What's BIM (or Building Information Modeling)? Professional readers involved in the construction sector might have already heard or known about it, or even implemented it already. For whoever doesn't have a clue about it, and yet plans to survive in the construction market, the following is a definite must-read:
How many structural errors are faced by contractors when it comes to implement designers' work? How many times clashes occurs on site between electrical, mechanical, civil, architectural and all sorts of such independent designs, resulting in a disruption of construction and repetition of work and consumption of more resources, time, money and staff? How much time does it require to request and receive specific information needed by different specialized teams involved in the project from each other to be able to pursue their work? How much effort and time does it require to request and generate accurate reports and data about the project? How much money, time and effort does it require to monitor and have full control over all engineering technical details and work progress to make sure everything is being done as planned? How much time, money and effort does it require to generate accurate budget forecasts, project plans and schedules to know without any error whether a project is worth bidding for or not?
The answer is one for all the questions above: one click! How? The answer is: Building Information Modeling or simply BIM.
To know more about BIM, its implementation, its benefits and challenges, EKARUNA met with Mr. Charbel Moussallem, Director of BIM-ME, a Lebanese company specialized in BIM implementation and one of the very few AutoDesk-authorized developers in the world. BIM-ME has gained considerable momentum in the last few years as it is now handling the implementation of BIM platforms for mega-projects conducted by mega-developers all around the world.
"BIM as a concept started in the industrial and military sectors as solid modeler. As we know, traditional construction relies essentially on CAD software (like AutoCAD for example and various other programs). The problem with CAD is that it's nothing but 2-D lines. BIM is more than just a layout and a map like CAD. BIM is a 3D + data platform; it does perfect quasi-real virtual construction" says Moussallem.
"When it comes to placing a duct for example; in CAD, you're just drawing a couple of lines, but in BIM, you're also introducing all the information about it, its width, length, flow, position etc... So what CAD reads as being a couple of lines, BIM reads it as a real duct and goes further to notify you in case it interferes for example with any structure around it. Countless are the cases where contractors only discover such a problem when the construction work is already in process, which makes them obliged to redo a lot of work, costing more money, material, labor and time" he explains.
Technically speaking, and still according to Moussallem, BIM provides drafting and analysis in one platform. It represents all the components of a building in 3D format along with all the related data about every single component placed: its specifications, cost, supplier, material, size, coordinates, time to implement, labor required etc...
As we know, the construction of a building involves several independent specialized parties, basically at least: the owner, the developer, civil engineers, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, architects, interior designers, contractors and more.
These different teams do their parts of the work independently. But finally it will all have to end up combined together and here comes the biggest burden; it takes huge time and effort and error risks to maintain continuous communication between these teams.
"BIM, as a platform, solves this essential problem. Practically, it requires that all the parties involved in the project be trained on using compatible software (i.e.: Revit) for their designs. The civil, mechanical, electrical and architectural structures are thus, at the end, all combined together to perform clash tests and to extract all sorts of needed data. The key is that, in the meantime, they can all automatically and instantaneously access the work and modifications performed by all other parties, to make sure their work conforms together. This alone represents a revolution in construction" says Moussallem.
In Lebanon and the Middle East in general however, with the exception of few companies, the majority is not all fit to move into such a level, due to cultural and educational drawbacks. According to Moussallem, BIM can solve that issue. "BIM, as a platform, contains several tools, but not everything one can imagine. That's why it was designed in a way to incorporate the possibility for software developers to introduce their own customized tools. As a company specialized in AutoDesk software development, we can convert traditional designs into BIM-compatible ones" explains Moussallem.
Now as the concept became clearer in matter of stakeholders, functioning and input procedures, it's important to give a glimpse of the benefits and advantages it offers to all of them:
1. BIM is a fully-automated platform. Any operation required is done automatically.
2. It helps optimize the whole design process and makes it totally error-free. This results in making the contractor's work a lot easier and straightforward.
3. It clears out all clashes between the building's components by notifying the user.
4. It allows the different parties involved to access each other's work and extract all needed data.
5. It generates accurate forecasts for budgeting, since every component carries with it all the information about its cost.
6. It generates accurate planning and scheduling, since every structure carries with it all the information about the time it needs to be implemented (for instance, BIM can be linked to MS Project or Primavera or other software needed for that purpose).
7. It reduces considerably the time required to finalize projects. This results from clearing a lot of redundant communications, traditional manual work, errors in designs, errors in implementation by contractors, improper planning and scheduling etc...
8. It represents the best support needed for all facility management operations.
9. It can generate all sorts of required reports.
10. It represents a great tool for asset management within buildings, since all material and furniture placed as read by BIM as real items and thus can be perfectly tracked and monitored.
11. It gives full monitoring and control capacities to the project managers and owners.
12. It easily generates BOQs and BOMs for projects.
13. In contrast with CAD, BIM can provide information on all structural volumes and thus make it much easier to conduct energy modeling for the building.
In simpler terms, since it carries within it all the real data introduced by the trained specialized staff, any sort of information needed for any kind of operations and analysis and for any kind of monitoring and control can thus be extracted automatically. So the above are simply examples of a multitude of benefits that can go as far as the desires of the project's stakeholders.
Now the first question that would come to mind is how much would it cost to jump into the BIM world? "Zero at most" affirms Moussallem. "Relatively to traditional construction, implementing BIM and training the teams will definitely lead to a winning situation" he adds.
"What's even nicer is that assigning a company to implement BIM is only done one time. Once the teams are trained and the software required is there, that's it, it can be used as a method of work for all future operations and the company would only be needed in cases of support or in case of need for additional tools to be developed" explains Moussallem.
This gives Moussallem great confidence that in due time, all companies will end up adopting BIM. "It's the future of construction" he says. According to Moussallem, if contractors or consultants don't move towards the BIM platform, they risk losing the market.
© Ekaruna 2011
