Building Information Modeling - 35

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION BIM BANG BOOM! The true implementation of Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) in our industr y can help get us out of this crisis and be some of the seeds of the next “Boom” cycle in construction. Director of Operations and General Counsel for Component Assembly Systems, JOHN RAPAPORT, explains how. I was r eading m y tw o y oung sons a book about a car that w ent too fast and then suddenly “Bing, Bang, Boom, Crash, Disaster!” the w riter e xclaimed. And it made me think ofwhere we are at in the state of our economy, in our construction indust ry and ma ybe e ven inside our o wn c ompanies. The true implementation of Building Information M odeling (BIM) and Integrated P roject Deli very (IPD) in our indust ry can help get us out of this cr isis and be some o f the s eeds o f the n ext “Boom” cycle in construction. “What is BIM?” , I am oft en asked b y the other c ontractors as the Chair of the Subcontractors Trade Association (ST A) T echnology Committee. For one, it is not just a softwar e pr oduct, although it is desig n softwar e that creates 3-D models of what is to be placed in the built environment. For another, it is not just data—althoug h the “I” in BIM stands f or i nformation r elated t o t he models and the po werfully int elligent “object-oriented” structures w ithin the designs. Finally, it’s not just an “internal” process, it really is a sea c hange on how we as an industry collaborate, build trust and create transparency from owners t o lenders, architects t o eng ineers, general c ontractors t o subc ontractors, suppliers t o safet y personnel, labor unions to trade associations and so on. The ability for everyone to be on the same p age w ith s cheduling, percent complete analysis, labor pr oductivity improvements, prompt payment issues, etc. all rests on our desire to elevate how we do business and work together, with BIM delivery processes at the core. At C omponent Assembly Systems, we have e mbraced t he c hallenge o f BIM through several steps. First, we designed and wrote our own project management John Rapaport, Esq. Director of Operations software known as CASim. Built on top of our C/F Data job c ost accounting system, this process of designing and implementing a 100-scr een, web-based pr ogram b y adapting labor c odes and pr oductivity analysis w ith the field and the office has r aised our c orporate int elligence and enabled us t o kno w our progress at any given moment on a project. It is a w indow on our suc cess which the “I” in BIM mandates, that all firms understand their own data, from estimating and pr oject management out t o the field back t o accounting and estimating , with the executives able to interpret it all along the way. Second, in terms of modeling, we have initiated a program where we can work with our general contractor and construction management clients to model our carpentry, drywall and ceiling related work and thus assist in the design process using a specific BIM tool or a collaborative BIM program during construction. Finally, we are also using our in-house modeling c apabilities t o t ie t o o ur award-winning CASim program to bett er understand wher e the model fits into the value chain of our own project progress. I call on all o wners, public and private, to reach out and seek the best practices of the design, contracting a nd l abor communities who are interested in BIM t o lay the g roundwork for g reater cooperation and c ost c ertainty in our e ver-changing businesses. We need t o r ebuild the fabr ic of New York with actors who raise the bar in creating a new en vironment that br ings us forward from our current state of “disaster” to a place as “masters” of our own universe, and it really all starts with embracing BIM. Come along for the ride! If interested, please contact: info@componentassembly.com. BIM 35

Building Information Modeling

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Building Information Modeling