Knowing where to start with the UK BIM mandate

The decision to adopt BIM is an individual one for every business. Making the decision is more complex than if you were switching from a drawing board to CAD, but the adoption is definitely worth the effort to reap the rewards. The UK government realized that it wasn’t using the wealth of construction and real estate data available in an efficient way. By analyzing data more effectively, it was possible to understand more about the UK building portfolio and how the industry could evolve.

Think about the retail sector for a second and the moment you hand over your hard-earned cash to a merchant in exchange for goods or services. Once, the point-of-sale system typically included a cash register, a receipt printer, a barcode scanner, and a monitor and customer display. The new electronic point-of-sale systems (EPOS) cover the basic functions of a till such as calculations and issuing receipts, but make more efficient use of data. For example, they can work out which product lines aren’t doing so well, link to stock levels, and store information about you, the customer. Perhaps you’ve wondered why you received a discount voucher for a 20-pack of diapers and shaving cream? From the contents of your shopping cart and along with that loyalty card you signed up for, supermarkets know more about you than you think.

In the UK, the government has been the main driving force in creating a whole sector pull for BIM adoption. This is changing rapidly, though, as the construction industry reaches the tipping point where most organizations are doing BIM anyway to unlock more efficient ways of working. A mandate isn’t the same as forcing companies to do something they resist; it’s a catalyst designed to encourage digital innovation in a certain part of the industry — in the UK’s case, public sector contracts — but involvement remains a choice for an individual company because it could focus on other areas of the industry, private house-building for example. Eventually, as more of the supply chain uses digital data exchange, the piece of the pie available to BIM-resistant companies shrinks until it’s impossible to maintain as a business proposition.

Ready steady: You push, I’ll pull

The BIM Industry Working Group report “BIM Management for Value, Cost, and Carbon Improvement” looks at the construction and post-occupancy benefits of BIM for use in the UK buildings and infrastructure markets. The report recommends a push-pull strategy, which just means pushing the supply chain to achieve a minimum level of BIM use, and pulling from the client-side by requesting information and actually making best use of the data collected. These sections examine the push-pull aspects of this strategy in a bit more detail. (To read the report in full, visit www.bimtaskgroup.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/BIS-BIM-strategy-Report.pdf.)

Exploring the BIM wedge

The UK government has used a diagram to clearly indicate a target of Level 2 BIM in the UK maturity model, affectionately known as the BIM wedge due to its shape. The UK maturity model, developed by Mark Bew and Mervyn Richards, has become an integral part of any corporate presentation on BIM. It allows

• The construction supply chain to clearly identify what it is to deliver
• The client to precisely understand what the supply chain is offering

Figure 9-1 depicts four levels, as follows:

• Level 0: Think of outputting 2D CAD information, consisting of lines, circles, and text, as paper pages and electronic printouts. At this level no collaboration is taking place.
• Level 1: This is usually demonstrated by a mixture of 3D and 2D CAD production. Some file-based collaboration may be occurring, with you sharing data via document management, but generally no collaboration is taking place between different disciplines.
• Level 2: This is defined as file-based collaboration and library management and is a series of domain-specific models (architectural, structural, services, and so on) within a single environment where the project team can share structured data based on Construction Operations Building information exchange (COBie). It’s generally based on historical data, rather than real-time information, so it relies on shared content, which could be work in progress, being federated with other inputs in order to make informed decisions.
• Level 3: Although the exact requirements of Level 3 are yet to be defined, this is about fully integrated BIM (or iBIM) where the project team works on one central model somewhere in the cloud. Level 3 will rely on open-data standards and move toward real-time data (an integrated and automated environment where the project team will be working on a single model, at the same time) and look at improving organizational performance.

When the industry talks about BIM, it’s talking about computer-readable data that people can use to make smart decisions. With artificial intelligence, will the computer make decisions for you in the future? As you move toward BIM Level 4 and beyond, the industry is thinking about behavioral datasets. For example, what effect would more natural lighting have on patient recovery time or school grades? The project team will start to simulate these kinds of outcomes, beyond traditional facilities management. If you’re interested in this, take a look at Chapter 19.

Building a framework

The BIM Task Group, Construction Industry Council (CIC), and UK British Standards Institute (BSI) have produced a suite of documents that give industry the tools, processes, and procedures to work at Level 2 BIM.

