Sunday 13 May 2018

Articles from this year's NBS BIM Report

Every year in the NBS National BIM Report we try and source some interesting articles to produce a great combination of survey analysis and some thought provoking content.

This year is no different.

The first article is from Bryden Wood's Jaimie Johnston. Jaimie looks at offsite construction strategies and working with Government clients to digitally model and analyse existing and planned built assets.
Jaimie Johnston - Bryden Wood

Uniclass 2015 analysis of existing estates
Peter Barker from BIM Academy/Ryder reflects back on the UK BIM journey and tells their journey on how they have made a success of the UK approach around the world.
Peter Barker - BIM International
The team behind the second edition of the CIC BIM Protocol, one of the essential BIM Level 2 publications, gives an insight into the revisions and learnings since the first protocol was released. Dale Sinclair provided the article along with contributions form the rest of the team.
Dale Sinclair and the CIC BIM team
There is an update from the UK Government BIM team. Dave Philp gives an update on the activities from the new Centre for Digital Built Britain to UK BIM Alliance to the international development work.
The BIM feedback loop to understand existing performance to inform future
NBS and BSI have jointly worked on an Innovate UK funded project to provide persistable, digital object identifiers for construction manufacturers. An overview of this project is provided by Simon Powell BSI and Adrian Malleson NBS.
Digital transparency in the built environment
The final article is from UK BIM Alliance members May Winfield and Sarah Rock that have analysed the legal picture in the UK with respect to BIM. Their recently published report is summarised here.


A big thank you to all the contributors and everyone who took the time to participate in the survey.

Download the NBS National BIM Report 2018:
thenbs.com/knowledge/the-national-bim-report-2018

Friday 11 May 2018

NBS National BIM Report 2018

One of the best parts of the job is working with our NBS Research team each year to produce the NBS National BIM Report.
thenbs.com/knowledge/the-national-bim-report-2018

It's always fascinating to see the opinions from hundreds of construction professionals on the subject of BIM. It is also really interesting to compare opinions across the data set we have built up over eight years now.

The first thing to say about this year's report is that the adoption rates are most definitely not showing any signs of slowing down. Whether you look at the 'self claim' against the question around BIM adoption, or the usage statistics of the standards associated with BIM, the figures rise each year.
BIM Adoption over the years
Standard usage
When asked about the UK Government strategy and its success. The respondents are very supportive of the strategy, but believe that more now needs to be done to embed BIM Level 2 in industry. Personally speaking, I think this initiative has been a fantastic success and something to be very proud of - yes, it may not be as embedded in industry as it could be - but that could be looked on as a very 'glass half empty' view point.

Again, on a personal note, it's slightly disappointing to see that BIM isn't yet really delivering on one of the original objectives of creating an industry that has a lower environmental impact. Back in 2011, embodied carbon, recycled content and energy use were very high on the agenda - but we must ask, have the industry really delivered against expectations here?
Assessment against Government objectives
It is very pleasing to see that attitudes seem to be changing with respect to BIM technology being more than just 3D design and coordination tools. Usage of common data environments to manage data and information is happening on at least some projects for 2/3rds of the industry now. It's also great to see some very good competition in this field - the more competition then the better functionality we'll see in future years and the better interoperability.

Another statistic on the technology side is that 8 out 10 respondents are coordinating models and specifications on at least some projects. Clearly only a percentage of the information on a project lives in the 3D model - a big percentage is in data sources that should be coordinated with the 3D model.
Lots of healthy competition in the CDE world
Don't forget about the information in specifications!
One final observation was around BIM objects. There have been endless debates in BIM community about whether generic or manufacturer BIM objects should be used. The answers are pretty conclusive here. The industry wants both!

Early in the design process, it would be expected that more generic objects are used. As the design firms up, the majority of users appreciate the trend for more and more manufacturers to be providing quality BIM objects.
Can we have standardised generic and manufacturer objects please?
As always, we have a great selection of expert articles within the report too. I'll do a second blog post on these. But I've just covered a small section of the results in this post - please download the report yourself and form your own opinions:

Classification - 'Type of' or 'Part of'

Every few months there is a conversation on Social Media about what element or system classification code should be given to a pipe or a brick.

"Can a brick be classified 'Ss_25_13_50 Masonry wall systems' or 'EF_25_10 Walls'?"

"Can a pipe be classified 'Ss_60_40_37_81 Solar heating systems' or 'EF_60_40 Space heating and cooling'.

The answer to both questions is 'no'.

Classification deals with 'types of' things. Modelling is what defines what is 'part of'.

So a brick may be a type of 'Pr_20_93_52_15 Clay bricks' and the pipe may be a type of 'Pr_65_52_63_17 Copper pipelines'.

A modelling tool is what then determines whether that type of brick is part of a particular type of wall system. A modelling tool determines whether that type of pipe is part of a particular type of heating system.

This may not just be the modelled relationship between a product and a system, but any 'part of' relationship. Further examples would be:

  • A digital projector (Pr) is part of a classroom or meeting room (SL)
  • A security system (Ss) is part of health club or doctor's surgery (En)
The job of a classification system is limited to grouping types of similar items. A construction professional will then use modelling tools to link objects together to represent the physical built asset.

More advanced modelling tools may suggest relationships to help the construction professional do this modelling. For example, a design tool may allow the user to easily show which space type a door opens into and out from. Equally a specification tool may suggest suitable systems when a product is added to a job - 'would you like to add this ceramic tile to a wall tiling system or floor tiling system?'. But that is the job of the modelling tool, not the classification system.

Wednesday 2 May 2018

BIM grabs the attention of the World Economic Forum

The Boston Consulting Group has recently published 'An Action Plan to Accelerate Building Information Modeling (BIM) Adoption' in association with The World Economic Forum, Arup, Aecom and the UK Government.
- https://futureofconstruction.org/practice/an-action-plan-to-accelerate-building-information-modeling-bim-adoption/

It looks at BIM as technology enabling collaborative project teams to work with consistent, standardised data. It asks why construction is less productive than other industries and proposes a 27 point action plan grouped in nine categories.

It concludes that the supply chain should collaborate and work more closely together. Clients, in particular governments around the world, should mandate BIM on their projects, running pilot projects and investing in training and incentives. Finally, it re-iterates the benefits such as improved quality, reduced costs, decisions that reduce environmental impact and greater certainty around outcomes.

It's always a nice suprise to see NBS initiatives mentioned in global publications - so it was great to see NBS National BIM Library being given as an example of creating a digital marketplace for construction.
NBS gets a mention :)
So maybe download the report and have a read. Link below...
https://futureofconstruction.org/practice/an-action-plan-to-accelerate-building-information-modeling-bim-adoption/

NBS Contracts and Law Report 2018

Our NBS Research and Analysis Team published the 2018 Contracts and Law report in recent weeks.

As is typical with NBS research publications, the report is a mix of survey results and expert articles.

Download now for free at:
https://www.thenbs.com/knowledge/national-construction-contracts-and-law-report-2018

Some snippets from it below:
Sarah Fox examines why the construction contract process is not more digital

What the benefits of collaborative projects are

Building contracts get signed before building begins... right?
Thankfully the majority of projects do not go into dispute
Looking at professional services contracts, an update on the upcoming RIBA PS Contracts 2018
Download now for free at:
https://www.thenbs.com/knowledge/national-construction-contracts-and-law-report-2018

To find out more about the strategic market research services offered by NBS - see the link below:
https://www.thenbs.com/for-manufacturers/services/market-research