Information is key to project success
BIM gives access to early information that enables the right decisions to be made using the benefits of the virtual design and construction process, says TAHIR SHARIF, president of BuildingSmart ME.
01 November 2011
AN INCREASING problem faced by the AEC (architecture, engineering and construction) industry is the lack or inaccuracy of information available on construction projects.
As the most important requirement for making good decisions is information, poor quality data limits the effectiveness of decision-making and significantly impacts project delivery. A good project will have information at hand – and that which will be available on time so that timely decisions can be made.
The AEC industry is often criticised for constructing prototypes in scale 1:1 every time. The industry is disadvantaged in that almost every project undertaken is a one-off. Certainly there is transfer of knowledge from one project to the next, but within the project environment there is very little opportunity for ‘product testing’.
Under the traditional design and construction process, the availability of information increases as the ability to make changes decreases – that is, as the project nears completion. Consequently, owners are forced to make premature decisions and live with the consequences or make last-minute changes and bear the cost.
Therefore, owners need improved ‘information logistics’ to obtain project information as early as possible, based on which sound decisions can be made. Building information modelling (BIM) affords such a mechanism through the ability to construct digitally on a PC before going to site. With virtual design and construction (VDC), one can test options and uncover problems and flaws that most probably would not have been discovered before the actual construction takes place on site. In this way, VDC enables a 'digital construction site'. multiBIM senior adviser and former co-CEO of buildingSmart International Lars Chr Christensen says: 'BIM is about organising information in projects in a new and improved way. Yes, we can almost talk about establishing good information logistics in the project.'
According to Christensen, information logistics ensures that the right information is delivered in the correct format, on time and to the right people to enable good decision-making.
'If we are successful with the information logistics, we almost automatically get a more efficient project execution, where we put decisions behind us and move on,' he says. 'The important thing for the owner is to make sound decisions as early as possible utilising the decision support and improved information logistics that BIM can enable.'
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The Sorbonne University project in the UAE. |
Digital building models can show you a visual digital prototype of your building at a very early stage. Combined with a database of information regarding the building itself and the components used to build it, one can, for example, calculate the construction, operation and lifecycle costs, energy usage and carbon footprint. BIM can also contribute towards improved problem/task understanding (division of trade packages, deliverables, roles, responsibilities and processes), and increased cross-disciplinary respect, product understanding and enthusiasm in the project team.
In traditional projects, without BIM, energy simulation is typically done six to nine months into the project. Even if these calculations can highlight that some technical choices and solutions are not optimal or adequately energy efficient, often the project development has come so far that there is time left only for minor adjustments to the solutions.
With BIM, one can perform such analyses at an early design stage and also have a running control through the project stages with energy usage. This way, one can get early feedback on the quality of a solution and spend time optimising the energy of the building.
BIM uses digital building models in project development – in reality, it is a 3D model connected to a database of information about the building and the components constituting it.
Some people have also defined BIM as 'beyond information modelling' to focus on the fact that BIM is all about conscious and controlled information management.
Data management tool
BIM has the potential to radically improve project quality by establishing good ‘information logistics’. In a Norwegian government white paper on innovation (Stortingsmelding 7 – 2008/2009), the Norwegian Industry Ministry argued that the whole construction process can become a much more integrated process between all the different parties if they manage to share all their key information by utilising the open BIM buildingSmart standards.
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openBIM enables a much smoother information flow in projects and makes more analyses possible – especially environmental and lifecycle cost analysis – earlier in the life cycle of a project. openBIM also contributes towards reducing miscommunication and conflicts in construction projects, and paves the way for earlier discovery of design errors – thereby avoiding costly construction mistakes. The benefit accrued is more time for design at an earlier stage of the project, and the result is cheaper, more sustainable and better buildings.
