Countdown to BIM

Completely transform your business by 2016... will you be ready for take-off?

bim on trial inside story of a prison project

know your liabilitiesa lawyer’s view of BiM

10 steps to hitting the deadlineyour coMplete guide to the next three years

in assoCiation withproduCed by

Countdown to BIM Countdown to BIM

2 3contentsleader

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In an ever more connected world, how do we learn from and relate to one another – and what will it mean for the future of our construction industry?

The certainty is that our sector needs a new model for col-laboration, moving ultimately towards inte-gration, which will produce better outcomes at all stages of a building’s lifecycle. As a way of working, Building Information Modelling (BIM) will undoubtedly help us to write a new chapter in our construction heritage and create a healthier dialogue between all players in the process. That’s why the UK government has led the way in mandating the use of “level 2” BIM on all centrally procured projects by 2016, irrespective of project value.

There is evidence that the UK has come a long way over the last year in adopting BIM, and that a digitally enabled process is already creating new efficiencies. The government’s target has helped to start a remarkable push throughout the supply chain. Indeed, it has been suggested by several industry com-mentators that the UK is now second only to Finland in the EMEA region for BIM policy and levels of adoption. That’s fantastic news, but we must keep up the pace.

BIM has the power to improve not only the construction process but the performance and management of our buildings over their lives. To bridge the chasm between delivery and operation, the Government Soft Landings (GSL) project is developing guid-ance in the form of BIM process maps, to be integrated into the BIM programme by 2016. This will improve the performance of our built assets and better meet the requirements

of those who use them. The GSL process will ensure that our buildings are designed to respond to the needs of occupiers and to meet government targets in energy efficiency, water usage and waste production. GSL will also include post-occupancy evaluation require-ments, allowing us to feed in-use information back into our models to help with future decision-making.

This industry change programme will ensure that the UK is in the advance guard of international BIM know-how, so that it can become an exportable commodity and also attract investment into a redefined construc-tion sector. To further support this, Francis Maude, minister for the Cabinet Office, announced last November that the govern-ment will share more information on future projects and contracts transparently with industry. This should stimulate growth, en-able businesses to carry out forward planning and provide them with the confidence and the time to invest in relevant skills, labour and capabilities.

Many organisations in the supply chain are still in the discovery phases of BIM, so it is essential that they have access to consistent and comprehensive information to help them to understand level 2 BIM requirements. An ideal starting point is the BIM Task Group website, www.bimtaskgroup.org, or the Construction Industry Council’s BIM Regional Hubs.

Times are changing and so are we. As a client, we want to be smarter at procuring, and we are keen to use asset information to make early collaborative decisions. Digital technologies are the future, and this is only the beginning.

Professor David PhilpHead of BIM implementationCabinet Office

Editor Katie PuckettSub editor nick JonesArt director nick WattsDesigner steve savageIllustrations Paul Price

Project manager emma Humphrys Business development manager oliver Hughes

this guide was produced by UBM client solutions in association with autodesk. © december 2012.

ContEntS04 Interview: the BIM sceptic who became its biggest believer

07 Model behaviour: common BIM mistakes, and how not to make them

08 Road to 2016: Five experts navigate you through the three years ahead

13 Whose BIM is it anyway? the importance of a well-drafted protocol

14 From buzz to business: Highlights from the autodesk BIM conference

0814

+44 (0) 20 7560 4291 | www.clientsolutions.co.uk

Countdown to BIM Countdown to BIM

4 5ConferenCe HigHligHts INTERVIEW

ane Foulkes is not your typical BIM early adopter. Indeed, she admits that before she was thrust into the role of project manag-ing the first govern-ment scheme to be

entirely delivered using BIM, she knew very little about it. “I had no experience of BIM whatsoever – I hadn’t used it on any previous projects,” she says.

Just 12 months later, she prob-ably knows more about BIM than 99% of her peers, and her initial scepticism has given way to a strong belief in its potential to improve quality and effi-ciency across the industry. This is perhaps what makes Foulkes such a good ambassador for BIM, especially in a sector that is not exactly renowned for embrac-ing new technologies. She will now be working for the UK BIM Task Group and the Construc-tion Industry Council as a BIM implementation support officer, one of five who will be helping Whitehall departments to imple-ment the technology by 2016.