In the UK, the BSI is the primary publisher of standards-based documentation. Through its technical committee, B/555, the construction design, modeling, and data exchange, the BSI has been developing standards to support BIM. The BSI (B/555) roadmap, created in conjunction with the BIM Task Group, gives an overview of the committee’s activities that provide support in delivering clear guidance to the UK industry.

Reviewing the GSA BIM guides

Since 2006, the GSA has mandated that those working on a new building designed through its Public Buildings Service (PBS) shall use BIM at the design stage. Since 2007, those receiving design funding must use BIM for spatial programming as a minimum requirement on all major projects when submitting to the Office of Design and Construction (ODC) for final concept approvals by the Public Buildings Service (PBS) commissioner and the chief architect. You can find out more about the GSA National 3D-4D-BIM Program at www.gsa.gov/portal/content/105075.

The GSA has developed the following suite of BIM guides and documentation:

• GSA BIM Guide 01-Overview: This document is a good starting point and acts as an introductory text, providing the foundations and a common starting point. It introduces the GSA’s National 3D-4D BIM program and provides background information on the concept, definition, and expectations underlying 3D and 4D BIM technologies and models.
• GSA BIM Guide 02-Spatial Program Validation: This guide describes the tools, processes, definitions, and requirements to use BIM effectively for GSA’s spatial BIM minimum requirements. The GSA aims to leverage the use of BIM and interoperability to automate the checking of model integrity and design performance.
• GSA BIM Guide 03-3D Laser Scanning: With 3D laser scanning becoming a valuable way in which to obtain spatial data, the GSA is currently encouraging, documenting, and evaluating laser scanning technology on a project-by-project basis. This guide is currently in draft and contains good advice when contracting for and ensuring quality in 3D imaging contracts.
• GSA BIM Guide 04-4D Phasing: The focus of this document is on describing the tools and processes required to explore how phasing and time-related information will affect project development.
• GSA BIM Guide 05-Energy Performance: This guide describes the use of space-based BIM modeling techniques and strategies to strengthen the reliability, consistency, and usability of predicted energy use and cost estimates during the design and operation phases.
• GSA BIM Guide 08-Facilty Management: GSA understands that there is great benefit in using and maintaining data throughout the lifecycle of facilities. This guide describes how this data generates efficiencies such as reducing the cost of renovations and optimizing building systems to reduce carbon and energy usage.

Viewing the NBIMS-US

The National BIM Standard-US (NBIMS) is a consensus document and an on-going initiative of the buildingSMART alliance, a council of the National Institute of Building Science, which focuses on providing standards that facilitate efficient lifecycle management of the built environment with support from digital technology.

It references existing standards, documents information exchanges, and delivers best business practice for the entire built environment. The document is built upon open BIM standards such as Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) and the scope covers BIM execution plans (BEP) and data exchange.

The first version of the standard was initially released in 2007 with an updated version following in 2012. Keep an eye out for Version 3 of the standard that will be available at www.nationalbimstandard.org. The NBIMS project committee is always looking for a cross-section of the construction industry that wants to get involved. You can refer to its website for further details.

Following the Veterans’ Affairs (VA) BIM guide

The US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Construction & Facilities Management (CFM) provides a number of services to the VA to deliver facilities in support of US veterans. The VA found that digitizing its patient medical records generated process efficiencies in administration and management. The CFM now uses BIM to support similar process improvements in the built environment.

The VA BIM guide aims to support the adoption of BIM on relevant projects including help and guidance on the size and type of projects that BIM is most effective for. The guidance is intended to apply to a range of skill sets and discipline sectors.

You can access the VA BIM guide either as a PDF download or by using the interactive website at www.cfm.va.gov/til/bim/BIMGuide. The guide covers aspects such as design, construction and implementation, roles and responsibilities, modeling requirements, and security.

Remembering COBie and the US ACE

Construction Operation Building information exchange (COBie) started in the United States as part of the US Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps now produces additional CAD and BIM resources through the US ACE CAD BIM Technology Center at https://cadbim.usace.army.mil. The center’s guidance covers the application of BIM to facility management, planning, and civil engineering. The resources are organized around the US ACE BIM Roadmap and include information on BIM contract requirements. The site also includes an AEC CAD Standard and templates for Autodesk Revit and Bentley Microstation.

