BIM Implementation Plan by Stjepan Mikulic

EN iMBIM 1803 BIP PRACTICE Stjepan Mikulic
BIM Implementation Plan
Master Thesis Supervisors: Pieter Pauwels & Gustavo Ferreiro

Academic Program Coordinator: Irene Moyano
Delivery Date: 22.01.2020
Master of Global BIM Management

GBIM-0318-B4 – BIM Implementation
Master Thesis Institute: Zigurat Global Institute of Technology

Master Thesis University: IL3 University of Barcelona
Student: Stjepan Mikulic
Course, Class & Year: Global BIM Management, 3rd edition, 2019-2020
© 2020 Stjepan Mikulic. All rights reserved.

BIM IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
STJEPAN MIKULIC 2
Preface
This master thesis, conceptualized as a BIM Implementation Plan (BIP), is written as an integral part
of the master’s degree course at Zigurat Global Institute of Technology, which operates under IL3 Uni-
versity of Barcelona. This paper is written during the last module of the course (B4 – BIM Implementa-
tion) in the 3rd edition of the Global BIM Management master’s degree course, year 2019-2020.
Usage and knowledge of BIM tools and the BIM process varies from country to country in today’s
world, where some countries and regions are using BIM for more than a decade (the Nordics, most of
Western Europe, parts of the USA, Australia etc.), whereas most parts of the world are just beginning to
implement BIM as an integral part of their daily practice. However, it can be clearly seen how BIM is the
way forward and the discussion whether BIM is only a trend is a long-forgotten one.
Our current market is in high demand of BIM services, where one of the initial challenges companies
face is BIM implementation. Therefore, this paper is of utter importance for (and it is aimed at) anyone
who influences their companies’ policies and work processes, as well as anyone who is interested in BIM
and its possibilities. On that note, basic understanding of the building industry as well as CAD and BIM
concepts will greatly help the reader to understand this document in full.
The aim of this master thesis is to create a comprehensive, detailed and precise BIM Implementation
Plan in a fictive company (thus avoiding confidentiality challenges), which resembles many companies
of today’s building industry, thus becoming a multifaceted report which concepts could be used and
implemented across the industry and the world. Principles and solutions of this paper aim to help those
who are implementing BIM, yet any similarities of names and/or similar data are completely accidental.
The sections and integral parts of the document will be formed according to the guidelines provided
in the Practice Statement provided by Zigurat GIT. However, as the form described in the Practice State-
ment is only to be taken as an example, some of the sections are shaped according to prof. Eric Behnke’s
book Engineers Report – A Guide to Writing an Engineering Report (Behnke, 2011).
I want to express honest gratitude to my university supervisors Mr. Gustavo Ferreiro and Mr. Pieter
Pauwels for their guidance, as well as to Mrs. Irene Moyano (Academic Coordinator) for her help. More-
over, I would like to thank the company Sweco Danmark A/S for allowing me to use their equipment as
well as general help in solving some of the key challenges. They have been a supporting force all through-
out the master’s course and for that I’m especially thankful. Without them and everyone else supporting
my efforts in writing this report, this BIM Implementation Plan (BIP) couldn’t have been created.
Finally, it is my true belief how anyone using this BIP to implement BIM in their company will benefit
from the findings mentioned and conclusions drawn. After all, this is the sole purpose of this paper,
where I believe how the crucial challenges a company faces during the BIM implementation process are
hypothetically solved in the rows below.
__________________________________
Stjepan Mikulic Aalborg, December 15th, 2019
STJEPAN MIKULIC 3
Table of Contents
Preface ........................................................................................................................................... 3
1. Introduction & Context ............................................................................................................ 5
1.1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 5
1.2. Company Context ................................................................................................................................ 5
1.3. Information Needs & Challenges ......................................................................................................... 6
1.4. Added Value of BIM ............................................................................................................................. 6
2. Internal Business Plan .............................................................................................................. 7
2.1. Organizational Structure...................................................................................................................... 7
2.2. CAD-specific Hierarchical Structure ..................................................................................................... 7
2.3. Office Structure ................................................................................................................................... 8
2.4. BIM Implementation Team................................................................................................................ 10
2.5. Key Challenges ................................................................................................................................... 11
2.6. Challenge Analysis & BIM Implementation Goals ............................................................................. 12
2.7. ROI of BIM.......................................................................................................................................... 13
2.8. LOD & Related Terminology .............................................................................................................. 15
2.9. BIM Input ........................................................................................................................................... 16
2.10. Plan of Integration & Impact Expected ............................................................................................ 16
3. External Business Plan ............................................................................................................ 18
3.1. External Profiling ............................................................................................................................... 18
3.2. Company’s Services ........................................................................................................................... 18
3.3. Collaborative Information Needs ...................................................................................................... 19
3.4. Financial Impact of BIM Implementation .......................................................................................... 20
4. Technical Plan ........................................................................................................................ 21
4.1. People ................................................................................................................................................ 21
4.2. Software............................................................................................................................................. 23
4.3. Hardware ........................................................................................................................................... 25
5. Legal Plan............................................................................................................................... 26
6. Example Project ..................................................................................................................... 29
7. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 32
8. References & Bibliography ..................................................................................................... 33
9. Vocabulary & Applied Abbreviations ...................................................................................... 33
STJEPAN MIKULIC 4
1. Introduction & Context

1.1. Introduction
This BIM implementation plan will aim to discuss, explain and exemplify most of the crucial issues
and challenges a company faces when implementing BIM. The focus of BIM implementation will be a
team of 25 people (an office of a mid-size company with 90 employees in total), as BIM implementation
process should first start small, where betterments and changes can happen almost instantly. However,
most of the concepts can be applied regardless of company size, yet usually at a slower pace.
Finally, this document will aim to combine knowledge from relevant sources and best-practice ad-
vice from author’s personal experience to draw conclusions. Even though BIP is a document, BIM imple-
mentation is a process, which means how even the companies which have implemented BIM in their
daily practice might benefit from analyzing their workflow and supplementing it with new information.
1.2. Company Context

The company which will be observed in this document is a fictive one, yet it is conceptually very
similar to most small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) around the world. In the table below, some
basic information about the company is outlined. However, the solutions offered in this paper can be
used across different companies, as challenges of BIM implementation appear to be similar across dis-
ciplines and across countries.
Table 1. Description of Saturn A/S
# Category Description Comments
1 Name Saturn A/S A/S is a Danish version of the USA’s PLC company type.
2 Description Engineering consul- The company offers services in design phase of building pro-
tancy / jects. The key products are engineering services, usually deliv-
Design company ered in form of drawings and descriptions.
3 Areas of Buildings for multiple • Residential housing (public and private)
Expertise purposes • Industrial (factories, plants etc.)
• Commercial (supermarkets, shops etc.)
• Healthcare (hospitals, facilities etc.)
• Cultural and educational (schools, museums etc.)
4 Location(s) 9 offices located in The main office is in Aalborg, where BIM will first be tested and
Denmark implemented, before other offices.
5 Organization Post-bureaucratic The company fits the SME profile and values the autonomy of
each office, led by local influencers.
6 Disciplines 3 areas of expertise in 3 departments are as follows:
total • Structures (STR)
• Ventilation, Heating and Systems (VHS)
o Systems include Water, Sanitation and Energy
Engineering
• Electrical (ELE)
Each department has their own Head of Department, which are
usually key initiators of technological and disciplinary changes.
Heads of Departments are working with closely with the CTO, as
well as CAD Coordinators, which are responsible for implemen-
tation of those technological changes in their respective offices.
STJEPAN MIKULIC 5
7 Head Count 90 employees in total Employees by function:

(total) • 1 x CEO
• 1 x CTO
• 3 x Head of Departments
• 9 x Team Leaders
• 9 x CAD Coordinators (one of them is me)
• 58 x Consultants (project managers, engineers, drafters)
• 3 x Students/Interns
• 2 x IT/Secretaries/Legal
• 3 x Other, Part-time or External
8 Clients Both Danish and The company bids for various projects inside Denmark and un-
international der various conditions as engineering consultants. The company
however doesn’t bid for single-family housing projects.
Key clients are the state-funded developers, various investors
and large fund-managers, from inside and outside of Denmark.
9 Annual Approximate total 310 mil. DKK ≈ 41.6 mil. €
Turnover (approx. for Aalborg) (34 mil. DKK ≈ 4.6 mil. €)
My own responsibilities as a CAD Coordinator are to ensure that CAD technologies are implemented
and developed, where I also perform important project work when needed. Moreover, I am collecting
and visualizing the data of CAD technology use and presenting it to HODs and the CTO when required.
1.3. Information Needs & Challenges

Information needs of different departments are often similar, yet they vary, and they are often lim-
ited by technology. The three departments (STR, VHS and ELE) all have a need for inputs from external
parties (such as architects, suppliers and contractors), where this data usually comes in the form of CAD
files, documents, emails or phone calls. They also have a need for quick communication of project par-
ticipants, such as project managers, engineers and drafters. The main challenge here is getting the same
information to all project participants. This is especially noticeable and relevant when project changes
occur, as not all participants might be made aware of all the changes simultaneously and identically.
This situation sometimes proves to be dangerous and expensive for Saturn A/S, as the drawings and
documents delivered to contractors contain insufficiencies, colliding elements and/or similar issues.
1.4. Added Value of BIM

Undoubtably, using CAD has its drawbacks when compared to BIM. The benefits of BIM in the build-
ing industry range from 3D visualizations and faster revisioning to energy calculations and material take-
offs, which are often needed operations at Saturn A/S. BIM after all has the letter ‘I’ in its abbreviation,
which stands for ‘information’ and means how data is the key ingredient of a BIM model. Due to this
precision of BIM, challenges that the firm has (as those mentioned earlier) could be easily overcome or
even avoided by implementing BIM. These improvements would ease my own work, as creation of a
Common Data Environment (CDE) would make it easier to deliver information to all parties when
needed, implementation of clash detections would save resources and general communication of pro-
jects inputs and changes would be faster and safer. Moreover, visual identification of problematic areas
would be much faster, speeding up most of the project work and especially drafting. Also, routine tasks
could be automatized, saving resources and enhancing precision. Basically, all the listed challenges could
either be avoided or solved by BIM, where more possibilities, not yet used, could be implemented.
STJEPAN MIKULIC 6
2. Internal Business Plan