An associate director at Faith-ful + Gould, Foulkes originally qualified as an architect and worked for healthcare clients

and get it out to tender. The project had been on hold for six months, and when it went live again in January 2012, the origi-nal March deadline still stood.

No time to waste Foulkes’ initial reaction to this was one of total disbelief – the timescale would be tight enough without having to implement a new process. But there was no time to spare, so she just got on with it. “I was not going to let my project be overtaken by BIM. I had timescales to deliver to and an end-of-year spend to meet, and these were the project drivers. After a time, however, I realised BIM should actually make the outcomes I had to deliver more straightforward, and more reliable for my clients.”

It helped that Foulkes was working with an experienced project team who knew each

It became both a practical and an intellectual exercise, with everyone pitching in

and the Oxford and Cambridge colleges, before a “midlife dis-satisfaction” led her to enrol for a masters degree in construction and project management. For the last five years, she has headed a team responsible for delivering more than 30 new-build and refurbishment projects for the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).

It was this department that was chosen as a trailblazer, the first to use fully collaborative level 2 BIM on a pilot “early adopter” project at Cookham Wood, a young offenders’ institution in Kent, where a 180-cell extension is now on site. The MoJ already uses “lean programming” to minimise waste, but it was hoped that BIM would help to achieve a further 20% saving on all future projects. The BIM process would also contribute to building a library of standard COBie (Construction Operations Building Information Exchange) data – a way of captur-ing all the information about a project. This could be used to in-form future MoJ project designs, and for facilities management throughout the building’s life.

But it was a steep learning curve – made even steeper by the fact that there were just three months to complete the design

J

Faithful + Gould project manager Jane Foulkes was a BIM sceptic until she was faced with a complex prison design project and a three-month deadline ...

other well, and were spurred on by the scale of the challenge. “We spent a lot of time asking questions, surmising things and generally pushing in the same direction,” she says. “It became both a practical and an intel-lectual exercise with everyone pitching in to make it work.”

The first step was to develop the Client Requirements Document – also known as the Employers Information Requirements – which basically integrates how the project team should use BIM into the existing client’s brief. As this was the first project in the UK to be tendered in this way, these documents will provide a foundation for later projects. “We had to define the level of detail, and exactly what the model had to contain at every stage,” explains Foulkes. “Every project stage in 2D has a set of deliverables, which become more and more defined, refined and complete. With BIM, all of that needs to be defined all the way through the project. You also need to understand what the client requires to enable financial sign-off at each stage.”

The next step was to adapt the MoJ’s procurement process and tender documents to ensure the

Countdown to BIM Countdown to BIM

6 7ConferenCe HigHligHtsinterview

latest models to the project’s secure extranet, as well as a set of 2D cuts in PDF form that could be viewed by Foulkes and the client. This not only led to much better communication among the team, but contributed to meeting the deadline two weeks early. “I think it drove the programme a bit harder, because it required everyone to work more closely together, and we had to resolve issues earlier.”

Real exhilarationFor the client, the 3D models brought the project to life far more vividly than 2D drawings could have done. “There was a moment of real exhilaration when we showed a fly-through to the prison governor and her staff,” Foulkes recalls. “It made it very transparent for them – they could see exactly what they were getting and could immediately

spot potential issues.” For example, the prison staff

had requested glazed screens instead of gates, but when they saw the model, they realised this would prevent audible contact between two areas of the house-block, so they reverted to gates. “In the 2D drawings, the screens would be shown as parallel lines, but you wouldn’t see what they were made of. In the BIM, they appeared as a solid piece of glass so they could immediately identify the problem.” Terry Stocks, head of project delivery at the MoJ, has stated that the early capture of changes has already saved £800,000 on the project.

Foulkes’ new role will involve spending two days a week at the Education Funding Agency helping project teams to reap the same benefits on their own early-adopter projects. While there will be technological barri-ers, she believes the supply chain will resolve those. Her bigger task will be managing the change. “When people are not aware of the benefits, they are reluctant to do things outside and beyond what they normally do. We need to communicate the benefits well enough and create enthusiasm. It’s about identifying who really wants to do it and enabling them, and encouraging and cajoling the people sitting around the sides.”

