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2 3 CONTENTS LEADER
13
07 04
In an ever more
connected world,
how do we learn
from and relate to
one another and
what will it mean
for the future of
our construction
industry?
Te certainty is
that our sector needs a new model for col-
laboration, moving ultimately towards inte-
gration, which will produce better outcomes
at all stages of a buildings lifecycle. As a way
of working, Building Information Modelling
(BIM) will undoubtedly help us to write a
new chapter in our construction heritage and
create a healthier dialogue between all players
in the process. Tats why the UK government
has led the way in mandating the use of level
2 BIM on all centrally procured projects by
2016, irrespective of project value.
Tere is evidence that the UK has come a
long way over the last year in adopting BIM,
and that a digitally enabled process is already
creating new eciencies. Te governments
target has helped to start a remarkable push
throughout the supply chain. Indeed, it has
been suggested by several industry com-
mentators that the UK is now second only to
Finland in the EMEA region for BIM policy
and levels of adoption. Tats fantastic news,
but we must keep up the pace.
BIM has the power to improve not only the
construction process but the performance
and management of our buildings over
their lives. To bridge the chasm between
delivery and operation, the Government Soft
Landings (GSL) project is developing guid-
ance in the form of BIM process maps, to be
integrated into the BIM programme by 2016.
Tis will improve the performance of our
built assets and better meet the requirements
of those who use them. Te GSL process will
ensure that our buildings are designed to
respond to the needs of occupiers and to meet
government targets in energy eciency, water
usage and waste production. GSL will also
include post-occupancy evaluation require-
ments, allowing us to feed in-use information
back into our models to help with future
decision-making.
Tis industry change programme will
ensure that the UK is in the advance guard of
international BIMknow-how, so that it can
become an exportable commodity and also
attract investment into a redened construc-
tion sector. To further support this, Francis
Maude, minister for the Cabinet Oce,
announced last November that the govern-
ment will share more information on future
projects and contracts transparently with
industry. Tis should stimulate growth, en-
able businesses to carry out forward planning
and provide them with the condence and
the time to invest in relevant skills, labour
and capabilities.
Many organisations in the supply chain are
still in the discovery phases of BIM, so it is
essential that they have access to consistent
and comprehensive information to help them
to understand level 2 BIM requirements. An
ideal starting point is the BIM Task Group
website, www.bimtaskgroup.org, or
the Construction Industry Councils BIM
Regional Hubs.
Times are changing and so are we. As a
client, we want to be smarter at procuring,
and we are keen to use asset information to
make early collaborative decisions. Digital
technologies are the future, and this is only
the beginning.
Professor David Philp
Head of BIMimplementation
Cabinet Oce
Editor Katie Puckett
Sub editor Nick Jones
Art director Nick Watts
Designer Steve Savage
Illustrations Paul Price
Project manager
Emma Humphrys
Business development manager
Oliver Hughes
This guide was produced
by UBM Client Solutions in
association with Autodesk.
December 2012.
CONTENTS
04 Interview: The BIM sceptic who
became its biggest believer
07 Model behaviour: Common BIM
mistakes, and how not to make them
08 Road to 2016: Five experts navigate
you through the three years ahead
13 Whose BIM is it anyway? The
importance of a well-drafted protocol
14 From buzz to business: Highlights
from the Autodesk BIM conference
08 14
+44 (0) 2075604291 | www.clientsolutions.co.uk
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4 5 CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS INTERVIEW
ane Foulkes is not
your typical BIM early
adopter. Indeed, she
admits that before she
was thrust into the
role of project manag-
ing the rst govern-
ment scheme to be
entirely delivered using BIM, she
knew very little about it. I had
no experience of BIM whatsoever
I hadnt used it on any previous
projects, she says.
Just 12 months later, she prob-
ably knows more about BIM
than 99% of her peers, and her
initial scepticism has given way
to a strong belief in its potential
to improve quality and e-
ciency across the industry. Tis
is perhaps what makes Foulkes
such a good ambassador for BIM,
especially in a sector that is not
exactly renowned for embrac-
ing new technologies. She will
now be working for the UK BIM
Task Group and the Construc-
tion Industry Council as a BIM
implementation support ocer,
one of ve who will be helping
Whitehall departments to imple-
ment the technology by 2016.