2.1. Organizational Structure
It is important to accentuate how the company operates under a decentralized post-bureaucratic
organization structure, where the autonomy of each department as well as each office is achieved and
well-appreciated. The company believes how greater autonomy at an operational level creates better
performance (Torsteinsen, 2011). In this way, the individual matters and is heard by upper layers of the
relatively flat hierarchical structure.
Saturn A/S’s structure has in this way solved and even avoided most of usual bureaucratic chal-
lenges, alleviating the load from the managerial level. In that regard, as a company with a flat structure,
the challenges are located at the operational level. In other words, company’s focus and most of its
energy lays in project work, where management workload and staff are minimized. Furthermore, the
decentralized system puts the company close to its clients, bettering the relationships and dividing the
responsibility. In this manner, the managerial level’s main responsibility is to keep the company operat-
ing successfully across all offices as well as look outward and follow market trends and movements.
The challenges imposed by the post-bureaucratic structure are not many, but they exist. Hereby the
lack of standardization is primarily meant, as decentralized autonomy creates a possibility of ‘bending
the rules’, or in this matter the standards. In order to avoid specifically this issue, Saturn A/S depicts
Heads of Departments as the responsible people for company-wide standards. Specific standards, such
as AutoCAD templates, could be the responsibility of one or more of the CAD coordinators. Project work,
the essence of company’s existence, comes with many challenges, yet these are basically unavoidable.
2.2. CAD-specific Hierarchical Structure

Saturn’s CAD-specific hierarchical structure has 4 different levels: CTO, Head of Department, CAD
Coordinator, Drafter. This flat structure opens communication channels from lowest to highest levels
and allows a free flow of ideas. However, this structure can also pose a threat to employee work satis-
faction, as there are many people aiming for the same positions.
My personal role at Saturn A/S is that of a CAD Coordinator at company’s main office in Aalborg,
where I work closely with Heads of Departments as well as Drafters. Even though there are many other
functions we interact with daily, these don’t occupy positions of power within the CAD-world. Lastly,
the CTO and Head of Department roles can be occupied by people who have gotten there from other
hierarchical structures, as these roles involve comprehensive knowledge of technology and a specific
discipline, respectively, and not only CAD-related knowledge.
Table 2. CAD-specific Hierarchical Structure
CAD Head of
Drafter CTO
Coordinator Department
There are of course a few other hierarchical structures within Saturn A/S, but they aren’t actively
involved with the process of BIM implementation (except for engineers, who are involved, yet play a
marginal role) and therefore won’t be discussed in this paper.
STJEPAN MIKULIC 7
2.3. Office Structure

The focus of BIM implementation for Saturn A/S will be its office in Aalborg. Out of 25 people work-
ing here, there are 21 BIM-confronted functions, separated into those passively (8) and actively involved
(13), depending on their function’s direct role in BIM implementation and usage. Other office functions
(CEO, IT and secretaries) aren’t directly involved in BIM implementation and won’t be mentioned.
Table 3. All Employees in Aalborg Office
Category Description Comments
Head count 25 employees in Aalborg Employees in Aalborg, by function:
(main office) • 1 x CEO
• 1 x CTO
• 3 x Head of Departments
• 1 x Team Leader
• 1 x CAD Coordinator (myself)
• 15 x Consultants
o Common (3 x Project Managers)
o STR (2 x Engineers, 1 x Drafter)
o VHS (5 x Engineers, 1 x Drafter)
o ELE (2 x Engineer, 1 x Drafter)
• 1 x IT Employee
• 2 x Secretaries/Legal
Table 4. BIM-confronted People (21 out of 25 employees in Aalborg)

Function Name Comments
Passively Involved People
1 x CTO Frederik J. Jensen Interested in BIM as a concept, marginally following
the process of BIM implementation.
3 x Heads of Departments Anders Hedegaard (STR) Interested in BIM as a concept, where they also ap-
Christian Larsen (VHS) prove BIM licenses, people involved and supervise the
Sofie Sørensen (ELE) process for future scalability (to other offices).
1 x Team Leader Johan Petersen Responsible for evaluating and reporting BIM’s ROI,
approving staff development hours etc.
3 x Project Managers Emil Kristiansen Responsible for helping the team leader evaluate
Lucas Olsen BIM’s ROI, influence BIM-related financial decisions,
Mikkel Poulsen influence project-based BIM implementation.
Actively Involved People
1 x CAD Coordinator Stjepan Mikulic (me) I am responsible for the BIM implementation process.
9 x Engineers Johan Madsen (STR) Involved in the BIM implementation process, depend-
Mathias Jørgensen (STR) ing on their needs, skills and wants. They all however
Victoria Pedersen (VHS) receive basic BIM training, so they know how to han-
Tobias Andersen (VHS) dle the technology, participate in the BIM process and
Jakob Knudsen (VHS) use BIM possibilities to their advantage.
Pernille Holm (VHS)
Simone Clausen (VHS)
Erik Schmidt (ELE)
Liam Larsen (ELE)
3 x Drafters Felix Johansen (STR) People who are most involved with BIM and require
Magnus Møller (VHS) extensive education to take responsibility for the
Olivia Thomsen (ELE) products and process created by BIM technologies.
STJEPAN MIKULIC 8
Table 5. Organizational Structure of the BIM Implementation Team
CTO
Frederik J. Jensen
Heads of Departments
Anders Hedegaard (STR)
Christian Larsen (VHS)
Sofie Sørensen (ELE)
CAD Coordinator Team Leader

Stjepan Mikulic (me) Johan Petersen
Project Managers Engineers Drafters
Emil Kristiansen Johan Madsen (STR)

Felix Johansen (STR)
Lucas Olsen Mathias Jørgensen (STR)
Magnus Møller (VHS)
Mikkel Poulsen Victoria Pedersen (VHS)
Olivia Thomsen (ELE)
Tobias Andersen (VHS)
Jakob Knudsen (VHS)
Pernille Holm (VHS)
Simone Clausen (VHS)
Erik Schmidt (ELE)
Liam Larsen (ELE)
In the three tables above, the complete organizational and functional overview of the Aalborg office
is visualized. Again, a proof of a flat structure is clearly visible, as there are many employees, yet only a
few people in the positions of power. For this type of a structure to function, great communication is
needed, as often responsibility for making some decisions can be split between few functions/people.
In some cases, this challenge of shared responsibility can prove to be rather slow. However, this system
of a collaborative leadership seems to work best for Saturn A/S, as the employees are having weekly
status meetings with their supervisors and quick daily meetings when/if needed.
STJEPAN MIKULIC 9
2.4. BIM Implementation Team

As shown in the previous section, there will be a total of 21 people who are BIM-confronted, where
13 are actively involved in BIM implementation and 8 are passively involved. Out of those 13 who are
active, 9 are engineers, 3 are Drafters and 1 is the CAD Coordinator, who is renamed to a BIM Coordina-
tor. This means how the company’s role model of BIM implementation is the BIM Coordinator, who is
hosting regular training sessions, can support the users in their learning and their work. Furthermore,
the BIM Coordinator is responsible for securing the infrastructure needed for BIM (hardware, accelera-
tors, screens etc.) as well as for creating and following the BIM implementation process in full. Lastly,
he/she is responsible for the development of existing processes as well as evaluation of current ones.
One of the crucial questions regarding manpower is whether people will be reskilled or replaced. In
case of the BIM Coordinator, who carries the responsibility of BIM implementation, it is crucial that
he/she masters the technologies and the processes being implemented. In case they aren’t familiar with
BIM technology and require training from ground-up, having these people in charge of BIM implemen-
tation risks the whole process. It is therefore recommended to have a discussion over who to keep in
this role and who not to, as BIM skills of these people are crucial for the success of the implementation.
When it comes to Drafters, the weight of the question whether they too will be replaced or reskilled
is almost the same as the one of BIM Coordinators. The importance of knowing BIM and the program
used well is crucial for the success of the company, as tight deadlines and large amounts of work is
something that happens often. On one hand, employing someone new will ease this process, as the new
person possesses BIM skills and could even focus on the development of BIM technology which has been
implemented. On the other hand, all the knowledge specific for the company (standards, network, struc-
ture etc.) and all the experience of those people could be lost. It can be concluded how the key factors
are the possibility of development, speed of work and experience.
Finally, engineers are also actively involved in BIM implementation, yet their role isn’t as significant
in the process as roles of the BIM Coordinator and Drafters. They differentiate from each other in their
work as well as the way they perform their work. As they work closely with Drafters, usually it is the
Drafter’s responsibility to decide how the engineers’ inputs will be put into BIM models. For Saturn A/S,
engineers will receive basic BIM education, so they can use the software to extract the data needed for
their work (quantity and material takeoff methods, calculation of heights, widths, areas, creation of
temporary sections, details etc.). Besides being able to read information from already created models
(usually the architects’ model, as this is the base for engineers’ work), engineers don’t carry the respon-
sibility for any input inside a BIM model, yet Drafters do. They do however carry the responsibility for
any input outside of BIM models, which usually happens via mails, phone calls or hand sketches.
In our case in Aalborg, it is myself occupying the position of the CAD/BIM Coordinator and I truly
believe (being a young BIM enthusiast, with proper BIM education), I possess the skills needed for a
successful BIM implementation and I’ll therefore stay in the position. When it comes to Drafters, the
decision is how they’ll too stay in their positions as the development of processes, one of the key factors,
is left to BIM Coordinators and isn’t required from the Drafters. However, in case the company’s policy
changes where development and automatization of processes is also asked from the Drafters (this usu-
ally happens in smaller teams/companies), it is recommended to replace these people. Again, this isn’t
our case and we will keep and retrain all our actively involved employees in Aalborg.
STJEPAN MIKULIC 10
2.5. Key Challenges

