure and defence sectors to test our delivery process and software solution. These trial projects are allowing us to review our documentation and evaluate our common data environment (CDE) data management and software solutions, as well as critically appraise cultural and project delivery processes.
Learning from other sectors – Integrated Engineering & Design (IE&D)
It is accepted that alongside the government mandate, a fundamental business driver for adopting BIM is adding value to a client’s project by producing higher quality deliverables and reducing inefficient working. During the BIM implementation period, our Global Applied Technology team have aligned our BIM strategy and project processes with the business’s wider culture, creating efficiencies through learning from experience within other sectors.
For many years in the oil and gas sectors, Amec Foster Wheeler has seen technology as a key enabler for Integrated Engineering & Design and data driven-engineering, which effectively translates to BIM Level 3 in the built environment. Data centric engineering focuses on electronic workflows and controlled automated data, which means that document production becomes a by-product of the database.
As well as the technical similarities between data-driven design and BIM, the oil and gas sector has addressed the ’people’ aspect of adopting new processes, through regular communications ensuring those involved understand the systems, workflows, and roles within the project process.
Amec Foster Wheeler E&I Europe BIM Future
Our commitment is to ensure our BIM capability will encompass the full asset lifecycle from concept through to decommissioning and demolition. All engineering, design, and analysis activities will be object oriented and closely integrated, while the assurance and handover of information and documents to downstream activities controlled using the latest database technology. Procurement, construction, cost and schedule management through to operations and maintenance activities will be integrated around the same coherent data model ensuring accuracy and consistency during all projects.
Building upon our current experience and proposed BIM processes, the adoption of information centric technologies, common standards and collaborative behaviours will continue to unlock new and more efficient ways of delivering as we head towards 2016 and beyond.
Amec Foster Wheeler
Leamington Spa
Gables House
Kenilworth Road
Leamington Spa CV32 6JX
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)1926 439000
www.amecfw.com