An associate director at Faith-
ful + Gould, Foulkes originally
qualied as an architect and
worked for healthcare clients
and get it out to tender. Te
project had been on hold for six
months, and when it went live
again in January 2012, the origi-
nal March deadline still stood.
No time to waste
Foulkes initial reaction to this
was one of total disbelief the
timescale would be tight enough
without having to implement
a new process. But there was
no time to spare, so she just got
on with it. I was not going to
let my project be overtaken by
BIM. I had timescales to deliver
to and an end-of-year spend to
meet, and these were the project
drivers. After a time, however,
I realised BIM should actually
make the outcomes I had to
deliver more straightforward, and
more reliable for my clients.
It helped that Foulkes was
working with an experienced
project team who knew each
It became both a
practical and an
intellectual exercise,
with everyone
pitching in
and the Oxford and Cambridge
colleges, before a midlife dis-
satisfaction led her to enrol for
a masters degree in construction
and project management. For the
last ve years, she has headed a
teamresponsible for delivering
more than 30 new-build and
refurbishment projects for the
Ministry of Justice (MoJ).
It was this department that was
chosen as a trailblazer, the rst to
use fully collaborative level 2 BIM
on a pilot early adopter project
at Cookham Wood, a young
oenders institution in Kent,
where a 180-cell extension is
now on site. Te MoJ already uses
lean programming to minimise
waste, but it was hoped that BIM
would help to achieve a further
20% saving on all future projects.
Te BIM process would also
contribute to building a library
of standard COBie (Construction
Operations Building Information
Exchange) data a way of captur-
ing all the information about a
project. Tis could be used to in-
form future MoJ project designs,
and for facilities management
throughout the buildings life.
But it was a steep learning
curve made even steeper by the
fact that there were just three
months to complete the design
J
Faithful + Gould project manager Jane Foulkes was
a BIM sceptic until she was faced with a complex
prison design project and a three-month deadline ...
other well, and were spurred
on by the scale of the challenge.
We spent a lot of time asking
questions, surmising things and
generally pushing in the same
direction, she says. It became
both a practical and an intel-
lectual exercise with everyone
pitching in to make it work.
Te rst step was to develop the
Client Requirements Document
also known as the Employers
Information Requirements
which basically integrates how
the project team should use BIM
into the existing clients brief. As
this was the rst project in the
UK to be tendered in this way,
these documents will provide
a foundation for later projects.
We had to dene the level of
detail, and exactly what the
model had to contain at every
stage, explains Foulkes. Every
project stage in 2D has a set of
deliverables, which become more
and more dened, rened and
complete. With BIM, all of that
needs to be dened all the way
through the project. You also
need to understand what the
client requires to enable nancial
sign-o at each stage.
Te next step was to adapt the
MoJs procurement process and
tender documents to ensure the
COUNTDOWN TO BIM COUNTDOWN TO BIM
c / CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS |N'||V||W
latest models to the projects
secure extranet, as well as a set
of 2D cuts in PDF form that could
be viewed by Foulkes and the
client. Tis not only led to much
better communication among the
team, but contributed to meeting
the deadline two weeks early. I
think it drove the programme a
bit harder, because it required
everyone to work more closely
together, and we had to resolve
issues earlier.
Real exhilaration
For the client, the 3D models
brought the project to life far
more vividly than 2D drawings
could have done. Tere was
a moment of real exhilaration
when we showed a y-through
to the prison governor and her
sta, Foulkes recalls. It made it
very transparent for them they
could see exactly what they were
getting and could immediately
spot potential issues.
For example, the prison sta
had requested glazed screens
instead of gates, but when they
saw the model, they realised this
would prevent audible contact
between two areas of the house-
block, so they reverted to gates.
In the 2D drawings, the screens
would be shown as parallel
lines, but you wouldnt see what
they were made of. In the BIM,
they appeared as a solid piece of
glass so they could immediately
identify the problem. Terry
Stocks, head of project delivery at
the MoJ, has stated that the early
capture of changes has already
saved 800,000 on the project.
