Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Manufactured Complementary Building Products

Integrating design, drawings, specifications, and shop drawings in a BIM model
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Sponsored by Nystrom, Inc.
Peter J. Arsenault, AIA, NCARB, LEED-AP

In light of these findings, Steve Jones, one of the co-authors of this report from McGraw-Hill Construction has said, "With about half the North American AEC industry already up off their beach chairs and at least wading ankle-deep in the BIM surf, we can stop hyperventilating about "BIM" and just do BIM as a regular course of business."

• All BIM users plan significant increases in utilizing BIM. Fully one third of all current BIM users surveyed report employing BIM on 60% or more of their projects today, but twice as many users expect to be at that level in the next two years. Of those not yet using BIM, half have yet to try it, although they are open to it, and at least 42% of non-users believe that BIM will be either highly or very highly important in the next five years. The trend of increased usage observed during the past two years appears that it will continue based on these survey results.

• Different groups of users have differing usage levels, but the majority of users overall are seeing real business benefits directly attributable to BIM. The report breaks down some interesting observations about the different groups using BIM:


Source: McGraw Hill Construction 2009 Smart Market Report - The Business Value of BIM

 

- Architects:BIM used in the AEC industry is credited to have gotten its start within the architectural community and this early adoption has architects still reigning as the highest users of BIM. As many as 60% of architects report creating some form of BIM Model in their practice and two thirds of those report that they find high value in the core design development and construction document phases of a project. This value is based on higher productivity and a reduction in the need to re-work designs.

- Engineers: Overall, this group of design professionals lags behind architects with only 42% of engineers reporting using BIM, which is actually lower than the usage percentage of contractors. Among the common resistance expressed by engineers is the availability of sufficient engineering content that is BIM compatible or a perception that this approach doesn't apply to their particular practice of engineering. On the positive side, engineers see the reduction of conflicts and changes during construction as the top ways that BIM adds value to a project.

- Contractors:This group is growing faster in usage than any other with 50% currently reporting using BIM or related tools compared to only 13% in 2007 - a fourfold increase in only two years. This growth is likely fueled by the finding that nearly 70% of contractors that are using BIM are finding high value with greater chances of avoiding errors and omission problems during construction, enhancing productivity, avoiding conflicts, and improving performance on both budget and time schedule.

- Owners: As a group, approximately 37% of building and facility owners report using BIM, even though many have yet to realize the long term operations and maintenance benefits. Nonetheless, 70% of those utilizing BIM for design and construction projects see positive value through such benefits as lower overall project costs, clash detection, avoiding rework, and a generally overall better construction outcome.

- Material Fabricators:Accurate information and dimensioning are the keys to successful material fabrication in any construction project. By bringing fabricators into the design and construction process earlier rather than later, they can collaborate with the rest of the team to provide input and extract data from the BIM Model rather than recreate it separately. In this way the project can benefit from improved overall quality, easier constructability, the reduction of waste, better timeliness in fabrication schedules and a resulting improvement in affordability.

- Building Product Manufacturers: This group is just beginning to realize the potential benefits of incorporating BIM into the way that they communicate and interact with all of the other players above. Some are developing their own libraries of their products as complete BIM objects. Commercial services are also working with a steadily growing number of manufacturers to make BIM objects of their products available to those creating and using BIM models.

 

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Originally published in Architectural Record
Originally published in December 2009

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