Having to deliver its information primarily via drawings, Saturn A/S uses 2D CAD. For drafting they
use Autodesk’s AutoCAD, which has proven useful in many ways, due to the relatively cheap training of
staff, easy usage and understanding as well as prevalence in the market. However, AutoCAD and CAD in
general come with a range of issues and challenges.
One of the key reasons the company wants to implement BIM is to avoid CAD-related problems and
have the technology for better communication, faster deliveries and safer products in place. Moreover,
these CAD-related problems usually have detrimental effects on the cash flow, profits as well as em-
ployee satisfaction. Important challenges, that the company hopes to eliminate with BIM, are:
• Poor Design Quality Assurance

o The expenses (of both time and money) of clashes are company’s responsibility.
o Clash detection is non-existent, where the company often needs to cover the ex-
penses in the construction phase of unseen clashes and collisions.
o There are usually many discrepancies between designs, as many people are involved.
• Separation of Design Activities
o Revisioning of drawings and checking the unanimity of design solutions takes time.
o Time is wasted on understanding poorly made drawings.
o Communication of key issues might not work properly, resulting in mistakes.
• Bad Visualization Possibilities
o Even though being an engineering practice, the company could use visualization for
self-promotion and marketing.
o Finding of problematic areas is slow and depends on the employee expertise.
o With visualization, better and faster coordination could be achieved.
• Weak Multidisciplinary Collaboration
o It is a challenge to deliver comprehensive and safe projects quickly when almost no
way of automatic internal coordination is available, which is of utter importance as
the company delivers various engineering services.
o Current situation doesn’t allow for quick and easy collaboration with external parties.
• Routine Tasks
o There is a lot of time being wasted on routine tasks, which can also mean mistakes.
o CAD doesn’t offer many processes to overlap and run simultaneously.
• Market Position
o Using CAD limits the firm to be able to tender for only some projects, yet nothing of
a crucially important reference quality or size.
o Saturn A/S is not currently seen as a market leader, which most likely turns some
potential clients away as well as doesn’t impress current clients.
Saturn A/S hopes how BIM would help to eliminate or at least hinder all these challenges and prob-
lems. Therefore, they are ready to invest in employee training, necessary hardware and software etc.,
certain how the investment will pay itself off. There are certainly other challenges the company faces
daily, yet these are either not as significant at this point or can’t be grouped.
STJEPAN MIKULIC 11
2.6. Challenge Analysis & BIM Implementation Goals

After outlining the challenges Saturn A/S faces daily, an overview of how those challenges could be
overcome with the implementation of BIM is necessary. It is crucial to note how company’s goals are
the ones shown in the table below and there has been made a comparison between current state (time,
costs, percentages etc.) and a future state which is aimed at to be achieved. These values, even though
estimates, outline success conditions by which BIM implementation will be evaluated.
Table 6. CAD Challenges & BIM Goals
CAD BIM
#
Challenges Comments Solutions Comments
Poor Design Quality Only manual QA is pre- Clash Detection and A multidisciplinary clash
Assurance sent, where the quality of Consistency Control detection could and will
(resulting in large ex- the output depends on (resulting in saved time be performed, resulting
penses) employee expertise. and money) in safer designs.
1
Current Situation Goals
Time spent per plan: 1 hour of QA Time spent per plan: 10 minutes of QA (6x less)
Failure costs per plan: 5% of a plan is risky Failure costs per plan: 1% of a plan is risky (5x less)
Design validation time: 1 hour/plan Design validation time: 10 hours of DV (6x less)
Not having a CDE and a Creation of a CDE; CDE could be achieved
Separation of Design platform to supervise Introduction of BIM’s via program creator’s
Activities work is very dangerous possibilities for collabo- servers as well as com-
(resulting in discrepan- and results in mistakes, ration and revisioning pany’s own. Collabora-
cies and collisions, as expenses and time loss. (resulting in safe and tive BIM can easily fol-
well as large time loss) Revisioning takes a lot of quick communication, low design changes and
2 time. faster revisioning) revisions are made fast.
Time spent on revisions: 1.5 hour/plan Time spent on revisions: 0.5 hour/plan (3x less)
Time spent looking for newest files: 30 min./day Time spent looking for newest files: 10 min./day
Time spent looking for design changes: 30 min./day Time spent looking for design changes: 5 min./day
Time spent on design time: 1 hour/plan Design validation time: 0.25 hour/plan (4x less)
Even though important as BIM program with
a selling point, visualiza- shadows, sun etc.; Cre-
Bad Visualization Pos- The success of these
tion can hardly be done ation of a 3D model al-
sibilities goals depends on BIM
with AutoCAD. Also, 2D lows for fast navigation
(resulting in time loss) skills of people involved.
3 drawings are hard to nav- (resulting in time saved
igate. and new clients)
Time spent on visualizations: 1.5 hour/plan Time spent on visualizations: 0.5 hour/plan
Time spent navigating drawings: 30 min./day Time spent navigating drawings: 5 min./day
BIM programs allow for
Understanding of these
Weak Multidiscipli- Sharing files and commu- multidisciplinary collab-
processes is crucial as
nary Collaboration nication results in mis- oration via linked mod-
well as trust between
(resulting in discrepan- takes every now and els or separate sets
parties involved, for re-
cies of design) then. (resulting in safer pro-
4 sponsibility issues.
jects and time saved)
Time spent on collaboration issues: 1.5 hour/plan Time spent on collaboration issues: 10 min./plan
Time spent translating data: 30 min./day Time spent translating data: 5 min./day
Different design failure cost: 5% of a plan is risky Different design failure cost: 1% of a plan is risky
STJEPAN MIKULIC 12
This is especially true BIM program allows for There are many options
Routine Tasks when revisioning or doing automatization of tasks of automatizing tasks,
(resulting in time loss) simple tasks many times, via cloud or via add-ins saving time while also
5 on large projects usually. (resulting in time saved) insuring quality.
Time spent on routine tasks: 30 min./plan Time spent on routine tasks: 10 min./plan (3x less)
Failure costs of mistakes: 5% of a plan is risky Failure costs of mistakes: 1% of a plan is risky
Saturn A/S is not able to BIM used right makes Knowledge of BIM pos-
Market Position
tender for most large ten- the company competi- sibilities and opportuni-
(resulting in revenue
ders and isn’t seen as a tive and recognized ties of BIM coordinators
and clients lost)
market leader. (resulting in revenue) is key.
6
Tenders being able to bid for: 25% of all tenders Tenders being able to bid for: 90% of all tenders
Seen as a market leader: No Seen as a market leader: Yes (not measurable)
Revenue: Steadily declining Revenue: Steadily increasing (measurable)
There are certainly more challenges and BIM possibilities that could be used for ease in daily work,
yet Saturn’s initial goals are outlined above and until they are achieved there won’t be focus on other
possibilities (such as access to a new market or business intelligence analysis). All in all, the key goal is
to save resources while maintaining and even improving the quality of designs delivered.
2.7. ROI of BIM

Measuring return on investment (ROI) of BIM is a difficult task, as most challenges are usually com-
pletely avoided, thus leaving the conclusion to be either 0% or 100% of saved resources. However, it is
not that simple, as many variables are at play. Therefore, ROI can’t be easily measured, yet the way BIM
implementation affects resource spending can. In a service-based company (such as Saturn is), there are
4 key focus areas where resources could be saved: productivity (efficiency), cost (risk) avoidance, win-
ning new clients (while keeping old ones) and employee well-being and retention. BIM’s ROI lies in these
4 focus areas (also measurements of organic growth), where the return is only visible in the long run.
However, here’s an estimate of the total investment in the first 3 years of BIM implementation:
• Training period in months (separated due to a different wage of Drafters/CAD Coordinator

(600 DKK/hour) and engineers (700 DKK/hour); shown only to explain the next calculation)
o 1M x (3 + 1) E + 0.25M x 9E = 4M + 2.25M
• Cost of retraining (due to lost productive hours, shown as total numbers for 3 years)
o 4M x 148H x 600K + 2.25M x 148H x 700K = 355200K + 233100K = 588300K ≈ 80 000€
• Cost of software (only the difference of plans is taken as an investment)
o Current state (per year): 13E x 16386K = 213018K ≈ 28 500€
o Future state (per year): 13E x 28709K = 373217K ≈ 50 000€
o Difference: 50 000€ - 28 500€ = 21 500€/year
• Cost of hardware (most hardware will be kept, only some elements will be added/replaced)
o Current state (per year): 13E x 5000K = 65000K ≈ 9000€
o Future state (per year): 13E x 7000K = 91000K ≈ 12 000€
o Difference: 12 000€ - 9000€ = 3000€/year
Total Investment = 104 500€ in year 1; 24 500€ in year 2, 24 500€ in year 3 ≈ 150 000€ in 3 years
STJEPAN MIKULIC 13
Legend: K – kroner (DKK); E – employees; H – hours; M – months; H/M – hours/months; € – euros.

Here’s rough estimates of expected returns for measurable resources (time and money), as avoided
challenges (e.g. clash detection results in cost avoidance, which can’t be measured) can’t be presented
in numbers from the current point of view (only when they happen or are avoided):
• Automatization of Processes (shown in time saved per month type of employee)
o 4E x 10H/M + 9E x 4H/M = 48H/M + 45H/M
• Savings of Automatization (due to saved hours, shown as total numbers for 1 year)
o 40H/M x 12M x 600K + 36H/M x 12M x 700K = 590 400K ≈ 79 000€
Total Savings (Return) = 79 000€ in year 1; 79 000€ in year 2, 79 000€ in year 3 ≈ 210 000€ in 3 years
(𝑹𝒆𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒏−𝑰𝒏𝒗𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕) (€)
ROI is calculated through the following formula: 𝑹𝑶𝑰 = (𝑰𝒏𝒗𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕) (€)
∗ 𝟏𝟎𝟎%
This gives us following values, through the first 3 years:

Table 7. Expected ROI Estimates per Employee
Year 1 2 3
Total Investment 104 500€ 129 000€ 153 500€
Total Return 79 000€ 158 000€ 237 000€
ROI -24% 22% 54%
The conclusion can be made that even by looking only at automatization of processes and not look-
ing at other savings BIM allows for (such as the crucial cost avoidance made by clash detection) we have
a positive ROI already after the first year and a half, where the second year should end with a positive
22% ROI. Moreover, these rough values are on the safe side, as we are considering how both CAD and
BIM workflows take the same amount of time (this has been done here due to certain hours lost on
learning the workflow). It can be said almost with full certainty that savings of BIM are even greater, but
due to reasons of not being able to measure ROIs of three other focus areas (cost avoidance, winning
new clients, employee well-being) we have given the ROI of only one area (productivity), which has been
estimated pessimistically.
All in all, ROI of BIM in the productivity sphere proves positive relatively soon after the investment
is made, yet variables in real life must become constants to get any numbers down on paper. Some of
these constants are for example hours of work, number of projects and their price, same team, same
number of people and same team’s efficiency in certain software. In real life, all these constants are
variables and it is therefore extremely hard and unprecise to guess the ROI of BIM.
However, it is certain how BIM will give back its investment multiple times, if it’s allowed to grow as
well as if used properly. For this to be confirmed, it is necessary to perform 10-15 projects in efficiently
used BIM and compare that data to similar projects that were done with CAD. With this comparison,
we’ll still get an estimate (as projects are not the same, the team is not the same, the workflows aren’t
the same etc.), yet it will be the closest estimate we have to the truth. Lastly, it is almost unmeasurable
and even unfair to compare CAD and BIM workflows only by productivity (as we have done), as variables
are simply too many to count (some ‘hidden’ variables are also hardware space, client satisfaction, client
retention, tendering costs, company value etc.). Due to a high number of variables, it is crucial how the
decision is made whether BIM is the way forward or not. In our case, this decision has been made and
BIM implementation will be done, regardless of its ROI, which will most likely turn back tenfold.
STJEPAN MIKULIC 14
2.8. LOD & Related Terminology

Level of Development (LOD) describes explicitly which information model elements must contain at
different stages during the design and construction process. LOD for building parts is comprised of:
• Level of Reliability (LOR) describes the reliability of the information provided for the building
part and its properties.
• Level of Geometry (LOG) describes the building parts’ geometric representations and the
extent of secondary components/parts.
• Level of Information (LOI) describes the building parts’ properties contained in, linked to, or
in some other way connected. (BIM7AA, 2019)
Any given LOD level defines in this way the required levels for geometric representation, properties
and the reliability of those aspect. As companies in Denmark have already encountered this issue, a
collaboration between influential companies on the market has resulted in an agreement, a sort of a
standard, called DiKon BIM7AA Specification of Building Parts (current version is 3.0). This document
defines LODs for different elements and is accessible for free on the internet. Moreover, the document
uses its own definition of LODs (where the suffix DK is added) to avoid confusion with other standards:
• LOD 200 DK defines building parts modelled as generic objects and their associated proper-
ties. All information is defined at the ’assumed’ level.
• LOD 300 DK defines building parts modelled as specific types of objects with their associated
properties. All information is at the ’defined’ level.
• LOD 325 DK defines building parts modelled as detailed types of objects with their associated
specific properties. All information is at the ’final’ level.
• LOD 400 DK defines building parts modelled based on specific product types with their asso-
ciated product specific properties. All information is at the ’final detailed’ level.
One of the organizations responsible for creating a LOD standard in Denmark is BIM7AA (collabora-
tion between 7 large architectural companies in the country), which has also created agreements for
responsibility and process disposition among project participants, as well as a coding system. These doc-
uments are also easily accessible online and are used as a standard in Denmark. Internationally, these
documents can be considered as integral parts of an Information Delivery Manual (IDM). For a successful
BIM implementation in Denmark, all project participants need to know these documents, as they largely
help the workflow and organization. Even though they are not government instituted, most projects are
adhering to all these documents and they are therefore crucial to be learned. Other two documents are:
• BIM7AA BIM Detailing and Responsibility (BDR) (current version is 3.2) determines consult-
ant responsibility disposition for building components. For each building component other
parties may need to contribute with information. This is being agreed independently for
every project, same as the document requires project-specific review and revision.
• BIM7AA Type Coding (current version is 3.2) is a simple and operational code structure for
building components based on consultant requirements and experience in design and plan-
ning, Danish building norms and ‘best practice’ from complex to manageable BIM projects.
In the case of our BIM implementation, these documents and standards will be adhered to and im-
plemented in the workflow to the extent deemed necessary by the BIM Coordinator and other parties.
STJEPAN MIKULIC 15
2.9. BIM Input

Direct input expected to be made to the BIM from anyone involved in the creation of the model is
illustrated by the following figure. It is necessary to mention how the building elements differentiate for
each discipline, and for this an ICT agreement (usually part of an IDM, where the mentioned BIM7AA
BIM BDR document is used) is necessary to be looked at. The figure below shows which input is to be
made to a Building Information Model of a single discipline, as BIM Implementation will start small and
separated across disciplines, where having many disciplines in one model is recommended only to hap-
pen later in time, once BIM modelers and direct users (Drafters) can use the software efficiently.
Table 8. Inputs to a Building Information Model
Drawings
(dimensions, tags,
markings, text)
Sheets &
Data-Rich Building
Schedules
Elements
(creation, naming,
(different for every
printing,
discipline)
revisioning)
General Notes &

Building Other Data
Template (along
with changes to it)
Information (containing
Model knowledge that
isn't on drawings)
2.10. Plan of Integration & Impact Expected

To introduce BIM and the internal business plan in Saturn A/S, it is important to follow a specific
process with a focus on the people involved, as usually challenges lie in this variable. John Kotter’s 8-
step Change Model seems to be efficient and it is described below, specifically for our company’s case.
It is important to note how this model has been made for American companies, where its use with a
Danish company might require a more delicate approach with a larger focus on employee well-being.
1. Create Urgency
It is urgent to have BIM in the company due to many reasons (resources wasted, company’s
value etc.), yet a survey among actively involved employees could be made asking about im-
provements and long-term consequences if BIM isn’t implemented to provoke urgency.
2. Form a Powerful Coalition

Besides having a single CAD/BIM Coordinator on board, it would be very beneficial to have
the Team Leaders and Project Managers on board, as they have the influence and could im-
pact those unsusceptible to change. Most importantly of course would be to have the Draft-
ers on board (with explaining how their work could be eased), as they’d use BIM the most.
STJEPAN MIKULIC 16
3. Create a Vision for Change

Once all (or most) individuals are on board, a brainstorming session could take place, where
people could share their challenges, troubles and clear visions on how these processes could
be improved should be created. Then, these visions should be organized into one clear one,
which should be how BIM is something that must be implemented. This could furthermore
be made to align with the company’s vision.
4. Communicate the Vision

When the vision has been created, the next step is a play of push and pull, where the coalition
created (push) enforces their views to team leaders and HODs. Moreover, those HODs and
team leaders should now understand the importance and initiate the implementation (pull).
5. Remove Obstacles
After the company is on board, obstacles should be removed. In Saturn’s case, this could be
the financial investment, where the implementation might be postponed by a few months.
6. Create Short-Term Wins

For the change to continue happening, it is crucial to create short-term achievements which
would re-motivate the staff. This can happen in a way of splitting the implementation process
into a few stages (installation of programs, finishing the education, starting a very small pro-
ject and so on). Frequent milestones and feedback on them is crucial in the process.
7. Build on the Change

Complacency is danger that slowly creeps in as the integration comes to its end. It is there-
fore important to keep setting goals and keep analyzing what could be improved. The BIM
Coordinator should keep a sharp eye on the processes being applied in order to overdeliver
on the minimums expected.
8. Anchor the Changes in Corporate Culture

Once BIM has been fully implemented, it is very important to keep the people in the positions
of power on board (by comparing results of CAD vs. BIM and the ROI), encouraging new em-
ployees to adopt changes and celebrating individuals who adopt them. This will sooner or
later change the core of the organization, cementing BIM in the company and its culture.
Change is not a simple and easy process, even after it begins to happen, as the preparation isn’t
sufficiently made, or the process isn’t followed through. However, once a change fully takes place inside
an organization, it undoubtedly impacts the company’s culture. In Saturn’s case, one of the expected
impacts are individuals’ roles, as current employees would possess new skills and potential new employ-
ees would require different educations and/or skills. Moreover, a research and development (R&D)
team could be created to speed up BIM processes (automatization), add extra tools to the existing ones
(add-ins) or implement new working platforms (cloud instead of local drives). If not by a team, these
tasks could be performed by BIM Coordinators (or a new position could be made), as BIM allows for this
to happen and the company could save valuable resources. Finally, a change in company’s vision and
scope would happen, as now Saturn A/S would be a market leader able to take in various new projects.
STJEPAN MIKULIC 17
3. External Business Plan

3.1. External Profiling
By implementing BIM, Saturn A/S will be able to overdeliver on their current client’s expectations,
as well as add new services under their umbrella. These services could potentially give a new light to the
company, as designs of more innovative, safer, faster and more precise projects could be achieved. Here
it is primarily meant how Saturn A/S will become a market leader of a sort (or at least a new competency
would be achieved), where BIM services such as clash detection, quantity and material takeoffs, BIM-
process leadership (creation of ICT agreements, creation of a CDE etc.), data scheduling, visualizations
etc. could be sold for a higher price. This would benefit both the clients and the company.
Moreover, implementation of BIM services would attract new clients, both large and small, who
require BIM on their tenders for a creation of better buildings. In case of projects that don’t require
extra services, a lower price could be achieved benefitting the clients, as projects would be made more
quickly and more safely, so even the amount of E&O and unpredictable costs could be lowered.
It is a fact how company’s strategy is to do everything possible to keep their clients satisfied and
content, with delivering high quality services for a reasonable price in due time. It seems how BIM will
affect all these values positively, as use of BIM includes lower spending of resources, while the quality
is improved. All of this can of course be achieved in lower amounts of time and thereby improving com-
pany’s relations with the clients. Lastly, use of BIM would benefit company’s partners who already use
it, as better coordination in a shorter time could be achieved for every side involved.
3.2. Company’s Services