Foulkes new role will involve
spending two days a week at
the Education Funding Agency
helping project teams to reap
the same benets on their own
early-adopter projects. While
there will be technological barri-
ers, she believes the supply chain
will resolve those. Her bigger task
will be managing the change.
When people are not aware of
the benets, they are reluctant
to do things outside and beyond
what they normally do. We need
to communicate the benets well
enough and create enthusiasm.
Its about identifying who really
wants to do it and enabling them,
and encouraging and cajoling the
people sitting around the sides.
As a former sidelines-sitter her-
self, she should be well equipped
to convince them. If a sceptic
like me can convert, she points
out, the future is bright.
and in any case, there wouldnt
have been time to train Foulkes
to use it all. In fact, for a level
2 project in which all project
data is shared electronically but
each discipline creates separate
models, which are checked for
clashes this wasnt necessary. I
just needed to be able to monitor
the progress of the model and see
the design as it developed.
It was decided that every Friday
the design team would carry out
clash detection and upload their
resulting model would be t for
purpose, and to assess the BIM
capability of tenderers. Contract
amendments were considered, to
change the scope of consultancy
services and reect possible
changes in intellectual property,
but in the end very few were
required.
Te designers had already used
BIM on a previous project, but
Faithful + Gould had neither the
software nor computers powerful
enough to deal with the models
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ompanies some-
times call me up
and say, Our
clients are asking
us to do BIM and
were doing it,
but were not very
happy with how
its going can you help? Usu-
ally when you get a call like that,
its because theyre approaching
BIM as an instrument instead of
a practice. If you think of BIMas
just another tool, like a photo-
copier or a coee machine, you
will not be successful. BIM is a
radical change in working meth-
odologies; it means changing
the kind of information that is
produced during the design and
construction process. If it wasnt
a strategic change, it wouldnt
be part of the governments con-
struction strategy the strategy
doesnt have a section called
Hammers since its focused on
changing outcomes, not stipulat-
ing tools.
Of course, the technology itself
is a tool, but its implications are
standards will knowthat the
most important thing is creating
the data the I rather than the
B or M. You need to create
the model and extract the views
that you need from that, so your
work plan needs to be organised
in a dierent way. If youre set
up just to create drawings, you
wont complete the model to the
required level.
The perfect plan
In terms of sharing the data,
the days of putting DWGles
on a server and sending out an
email are ending. At the start of
the project, you need to set out
an execution plan that species
which information fromwho goes
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much broader than that. Unless
you decide for yourself and your
business what those implications
are, you cant take full advantage
of it. Tis operates at various
levels within a business there
are implications for the business
strategy, for how the practice is
run, for how individual projects
are run, and for individual users.
I see rms consistently making
several mistakes. One is not in-
vesting in training if you dont
train, you fail. You also need to
train people and assign them
quickly to a project its no good
training them and not putting
them on a BIM project for a year.
If at first ...
Another mistake is to expect the
rst BIM project to be wildly suc-
cessful. Sometimes they are, but
its better to recognise that youre
undertaking a pilot project and
that there are going to be trials
and tribulations along the way.
People need to stay the course
the second project is always more
successful and you can learn a lot
from that trial.
A common misconception is
to try to use new tools in a way
that repeats the old process for
example, thinking of BIM as a
drafting tool and using it as if
the most important thing is to
produce drawings, exclusively.
Tat will just lead to frustration.
Anyone who follows the BIM
C
where, and the right moment
for it to be exchanged. Tere are
some standard protocols, but most
teams adapt themto the way they
want to work.
Firms should also bear in mind
that software vendors should do
more than just dispense software
theyre supposed to be your
partner, so they should provide
help and support and, if youre
interested, training. You should
assess partners carefully before
you choose one. For example, we
certify our resellers and if theyre
not qualied to provide BIM
solutions, we dont let them oer
those. You want someone who
will be on the other end of the
phone when you need them.