As a former sidelines-sitter her-self, she should be well equipped to convince them. “If a sceptic like me can convert,” she points out, “the future is bright.”

– and in any case, there wouldn’t have been time to train Foulkes to use it all. In fact, for a level 2 project – in which all project data is shared electronically but each discipline creates separate models, which are checked for clashes – this wasn’t necessary. “I just needed to be able to monitor the progress of the model and see the design as it developed.”

It was decided that every Friday the design team would carry out clash detection and upload their

resulting model would be fit for purpose, and to assess the BIM capability of tenderers. Contract amendments were considered, to change the scope of consultancy services and reflect possible changes in intellectual property, but in the end very few were required.

The designers had already used BIM on a previous project, but Faithful + Gould had neither the software nor computers powerful enough to deal with the models

the client could see exactly what they were getting and spot potential issues

B

Countdown to BiM

7BiM Mistakes

Above: with BiM software, every detail of a building's structure and services can be created virtually - avoiding expensive mistakes on site later

autodesk vice president Phil Bernstein identifies the most common BiM mistakes – and how not to make them

ompanies some-times call me up and say, “Our clients are asking us to do BIM and we’re doing it, but we’re not very happy with how

it’s going – can you help?” Usu-ally when you get a call like that, it’s because they’re approaching BIM as an instrument instead of a practice. If you think of BIM as just another tool, like a photo-copier or a coffee machine, you will not be successful. BIM is a radical change in working meth-odologies; it means changing the kind of information that is produced during the design and

construction process. If it wasn’t a strategic change, it wouldn’t be part of the government’s con-struction strategy – the strategy doesn’t have a section called “Hammers” since it’s focused on changing outcomes, not stipulat-ing tools.

Of course, the technology itself is a tool, but its implications are

standards will know that the most important thing is creating the data – the “I” rather than the “B” or “M”. You need to create the model and extract the views that you need from that, so your work plan needs to be organised in a different way. If you’re set up just to create drawings, you won’t complete the model to the required level.

The perfect planIn terms of sharing the data, the days of putting DWG files on a server and sending out an email are ending. At the start of the project, you need to set out an execution plan that specifies which information from who goes

You need to train people and assign them quickly to a project

much broader than that. Unless you decide for yourself and your business what those implications are, you can’t take full advantage of it. This operates at various levels within a business – there are implications for the business strategy, for how the practice is run, for how individual projects are run, and for individual users.

I see firms consistently making several mistakes. One is not in-vesting in training – if you don’t train, you fail. You also need to train people and assign them quickly to a project – it’s no good training them and not putting them on a BIM project for a year.

If at first ...Another mistake is to expect the first BIM project to be wildly suc-cessful. Sometimes they are, but it’s better to recognise that you’re undertaking a pilot project and that there are going to be trials and tribulations along the way. People need to stay the course – the second project is always more successful and you can learn a lot from that trial.

A common misconception is to try to use new tools in a way that repeats the old process – for example, thinking of BIM as a drafting tool and using it as if the most important thing is to produce drawings, exclusively. That will just lead to frustration. Anyone who follows the BIM

C

where, and the right moment for it to be exchanged. There are some standard protocols, but most teams adapt them to the way they want to work.

Firms should also bear in mind that software vendors should do more than just dispense software – they’re supposed to be your partner, so they should provide help and support and, if you’re interested, training. You should assess partners carefully before you choose one. For example, we certify our resellers and if they’re not qualified to provide BIM solutions, we don’t let them offer those. You want someone who will be on the other end of the phone when you need them.

By 2016, all government projects must be delivered using level 2 BiM, as shown in this maturity model taken from the government's BiM strategy Paper. Level 0 is defined as unmanaged Cad, probably 2d, with data exchanged using paper (or electronic paper). Level 1 is managed 2d or 3d Cad using Bs1192:2007, with a common data environment but finance and cost information held in separate packages. Level 2 is a managed 3d environment, still held in separate BiM tools by each discipline with attached data, and commercial data managed by an enterprise resource Planning (erP) system. Level 3 is a fully open process with web-enabled data integration, managed with a collaborative model server.

