BIM Tools

The development of BIM is one of our industry's greatest strengths and a tool that, when fully implemented by all firms, will more than pay for itself.  Based on my construction experience, incorporating this technology is instrumental in reducing problems that arise during construction that are easily preventable while in the design phase.  These issues, if not addressed in the design phase, can lead to costly RFIs and change orders which, ultimately, have the potential to delay a project's schedule.

Early BIM, according to Chapter 2 of BIM Handbook, had many shortcomings, notably (a) designers who were more comfortable with 2D drawings and (b) cost of each seat ("upward of $35,000 per seat").  As discussed in class, it was the manufacturing and aerospace industries that latched on to, and ultimately improved, the BIM technology.  These two industries saw what the building industry is now realizing - that BIM's benefits include "integrated analysis capabilities, reduction of errors, and the move toward factory automation."  For example, for the redesign of the Boeing 777, Boeing "pre - assembled the airplane virtually" which eliminated "more than 6,000 change requests" and achieved a "90% reduction in spatial re-work."  The savings in time and money and the final efficiency of design that Boeing was able to achieve only benefited Boeing's bottom line.  The manufacturing industry also utilizes BIM technology, most specifically for fabrication purposes.  In the fabrication sector, an object is created in BIM and then imported into the machine that will complete all or part of the fabrication.  Currently, CNC cutting and drilling machines are able "to support automatic design based on loads, connections, and members."

There are multiple tools in BIM that will aid, not only designers and construction personnel, but also the environment.  Tools that allow for detailed framing, detailed sections, and visualization of conflicts prior to start of construction will reduce the amount of waste that is generated.  For example, in traditional construction during placement of the MEP systems, conflicts with other MEP systems and structural elements are typically encountered.  Resolving these conflicts leads to contractors discarding excess material that was purchased to resolve the issue.  With construction projects that utilize BIM, there is a tool that will locate all conflicts in existing contractors' designs so that they may be resolved prior to start of construction and contractors can order the exact amount of material required for the job.

As I was reading my group members' blogs in order to incorporate them, a statement in C. Meraz's blog really struck me.  The statement was "[BIM modeling] take[s] a tremendous amount of manual editing, fine-tuning and collaboration.  This is not to say that it cannot be done or that the example given of the Boeing 777 did not ..., but the effort resulted in 1000+ planes as opposed to one, single building."  I think that this brings up a very valid point for the difficulty in incorporating BIM technology into the construction business.  When Boeing designs a plane using BIM technology, they only have to design a couple of different planes, from which thousands of planes are constructed.  When an automotive company produces a design for a model of car, thousands of cars are constructed.  The work that it is put into the design leads to thousands of work products.  When the design is updated (like when Honda updates the Civic each year), only minor changes are typically made and thousands of new work products are manufactured.  However, as C. Meraz points out, when BIM is used is the construction business, it typically only leads to one, unique structure.  When the client/architect/general contractor goes to build another structure, the entire BIM process has to be started over again.  Although many office buildings may seem cookie cutter on the outside (4 walls, multiple stories, windows for each office, etc.), the inside varies tremendously based on the client.  Even the outside will vary despite it looking the fairly similar to the casual onlooker.  Changes can include story height, wall thickness, window type, window size, number of windows, lobby design, MEP, sustainable structure, etc.  Incorporating BIM today, even though it is becoming easier and easier as the technology becomes more user-friendly, still poses a struggle, especially when only one structure is the result as opposed to thousands.