In the true spirit of collaboration, the center also includes a workspace for what is called the Tri-Service (made up of US Army and US ACE, Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC), and the US Air Force), designed for military construction and civil works project teams including firms under contract as part of the wider supply chain.

Reviewing global BIM mandates

The UK is the only nation with a public-sector mandate. However, the private sector is keen to work with BIM-enabled teams, and private clients and contractors are beginning to mandate BIM on particular projects, in countries where government mandates are in place and those that haven’t yet adopted BIM. Although the UK’s global lead may not last, work has begun on the data-sharing guide PAS 1192:2 as an ISO international standard, making its impact felt globally.

The 60-page McGraw Hill “Smart Market Business Value of BIM for Construction” report gives a good insight and overview of the adoption and use of BIM worldwide. The report focuses on the largest global construction markets, including Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, the United States, and the UK. The report gives further insight with market and profile of contractors using BIM, the benefits and return on investment (ROI) derived from their BIM investments, and the critical activities and practices for which they’re using BIM.

Europe

Demand for BIM is growing in continental Europe, with the formation of the EU BIM Task Group and implementation of BIM into public works legislation, as we describe in the earlier section “Interpreting the Requirements.” If you think of the United States as the fathers of BIM theory, then Europe is the home of many of the software vendors that have evolved CAD tools into BIM platforms, like Nemetschek (Germany) and Dassault (France). As well as the UK government, many other client bodies have established BIM requirements, such as Germany’s Deutsche Bahn Transport and the Netherlands’ water management ministry, Rijkswaterstaat.

Fourteen countries have indicated particular enthusiasm for Europe-wide specification of BIM: Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovakia, Sweden, and the UK. France, Germany, and Norway, in particular, are starting government-led initiatives similar to that in the UK. Others, like Sweden and the Netherlands, have put the focus on particular agencies to develop requirements with industry. Central and Eastern Europe is building an impressive portfolio of technology companies and a digitally advanced workforce to facilitate BIM from practice.

The following list gives a brief overview of the BIM activities taking place across Europe:

• Denmark: A national mandate from the Ministry of Climate, Energy, and Building exists in the form that Danish state clients such as the Palaces and Properties Agency now require their supply chain to use BIM for projects over DKK5 million.
• Finland: Established in 2012, the Common BIM Requirements BIM to be used for all state property and national public projects. Finland is often held up as an exemplar of BIM adoption and early innovation, because of its relatively small industry and high levels of technology and open data exchange.
• France: A task group has been established to develop a BIM mandate first put forward by the Ministry of Dwellings (Ministère du Logement). With a budget of €20 million ($22 million), the group is taking plans announced in June 2014 to build 500,000 BIM-developed houses by 2017. To take the housing ambition forward, Le Plan Transition Numérique dans le Bâtiment (the Digital Building Transition Plan) task group has been formed. Also, the French National research Project MINnD has been set up, and the consortium joins together contractors, engineers, software vendors, academia, and professional institutes. The “Interoperable Information Model for Sustainable Infrastructures” project has commenced to develop and explore open BIM standards for infrastructure projects. See more at www.minnd.fr/en.
• Germany: The Federal Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure has led the creation of an industry “Digital Building Platform,” in coordination with industry organizations, with a key focus on standardization, digital data exchange, and new BIM-ready legal contracts. The strategy is part of a reform commission for construction that looks to understand why a number of large German public sector projects had significant time and cost problems.
• The Netherlands: In combination with many other European countries, especially for infrastructure, BIM has been developing in the Netherlands for many years. In 2012, a Building Information Council was set up as part of the Rijkswaterstaat highways and waterways BIM program. There are many aspects to the project, including a standard format for data exchange and cross-discipline translation.
• Norway: Statsbygg, which is Norway’s public and civil client, developed a phased approach to mandating BIM, putting frameworks in place as early as 2005. By 2010, all the Statsbygg projects had used openBIM principles like Industry Foundation Classes (IFC). Attention focuses on lifecycle costs and the environmental impact of infrastructure.
• Russia: BIM development is a fairly recent focus outside of academic institutions. In March 2015, the Expert Council, under the government of the Russian Federation, selected some pilot projects to explore the potential of BIM implementation.
• Spain: The first BIM Working Group in Spain has been set up by the government of Catalonia and Barcelona City Council.
• Sweden: The Swedish Road Authority, Trafikverket, is researching BIM for the Virtual Construction for Roads (V-Con). V-Con is a European project co-funded by the European Commission concerning standardization and implementation of BIM in the road construction and management sector.