Drawings, lines, arcs, text etc

Maturity Data

Life

cycl

em

anag

emen

t

CAD Processes

2D

BIMs iBIM

Process definitions: CPIC, Avanti, BS 1192:2007

User guides: CPIC, Avanti, BSI

Arc

hite

ctur

al (A

IM)

Stru

ctur

al (S

IM)

Faci

litie

s (F

IM)

Bui

ldin

g se

rvice

s

(BSI

M)

Brid

ge (B

rIM)

etc

IFD (common dictionary)

IFC (common data)

IDM (common processes)

ISO BIM (standardisation)

3D

Level 0 Level 1 Level 2 Level 3

Models, objects, collaboration Integrated, interoperable data

(integrated BIM)

BiM: Level by level

Countdown to BIM Countdown to BIM

8 9ConferenCe HigHligHts road to 2016

he race is on. By 2016, all centrally procured government construction projects, no matter their size, must be delivered using

Building Information Modelling, or BIM. This will extend right through the supply chain, from the largest contractor to the smallest supplier, and it is hoped, will lead to the industry-wide adoption of BIM as the benefits become more widely understood. Across the industry, organisations must get up to speed over the next three years – or risk missing out on valuable opportunities.

The government’s target is ambitious, but it does recognise that there are several stages along the way. The strategy paper produced by the Government Construction Client Group, reporting to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, uses the Bew-Richards maturity model, which defines three levels

of BIM, based not only on the level of technology used to design a building, but on the level of collaboration within the process. Level 0 describes a paper-based process with CAD drawings; level 3 is a fully open and integrated process with models shared between the project team on a web-enabled BIM hub. That is still some way away, with a number of technological hurdles to be overcome first. For 2016, the target is level 2, in which separate disciplines create their own models, but all project data is shared electronically in a common environment.

Many firms have already begun implementing BIM, and some

A building information model contains not only the design of a building but data concerning the properties of its components, its construction and ongoing maintenance. The database and the way information is shared is as important as the model itself – which means that BIM doesn’t just mean a major technological change, but an overhaul of the whole design process. The transition from CAD to BIM will be much more significant than when computers replaced paper drawings, around 20 years ago. That merely automated the process, leaving it intact, while BIM is intended to transform how project teams work.

tthe way that information is shared is as important as the model itself

1 Dave Glennon, project technology manager, and 2 Mark Enzer, engineering director and BIM champion for Europe and Africa, Mott MacDonaldMott Macdonald set a vision to

be an early adopter of BIM two

years ago. Since then, it has used

BIM on a range of building and

infrastructure projects.

3 Mark Stodgell, IT director, Pozzoni ArchitectsPozzoni implemented BIM back in

2006. It now produces all projects to

level 1 BIM and strives to meet level 2

wherever possible.

4 Lee Zebedee, formerly UK BIM

manager, RambollEngineer ramboll started working in

3d in the late 1990s and was using

collaborative BIM by 2006 on a

healthcare PFI project. It is now used

company-wide for clients in a wide

range of sectors. In January 2013,

Zebedee joined autodesk.

5 Stephen Griffin, director, Allies and Morrison allies and Morrison started using

BIM in 2009, and now works

collaboratively with other designers on

many of its projects.

THE EXPERTS

the industry will have to put its foot down to meet the government's BIM deadline. Here, five experts break the route into 10 key stages

1 2 3 4 5

Countdown to BIM Countdown to BIM

10 11road to 2016road to 2016

has been crucial. “Because the message is coming from the top, everyone listens – people think, ‘My career might depend on it, so I’d better get on board’. If the lead was coming from someone lower down the organisation, it wouldn’t be so successful.”

At Allies and Morrison, the partners who make the decisions are supported by a team of advisers who fully understand the technologies and can summarise them in a relevant way. “Decision makers don’t need that level of understanding of the technologies but they do need to have a thorough understanding of the processes that are being proposed,” says Griffin.

MAKE A PLANOnce you have the leadership, you need a strategy to actually make their vision a reality. When Mott

MacDonald began developing a strategy two years ago, a subcommittee of BIM enthusiasts was assembled from its offices around the world. “We decided to hold a global BIM summit,” says Enzer. “We brought people from around the world together, locked them in a room for the best part of a week, and ran through all of the technology and cultural issues we needed to address. For each one, we asked, ‘Is it important, is

it a priority, and if so, what do we have to do about it?’”

