Integrated BIM and Design Review for Safer, Better Buildings

How project teams using collaborative design reduce risk, creating better health and safety in projects
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C.C. Sullivan

GM Pulls Up with BIM
Case Study: General Motors Flint V6 Engine Assembly Plant, Flint, Michigan

GM plant aerial view
Courtesy of Ghafari Associates, Dearborn, Mich.

How is it possible to deliver a project 25 percent faster and 15 percent under budget, with virtually no change orders? The answer is through the utilization of 3-D modeling to promote optimal building team collaboration.

Such was the case with the recent design and construction of a 442,000-square-foot engine manufacturing plant for General Motors. By replacing 2-D drawings with 3-D modeling, the team was able to capitalize on building information modeling (BIM) for design integration, automated "collision detection," construction visualization, shop drawing and constructability reviews and maintenance analysis.

As a matter fact, via BIM's weekly automated collision-detection sessions (review meant to see whether building elements in the design interfere with each other), literally thousands of potential conflicts were detected and avoided throughout the project.

According to Robert Mauck, AIA, P.E., vice president of Advanced Technology for Ghafari in Dearborn, Michigan, the use of 3-D modeling "eliminated rework caused by field interferences, allowing the team to adopt a build-to-the-model approach using increasingly off-site fabrication and just-in-time delivery and construction, which further enhanced quality and site-safety."

One such example where BIM really proved its value was when it came time to order 4,500 tons of steel from the mill. Typically, it takes eight to 12 weeks to issue the mill order to the fabricator, but in this case, the team would have missed the mill-rolling schedule, further delaying steel delivery.

However, since a 3-D model was available, the steel fabricator was able to extract steel quantities directly from the model created by the architecture/engineering firm, Ghafari. This way the mill order was delivered within three weeks of the start of the design, assisting the team to deliver this fast-tracked project in just nine months. In addition, the early availability of this information enabled the fabricator to provide valuable information regarding steel members, leading to additional project savings.

Contractors have also documented specific advantages of using BIM for healthcare work. Steve Mynsberge, a senior vice president for the healthcare segment at McCarthy Building Companies, credits BIM for better handling the complex MEP systems required for hospitals, especially as teams rely more on off-site prefabrication. By using BIM, Mynsberge has seen "better-facilitated outside fabrication" and "better results on coordinating design documents and shop drawings for all the different systems." Another company, DPR Construction in Redwood City, California, employs BIM design review to consolidate and coordinate 3-D and 2-D hospital project information from fire-protection and plumbing engineers, as well as from the electrical and mechanical trades. In addition to life-safety benefits, DPR expects to realize an average savings of 15 percent or more on installed costs for their fire-protection systems.

But the advantage goes beyond MEP coordination and cost. The Dallas-based A/E firm HKS has used fully integrated BIM to simulate process and material distribution, patient and staff flow, and MEP activities. Detroit's A/E firm, SmithGroup, and Seattle's NBBJ have employed 3-D coordinated BIM to check for patient and equipment visibility and access, in some cases in meetings with doctors and nurses who will use the facilities. Such information on clearances and mobility has a direct impact on patient health outcomes as well as the safety and security of hospital operations, say these teams. NBBJ has also demonstrated the efficacy of modeling natural light for the patients and the families.

Then there's the "virtual treatment room": realistic 3-D models of patient rooms or surgical suites, to compare patient services and treatment regimens. Considering the rapid changes in medical technology, A/E firms such as Leo A. Daly, Omaha, Nebraska, employ BIM to simulate treatment room design. Using static views and animated walk-throughs, the designers verify clearances and utilities needed to operate the major types of equipment, such as MRIs, as well as the access and accommodations needed for attending healthcare staff.

In a recent article, Graham Condit of Seattle-based Sellen Construction described the application of BIM for "building out interior spaces in an occupied medical facility." Major safety benefits Condit details include the evaluation of alternate phasing sequences based on ingress and egress routes, infection-control procedures, required operational downtime, and need for temporary spaces. Another phasing consideration is the use of prefab components. On a recent project, according to Condit, the contractor had utilidor racks produced off site, and then installed to connect such services as emergency power, medical gases and chilled water to the new building. The approach reduced labor time on site, maintaining the schedule and ensuring quality.

Beyond helping with long-lead items, Condit details major safety benefits. including the use of BIM to determine access routes for equipment, as well as to mock up treatment areas. "Moving a 30,000-pound MRI machine through a corridor requires advanced planning," Condit said. "BIM can be used to find the precise date in the construction schedule and the optimal ingress route to ensure successful installation." Also, as key MEP fittings are often located in the ceiling, BIM allows contractors to pinpoint the locations while maintaining required infection-control protocols.

Last, because healthcare projects tend to include national design teams and remotely located consultants, BIM design-review tools have been used to facilitate long-distance coordination. Boryslawski describes a $450 million hospital project near San Diego taking advantage of the high level of compression in its BIM collaboration technology: The data can be shared over high-speed Internet. "Any changes during the design process are automatically updated within the BIM, then streamlined to the recipients," he says.

"This design-coordination BIM process will reduce the number of future RFIs [requests for information] normally issued by the general contractor," Boryslawski predicts. "Once taken over by the general contractor, more intelligent 3-D data can be added to the BIM for their coordination and fabrication processes, so there is only one main source of information coming from the BIM."

 

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Originally published in Architectural Record.
Originally published in June 2007

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