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CAD Processes
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Process definitions:
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User guides:
CPIC, Avanti, BSI
A
rchitectural (A
IM
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Structural (SIM
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Facilities (FIM
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B
uilding services
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IFD (common dictionary)
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ISO BIM (standardisation)
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Level 0 Level 1 Level 2 Level 3
Models, objects, collaboration Integrated, interoperable data
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COUNTDOWN TO BIM COUNTDOWN TO BIM
B 3 CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS |C-D 'C zC|c
he race is on.
By 2016, all
centrally procured
government
construction
projects, no matter
their size, must
be delivered using
Building Information Modelling,
or BIM. Tis will extend right
through the supply chain, from
the largest contractor to the
smallest supplier, and it is hoped,
will lead to the industry-wide
adoption of BIMas the benets
become more widely understood.
Across the industry, organisations
must get up to speed over the next
three years or risk missing out
on valuable opportunities.
Te governments target is
ambitious, but it does recognise
that there are several stages
along the way. Te strategy paper
produced by the Government
Construction Client Group,
reporting to the Department for
Business, Innovation and Skills,
uses the Bew-Richards maturity
model, which denes three levels
of BIM, based not only on the
level of technology used to design
a building, but on the level of
collaboration within the process.
Level 0 describes a paper-based
process with CADdrawings; level
3 is a fully open and integrated
process with models shared
between the project teamon
a web-enabled BIMhub. Tat
is still some way away, with a
number of technological hurdles
to be overcome rst. For 2016,
the target is level 2, in which
separate disciplines create their
own models, but all project data is
shared electronically in a common
environment.
Many rms have already begun
implementing BIM, and some
Abuilding information model
contains not only the design of
a building but data concerning
the properties of its components,
its construction and ongoing
maintenance. Te database and
the way information is shared is
as important as the model itself
which means that BIMdoesnt
just mean a major technological
change, but an overhaul of
the whole design process. Te
transition fromCADto BIM
will be much more signicant
than when computers replaced
paper drawings, around 20 years
ago. Tat merely automated the
process, leaving it intact, while
BIMis intended to transformhow
project teams work.
'
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1
Dave Glennon, project technology
manager, and
2
Mark Enzer,
engineering director and BIM
champion for Europe and Africa,
Mott MacDonald
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Mark Stodgell, IT director,
Pozzoni Architects
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4
Lee Zebedee, formerly UK BIM
manager, Ramboll
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Stephen Griffin, director,
Allies and Morrison
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COUNTDOWN TO BIM COUNTDOWN TO BIM
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has been crucial. Because the
message is coming fromthe top,
everyone listens people think,
My career might depend on it,
so Id better get on board. If the
lead was coming fromsomeone
lower down the organisation, it
wouldnt be so successful.
At Allies and Morrison, the
partners who make the decisions
are supported by a teamof
advisers who fully understand
the technologies and can
summarise themin a relevant
way. Decision makers dont need
that level of understanding of the
technologies but they do need to
have a thorough understanding
of the processes that are being
proposed, says Grin.
MAKE A PLAN
Once you have the
leadership, you need
a strategy to actually
make their vision a
reality. When Mott
MacDonald began developing
a strategy two years ago, a
subcommittee of BIMenthusiasts
was assembled fromits oces
around the world. We decided to
hold a global BIMsummit, says
Enzer. We brought people from
around the world together, locked
themin a roomfor the best part
of a week, and ran through all of
the technology and cultural issues
we needed to address. For each
one, we asked, Is it important, is
it a priority, and if so, what do we
have to do about it?
Over the course of the week,
and many ipcharts, a consensus
gradually emerged. Ten a smaller
group convened to make sense
of the workshop output and
distil it into a concise strategy. At
its biggest, the group numbered
about 20, but Enzer says it was
most productive when there were
about 12.
One of the most important
decisions, he believes, was
to appoint BIMchampions
throughout the business, ranging
froma senior director with global
responsibility for leading BIM
implementation across the group,
through champions for each
region Enzer is BIMchampion
for Europe and Africa and
then each business unit, and
local champions, implementing
the strategy on the ground. Its
a classic change-management
technique, he says. When a
lot of cultural change is involved,
a huge amount depends on
communication.