Over the course of the week, and many flipcharts, a consensus gradually emerged. Then a smaller group convened to make sense of the workshop output and distil it into a concise strategy. At its biggest, the group numbered about 20, but Enzer says it was most productive when there were about 12.

One of the most important decisions, he believes, was to appoint BIM champions throughout the business, ranging from a senior director with global responsibility for leading BIM implementation across the group, through champions for each region – Enzer is BIM champion for Europe and Africa – and then each business unit, and local champions, implementing the strategy on the ground. “It’s a classic change-management technique,” he says. “When a lot of cultural change is involved, a huge amount depends on communication.”

LEARN ON YOUR OWN TIMEIf you don’t tool up until your first live project, you’re not going to be popular

with the rest of the team. Stodgell suspects that some firms hire BIM consultants to write very

and Tekla BIMsight. Mark Stodgell, IT director at

architect Pozzoni, notes that there is also a wealth of useful, independent information on the UK BIM Task Group website (www.bimtaskgroup.org/bim-faqs), and a thriving social media community, which uses the #ukbimcrew hashtag on Twitter. “It’s 40 or 50 people in the UK who are engaged in what the government is trying to do and who are quite happy to share information,” he says.

WORK OUT WHERE YOU'RE STARTING FROMA very important, but often overlooked, question is how

exactly a firm is working in the first place. “BIM is about taking the tools and workflows that people are using and changing to a more transparent and collaborative way of working,” says Griffin. “You need to ascertain as much information about the technology and the process that you want to go towards, but first you need to understand the current situation in your office or practice.”

Over the last five years, he points out, every function of the practice has become increasingly reliant on technology. “It’s not just the programmes that the architects are using, but software for document control, HR and accounts, for example.”

DON'T LEAVE IT TO THE IT MANAGEREveryone agrees that a chance as radical as BIM will only

take hold with an organisation if it is led from the very top. At Mott MacDonald, the board set a vision for implementing BIM – something that engineering director Mark Enzer believes

have been working on it for several years. We spoke to two architecture practices and two engineering firms that are well ahead of the game to find out what they’ve learned.

GET OVER THE SOFTWARE When companies see the cost of the software as a barrier to BIM, it’s a surefire sign that

they don’t really understand what they’re taking on, says Stephen Griffin, director at Allies and Morrison. Your biggest investment is not going to be the BIM technologies themselves, he says, but the change management you will have to put into effect throughout your organisation. “BIM is about a process and that’s where the real cost will be. There’s really only one way of benefiting from the process and that’s to have a fully integrated internal and external team.”

Removing all possible technical barriers can encourage people to focus on the process instead, says Dave Glennon, project technology manager at Mott MacDonald. His team developed standard policies, procedures and processes, upgraded the behind-the-scenes infrastructure, and negotiated enterprise-wide licence agreements for key design products: “That makes the technology very available to people, but at a sensible cost because we can take advantage of economies of scale. If you resolve the basics, you make it easy for people to make the transition.”

There are other ways to take the sting out of the cost. A number of free products enable users to view and mark up models, which can be useful for members of the project team who are not actually designing, or to get an initial feel for the software. These include Autodesk Design Review, Solibri Model Checker

MAKE IT EASY TO DO THE RIGHT THINGPerhaps the biggest leap is from a few BIM pilot projects

to making the processes and technologies just part of business as usual. Company-wide standards are essential, says Zebedee, especially for the larger firms. “If you don’t have standards, people will be modelling in different ways, so it will be very hard to pass models from office to office and team to team.” For companies that are new to BIM, he recommends adopting an existing off-the-shelf protocol, such as the AEC (UK) BIM Protocols (aecuk.wordpress.com) or the protocols soon to be released by the UK BIM Task Group (www.bimtaskgroup.org).

At Mott MacDonald, Glennon worked alongside the quality management team to map existing

processes to the new ways of working, and to modify the company’s integrated management system (IMS) – the set of processes and procedures used across the organisation. This enables security concerns to be addressed company-wide before they become a concern, and it means the IMS can assist implementation through communications and training.