The Americas

The following list gives a brief overview of the BIM activities taking place outside of the United States, across North, Central, and South America:

• Brazil: The National Department for Transport Infrastructure (DNIT) is embracing BIM, with major road schemes such as the 927-kilometer federal highway expected to adopt BIM.
• Canada: The Institute for BIM in Canada (IBC) has been formed by a number of partner organizations, including government representatives and buildingSMART Canada, to standardize the coordination of BIM across the Canadian construction industry. Canada BIM Council (CanBIM) has been a key driver for advocating BIM in the AEC industry.
• Mexico: The new international airport for Mexico City project is using BIM to produce a facility that will welcome 50 million passengers annually.
• Panama: The expansion project to the Panama Canal, one of the most important waterways with respect to handling global trade, has adopted BIM from the outset. MWH Global, a lock design specialist, is using BIM to construct a third set of locks to allow more traffic.

Middle East

Generally, you can see the macro-scale adoption in the Middle Eastern BIM as passive, and you can characterize BIM diffusion as middle-out, which means rather than large practices pushing from the top down, or smaller agile companies influencing quick acceleration, the core market is driving it. The Middle East has seen BIM demand in the market as being artificially created by the imported expertise of consultants from the United States and UK. Middle Eastern owners are requesting BIM, but the countries’ organizational processes that should support that request aren’t yet in place.

The following gives a brief overview of the BIM activities taking place across the Middle East:

• Qatar: Multiple projects are trialing BIM concepts. However, the development of a national or regional BIM policy should greatly help the success of Qatar’s BIM mega-projects surrounding the FIFA 2022 World Cup and the achievement of goals such as the Qatar 2030 National Vision. BIM has huge potential to influence health and safety.
• United Arab Emirates (UAE): Dubai is the most populated city in the UAE, and Dubai Municipality has mandated the use of BIM for large-scale projects such as hospitals or stadiums, including buildings that are more than 40 stories high or 300,000 square feet. Interestingly, buildings delivered by foreign and international design and construction teams are automatically required to meet the BIM mandate.

Most clients in the Middle East aren’t mature and are only starting to ask for BIM. Generally, no employer’s information requirements (EIRs) are required, and the pull is mainly only from major clients and Tier 1 contractors.

Elsewhere in the world

A number of other countries are also insisting on the use of BIM, and countries like Malaysia and South Africa are at the very beginning of their BIM implementation strategies. The following list gives a brief overview of the BIM activities elsewhere in the world:

• Australia and New Zealand: The driver for BIM in Australia has been a long-overdue desire to get local territories and states to coordinate construction policy. Government and the Australasian Procurement and Construction Council engaged international help and buildingSMART chapters to develop a BIM implementation plan and supporting guidance. BIM is mandated on all public sector projects from 2015. To the mutual benefit of both countries, Australia and New Zealand are planning to work together to define the processes and protocols required for BIM, infrastructure, and land works. Recently, the extensive asset management plan for the Sydney Opera House and the ongoing work to rebuild Christchurch after the 2011 earthquake have both been demonstrated as exemplar implementations of BIM.
• China: National adoption of BIM is earmarked for 2016 and is being jointly organized through the Ministry of Housing and Ministry of Science and Technology, with a large influence from academia. However, the extreme pace of the industry to keep up with construction demand makes blanket implementation difficult. Like in many European countries, BIM is likely to be accelerated by infrastructure investment. It’s clear that national mandates for BIM need to be part of modernizing the construction industry, including bringing the environmental impact, accessibility, and structural safety of buildings to public attention.
• Hong Kong: The Housing Authority of Hong Kong requires BIM for all new projects. In tandem with the Construction Industry Council, Hong Kong is developing a BIM roadmap for successful implementation and is looking to make the most of operational data and standardized methods.
• Japan: BIM is an increasingly familiar subject, especially in Japanese academia and among professional institutes. The Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism formed a construction task group made up of public and private construction industry members to develop BIM proposals.
• Singapore: Singapore is a swiftly moving market for BIM, and through its Building and Construction Authority (BCA) the government has embedded BIM into its building code checking and approval requirements. The e-submission process allows a project team to submit a federated BIM with prerequisite inclusions for planning and building permit regulations. More local agencies are adopting the system for approval, and it has extended beyond structural design to include services and environmental considerations. The BIM Roadmap, a construction strategy document, aims for 80 percent of the industry to be using BIM on all projects and, most importantly, to report on the return on investment.
• South Korea: The South Korean BIM Guide made BIM compulsory for all public sector projects by 2016, with a spotlight on long-term facility management.

