BIM for integrated design, construction, commissioning, operation & maintenance

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Session 7 Paper 2, Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh, 14-15 April 2016

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It has been claimed there have been no significant improvements in efficiency in the construction industry in the past 40 years, unlike any other industry. This claim is also relevant to construction in US, UK, and Europe (1)

At an Institute for Lean Construction Excellence conference held in Mumbai, India in February 2015, presenters from US, UK, Europe, and India advised:

• A construction industry institute study in the US found up to 57% wastage in construction in the US, and 40-50% of construction projects were behind schedule. (1)
• Only 43% of time spent on construction projects can be considered productive
• At least 30% of wasted resource is caused by management
• 10% of project cost is spent on one re-work
• A similar study in Europe found 30-40% wastage.

There is no official productivity index for construction, and the above inefficiencies cannot be clearly defined, but all the data available indicates considerable inefficiencies, and no long term improvement has occurred.

The author has been involved in this industry for over 46 years across the world and sees the same issues arising now as when he first started in 1969, so whilst any numbers may be difficult to confirm, it is clear that the Construction Industry is inefficient and has not improved in comparison to other industries such as manufacturing.

The aim of this paper is to highlight where some of these inefficiencies occur and provide examples from projects where the use of BIM can help to eliminate them.

For example, with reference to the Building Services:

CIBSE research Report 4, Engineering Design Calculations and the use of Margins:

• Most buildings investigated are over engineered, with margins added continuously (2)
• Typical excess margins found were 30% with a maximum of 84% (2)

• The calculated peak load for a building typically only occurs for 0.1% of the year
• 20% reduction in plant capacity may result in no noticeable difference in comfort.

In order to improve efficiency in the design and construction of buildings, it is clear that if improvements are to be made, then changes must occur in the design and construction process.

One solution to improve the overall efficiency of design and construction is Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) utilising Building Information Modelling (BIM) as a tool.

The aim of this paper is to highlight where some of these inefficiencies occur and provide examples from projects where the use of BIM can help to eliminate them, and improve efficiencies for the design, construction, commissioning, operation and maintenance of buildings. The basis of this paper is that the BIM model is created with “intelligence” from the beginning, and not just as a 3D visual model, to enable all engineering, calculations and data requirements to be carried out in the model at the appropriate time.