Friday 23 November 2012

Brookfield Multiplex

Following on from my last post I have had many #UKBIMCrew (and some international #BIMFriends)interested in where I am going.

I have joined Brookfield Multiplex Europe Ltd as their BIM/VDC Manager-Construction as of this week.

I look forward to collaborating with BMCE supply chain and facilitating BIM/IPD enabled project delivery going forward, mainly focusing on field BIM, 4D, 5D, 6D, nD, and of course 3D coordination and how we can leverage our collaborative approach to improve efficiencies in Construction and FM using the latest BIM/VDC/Mobile technologies and cloud computing.

 
PS: I met some of the #UKBIMCrew at yesterday's #BIMForFree event @Ramboll-London (what an event that was. it deserves a separate blog post to be honest. thanks Lee/Graham/Nigel for organising) in my new role so most of them know already but I thought I make it public for others.

Thursday 15 November 2012

Construction Phase Begins

No! I am not talking about any building site here. After spending almost 14 years in AE industry I am moving on to Construction(-BIM) phase in my creer.
Yes, I am thrilled to move on to construction BIM and get involved in the bigger BIM picture, from next week.

I remember those days when I was involved in Design-BIM and kept sighing thinking "I wish the contractor/client was BIM educated" OR "I wish BIM requirements were set out clearly by the contractor/client" etc.
Now I feel I can make the difference so that the 'Design-BIM Managers' engaged with this contractor/client wouldn't have to sigh, I hope!-;)

It's been amazing last two years at Woods Bagot working on one of the largest, post-GFC, mixed use tower projects in the heart of the city of London, 100 Bishopsgate, and few other quite challenging projects around the globe.
What makes Woods Bagot very positive and fulfilling place to work for is their people and projects. I have been fortunate enough to work with some of the best designers, leaders, and team mates during my time here. I thank Woods Bagot for giving me amazing opportunities during my time and supporting my move to 'Construciton BIM'. My special thanks to Woods Bagot global design technology team for their continuous support and inspiration, to 100 Bishopsgate team at Woods Bagot and Allies and Morrison for their continuous support and cooperation during the project, and finally Woods Bagot London studio management for giving me all the opportunities. I wish everyone at Woods Bagot and people I have worked with through Woods Bagot all the very best.

Debunking 'BIM' Assumptions

Assumption 1: Model based integrated schedules are always correct
This is one of the (wrong) perceptions some people in the industry have about BIM enabled project delivery and poses one of the biggest risks in BIM project delivery. It isn’t questionable at all that schedules are fully integrated with 3D model, or 2D shapes for that matter, but a question ought to be asked is: How do we validate BIM model integrity to ensure that it meets project requirements at various phases of a project, resulting in accurate schedules rather than simply ‘integrated’ schedules?

Assumption 2: BIM expectations are clearly defined and communicated
This is another challenge I find, as a BIM Manager, when dealing with BIM project delivery. At this very moment in time, not all RFPs have BIM requirements and also the ones that have ‘BIM word’ in it do not have BIM expectations clearly defined, resulting in big clashes – no, I am not talking about 3D geometry here but expectations, yes big clashes of expectations especially when ‘geeky’ BIM Managers get involved. A true BIM Manager would know what to expect from a BIM Model, when, and how. So a receiving BIM Manager would have lot of ‘BIM expectations’ whereas delivering team would know less about those ‘BIM expectations’ because those expectations were never captured/communicated OR were not part of the overall project scope/fee. If ‘BIM expectations’ are not clearly defined and communicated to the team then how can you manage BIM modelling to meet those unknown expectations – quantity take off, 4D, 5D and so on.

Assumption 3: BIM improves communication
I have seen this many times in BIM presentations under ‘BIM Benefits’. I (partially) disagree with this. What is true is BIM facilitates improvement in communication but doesn’t improve it automatically. We still have to make efforts to seize the ‘BIM’ opportunity and improve communication. As you would agree, communication is the key to a successful BIM project delivery. In fact this applies to any type of project delivery but in BIM case, we have more reasons to improve communication otherwise it could be a big disaster and lead us to big clashes in expectations!


Assumption 4: BIM dramatically increases the accuracy of cost estimate

image courtesy AIA TAP and PT&C



Assumption 5: BIM can provide complete quantity take-off to the cost estimator

image courtesy AIA TAP and PT&C

Assumption 'n':  BIM ‘integrated’ schedules exported as spread sheets are not generated from BIM model
I wouldn’t have listed this here if I hadn’t come across a case very recently where BIM model exported ‘integrated’ schedule was exported/presented to client in spread sheet format – leading to a BIM advocate making a BIG assumption that the schedule was manually generated in Excel, casting serious doubt on BIM capability of the users who produced that schedule. IMHO, this could have been avoided in one of the two ways: 1) A little common sense with some fact finding 2) The team’s engagement in visual/model based schedules as oppose to spread sheet based schedules, as much as possible. Whatever that is, this case demonstrates a clear lack of communication and proves that BIM facilitates improvement in communication but does not necessarily improve for you. Efforts have to be made to improve communication and avoid clashes of expectations!


Message
Do not make ‘BIM’ assumptions, instead get involved and work collaboratively. Collaborate, Communicate, Cooperate, and Coordinate as much as possible; as early as possible; and as regularly as possible in order to make your BIM project delivery a success.

I would love to hear from you about any ‘BIM’ assumptions you may have to deal with in order to ‘BIM’ execute your projects.

image courtesy AIA TAP and PT&C