“The key for us was embedding BIM into the integrated management system,” Glennon says. “So if you use the tools we provide and you do it in the way we set it up, you will be fulfilling the integrated management system. Most people want to do things in the right way, you just have to make it the easy way.” For example, one new element in the IMS are BIM execution plans. “It’s a key piece of work at the start of a project, when you sit down with the project team and set out how you’re going to work, and that’s the point of the IMS.”

do – companies pick their simplest project as a pilot, then they don’t learn anything and it doesn’t push the software to find out if it’s right for them.”

Zebedee’s other tip is not to automatically choose your smartest people to lead the pilot. “If they’re not keen to adopt new technology, it won’t move forward. Enthusiasm is possibly the most important thing in staff who are adopting BIM. You can’t go too far wrong by picking enthusiasm.”

If you are trying out a new approach, do warn your client upfront. Stodgell notes that with BIM, drawings tend to emerge in one go at a later stage in the process, in contrast to the steady stream of CAD images clients might be expecting. “You’ve got to educate the client about what you’re doing, or they could think, ‘Where are the drawings? These guys are really slow ...’”

convincing statements to win tenders – which are not borne out once the work starts. “People are getting BIM consultants to fill out their prequalification questionnaires, but are only tooling up for BIM once they get the job. Then we find that our partners are taking their first step on the BIM journey on our time.”

Much better to crack on with a pilot project. “Select one with a reasonable timescale, or a friendly client who wants to explore BIM,” Stodgell advises, “or you’ll be struggling on your first live project.”

Lee Zebedee, formerly UK BIM manager at Ramboll, now customer success manager at Autodesk Consulting, says it’s important to choose a project that is representative of the work you do. “If you’re an architect and you normally design football stadiums, don’t choose a public toilet as your pilot project. It’s very easy to

A brave new world: BIM offers designers a far greater range of tools. For example, revit architecture allows them to visual-ise projects in different ways (above), and to create materials appearance libraries (right) for standardisation across projects

'Because the message is coming from the top, everyone listens'

Countdown to BIM Countdown to BIM

12 13ConferenCe HigHligHtsroad to 2016

files that are many times larger than anything they’ve had to deal with in the past.

“Everyone thinks about whether their computer is fast enough, but they tend to forget about server capacity and the speed of your internet connection,” says Stodgell. “Files aren’t 1 or 2MB, they’re 20, 30, 40, 50 or even 200MB and you can easily run out of disk space.”

Swapping files and coordinating progress is much more straightforward with a dedicated project collaboration tool. Basecamp is cheap and simple; more sophisticated alternatives include Asite and 4Projects.

Glennon reckons associated project tools are just as important as the BIM platform itself. “It’s about making it easier for people to work in a more collaborative way – so you need associated technologies such as good networks, VoIP [voiceover internet protocol] and screen-sharing.”

STOP BUYING LOW-SPEC COMPUTERSIt may sound counter-intuitive, but by

only buying top-spec, relatively expensive computers, you could actually save money. This is the approach Ramboll has taken. “We avoid ever buying low-spec PCs,” says Zebedee. “Whenever we have a new starter, we buy the highest-spec model that’s available within our budget at the time and filter all the machines down. Sometimes a machine will be swapped out three or four times. So the super-user gets a new machine, and their computer goes to an engineer who needs reasonable power, and their machine goes to a graduate or someone requiring less power, and the new starter or admin person gets their old machine.

“It’s a bit of a headache for IT, but it saves an absolute fortune because you can effectively upgrade four people for the price of one machine. And it means the super-users are always using the best computer possible.”

straightaway, and then no one uses it for six months, by which time they’ve forgotten all their training,” says Zebedee.

Ramboll now trains on a just-in-time basis: “We identify a project, make sure the team is enthusiastic, and then train them so that they can support each other and jump straight on to the project.”

On key software products, Ramboll has also recruited in-house trainers to save money on external providers. “We go by the 80:20 rule. For the core software we use on 80% of projects, we have our own internal trainers, and then we buy in external training for the software required on the remaining 20%.”

