Are we Ready for Level 3 - RICS BIM 2014

Driven by the Government, BIM is steadily being adopted by developers and the construction industry. But some have yet to buy in to the concept, reports Professor Ian Dowman who attended this year’s RICS BIM conference.

Readers of Geomatics World will be familiar with Building Information Modelling (BIM) through a number of articles in recent years, which have focused on the collection of measured data using primarily laser scanning. Anne Kemp from Atkins has been a prominent voice in the geomatics community promoting BIM but also emphasising the fact that BIM is about efficiency in the construction industry and about collaboration. Her paper to AGI is a very useful background to BIM: www.barsc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/ 2011/10/AnneKempPaper.pdf

We are now in Level 2 and there was much discussion at the conference on whether the industry is ready to move to level 3. Two of the main issues discussed were whether the QSs and the Facilities Management (FM) professions have accepted BIM; and what needs to be done to make it easier for them to work with BIM.

The conference was chaired by David Philp, Head of BIM Implementation in the Cabinet Office and Head of BIM, Mace Group. His introduction and the first speaker, Peter Hansford, Government’s Chief Construction Adviser, concentrated on government strategy and the progress made in implementing BIM. The government’s aim is to achieve better collaboration and for BIM to become an industry standard; the objective is to obtain a 33% reduction in cost and 50% saving in time by 2025. A 20% savings has already been demonstrated on some projects with BIM. Level 3 would see a move from collaboration to integration and the development of smart cities and smart energy – a truly digital society. At the moment industry is still only talking about life cycle-working and not implementing it. This latter was a key point of discussion:  how will QS and FM be integrated into BIM?

This opening was followed by two presentations and a discussion on the client’s view and expectations  Martin Quinn, project manager, Great Portland Estates reported that the use of BIM in his company had resulted in increased collaboration and better risk analysis, which had allowed prediction and avoidance of problems; the ability to model time sequences in construction was also a great benefit. He also noted that a high-quality team, which understood the benefits of BIM, is of major importance.

The conference used an interactive question system to gather audience opinion of issues. This showed that the main one for those attending is culture change and that customer demand is a barrier to development.

Peter Trebilcock, BIM director at Balfour Beatty, said that clients were stipulating BIM for large and small projects and for all sectors. He also noted that the QSs were not on side and that they need help to develop. Similarly, FM is not buying in, although the government property agency was encouraging projects to use FM. Software incompatibility is a big problem, and the FM sector has yet to see benefits taking the attitude of ‘why should we change?’

Richard Groom reported on the 2013 RICS BIM Conference in GW in September/October 2013, and presented a rather depressing picture of the involvement of geomatics in that conference. The situation was much better in 2014 with two papers in the first plenary session. Christopher Gray, director of business development, Mollenhauer Group spoke on scanning for BIM in existing buildings for retrofit and refurbishment projects and Nick Blenkarn of Severn Partnership reported on the BIM model of RICS Parliament Square. Gray noted that the US didn’t have a tradition of measured building survey until laser scanning arrived, so Mollenhauer had to start from scratch. A collaborative process is a major incentive, also clash detection.

Gray reported on the survey of the Beverley Center in Los Angeles: BIM allowed collaboration between an international team. He also stressed that the specification must be succinct, the level of detail must be clearly established and that an iterative process is necessary. He noted the problem with Autodesk Revit software was that it is designed for new build and expects design data; this means that out-of-vertical features create a problem. Gray suggests that RICS Geomatics should be an integral part of the market for existing buildings and presents a big opportunity. He enlarged on the Beverley Center in one of the breakout sessions (see also GW Jan/Feb 2014).

Nick Blenkarn also noted that specification is important, and that this needs discussion with the client and with the QS. Specialist knowledge is needed to do the modelling and although Revit is not ideal, the operator can work around problems. He noted the potential of augmenting the BIM data with the SEEABLE software which allows non-technical access to complex 3D data in an intuitive environment.

The emphasis in these two presentations was on survey of existing buildings, although BIM was mainly for design and construction. As-built survey of the new building was also mentioned by Martin Quinn and discussion in the refreshment breaks indicated that it is used in a number of projects, by Plowman Craven and Severn Partnership for example, but is still in the development stage. Gray asked the question ‘should as-built survey be done as work completed?’ The effective use of BIM models for FM requires as-built data, so when FM becomes more involved in BIM as-built survey of new buildings will become essential. Crossrail, a big user of BIM, uses as-built survey to adjust the tunnelling machine to be more efficient.

The first plenary was followed by two breakout sessions, each with three strands. The first breakout followed by your correspondent was about the transition to level 3. It was emphasized that BIM involves technology, process and culture and that Level 3 BIM requires collaborative commercial arrangements and a focus of the whole life cycle of a building. New concepts such as the Internet of things should be incorporated to provide information on individual items of plant for example. Legal liability across a team is a major issue in collaborative contacts. Anne Kemp also emphasized the need to change the culture and the importance of people. She noted that Level 3 is about making decisions and looking at the whole life cycle and that organisations such as the Environment Agency, Network Rail and the Highways Agency are already taking this approach.

Ian Chapman, director of the National BIM Library noted the importance of the cloud and asked ‘Is Google planning a BIM busting app for construction?’ He also emphasized the need for common terminology and a data dictionary and advocated moving beyond the technology to enable integration. Brendan Patchell of Bouygues UK, described his company, which combines design, construction and management of buildings.

The second breakout was entitled “The know-of BIM, managing the life cycle of buildings”. Reid Cunningham of BAM FM showed how BIM models can be used for FM by working around the current software. He particularly mentioned Autodesk BIM360 which uses Revit on a tablet which can be used by maintenance engineers to prepare a site visit in advance. The use of Revit to remove some components allows a comparison of the model with reality and a quick identifica­tion of a problem. This could mean that as-built survey is not necessary but could also be used to identify areas where as-built is required. He suggested that a laser-scan survey at a cost of £4-5/m2 would show return on investment in three years. The following speaker, Trevor Miles from IBM, also suggested that laser-scan surveys were a very small part of the overall budget and were well worthwhile. Another point is keeping the BIM model up to date was a challenge.

The final plenary discussed the use of BIM in SMEs and the RICS BIM Manager certification.

There was a small exhibition at the conference with geomatics featuring in stands from Leica, Maltby Surveys, Plowman Craven, Excitech and Mollenhauer. Trimble Building had a stand but did not feature geomatics.

In summary, the message taken away from the conference was that Geo has a small input to BIM but an important and growing one. Issues which were discussed at length are the use of the BIM models for QS and FM and integration of design, build and management. The substantial effort by government to promote BIM will ensure that it does become accepted and part of the culture of the whole construction industry, but this may take some time. It is however fairly certain that there will be work for geomatics in this area.

This article was published in Geomatics World March/April 2014