So far, large institutional and government-owned organisations have been in the lead in utilising BIM and openBIM in their projects. The General Services Administration (GSA), that manages $500 billion in US Federal property, and Statsbygg, the Norwegian analogues organisation, have been instrumental in challenging the industry and increasing the use of BIM and openBIM.
Christensen has gained experience with BIM deployment in Norwegian and other international projects, and predicts that '… in the coming 12 to 18 months, we will see a radical increase in BIM and openBIM usage. If the Financial Crisis version 2.0 should develop, cost control and efficiency improvement will become even more important, and would motivate increased BIM usage'.
‘Closed-discipline-BIM’ is when BIM is used as a modelling tool to contribute to solving a defined design task within one discipline or one area. ‘Open-Team-BIM’ is used for open and standardised exchange of information across disciplines and between team members in a project in order to secure information quality and save time by re-using information.
buildingSmart (both as an organisation and as a process) is concerned with how processes are organised and how closed-discipline-BIM and open-team-BIM is utilised in order to achieve better, cheaper and faster project execution. This supports delivering more sustainable projects that create value both for the owner and the users.
BIM combined with buildingSmart provides a platform for improved communication and decision support. The result is better and more cost-efficient buildings, less errors and more value for money.
Case study
BIM was used by the main contractor in the construction of a major university project in Abu Dhabi, UAE, where it contributed to major cost savings while avoiding time-consuming rework. Work on establishing the Paris-Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi began following an agreement between the University Paris-Sorbonne and the government of Abu Dhabi in 2006 to bring French-speaking higher education to the capital city of the UAE. Joint venture main contractor Al Habtoor Murray and Roberts (HMR) deployed BIM on site to remediate critical coordination issues. The second, and final, phase of the project was completed in August 2010 – ahead of schedule.
HMR has been working with BIM since 2008, and the Sorbonne project greatly benefited from this expertise. Says Ron Brinkman, technical manager at HMR: 'In the Sorbonne project, we implemented BIM to coordinate with the subcontractors between the construction of the main structure and the process of steel and façade (GRC) fabrication and installation. In addition, we used BIM technology to validate the as-built status of the structure.'
When the first structural elements were delivered to the site of the new university campus, it was noticed that the precast concrete elements did not line up with the steel components. BIM software was taken into use by HMR to enable as-built validation of the structures.
Using laser-scanning surveying devices to get the as-built coordinates, digital as-built information was superimposed on the structural model. This was then validated against the theoretical exact locations of the components as per the design.
Coordination between the main contractor, and the steel and façade subcontractors was a challenge that was overcome with the help of BIM. Changes to the as-built models from the design were communicated to the subcontractors to accommodate them into the steel and GRC fabrication process. By doing this, the team avoided further conflicts and potential delays on site and speeded up the installation process.
'Productivity, efficiency and accuracy dramatically increased since BIM was introduced in a later stage of the project,' says Brinkman. 'The amount of rework in the design, fabrication and erection of steel frames and façade elements was massively decreased due to the as-built design validation of the main structural elements: columns, beams and so on; which had already been constructed.
'By implementing BIM, I would say we have saved almost 50 per cent of the time… Had we not used building information modelling, each steel frame would have been installed, its variance to concrete measured, and then it would have been sent back to the fabrication yard to be modified before returning on site to be finally reinstalled.'
HMR is considered a pioneer in the Middle East in applying the BIM approach to tenders, pre-construction, construction, and as-built validation.
The joint venture currently uses dedicated, knowledgeable, and well-trained BIM teams to function as the design-construction ‘hub’ in a project. Since adopting building information modelling, the company has used it in a number of important projects, such as the St Regis Resort as well as in multiple tenders.
BIM is being applied to a magnitude of work phases at HMR, including quantity surveying and 5D estimating, 4D schedule simulation, model design coordination, reinforced concrete drawing production, equipment and construction planning, linking to surveying equipment, logistics and supply chain management, progress monitoring and reporting, as well as to as-built validation of structural elements.
Link to Sorbonne Field Coordination process at a glance