The company’s focus will be to improve current 2D and add 3D BIM services, where clients could get
better, faster and ultimately cheaper project designs. Moreover, possibilities of 4D, 5D, 6D, 7D and 8D
could be taken upon by the company at some point in time to secure its place as a market leader and a
BIM expert. In the table below, an overview of these possibilities is shown. (8DBIM, 2019)
Table 9. BIM Benefits
BIM Dimension Sphere Services / Comments
2-dimensional view Possibility of creating 2D drawings (plans, elevations, sections,
details etc.), like CAD.
BIM’s advantage (to CAD) is the time saved on revisioning draw-
2D
ings as well as quality assurance, as changing an element (ob-
ject) property on one drawing changes the property on all other
drawings as well.
3-dimensional model Some major BIM 3D benefits are:
• 3D modelling (quick and easy understanding)
• Visualizations (faster problem detection, marketing)
• Quick problem detection (time saving)
• Clash detection (safer projects)
3D
• Faster revisioning (time saving)
• Better coordination (safer projects)
• Improved communication (internally and externally)
• Improved multidisciplinary collaboration
• Reduced amount of rework
STJEPAN MIKULIC 18
Added time scheduling Possibility of scheduling data via a time dimension directly in
(to 3D) the BIM model. This is also described as construction sequenc-
4D
ing, helping teams to visualize logistical issues or inefficiencies
and optimize activities.
Added budgeting (to Possibility of adding costs of project expenditures within the
5D 4D) time dimension. Enables more efficient and cost-effective con-
structions.
Added sustainability Possibility of energy analyses and of LEED, DGNB or BREEAM
6D and energy (to 5D) tracking. Possibility of overall reduction in energy consumption.
Added facility man- Possibility of using BIM models in the FM stage after the project
7D agement and life cycle is delivered. Project lifecycle information is added to the model.
(to 6D) Optimized asset management.
Added occupational Possibility of using BIM models for Prevention through Design
8D health and safety (to (PtD), as hazardous profiling of elements or building parts could
7D) be analyzed to insure safe design and on-site risk control.
As easily seen in the table, BIM does bring many possibilities, yet the focus of Saturn A/S remains in
2D & 3D sphere for now as previously outlined. BIM implementation allows for all these other services,
yet this is up to the company to choose whether 4D, 5D, 6D, 7D and 8D services will be integrated and
sold. For our current case, it is recommended not to rush with including other services before 2D and
3D are firmly in place. Moreover, once they are in place, it is recommended to double down on them
and speed up and improve these possibilities (with better automatization of routine processes, para-
metric modelling, new collaboration ways etc.), before embarking on any new journey. (Amit, 2019)
3.3. Collaborative Information Needs

As Saturn A/S is an engineering consultancy, the quality of its work is dependent on other, external
project participants (such as architects, landscape architects, surveyors, fire safety consultants etc.). This
will be even more obvious once BIM is implemented, as all critical areas and work of other parties will
be visible in everyone else’s models. To avoid challenges of late deliveries, insufficient information, re-
sponsibility questions etc. it is necessary to institute comprehensive contracts, time schedules and reg-
ular meetings with people involved. Moreover, it would be great to institute comprehensive ICT agree-
ments, where not only software used will be defined, yet also all the formats used, model exchange
frequency and workflow, CDE structure and most importantly responsibility disposition. It is therefore
crucial to create (and remember to add this to bids) ICT agreements.
Luckily for Saturn, most of the engineering services are under one roof, allowing for great internal
control and quick collaboration. People are after all not dealing with any data external data exchange
and collaboration in the same room or building is much better then over the phone or email. In order to
achieve the highest possible quality for project work with external parties, it is recommended to hold
multidisciplinary meetings occasionally, where all the crucial areas are discussed. This type of a meeting
might be expensive, yet the savings achieved in the long run due to less revisioning are much greater.
When it comes to the specifics of LODs and geometric modeling needs, this depends on the phase
the project is in as well as the responsibility disposition. Again, to avoid problems of this sort, a compre-
hensive ICT agreement should be made, where references to documents mentioned in section 2.8. LOD
& Related Terminology will most likely be made. These documents are to be taken as a starting point
for any successful BIM collaboration.
STJEPAN MIKULIC 19
3.4. Financial Impact of BIM Implementation

After the analysis of financial investments and returns described in section 2.7. ROI of BIM, it is clear
how the company needs to be financially ready to both implement BIM and wait for its return on invest-
ment, which will most likely happen in the second year of BIM usage. However, this time can be taken
as a conservative value do to many other variables that haven’t been considered or have been taken
with a large safety factor. The following graph shows the ROI of BIM based on the calculations in section
2.7. Again, these values are very conservative, yet show how the principle how even though BIM does
require regular financial injections, it gives back to it many times over. All values below are rough esti-
mates and are based on CAD as a baseline (where no investment is made and expenses stay the same).
Table 10. ROI of BIM
ROI of BIM
500,0
450,0
Money in Thousands of Euros
400,0
350,0
300,0
250,0
200,0
150,0
100,0
50,0
0,0
Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Year 6
Total Investment 104,5 129,0 153,5 178,0 202,5 227,0
Total Return 79,0 158,0 237,0 316,0 395,0 474,0
Time in Years
It can be taken for a fact how BIM can only give a return in long-term and in 90% of cases it gives a
minus in the short-term. The company therefore, in our case Saturn A/S, which is implementing BIM
needs to be ready to take a financial loss in the first year or two, until BIM gives back.
This principle of long-term return is also applicable for individual project costs, where usually BIM
does incur larger costs in the start of a project (brief design and outline proposal phases) and gives back
only in later design phases (scheme design proposal, detail design 1 and 2, construction etc.). It is so
that to put a useful and correct building model in place takes time, where the returns are only visible in
later stages (as for example revisions take less time, risk is reduced etc.).
To have a positive cash flow, projects need to enter later design phases. If a project is abrupted for
whatever reason early after its inception, the ROI of BIM will most likely stay negative. However, most
projects are seen through and BIM implementation does make sense based on this majority of cases.
Lastly, project managers need to be aware of this BIM behavior to correctly align costs and payments of
projects (maybe require larger percentages of the fee in early stages) and achieve a neutral and even a
positive cash flow all throughout the project design. Moreover, due to BIM insuring safer and faster
projects, the fee could be increased due to better projects and BIM costs, which are higher than CAD’s.
STJEPAN MIKULIC 20
4. Technical Plan
4.1. People
As we’re following a model of BIM implementation called Team Transformation, the company has
decided to keep all employees and reskill them. It has also decided how it can bear the costs of both
BIM implementation and lost productive hours. BIM Team profiles have been described in section 2.4.
BIM Implementation Team, yet in this section descriptions of training and growth plans are added.
As we have a team of 13 people (actively involved BIM profiles) who are to be given training in BIM
(one CAD Coordinator, three Drafters and nine Engineers), this needs to be stretched out over certain
time. It will be so that the CAD Coordinator will be trained a week prior to the first Drafter and the first
Engineer. Thereafter Drafters and Engineers will have 1 week of training one after another, allowing for
work to continue as smoothly as possible, continuing until all employees have finished their training.
First project in BIM will begin after the first phase of training has ended for the CAD Coordinator and
the Drafters. This will be so 4 weeks after the initialization and the project taken on in BIM will have to
have deadlines far away in the future (at least 3-4 months). Lastly, the table below shows training plans
for the first person from each category, where the people who come afterwards start after the person
ahead has completed their phase. To sum up the amounts, the CAD Coordinator and Drafters will receive
1 month of training each (split into 4 weeks), while the Engineers will receive 1 week of training each.
Table 11. BIM Implementation Team Profiles, Training & Growth Plan
Profile 1 Description
Current Role Name CAD Coordinator
Future Role Name BIM Coordinator
Next Hierarchical Role Head of Department
Responsibilities BIM implementation, standards, clash detection, BIM development, data analysis
1st phase from 03.02.2020 to 07.02.2020 (37 hours)
2nd phase from 02.03.2020 to 06.03.2020 (37 hours)
Training Plan
3rd phase from 30.03.2020 to 03.04.2020 (37 hours)
4th phase from 27.04.2020 to 01.05.2020 (37 hours)
Growth Plan BIM implementation > BIM process optimization > Automatization > Development
Current Role Name Drafter
Future Role Name BIM Modeler
Next Hierarchical Role BIM Coordinator
Responsibilities Creation of 3D models following the figure in section 2.9. BIM Input
1st phase from 10.02.2020 to 14.02.2020 (37 hours)
2nd phase from 09.03.2020 to 13.03.2020 (37 hours)
Training Plan
3rd phase from 06.04.2020 to 10.04.2020 (37 hours)
4th phase from 04.05.2020 to dd.mm.2020 (37 hours)
Growth Plan BIM implementation > BIM discipline expertise > BIM multidisciplinary expertise
Current Role Name Engineer
Future Role Name Engineer (with BIM skills)
Next Hierarchical Role Senior Engineer
Responsibilities Extraction of data from a BIM model, input if necessary
Training Plan 1st phase from 10.02.2020 to 14.02.2020 (37 hours)
Growth Plan BIM implementation > BIM model data extraction > BIM data modelling expertise
STJEPAN MIKULIC 21
Training plans described above are constituted chronologically for a typical project, as they are fo-
cused on learning the skills the users will use in real life. The training for Drafters for example will first
start with creating a project and setting up the model, saving it on the local drive and/or cloud etc. and
will finish with detailing of drawings, scheduling data and printing of sheets. This will allow the student
to be able to start up a BIM project as soon as the first week of training is finished.
The training itself will take place online via approved courses such as LinkedIn Learning, Udemy or
Khan Academy. There will also be some training done via in-house workshops, where the BIM Coordi-
nator will go through a typical BIM project workflow and the Drafters will follow suit. It is important to
accentuate the weight of using the learned material immediately after learning, by either a quiz or a real
project. Last type of training (valid for Drafters only) that will be done is by doing the work itself, where
the last week of the individual’s training (37 hours) will be approved as employee development and will
be registered when the worker has spent extra time on self-learning or on fixing a technical, BIM-related
problem. This is of course understandable as learning to do a project right takes time.
Growth plan shown in the table depends on the individual, yet the path which each role could take
is sketched out. For those employees showing special initiative (push), there will be extra pathways to
be taken, where the team leader and the BIM Coordinator should take care of this (pull). Moreover, if
enough interest is shown, company-wide discipline events and meetings might be organized, where
individuals could share knowledge, best-practice advice and learn from each other. If there’s resources
enough, those who are pushing the most could be sent to global exhibitions, to learn about the newest
standards and implement them in company’s practice.
Central Information Structure (CIS) of Saturn A/S will be made on one of company’s network drives
and it will be administered by BIM Coordinators and IT. To access the CIS, a special Microsoft OneNote
notebook will be created, where one can easily navigate and find necessary information. The infor-
mation posted will be for example information about project start-up, program manuals, training docu-
ments, template usage, user structure, user network, clash detection procedure, classification specifi-
cation, BIM standards, company’s standards, ICT agreements, ICT templates and anything of wide-use.
Table 12. BIM Training Schedule
TASK PERSON W6 W7 W8 W9 W10 W11 W12 W13 W14 W15 W16 W17 W18
CAD Coordinator
1st Phase Stjepan
2nd Phase Stjepan
3rd Phase Stjepan
4th Phase Stjepan
Drafters
Felix
1st Phase Magnus
Olivia
Felix
2nd Phase Magnus
Olivia
Felix
3rd Phase Magnus
Olivia
Engineers
1st Phase Johan
1st Phase Mathias
1st Phase Victoria
1st Phase Tobias
1st Phase Jakob
1st Phase Pernille
1st Phase Simone
1st Phase Erik
1st Phase Liam
STJEPAN MIKULIC 22
4.2. Software
Software choices depend on a few variables: existing employee skills, university preference, market
presence, partners’ and client’ preferences, quality, price, support options, development. After looking
closely at these variables, Saturn A/S has decided to use following software:
Table 13. Software Overview
Category Software Description
Existing Software
Microsoft Windows Used across Europe and the world, employees already
Computer Software
10 know how to work with it.
Email MS Outlook In the MS Package, offers email, calendar, task listing etc.
Documentation MS Word In the MS Package, users are knowledgeable in it.
Tables & Schedules MS Excel In the MS Package, users are knowledgeable in it.
Presentations MS PowerPoint In the MS Package, users are knowledgeable in it.
MS OneNote In the MS Package, easy to learn and to use. Full support
Communication MS Teams from Microsoft.
Skype for Business Users are knowledgeable in it, great and easy to use tool.
Internet Explorer In the MS Package, easy to learn and to use. Full support
Internet Browser
Microsoft Edge from Microsoft.
Database Management MS Access In the MS Package, easy to learn and to use.
Project Management Oracle Used already across the company.
Project Planning MS Project Easy to learn, easy to edit, good visualization possibilities.
Structural Analysis Autodesk Robot Offers great collaboration with Revit and easy to learn.
CAD Autodesk AutoCAD Already used across the organization, Autodesk interface.
Cloud Storage MS OneDrive Safe, quick, suitable for the size of our organization.
PDF Editor PDF-Xchange Editor Easy to learn, great editing tool.
Screenshot Editor Greenshot Great tool to take and edit screenshots and snapshots.
New Software
Used across the country by many partners. Autodesk of-
fers a great package for a great price, as well as great sup-
port, forums, videos, knowledgeable community etc. Em-
BIM Autodesk Revit
ployees already know Autodesk AutoCAD with a similar
user interface and Revit is perfect for companies needs of
multiple and various engineering services.
Offers automatization of processes, parametric modeling,
Visual Programming Dynamo access to Revit’s API and has a knowledgeable community.
Completely free of charge (open-source software).
Offers great collaboration possibilities, quick visualization,
Construction Management Autodesk BIM 360 automatic clash detection, outsourcing etc. Great tools for
clients, partners, multidisciplinary users.
Offers customizable rules for clash detection, information
Clash Detection Solibri
takeoff, support from Solibri.
Offers a Revit add-in, website for management and easy
BIM Issue Management BIMcollab
to learn.
In the business plan the company decided to focus on savings in resources, better quality of projects
and better multidisciplinary collaboration – both internally and externally. Due to these reasons, BIM
will be implemented, and Revit is seen as the best fit for the company, especially when it comes to
collaboration possibilities, as most companies (over 50%) of the building industry in Denmark use it.
(BIM Equity, 2017) The program is also a great multidisciplinary modelling tool, just what Saturn needs.
STJEPAN MIKULIC 23
Revit’s benefits are almost countless, yet due to current usage of AutoCAD, the belief is how the
employees will grasp Revit faster than they would grasp ArchiCAD, Vectorworks, AllPlan, OpenBuildings
Designer etc. – which are products from different companies, having different user interfaces and dif-
ferent workflows. Moreover, most Danish universities teach their students Revit (as student licenses are
completely free of charge for up to 3 years) and this gives the company a wider pool of talent when
employing new people. Also, Autodesk’s package comes with AutoCAD, which the firm wouldn’t lose
and could continue using along with the new BIM tool. Lastly, integration of Revit with already used
Robot Structural Analysis would ease and improve information communication between Structural En-
gineers and BIM Modelers, where challenges are usually seen.
The possibility-rich BIM 360 platform is also chosen to ease project management, improve collabo-
ration internally and externally and open the possibility of outsourcing, where the company sees a great
business opportunity in further saving of resources. In other words, BIM 360 would open a pool of new
ways of collaboration, saving resources (time and money), improving Saturn’s services and delivering
better projects, thus overdelivering on clients’ expectations. Furthermore, BIM 360 includes an auto-
matic clash detection engine built on Navisworks’ engine, which (after extensive testing) might prove
better or just as good as the chosen Solibri is. This could save the company resources by not paying
expensive Solibri licenses and focus on BIM 360’s possibility instead.
For the task of automatization of tasks, where the key savings and workflow optimization are seen
for the company, Dynamo will be used, which is an open-source software that comes with Revit and
offers many possibilities for this. Dynamo also has a wide pool of experts, where advice on using the
software and creating scripts can easily be found online. Dynamo is seen as a key tool for helping the
company create scripts to automatize repetitive tasks, thereby saving resources.
For a very important task of clash detection (one of key reasons for company’s BIM implementation,
due to the policy of saving resources via cost and risk avoidance), the company decided to use Solibri,
as it proved as a trustable software with editable rulesets, where users can define country-based
rulesets for collisions and consistency. Moreover, the software offers possibilities of information takeoff
and comparison between models (useful once design changes take place model-wide), which is simply
a great way to improve communication with external companies.
Lastly, BIMcollab is chosen as a tool for issue management, where users can easily follow the issues
and clashes found in the model. It is chosen due to its easy usage, quick learning and possibilities of
connecting with many different tools, including Revit. Moreover, Saturn A/S would get their own
webpage within the BIMcollab domain, which allows for creation of company’s projects and easy way
of project management. Again, if BIM 360 proves it can do the task as well, this software might be
dropped from company-wide usage.
In terms of software licenses, the company is ready to invest and get licenses to all actively involved
employees. They will all get the Autodesk Collection (13 licenses in total) without question. In case of
other employees (passively involved employees such as Team Leaders, HODs etc.) they will also be eli-
gible for software after special internal agreement. Licenses in the Autodesk Collection and programs
with a daily need will be bought on a subscription basis, where newest updates are always available. For
programs with occasional use (such as Solibri and BIMcollab), limited number of licenses (use-based)
will be bought where one can get access to those programs only after internal approval.
STJEPAN MIKULIC 24
Table 14. New Software Licenses Overview