LEARN ON
YOUR OWN TIME
If you dont tool up
until your rst live
project, youre not
going to be popular
with the rest of the team. Stodgell
suspects that some rms hire
BIMconsultants to write very
and Tekla BIMsight.
Mark Stodgell, IT director at
architect Pozzoni, notes that
there is also a wealth of useful,
independent information on
the UKBIMTask Group website
(www.bimtaskgroup.org/bim-
faqs), and a thriving social media
community, which uses the
#ukbimcrewhashtag on Twitter.
Its 40 or 50 people in the UK
who are engaged in what the
government is trying to do and
who are quite happy to share
information, he says.
WORK OUT
WHERE YOU'RE
STARTING FROM
A very important,
but often overlooked,
question is how
exactly a rmis working in the
rst place. BIMis about taking
the tools and workows that
people are using and changing
to a more transparent and
collaborative way of working,
says Grin. You need to
ascertain as much information
about the technology and the
process that you want to go
towards, but rst you need to
understand the current situation
in your oce or practice.
Over the last ve years, he points
out, every function of the practice
has become increasingly reliant
on technology. Its not just the
programmes that the architects are
using, but software for document
control, HRand accounts, for
example.
DON'T LEAVE
IT TO THE IT
MANAGER
Everyone agrees that
a chance as radical
as BIMwill only
take hold with an organisation
if it is led fromthe very top. At
Mott MacDonald, the board set
a vision for implementing BIM
something that engineering
director Mark Enzer believes
have been working on it for
several years. We spoke to two
architecture practices and two
engineering rms that are well
ahead of the game to nd out what
theyve learned.
GET OVER THE
SOFTWARE
When companies see
the cost of the software
as a barrier to BIM,
its a surere sign that
they dont really understand
what theyre taking on, says
Stephen Grin, director at Allies
and Morrison. Your biggest
investment is not going to be the
BIMtechnologies themselves, he
says, but the change management
you will have to put into eect
throughout your organisation.
BIMis about a process and thats
where the real cost will be. Teres
really only one way of beneting
fromthe process and thats to
have a fully integrated internal
and external team.
Removing all possible technical
barriers can encourage people
to focus on the process instead,
says Dave Glennon, project
technology manager at Mott
MacDonald. His teamdeveloped
standard policies, procedures
and processes, upgraded the
behind-the-scenes infrastructure,
and negotiated enterprise-wide
licence agreements for key
design products: Tat makes
the technology very available
to people, but at a sensible cost
because we can take advantage of
economies of scale. If you resolve
the basics, you make it easy for
people to make the transition.
Tere are other ways to take the
sting out of the cost. Anumber
of free products enable users to
viewand mark up models,
which can be useful for members
of the project teamwho are not
actually designing, or to get an
initial feel for the software.
Tese include Autodesk Design
Review, Solibri Model Checker
MAKE IT EASY
TO DO THE RIGHT
THING
Perhaps the biggest
leap is froma few
BIMpilot projects
to making the processes
and technologies just part of
business as usual. Company-
wide standards are essential,
says Zebedee, especially for
the larger rms. If you dont
have standards, people will be
modelling in dierent ways, so it
will be very hard to pass models
fromoce to oce and teamto
team. For companies that are
newto BIM, he recommends
adopting an existing o-the-shelf
protocol, such as the AEC (UK)
BIMProtocols (aecuk.wordpress.
com) or the protocols soon to
be released by the UKBIMTask
Group (www.bimtaskgroup.org).
At Mott MacDonald, Glennon
workedalongside the quality
management teamtomapexisting
processes tothe newways of
working, andtomodifythe
companys integratedmanagement
system(IMS) the set of processes
andprocedures usedacross
the organisation. Tis enables
securityconcerns tobe addressed
company-wide before theybecome
aconcern, andit means the IMS
canassist implementationthrough
communications andtraining.