It’s also important to have resources that people can access in a live situation, says Griffin. “The last thing you want is for an architect to come to something they weren’t taught or that they’ve forgotten and for them to be unable to issue a set of drawings.” Allies and Morrison can take advantage of an external support team who are available after UK business hours, via screen-sharing using GoToMeeting. Previous support calls are also categorised and logged so that they can be accessed later by others who may have the same issues.

DON'T USE EMAIL AS A PROJECT TOOLIt’s not just that email too often

becomes a substitute for genuine communication – it simply isn’t up to the job. With BIM, company IT systems will have to cope with

DON'T TREAT EVERYONE THE SAMEBIM may be an organisation-wide

change, but not everyone needs to be able to build a Revit model from scratch. “We mapped out the people in the organisation to try and understand their different needs,” says Glennon. “Practitioners using design tools will have different requirements from someone in business development, who needs to understand the concept and how to add value for the client but not how the tools work.”

Griffin identifies three types of person, based on a matrix of ability and willingness. There are the luddites, not willing or able to get to grips with the technology; the critical mass, who are generally willing but don’t have the skills; and the early adopters, mad keen and probably already using it.

“You need to educate the critical mass, support the early adopters and isolate the luddites. Other people say you should bring them along for the ride, I say isolate them and let them see for themselves if their old design processes are as efficient.”

DON'T TRAIN UNTIL THE LAST MINUTEEarly adopters of BIM have learned the hard way that training

people to use the software before they need it can be a waste of money. “Experience tells us that the wrong way to do it is to buy a new product and train everyone

Not just for designers: BIM makes it easier to communicate ideas to clients, automating the process of creating visualisations from raw project data (top). It can also transform the planning of construction work on site with 4d sequencing (above)

13legal

Countdown to BIM

there's no need for BIM to blur lines of responsibility, says Jeremy glover – just as long as you have a well-drafted protocol in place

with the government requiring all of its projects to use BIM in the form of a level

2 fully collaborative 3D computer model by 2016, one key question is whether or not this will lead to significant changes at a contractual level.

Certainly at level 2, which does not yet require a wholly integrated model that can be accessed remotely by the entire project team, BIM should not alter the design responsibilities. If you think of each model as a drawing in the more traditional sense, then provided your contract clearly defines your role in the usual way, there should not be any significant change. Indeed, do not forget that your usual responsibilities will remain.

To what extent do the standard form appointments need to be altered? The view of the NEC is that all you need do is insert a BIM protocol into the works information. The JCT Public Sector Supplement takes a similar approach, suggesting the

incorporation of a BIM protocol as a contract document. That all sounds straightforward – provided you know what the BIM protocol actually is.

A typical protocol should establish the contractual framework for the use of BIM and clarify the obligations of project team members. Who is to produce the models and by when? How will the electronic data be exchanged? Who can use the model? Who can amend data once it is incorporated? Following the US approach, the design and construction phases may well be divided into levels of development (LODs), which set out these obligations in a table.

In terms of intellectual property issues, it should be possible to expressly limit a party’s liability to the extent of their contribution to the model, something that can be cross-referred to in the LOD table. Licences to use the model can be granted by the employer, albeit that they should be limited to the particular project.

There is also a new role - the BIM information manager, who will be responsible for

the administration of the BIM processes, including access and data security. The information manager is responsible for compliance with agreed procedures, not design coordination – something that may need to be spelt out, perhaps in the protocol, to avoid potential conflict. At level 2, it is during the coordination process that the BIM models are linked into one federated model. A well-drafted protocol will ensure that the liabilities of each designer remain the same, before and after the incorporation of their design.

The BIM manager may also be responsible for establishing the BIM execution (or implementation) plan. This plan, which may be a part of the protocol, will set out the nuts and bolts of the BIM scheme. It

may also set out the process of information approval and details of standard dimensions, step-by-step checklists and file-naming conventions. It therefore needs to be aligned with the overall design and construction programme. Think too about definitions. Make sure you understand the terms being used. BIM is (relatively) new. Remember people may use different terms to define the same role.