Restructuring plans of work

The Digital Plan of Work (DPoW) helps break down the barrier to BIM entry and build capacity. The deliverables from the DPoW, rather than the DPoW, are key.

A number of plans of work exist and each has a different focus. Plans of work have unique approaches to process. They also have wide variations in the amount of detail, depending upon the specific sector or domain’s needs. For example, plans of work for buildings allow for design work to continue after construction has begun, whereas plans for work for infrastructure usually imply that all design is completed when the project goes out to tender.

The Construction Industry Council (CIC) has produced a new, coordinated UK plan of work involving the consultation of a wide range of institutions and organizations. The plan of work has eight clear project stages (from 0 to 7) encompassing the whole project lifecycle, from identifying strategic need through to operations and end of life. The naming of the project stages is agnostic with regard to project type and construction sector. The plan of work follows:

• Stage 0: Strategy
• Stage 1: Brief
• Stage 2: Concept
• Stage 3: Definition
• Stage 4: Design
• Stage 5: Build and Commission
• Stage 6: Handover and Close-out
• Stage 7: Operation and End of Life

A report undertaken by David Churcher and Mervyn Richards called “Cross-discipline design deliverables for BIM” aimed to define a single set of data drops during the design and construction phases across both building and civil engineering projects.

The RIBA plan of work has been the definitive model for building design and construction processes in the UK since 1963, and has a significant influence internationally. The RIBA plan of work has evolved over the years in response to changing processes within the industry, but has required its biggest overhaul since its launch, in response to the radical way BIM has altered the way the project team’s process for designing asset design and development. Check out www.ribaplanofwork.com/about/Concept.aspx for a graph that shows the RIBA plan of work with its eight stages.

Going digital

A DPoW is a generic schedule of phases, roles, responsibilities, assets, and attributes, made available in a computable form. Produced on behalf of the UK government to support the BIM Level 2 process, the BIM Toolkit is specifically designed to enable the project leader to clearly define the team, responsibilities, and an information delivery plan for each stage of a project — who, what, when, where, and how — in terms of documents, geometry, and property sets.

Although the project team produces CAD or BIM information full size, the project team typically issues or exchanges it as drawings in hard copy (prints) or soft copy (electronic).

Standardizing classification structures

Adopting a classification structure is fundamental to BIM. Classification systems help project participants identify and locate things quickly. Think about a dictionary for a moment. This is perhaps one of the best examples of an effective classification system. It organizes information in a standardized way so that you can easily find and retrieve information. A dictionary also has a set of rules, or taxonomy, that are easy to understand and allow designers and other parties to add more information (and in the right place), and it also allows models to reference information and be better maintained.

These benefits underpin the purpose of all classification systems, such as Uniclass or Omniclass. The amount of construction information produced is vast and is generated by a number of people. Put into the equation the amount of information that capital programs can produce digitally and you can see that organizing information in a sensible and logical way is vital.

Classification structures such as Uniclass are being updated to take into account the requirements of object-oriented modeling. They’ve also been revised to enable a consistent approach to classification across building, infrastructure, and civil sectors.

Testing the requirements

The UK government has devised a simple ten-stage checklist to use when testing the requirements. Use Table 9-4 as a guide when looking to implement BIM. The checklist helps you determine whether the requirements have been achieved by asking a series of simple questions.

Achieving the BIM targets

The UK government has set very clear targets around cost savings, carbon, and delivery times. Early adopter Level 2 BIM projects have regularly cemented cost savings between 12 to 20 percent against initial benchmark costs through BIM, and other initiatives such as soft landings. The Level 2 hypothesis is still to test the carbon agenda and embed it within the COBie data drops, but already trial projects are pointing toward better solutions.