Te keyfor us was embedding
BIMintothe integratedmanagement
system, Glennonsays. Soif you
use the tools we provide andyoudo
it inthe waywe set it up, youwill be
fulllingthe integratedmanagement
system. Most people want todo
things inthe right way, youjust
have tomake it the easyway. For
example, one newelement inthe
IMSare BIMexecutionplans. Its
akeypiece of workat the start of a
project, whenyousit downwiththe
project teamandset out howyoure
goingtowork, andthats the point
of the IMS.
do companies pick their simplest
project as a pilot, then they dont
learn anything and it doesnt push
the software to nd out if its right
for them.
Zebedees other tip is not
to automatically choose your
smartest people to lead the pilot.
If theyre not keen to adopt
new technology, it wont move
forward. Enthusiasm is possibly
the most important thing in
sta who are adopting BIM. You
cant go too far wrong by picking
enthusiasm.
If you are trying out a new
approach, do warn your client
upfront. Stodgell notes that with
BIM, drawings tend to emerge
in one go at a later stage in the
process, in contrast to the steady
stream of CAD images clients
might be expecting. Youve got
to educate the client about what
youre doing, or they could think,
Where are the drawings? Tese
guys are really slow ...
convincing statements to win
tenders which are not borne
out once the work starts. People
are getting BIMconsultants to
ll out their prequalication
questionnaires, but are only
tooling up for BIMonce they get
the job. Ten we nd that our
partners are taking their rst step
on the BIMjourney on our time.
Much better to crack on with
a pilot project. Select one with
a reasonable timescale, or a
friendly client who wants to
explore BIM, Stodgell advises,
or youll be struggling on your
rst live project.
Lee Zebedee, formerly UK
BIMmanager at Ramboll, now
customer success manager at
Autodesk Consulting, says its
important to choose a project that
is representative of the work you
do. If youre an architect and you
normally design football stadiums,
dont choose a public toilet as
your pilot project. Its very easy to
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les that are many times larger
than anything theyve had to deal
with in the past.
Everyone thinks about whether
their computer is fast enough, but
they tend to forget about server
capacity and the speed of your
internet connection, says Stodgell.
Files arent 1 or 2MB, theyre 20,
30, 40, 50 or even 200MB and you
can easily run out of disk space.
Swapping les and coordinating
progress is much more
straightforward with a dedicated
project collaboration tool.
Basecamp is cheap and simple;
more sophisticated alternatives
include Asite and 4Projects.
Glennon reckons associated
project tools are just as important
as the BIMplatformitself. Its
about making it easier for
people to work in a more
collaborative way so you
need associated technologies such
as good networks, VoIP [voiceover
internet protocol] and screen-
sharing.
STOP BUYING
LOW-SPEC
COMPUTERS
It may sound
counter-
intuitive, but by
only buying top-spec, relatively
expensive computers, you could
actually save money. Tis is the
approach Ramboll has taken.
We avoid ever buying low-spec
PCs, says Zebedee. Whenever
we have a new starter, we buy
the highest-spec model thats
available within our budget
at the time and lter all the
machines down. Sometimes
a machine will be swapped
out three or four times. So the
super-user gets a new machine,
and their computer goes to an
engineer who needs reasonable
power, and their machine
goes to a graduate or someone
requiring less power, and the
new starter or admin person
gets their old machine.
Its a bit of a headache for IT,
but it saves an absolute fortune
because you can eectively
upgrade four people for the price
of one machine. And it means the
super-users are always using the
best computer possible.
straightaway, and then no one
uses it for six months, by which
time theyve forgotten all their
training, says Zebedee.
Ramboll nowtrains on a just-in-
time basis: We identify a project,
make sure the teamis enthusiastic,
and then train themso that they
can support each other and jump
straight on to the project.
On key software products,
Ramboll has also recruited in-
house trainers to save money on
external providers. We go by the
80:20 rule. For the core software
we use on 80%of projects, we have
our own internal trainers, and
then we buy in external training
for the software required on the
remaining 20%.
Its also important to have
resources that people can access
in a live situation, says Grin.
Te last thing you want is for an
architect to come to something
they werent taught or that theyve
forgotten and for themto be
unable to issue a set of drawings.
Allies and Morrison can take
advantage of an external support
teamwho are available after UK
business hours, via screen-sharing
using GoToMeeting. Previous
support calls are also categorised
and logged so that they can be
accessed later by others who may
have the same issues.