At least at level 2, BIM should not alter the traditional design roles and responsibilities. Further, there should not be any great need to amend or rewrite your contract. The protocol will set out the lines of responsibility for the production and coordination of the design throughout the BIM process. The CAD and BIM standards organisation, the AEC, published a revised draft of its protocol in September 2012 and the Construction Industry Council was set to publish its draft as this supplement went to press. It is important that these protocols are reviewed by anyone wanting to understand their responsibilities on a project using BIM.

remember that people may use different terms to define the same role

Countdown to BIM Countdown to BIM

14 15ConferenCe HigHligHts ConferenCe HigHligHts

he buzz about BIM was palpable. The conference room at London’s Park Plaza hotel was packed with delegates for the third annual Au-

todesk BIM conference, all eager to embrace the opportunity to rethink the construction process.

The buzz is one thing, however, change is another. This year’s conference took the theme of “Making it part of your business”, with the emphasis on delegates taking away and developing a BIM implementation plan through a series of dynamic

setback is an opportunity.”Campbell emphasised that

change is a team game, but someone must lead and set the agenda. “You have to listen, but you’ve got to lead it, encouraging risk and enterprise at all levels of the organisation,” he said. “You might still fail, but at least you will have a good chance.”

Laura Handler, director of virtual design and construction at US contractor Tocci Build-ing Companies, agreed with Campbell: “Change management is the hard stuff. We started with the goals, which should be measurable and achievable. For us, it was about business goals, not BIM goals; reducing risk, increasing turnover and getting paid faster. Then we set out a roadmap for one year ahead, three years, 10 years, with targets in place and allocated resources.” Pilot projects were selected and

then the benefits of BIM adoption were evaluated against the goals.

Fiona Clark, practice director at London-based David Miller Architects (DMA), told delegates how small firms like her own had much to gain from BIM. “It was a game changer for us and it’s an opportunity for SMEs to really change the odds – it’s not just for the big boys,” she said. Among the many benefits that Clark felt BIM had brought were: added value in the design process; embedded quality and co-ordination; and consistency of output. This was a list that will have struck a chord with many that have already embraced BIM.

Like Tocci, DMA identified the necessary investment and training before trialling BIM prior to a full roll-out. In-house train-ing, BIM champions and a BIM boot camp for new joiners have helped the firm along the way. “It has encouraged collaboration across the team and we now have much more productive design meetings,” said Clark.

A series of afternoon work-shops helped delegates to iden-tify the issues they need to tackle in their three-year plan towards BIM implementation. Ken Stowe of Autodesk showed how to build

At the third annual Autodesk BIM conference, delegates learned the secrets of turning initial enthusiasm into an effective strategy

'It's an opportunity for SMEs to really change the odds – it's not just for the big boys'

workshops and keynote presen-tations. The focus was rightly put more on people and processes than technology.

One man who knows a little bit about changing cultures and behaviour is Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s right-hand man dur-ing the New Labour glory years. He drew parallels between the drive towards BIM and his party’s journey. “First comes the objec-tive, and with BIM it’s cutting costs and carbon. Then comes the most important bit: the strategy,” said Campbell. “It’s not a strategy until it’s agreed and written down. Be bold, be adaptable and stay calm in a crisis; every

Ta business case by developing a return-on-investment calculator. The waste in construction is well documented – drawing inaccura-cies, poor co-ordination, rework, delays, all leading to a blame culture and any profit being paid out to lawyers. BIM changes all that with visualisation produc-ing higher quality work, fewer changes on site and greater client satisfaction. “Without BIM, you have high-performing individu-als in a low-performing environ-ment,” said Stowe. “Think of this as your performance initiative.”

As with any change, companies will have staff who need to be won over. “BIM is not that big a deal,” said Handler. “It’s just a tool, a process. It’s 10% technol-ogy, 90% sociology. It forces you to take a long, deep look at your organisation.”

With the government’s 2016 deadline looming, many firms will already be getting out the magnifying glasses – and for the rest, there’s no time to lose.

Clockwise from top: Former prime ministerial aide Alastair Campbell; former chief construction adviser Paul Morrell; Autodesk development strategist Ken Stowe; BBC radio presenter Sarah Mon-tague, who chaired the conference; and Autodesk vice president Phil Bernstein

Further reading For more inFormation on Bim, and how to implement it throughout your Business in time For the 2016 deadline, go to:

www.bimtaskgroup.orgwww.autodesk.co.uk