Building Information Modeling - 2

Cover Images: Mortenson Construction How Building Information Modeling (BIM) is Dramatically Transforming the Design, Building and Operation of Projects Stephen A Jones Senior Director, McGraw-Hill Construction Introduction Without a doubt, the construction industry is in the midst of an unprecedented revolution. The growing adoption of modeling technologies to design and analyze projects is providing powerful new value to many different kinds of companies in the indust ry. Simultaneously we ar e undergoing another major shift as w e incr easingly embrace closer collaboration between people working together on projects and integrating their work products. This helps to eliminate traditional inefficiencies and c ommon problems by sharing information earlier w ith knowledgeable members of what has traditionally been a linear design, procure, supply, build and operate process. This is truly the most t ransformative time our indust ry has e ver e xperienced. It w ill for ever change the way projects are designed, built and managed, and everyone's business will be affected. In this article I will: • Outline the current inefficiencies of the AEC industry, which have a created ripe environment for the BIM revolution. • Describe 3 K ey Concepts of BIM that w ill help y ou understand its far-reaching importance. • Sho w e xamples of how a n umber of companies ar e using BIM tools and processes to improve project outcomes. • Explain br iefly w hat M cGraw-Hill C onstruction is doing with regard to BIM. • Recommend actions your company can tak e and r esources to help you get started adopting, or advance your progress of implementing BIM. State of the Construction Industry In order to understand the mag nitude of this transformational change it is important to step back and look at the construction industry as a whole and the c hallenges faced by the companies operating in it. Construction is the largest indust ry on the planet Ear th. Total construction activity topped $5 Trillion globally in 2007. Yet, despite its siz e c onstruction is a uniquely fr agmented industry, where in the US alone there are 1.25 million companies in the indust ry, and over 98% of them employ less than 50 people. And eac h pr oject t eam t ypically in volves a new combination of these c ompanies c oming t ogether t o desig n and build a c ompletely un ique pr oject w ith sp ecialized requirements, products and processes. Add to this the fact that the var ious t eam members eac h use differ ent technology tools to perform their work. And usually the infor mation gener ated by these t echnology t ools can not be shared easily and efficiently betw een project team members. Typically these technology t ools w ere desig ned t o perform a specific task for a particular team member, not to “interoperate” with each other. So, information remains trapped in “silos” and usually has t o be t ransferred t o pap er in or der t o b e exchanged, reviewed and made functional for a project team. Further confounding progress, 2- 2 BIM

Building Information Modeling

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Building Information Modeling