DON'T USE EMAIL
AS A PROJECT
TOOL
Its not just that
email too often
becomes a substitute for genuine
communication it simply isnt
up to the job. With BIM, company
IT systems will have to cope with
DON'T TREAT
EVERYONE THE
SAME
BIMmay be an
organisation-wide
change, but not everyone needs
to be able to build a Revit model
fromscratch. We mapped out
the people in the organisation
to try and understand their
dierent needs, says Glennon.
Practitioners using design tools
will have dierent requirements
fromsomeone in business
development, who needs to
understand the concept and how
to add value for the client but not
howthe tools work.
Grin identies three types
of person, based on a matrix of
ability and willingness. Tere are
the luddites, not willing or able to
get to grips with the technology;
the critical mass, who are generally
willing but dont have the skills;
and the early adopters, mad keen
and probably already using it.
You need to educate the critical
mass, support the early adopters
and isolate the luddites. Other
people say you should bring
themalong for the ride, I say
isolate themand let themsee
for themselves if their old design
processes are as ecient.
DON'T TRAIN
UNTIL THE LAST
MINUTE
Early adopters of BIM
have learned the hard
way that training
people to use the software before
they need it can be a waste of
money. Experience tells us that
the wrong way to do it is to buy a
newproduct and train everyone
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W
ith the
government
requiring all of
its projects to
use BIMin the
formof a level
2 fully collaborative 3Dcomputer
model by 2016, one key question
is whether or not this will lead to
signicant changes at a contractual
level.
Certainly at level 2, which does
not yet require a wholly integrated
model that can be accessed
remotely by the entire project
team, BIMshould not alter the
design responsibilities. If you think
of each model as a drawing in
the more traditional sense, then
provided your contract clearly
denes your role in the usual way,
there should not be any signicant
change. Indeed, do not forget that
your usual responsibilities will
remain.
To what extent do the standard
formappointments need to be
altered? Te viewof the NEC
is that all you need do is insert
a BIMprotocol into the works
information. Te JCT Public
Sector Supplement takes a
similar approach, suggesting the
incorporation of a BIMprotocol
as a contract document. Tat all
sounds straightforward provided
you knowwhat the BIMprotocol
actually is.
Atypical protocol should
establish the contractual
framework for the use of BIM
and clarify the obligations of
project teammembers. Who is
to produce the models and by
when? Howwill the electronic
data be exchanged? Who can use
the model? Who can amend data
once it is incorporated? Following
the US approach, the design and
construction phases may well be
divided into levels of development
(LODs), which set out these
obligations in a table.
In terms of intellectual property
issues, it should be possible to
expressly limit a partys liability to
the extent of their contribution to
the model, something that can be
cross-referred to in the LODtable.
Licences to use the model can be
granted by the employer, albeit
that they should be limited to the
particular project.
There is also a new role - the
BIM information manager,
who will be responsible for
the administration of the
BIM processes, including
access and data security.
The information manager is
responsible for compliance with
agreed procedures, not design
coordination something
that may need to be spelt out,
perhaps in the protocol, to
avoid potential conflict. At level
2, it is during the coordination
process that the BIM models
are linked into one federated
model. A well-drafted protocol
will ensure that the liabilities
of each designer remain the
same, before and after the
incorporation of their design.
Te BIMmanager may also
be responsible for establishing
the BIMexecution (or
implementation) plan. Tis
plan, which may be a part of the
protocol, will set out the nuts
and bolts of the BIMscheme. It
may also set out the process of
information approval and details
of standard dimensions, step-by-
step checklists and le-naming
conventions. It therefore needs to
be aligned with the overall design
and construction programme.
Tink too about denitions. Make
sure you understand the terms
being used. BIMis (relatively)
new. Remember people may use
dierent terms to dene the same
role.