New Software License Type Number of Licenses Expected Price
Autodesk Collection
Yearly subscription 13 48373€ (3721€ per user)
(including Revit, AutoCAD etc.)
Autodesk BIM 360 Yearly subscription 13 15418€ (1186€ per user)
Solibri Yearly, single-user 1 1560€
BIMcollab Yearly, up to 25 users 25 1920€ (76.80€ per user)
All in all, Saturn A/S is ready to invest a reasonable deal of resources into new software. However,
looking at the table above, one might argue how BIM 360 isn’t a necessary software right from the start,
and it therefore shouldn’t be included and invested in. While this might be true short-term (after all,
Solibri and BIMcollab have been chosen as some employees have experience with the programs as well
as due to their prevalence in Denmark), BIM 360 does seem like the best option when for long-term ROI.
BIM 360 and Revit as a combination can do almost everything as Revit, Solibri and BIMcollab can do,
just in a more optimized way, as the BIM 360 platform was designed to suit the needs of the construction
industry. However, BIM 360 still has some occasional technical difficulties and might prove to be hard
to learn for the staff. It is therefore included right from the start, as the company sees the software as
the future channel of collaboration, yet it wants to leave its employees in a sort of a safe zone, where
they should first focus on Revit and then on BIM 360. On the other hand, for those with fresh eyes and
critical thinking, collaboration in Revit might prove too difficult or just unnecessarily complicated. They
could thus motivate others to switch to BIM 360 fully, as this software allows collaboration to happen
much more smoothly and easily and is seen as the optimal solution – if one knows how to use it correctly.
4.3. Hardware
Saturn A/S employees work with sensitive data, where every potential loss of that data could incur
large costs and unwanted missing of deadlines. Trustworthy and strong hardware is therefore one of
the crucial things for long-term success. In that regard, the company possesses some strong laptops
(mobile workstations) to insure the work is done correctly, efficiently and in due time. Here is an over-
view of the existing hardware infrastructure, where, in case the company’s staff starts handling most of
its projects on BIM 360 and its cloud engine, the hardware could remain the same for quite a while.
Table 15. Hardware of the BIM Implementation Team
Hardware Specifications Units Users
HP ZBook 15 G3 Mobile Intel Xeon E3-1545M proc., 32 GB RAM, Intel BIM Coordinator & BIM
4
Workstation (laptop) Iris Pro Graphics P580, 512 GB SATA storage Modelers
HP ZBook Studio G5 Intel Core i7-9750H processor, 8GB RAM, Intel
9 Engineers
Mobile Workstation UHD Graphics 630, 256 GB SSD storage
HP Zbook Studio G5 Intel Core i5-8300H processor, 8GB RAM, Intel Project Managers, Team
8
Mobile Workstation UHD Graphics 630, 256 GB SSD storage Leader, HODs & CTO
These mobile workstations were chosen as they provide great technical specifications for running
used programs. However, Saturn A/S does rely on their own network drives to storage information. This
could be changed in the upcoming years as cloud storage might prove to be safer. For now, the existing
hardware and its infrastructure is strong to run needed operations and will probably remain used in the
next year or two. As for the Revit Accelerator, this option might be used, depending whether the em-
ployees will opt for BIM 360 or a traditional way of collaboration (via network drives or Revit Server).
STJEPAN MIKULIC 25
5. Legal Plan
Introducing and implementing BIM in a company that has never used it before means not only new
technology and new software, but it also means a completely new way of working. There is a question
of responsibility, modelling delivery, design contracts etc. Namely, the BIM process has been somewhat
criticized for needing a high degree of trust between project parties to be a smooth one, without many
legal issues. Even though experienced BIM teams rarely encounter legal issues, the notion of clearly
knowing who does what, who is responsible for which information and when that information needs to
be delivered is a must. In other words, a clearly defined BIM process model is key if a project is to be
delivered and designed with BIM, without any large legal issues.
Another question that is to be answered is the one of decision prevalence in case of a discrepancy
between drawings and the model. In Denmark, the usual case is the decision how drawings are preva-
lent, as they are still treated to be products and they are pivotal references. The model is in most cases
simply a way of seeing problematic areas more clearly, without it being the decisive data center. On one
hand, this means how drawing-less projects are still a matter of some future times, when models will
be treated as the end-result of a project.
To solve the question of who does what, the Danish Association of Consulting Engineers (FRI) and
the Danish Association of Architectural Firms (DANSKE ARK) have made a document called Building and
Planning 2012, which clearly outlines who delivers what and in which phase of a building project – when
all design project parties are in question (architect, landscape architects, engineers). This document has
since been accepted by most firms in Denmark as it describes everything a design company might need
defined: types of consultancies, project phases, services etc. On that note, this document outlines the
types of services which design project parties are to deliver and in which phase. The design phases are:
• Outline Proposal
• Project Proposal
• Preliminary Project (Regulatory Project)
• Main Project
• Project Follow-up
In most cases of newly build buildings, Building and Planning 2012 document is supplemented by
BIPS A113, which is a state-governed standard for delivery requirements on building projects which fea-
ture concrete elements. Document’s subtitle is Distribution of Design Services and Responsibilities by
Delivery and Assembly of Elements of Concrete and Lightweight Concrete. This document visually shows
this service and responsibility disposition, where the most used model is 4L, shortly described below.
Table 16. BIPS A113 Model 4L Outline
Project Party Documents to be Delivered
Project Framework - Construction Work, Architectural Overview Drawings, Static
Calculations, Construction Overview Drawings, Electrical Overview Drawings, Deck
Consultant Plans, Reinforcement Plans, Delivery Work Description (incl. Building Component
Descriptions), Mounting Work Description (incl. Building Component Descriptions
Collection), Details
Building Part Drawings, Static Calculations – Elements, Element Lists, Number
Supplier
Plans, Building Part Details, Safety Data Sheets
Installation Contractor Installation Plan
STJEPAN MIKULIC 26
Contractual relationships between design project parties have been defined via three state-gov-
erned documents known as GC18, GCC18 and GCT18. Their usage depends on the contract type, where
they apply in the following matter:
• GC18 – General Conditions for Building and Construction Works and Supplies
o GC18 (in Danish AB 18) applies to contracts between the client and the contractors.
• GCC18 – General Conditions for Consultancy Services for Building and Construction Works
o GCC18 (in Danish ABR 18) applies to contracts between the client and the consultants.
• GCT18 – General Conditions for Design and Build Contracts
o GCT18 (in Danish ABT 18) applies to turnkey contracts.
While the named documents help with general questions of who does what and how, it still doesn’t
outline the design responsibility disposition inside a BIM model. This is outlined by BIM7AA BIM Detail-
ing and Responsibility (BDR) document, which determines consultant responsibility disposition for mod-
elling of building components. This document has already been mentioned and described in section 2.8.
All other responsibilities and processes are outlined in an ICT agreement, which is made by certified
individuals (ICT Managers, extra service of a consultancy) and includes following sections:
• Classification
o Describes classification of building elements inside a model (usually mentioned
BIM7AA Type Coding, see section 2.8.).
o Describes how that classification is to be inscribed in a model (in Revit, usually via
keynotes of elements).
• Digital Communication
o Describes how the communication is to take place and who’s responsible for it.
o Describes the Common Data Environment and the file formats used (usually docu-
ments in PDF, models in IFC and original format etc.).
o Describes the map and file structure as well as the name giving key of project files.
o Describes the metadata of the project (company and document name, version etc.).
• Establishment of Communication Platform

