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Building Information Modeling (BIM) is revolutionising the Architectural, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry, and is fast becoming the buzzword in the industry, says Philip Lo.
BIM is showing up everywhere from magazines to conferences. But amazingly, few people, especially here in Asia, even know what it is, or realise the significant impact it is going to have on the design, construction and management of our built environment. Three dimensional models are already widely used in the AEC industry. Aside from being a visualisation tool, models are now being used from the upfront planning phase of a project, helping to identify various visual and environmental impacts a project might have on the surrounding neighborhood.
Models are used extensively during the design phase, not only for the visual representation of a design, but also for various aspects of design including lighting analysis, shadow studies, energy profiling, traffic flow analysis and other design simulations. However, BIM is increasingly employed during a project’s realisation. An entire building, together with all its associated components, can be represented as a 3D object, integrated with all the relevant database information relating to every single element within a building, and act as a key tool to support the accurate completion of complex construction processes.
The adaptation of BIM for facility management enables the effective management and maintenance of a building once it is constructed – a logical next step in the utilisation of this new building process.
What BIM is and why is it different?
BIM is a new technology as well as a new process. BIM tools are as different from (computer aided design) CAD tools as a slide rule is different from a computer. BIM offers online simulation of a building’s design, construction (called 4D CAD) and operations, both in mechanical terms as well as in terms of the people organisations within it. BIM’s practical and cost-efficient approach is ready to become the standard mode of structural representation within the next decade.
BIM involves representing the entire building in the form of a comprehensive 3D model with all the building elements defined parametrically, together with its associated database information. That means that the objects are defined as parameters with direct relations to other objects in the model. So if one object changes, it impacts other related elements. This becomes significantly important for construction as this will help identify all the potential conflicts in the design, avoiding them prior to project realisation, resulting in significant costs and time savings during the construction process.
However, the larger implications of BIM are not just for consistent drawings, cost estimations, bills of material and clash detections. Since these building models are computer readable, it now becomes practical to use the data they carry for all the components in a building, for operational and maintenance functions after building completion.
How would BIM impact on Facility Management
In any building project, most people are concerned and focused on the initial construction costs of the project. However, what most people fail to realise is that the subsequent operations, repair, renewal and maintenance (facility management) costs of the building during its life span after project completion, actually could amount to over ten times its initial construction costs. Therefore, effective maintenance and management of the building afterwards, could have a significant impact on the bottom line of the development.
In traditional practices, a set of “as-built” drawings, specifications and shop drawings are often handed over to the owner after building construction completion. The intent of these sets of documents is that they can be used afterwards for the operations and maintenance of the facility. However, in reality, this is seldom the case, as the drawings are often hard to understand, and essential information relating to the building components and elements, are often kept separately in volumes of specifications, shop drawings and documentations which are hard to locate and understand. However, more importantly, the drawings and database information are not integrated or compatible with a Computerised Maintenance Management System (CMMS).
“The direct integration of the BIM model with facility management systems is also a natural progression“
An effective CMMS system should include many different aspects of maintenance management. This should include help desk management, work order management, preventive maintenance management, inventory management, equipment management, procurement management, external contractors and internal staff resources management, workflow management. Ideally, the system should also be able to integrate with mobile devices to form a truly effective management tool.
However, an even more revolutionary a tool could result from the seamless integration between a BIM Model (together with its associated database information) and a CMMS System. Both of these technologies represent only one side of the equation. By fully integrating the model and embedded information into a CMMS system it can become a truly useful management tool, a tool we will now call BIM-FM.
BIM-FM System
The shift from manual drafting to CAD to BIM was a natural evolution in the development of the AEC industry technology. The direct integration of the BIM model with facility management systems is also a natural progression. The benefits of such an application is significant. Not only will one be able to see the objects in a three dimensional manner, (as opposed to requiring several different two dimensional drawings and views to represent a single object), but all the relevant maintenance information relating to each building component can be embedded within BIM, and automatically transferred to a CMMS.
A truly effective BIM-FM system will not only ensure the accuracy of information in the system, it also allows the owner and maintenance staff to have a truly user-friendly and visual tool, to manage the operations and maintenance of the building effectively upon turnover of the facility to the owner. It will replace current as-built drawings and specifications, as the entire BIM model can now be turned over to the building owner upon project completion, not just as a set of reference documentation, but as a truly useful tool for the effective management of the building for the rest of the life of the building. The cost savings resulting from such an application could be extremely significant.
The integration of the BIM model with a CMMS will definitely help in the effective maintenance and management of a building. BIM can be utilised to bridge the information loss associated with handing a project from the construction stage, to the building owner/operator, by allowing all relevant information about every building element to be added to and referenced back to all information they acquired during the construction period back to the BIM model, resulting in a most comprehensive and complete set of documentation, integrated with a CMMS, for the effective management of a building throughout its entire lifecycle.
A future path
So far in Hong Kong, there are only a handful of projects being completed using BIM Technology, but the conversion from CAD to BIM is rapidly taking place across the AEC industry. Building owners are now beginning to recognise the performance and benefits offered by BIM, not only in terms of its visual capabilities, making it easy to “visualise” the entire project, with all the elements within it, but more importantly, in terms of the reduced cost and change orders, shortening of construction time, avoidance of construction conflicts prior to construction, and multitudes of benefits resulting from the use of such technology.
The transformation of BIM into an FM tool is already happening as the technology is now already available and is being tried on a few new projects. There is also consideration for the use of this technology for major renovations of some significant buildings. Apart from the obvious FM benefits, this is where the true value of BIM will materialise during the lifecycle of a facility. In the near future, owners will no longer require a set of as-built drawings and specifications on construction completion, but will be demanding a fully integrated BIM-FM System, to be delivered to them on completion of a building. They can then truly utilise BIM for the ongoing management of their valuable asset, resulting in a true asset management system for the entire lifecycle of the facility.
Philip Lo is the CEO of Lexco Group.
