BIM for Owners and Facility Managers

After reading the chapter I found that BIM can help improve the collaboration between owner and the project managers that can short the time of construction and cost of many projects. Companies like Toyota and Boeing have already begun using BIM and have found commercial success in doing so. In this blog I will type to explain what BIM has to offer to the owners that I’ve learned while reading the BIM handbook. BIM has many features like; estimating tools, model validation, and project communication. Each of these tools will help the owner in improving their success rate of their project.

Like what Jeanine said on her blog “the greatest ability BIM has is to link design with cost estimating and sales forecasts”. Estimating is a big part of what the owner does in a project and with the help of BIM’s estimating techniques it becomes easier for the owner to budget accordingly. Most companies use Excel and Exactal’s Cost X, but the owners must consider the level of estimation detail they need. The estimation must be adequate with the quantities, per component, or square footage. Also it has the ability to compare two version of a design to show how different changes can have potentially impact on the project. BIM-based estimating would also allow the ability to link items with specific components through a visual interface.

Model validation is software that performs many tasks like check against program requirements. This helps the owner compare requirements like energy, distance, height, and space with the design. Also programs like The Solibri Model Checker allows the owner to check if the model contains specified information within component, and even components within components. This would allow the owner to quickly view the project as its being completed.

As the owner, project communication is key in completing the project on time and with fewer obstacles. BIM can let the owner publish snapshots, which are one-directional static views of the BIM model. Model views, would provide the owner the ability to share data with other parties who could mark-up or comment on the model. Also provides the owner to access direct database, which is the ability to distribute project servers. All these forms of communication would surely increase the productivity of the project.

Hopefully by the end of this, you would feel as how I did that BIM would be an essential part of the owner’s tool set.