At least at level 2, BIMshould
not alter the traditional design
roles and responsibilities. Further,
there should not be any great
need to amend or rewrite your
contract. Te protocol will set
out the lines of responsibility for
the production and coordination
of the design throughout the
BIMprocess. Te CADand BIM
standards organisation, the AEC,
published a revised draft of its
protocol in September 2012 and
the Construction Industry Council
was set to publish its draft as this
supplement went to press. It is
important that these protocols are
reviewed by anyone wanting to
understand their responsibilities
on a project using BIM.
|emember ||a|
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COUNTDOWN TO BIM COUNTDOWN TO BIM
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he buzz about
BIM was palpable.
Te conference
room at Londons
Park Plaza hotel
was packed with
delegates for the
third annual Au-
todesk BIM conference, all eager
to embrace the opportunity to
rethink the construction process.
Te buzz is one thing, however,
change is another. Tis years
conference took the theme of
Making it part of your business,
with the emphasis on delegates
taking away and developing
a BIMimplementation plan
through a series of dynamic
setback is an opportunity.
Campbell emphasised that
change is a team game, but
someone must lead and set the
agenda. You have to listen, but
youve got to lead it, encouraging
risk and enterprise at all levels of
the organisation, he said. You
might still fail, but at least you
will have a good chance.
Laura Handler, director of
virtual design and construction
at US contractor Tocci Build-
ing Companies, agreed with
Campbell: Change management
is the hard stu. We started
with the goals, which should be
measurable and achievable. For
us, it was about business goals,
not BIM goals; reducing risk,
increasing turnover and getting
paid faster. Ten we set out a
roadmap for one year ahead,
three years, 10 years, with targets
in place and allocated resources.
Pilot projects were selected and
then the benets of BIM adoption
were evaluated against the goals.
Fiona Clark, practice director
at London-based David Miller
Architects (DMA), told delegates
how small rms like her own
had much to gain from BIM. It
was a game changer for us and
its an opportunity for SMEs
to really change the odds its
not just for the big boys, she
said. Among the many benets
that Clark felt BIMhad brought
were: added value in the design
process; embedded quality and
co-ordination; and consistency
of output. Tis was a list that will
have struck a chord with many
that have already embraced BIM.
Like Tocci, DMA identied
the necessary investment and
training before trialling BIM prior
to a full roll-out. In-house train-
ing, BIM champions and a BIM
boot camp for new joiners have
helped the rm along the way.
It has encouraged collaboration
across the team and we now have
much more productive design
meetings, said Clark.
A series of afternoon work-
shops helped delegates to iden-
tify the issues they need to tackle
in their three-year plan towards
BIM implementation. Ken Stowe
of Autodesk showed how to build
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workshops and keynote presen-
tations. Te focus was rightly put
more on people and processes
than technology.
One man who knows a little
bit about changing cultures and
behaviour is Alastair Campbell,
Tony Blairs right-hand man dur-
ing the New Labour glory years.
He drew parallels between the
drive towards BIM and his partys
journey. First comes the objec-
tive, and with BIM its cutting
costs and carbon. Ten comes the
most important bit: the strategy,
said Campbell. Its not a strategy
until its agreed and written
down. Be bold, be adaptable
and stay calm in a crisis; every
'
a business case by developing a
return-on-investment calculator.
Te waste in construction is well
documented drawing inaccura-
cies, poor co-ordination, rework,
delays, all leading to a blame
culture and any prot being paid
out to lawyers. BIM changes all
that with visualisation produc-
ing higher quality work, fewer
changes on site and greater client
satisfaction. Without BIM, you
have high-performing individu-
als in a low-performing environ-
ment, said Stowe. Tink of this
as your performance initiative.
As with any change, companies
will have sta who need to be
won over. BIM is not that big a
deal, said Handler. Its just a
tool, a process. Its 10% technol-
ogy, 90% sociology. It forces you
to take a long, deep look at your
organisation.
With the governments 2016
deadline looming, many rms
will already be getting out the
magnifying glasses and for the
rest, theres no time to lose.
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FURTHER READING
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON BIM, AND
HOW TO IMPLEMENT IT THROUGHOUT
YOUR BUSINESS IN TIME FOR THE
2016 DEADLINE, GO TO:
www.bimtaskgroup.org
www.autodesk.co.uk