o Describes the platform responsible, the user library and access to the platform.
• Digital Design
o Describes the building model level (LOD), phase(s), properties of elements, usage etc.
o Describes the drawing production (file format, layer structure standard (usually Dan-
ish standard IBB 2000).
o Describes the coordinate system (usually DKTM2/ETRS89) used as well as the height
system (usually DVR90).
o Describes the responsible party and requirements for clash and consistency controls.
• Digital Handover
o Describes delivery phase, methods, requirements for file formats etc.
STJEPAN MIKULIC 27
Following the named standards will lead a team to a smooth project design and delivery, as usual
legal issues are covered clearly. Saturn A/S will therefore include these standards in the education of
the employees, while expecting them to still take a while getting used to all these new standards. The
BIM Coordinator in this matter will need to take the leading role and be the most knowledgeable person
for these standards, where the solution of legal challenges is expected of him as well as general coordi-
nation of design legal issues all until handover, when the responsibility of the model and all its data
passes over to the client, main contractor or builder, depending on contract type.
Potential legal and contractual risks exist, yet the multiple documents therefore exist. In case of an
inconsistency between any of the contracts with the standards used, it is the contract that prevails. Also,
the intellectual property is handled with the separation of BIM models and/or separation of worksets
(in Revit), depending on the contract with other parties. In general, all objects that the company owns
are in the IFC file, which is taken as a standard and as a reference. Moreover, the access to files is gov-
erned on the CDE.
Lastly, the legal issues could arise in case project partners to not meet agreements, as this usually
impacts others’ work and deadlines. In that case, (daily) penalties could be instituted and/or the project
would need to be postponed. Usually, this is done in the agreement of all involved parties and can hap-
pen smoothly as sometimes buffer periods are added to the schedule on purpose.
Table 17. Usual BIM Process Structure (HKIBIM, 2015)
Architectural Structural
Model Model
Electrical
VHS Model
Model
Fire Safety
Model
Common Data Environment (CDE)
Check
Federated Model
Architectural Structural
Model Model
Electrical
VHS Model
Model
Fire Safety PDF 2D

Model Contract Drawings and Specifications
STJEPAN MIKULIC 28
6. Example Project
This BIP has been written and projected for Saturn A/S and it is created for the purpose of successful
implementation of BIM right from the first project. However, the company is advised to start small, with
a small team in a closed BIM situation, as this is the best way to learn how to use the technology and
collaborate. BIM, after all, is a process which will take time to develop and to reach its full potential. In
other words, BIM is not a program, a product, yet it is rather a process of delivering safer, faster and
less expensive projects via BIM technologies.
It is therefore understandable how the first few projects will not be representative and will not be
able to showcase all the benefits of BIM. Moreover, there are a few principles that the company will
need to follow to get as many benefits as possible from day one, and that is to start with little closed
BIM and gradually move toward big open BIM (this transition is seen as a positive one). Little and big
BIM terms describe the size of the team that is implementing BIM, where teams larger than approxi-
mately 50 people are deemed as big. Closed and open BIM mean either the usage of a single software
(closed BIM; single software such as Revit is in our case) and the usage of international open standards
(open BIM), such as IFC or COBie. (BIM Journal, 2019)
Table 18. BIM Implementation Process Transition
Little Open Big Open

BIM BIM
Little Big Closed

Closed BIM BIM
In this section, we will look at a project example, where Saturn’s Aalborg BIM implementation team
uses BIM technologies on a typical project the company deals with. As shown above, we will start with
little closed BIM, where our team of 21 is considered a small team. Moreover so, out of 21 people in-
volved, 13 are actively involved (1 BIM Coordinator, 9 Engineers, 3 BIM Modelers) and 8 are passively
involved (1 CTO, 3 Heads of Development, 1 Team Leader, 3 Project Managers). This team is in Aalborg,
where the models will be located on the local network drives and no outsourcing will be done (even
though this is company’s plan). As the main modelling software, Revit is chosen, where the models are
split by disciplines and workset splitting is not applied. The project’s basic details are given below.
Table 19. Example Project Outline
# Category Comments
1 Project Name Dancity A1, located in Aalborg, Denmark
2 Project Size 14480 m2 of publicly available units (170 apartments, 9 offices/boutiques)
3 Saturn’s Fee 3 100 000 kr. (approximately 415 000€)
4 Architects Jens Jensen Architects A/S
5 Consultancy Services Structural, VHS, Electrical
6 BIM Platform Revit
7 Clash Detection Program Solibri
8 Issue Management Program BIMcollab, via Saturn’s portal
9 BIM Process Responsible Saturn’s BIM Coordinator (me)
STJEPAN MIKULIC 29
Table 20. Architectural Model of Dancity A1 (Note: fictious name for a real project I’m working on.)
The team has received the architectural model (shown above) and could start their work in their
own models, simultaneously. The team produced 3 separate models: structural, VHS and electrical. For
the on-the-go coordination of these models the team has used BIMcollab app, which proved useful right
from the start, as issues could easily be reported, and the program took a very short time to be learnt.
Moreover, the program’s online platform proved to be an insightful and an easy way to track project
progress, seeing the parties involved, issues solved, issues remaining etc.
All these models (4 in total) were subjected to a clash detection before the Project Proposal delivery,
where Solibri was used with a customized ruleset. This ruleset has been made by the BIM Coordinator,
who has included Danish legislative rules in it, and this has proved to be a great benefit of the program.
After the clash and consistency detections was ran, over 21 000 clashes were found. Out of 21 000, only
97 were found to be critical for the progress of the project. All these issues were easily reported to all
parties via reports from Solibri in PDF and XML files, as well as a BCF file which was immediately im-
ported to BIMcollab’s portal. This portal has again proved to be a great asset for tracking issues as well
as checking whether the models are consistent and not having double units of same walls etc.
Table 21. Excerpt from BIMcollab’s Portal (consistency check of walls and floors)
The consistency check was also one of the crucial benefits of BIM, as now the project managers and
engineers could perform quantity take-offs to see exactly how many elements they have, what’s their
volume, weight, cost and basically any needed information – if it was modelled and assigned to the
STJEPAN MIKULIC 30
building elements correctly. In the table below, we can see how the exact volume of walls on the 4 th and
5th floor was scheduled from the model, which eased structural engineer’s work by having a basis for
static calculations, as well as project manager’s work by being able to easily calculate the elements price.
Table 22. Wall Quantity Take-off for 4th and 5th Floor
Wall Quantity Take-off
Type Description Floor Units Length Height Volume
CW.150 150 mm concrete wall F4 Floor 4 16 30,320 m 2750 mm 11,19 m³
F4 Floor 4 54 330,133 m 167,51 m³
F5 Floor 5 47 253,255 m 154,91 m³
Total units: 100 583,388 m 322,42 m³
The project continued and it was successfully delivered in due time and not going over budget. The
exact savings which BIM brought are almost impossible to calculate for this project, as many hours have
been spent on learning how to model, how to collaborate and how to create deliverable files (drawings
and descriptions) directly in Revit. However, some crucial benefits of a BIM process were immediately
noticed. Some of these benefits are (Autodesk, 2018):
• Better Collaboration
With BIM, everyone could easily follow each other’s work and easily see the challenges other
had. Moreover, collaboration proved to be quicker, as long meeting weren’t needed and
challenges were discussed as they appeared (visualized via the BIMcollab app). Lastly, the
clash and consistency detections were performed, and models could safely be delivered.
• Quantity Take-offs and Estimations

Not only did BIM help the BIM Modelers to collaborate more easily, yet other people could
use the model for their work. Engineers and Project Managers could so save themselves time
on manual calculation of elements, their properties and achieve better results in their energy
calculations, static calculations, cost estimations etc.
• Reduced Cost and Mitigated Risk

Produced drawings and descriptions are certainly much safer, as they were produced in a
comprehensive and visually clear workflow. Thus, the amount of rework is lowered, as well
as the company’s risk. This is due to a more collaborative approach as well as the clash de-
tection, which minimized risky areas and expensive fixes during project construction.
All in all, the presented BIM process proved to be a success right from the start, even though it’s still
not seen as the most optimal one. Further savings of resources could be achieved once the staff has
mastered the BIM tools used, as well as with automatization of routine tasks, either via Dynamo or
various add-ins. This is the next step for the company, on future projects performed in BIM. With de-
tailed business, technical and legal plans, usual challenges were either fully avoided or easily solved.
BIM has not only improved collaboration, yet it also improved communication, which resulted in fewer
issues and ultimately a quicker, safer and cheaper project, than it would have been if performed in CAD.
STJEPAN MIKULIC 31
7. Conclusion
The implementation of BIM brings many benefits to a company, yet it could potentially incur large
costs and delayed project deliveries, if not handled in a smart way. BIM implementation plan is therefore
the key document on how the transition from CAD could happen as smooth as possible. Difficult ques-
tions and challenges need to be solved in theory before anything is done in practice and in that lays the
importance of a BIP. BIP doesn’t only describe the implementation of a new technology, yet it discusses
the impact of this technology on the complete business model and the changes that happen to the
company. Questions of staff retraining, company services offer, legislation needs, ROI etc. are therefore
all covered in a proper BIP and they describe how, ultimately, BIM brings many benefits.
However, BIP can’t predict the exact behavior of the employees nor the company. After all, imple-
mentation of BIM is an investment, which might prove either very beneficial or very detrimental. It is
the mission of a BIP to mitigate this risk by answering crucial questions beforehand and to approve the
investment and its size and scope. As mentioned in this BIP, BIM isn’t to be implemented at a large scale
and with a large team right from the start – dangers of this type of implementation are simply too large,
as costs, infrastructure challenges and an unexperienced team could lead to an unsuccessful process.
On the other hand, if one starts small, with a team of up to 50 people and in a closed environment
(using one single software), BIM implementation will likely succeed right from the start. This is of course
only true is other crucial questions are answered as well, such as the responsibility issues of different
models, different building objects and their properties. In our case, Saturn A/S is a company located in
Denmark, where BIM is a well-known process, and this eases company’s implementation as partners
and employees have a high likelihood of having encountered BIM before, which improves cross-com-
pany collaboration and speeds up the implementation process.
BIM should not only be a new way of working and a way to improve one’s projects, yet it should be
a new opportunity to improve one’s business. Since BIM has emerged, it has continually improved, and
all its possibilities have not yet been discovered. Ultimately, it brings a lot of value to the company that
uses it daily and it also serves as a great marketing material. Moreover, companies that use BIM attract
a large pool of talented people, which brings further benefit to the company, as new people ultimately
optimize and improve the BIM process that the company has implemented.
Exactly this principle has been used while creating this BIM implementation plan. Benefits of it are
therefore not only direct, but also indirect, where the planned solutions might not work due to unpre-
dictable reasons, but they still offer possibilities of reflection. This plan can therefore also be used in a
company already has implemented BIM, as the reflection on the practices used could bring a lot of value.
Finally, this BIM implementation plan outlines and describes the challenges that happen to the com-
pany and its staff, trying to solve them based on the current literature and best-practice ways of work-
ing. Moreover, this BIP tries to predict the impact BIM might have on the company and its policy, where
it hopes to create an environment where BIM could reach its full potential and most challenges could
be overcome. However, the final impact (financial, business and/or legislative) of BIM on a company
can’t possibly be measured beforehand due to multiple reasons, primarily due to challenges that have
been avoided and staff that needs retraining. BIM’s true impact will therefore only be known once the
implementation has fully taken place and BIM process reaches its most advantageous form.
STJEPAN MIKULIC 32
8. References & Bibliography

(Behnke, 2011) Behnke, E., 2011. Engineers Report - A Guide to Writing an Engineering Report. 1st ed. Copenhagen, Denmark: Nyt Tek-
nisk Forlag
(Torsteinsen, 2011) Torsteinsen, H., 2011. Why Does Post-Bureaucracy Lead to More Formalisation? [ONLINE] Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1080/03003930.2011.629194. [Accessed 12 January 2020].
(BIM7AA, 2019) BIM7AA [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.bim7aa.dk/DIKON_BIM7AA_Bygningsdelsspecifikationer_UK.html. [Accessed
12 January 2020].
(8DBIM, 2019) 8DBIM [ONLINE] Available at: https://8dbim.weebly.com/8d.html#. [Accessed 12 January 2020].
(BIM Equity, 2019) BIM Equity [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.bimequity.dk/blog/analyse-bim-dets-anvendelse-danmark-2017. [Ac-
cessed 12 January 2020].
(Amit, 2019) Amit, cadblogbyamit [ONLINE] Available at: https://cadblogbyamit.wordpress.com/2019/12/01/bim-ds-2d-3d-4d-5d-6d-7d-
and-8d-and-benefits/. [Accessed 12 January 2020].
(HKIBIM, 2015) The Hong Kong Institute of Building Information Modelling, HKIBIM, 2015 [ONLINE] Available at:
https://www.slideshare.net/HKIBIM/streamlining-bim-workflow-by-standardising-design-process-desmond-leung. [Accessed 12 January
2020].
(BIM Journal, 2019) The BIM Hub, BIM Journal, Issue 1, 2019 [ONLINE] Available at: https://thebimhub.com/magazines/bim-journal/is-
sue/1/pdf/. [Accessed 12 January 2020].
(Autodesk, 2018) Top 10 Benefits of BIM in Construction, Autodesk, John Hall, 2018 [ONLINE] Available at: https://connect.bim360.auto-
desk.com/benefits-of-bim-in-construction. [Accessed 12 January 2020].
9. Vocabulary & Applied Abbreviations

AEC – Architecture, Engineering and Construction
BIM – Building Information Modelling
BIP – BIM Implementation Plan
CAD – Computer Aided Design
SME – Small and Medium Enterprise
CEO – Chief Executive Officer
CTO – Chief Technological Officer
STR – Structures; structural engineering department of Saturn A/S
VHS – Ventilation, Heating and Systems; department of Saturn A/S
ELE – Electrical; department of Saturn A/S
LEED – Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, most widely used green building rating system in the world
DGNB – Abbreviation (in German Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Nachhaltiges Bauen) for the German Sustainable Building Council
BREEAM – Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method
PtD – Prevention through Design
QA – Quality Assurance
QC – Quality Control
ICT – Information and Communication Technology
IDM – Information Delivery Manual
CDE – Common Data Environment
R&D – Research & Development
E&O – Errors and Omissions
CIS – Central Information Structure
IFC – Industrial Foundation Classes, internationally accepted file format
COBie – Construction Operations Building Information Exchange, internationally accepted file format
FM – Facility Management
PDF – Portable Document Format
DWG – Drawing (native file format for several CAD programs, namely AutoCAD)
© 2020 Stjepan Mikulic. All rights reserved.
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EN iMBIM 1803 BIP PRACTICE Stjepan Mikulic

BIM Implementation Plan

Master Thesis Supervisors: Pieter Pauwels & Gustavo Ferreiro

Master of Global BIM Management

Master Thesis Institute: Zigurat Global Institute of Technology

© 2020 Stjepan Mikulic. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction & Context

1.2. Company Context

7 Head Count 90 employees in total Employees by function:

1.3. Information Needs & Challenges

1.4. Added Value of BIM

2. Internal Business Plan

2.2. CAD-specific Hierarchical Structure

2.3. Office Structure

Table 4. BIM-confronted People (21 out of 25 employees in Aalborg)

Table 5. Organizational Structure of the BIM Implementation Team

CAD Coordinator Team Leader

Project Managers Engineers Drafters

Emil Kristiansen Johan Madsen (STR)

2.4. BIM Implementation Team

2.5. Key Challenges

• Poor Design Quality Assurance

2.6. Challenge Analysis & BIM Implementation Goals

2.7. ROI of BIM

• Training period in months (separated due to a different wage of Drafters/CAD Coordinator

Legend: K – kroner (DKK); E – employees; H – hours; M – months; H/M – hours/months; € – euros.

This gives us following values, through the first 3 years:

2.8. LOD & Related Terminology

2.9. BIM Input

General Notes &

2.10. Plan of Integration & Impact Expected

2. Form a Powerful Coalition

3. Create a Vision for Change

4. Communicate the Vision

6. Create Short-Term Wins

7. Build on the Change

8. Anchor the Changes in Corporate Culture

3. External Business Plan

3.2. Company’s Services

3.3. Collaborative Information Needs

3.4. Financial Impact of BIM Implementation

Table 14. New Software Licenses Overview

• Establishment of Communication Platform

Fire Safety PDF 2D

Little Open Big Open

Little Big Closed

• Quantity Take-offs and Estimations

• Reduced Cost and Mitigated Risk

8. References & Bibliography

9. Vocabulary & Applied Abbreviations

© 2020 Stjepan Mikulic. All rights reserved.

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