Posted on June 9, 2008 - by Pete
BIM – Costs and Benefits
I just finished reading the Spring 2008 edition of the Journal of Building Information Modeling (JBIM). This is a publication of the National BIM Standard and the National Institute of Building Sciences. There was some really interesting information in there. One of the first things I noticed was an advertisement by the US National CAD Standard (www.nationalcadstandard.org) detailing benefits of utilizing their standards. I wonder how many different “National Cad Standards” are out there. I know AIA has some, NSPE has some, etc. Just think how much easier life would be if we only had one “Standard”. Oh well, that is for a future utopian world to figure out.
One point that David Harris, President of NIBS makes that I found thought provoking is that the typical building contains about 10,000 generic products ranging from screws to cooling towers. Integrating all of these products into systems and modeling the performance of the systems within the overall building can seem pretty daunting. It is daunting, but it is also doable and will have immeasurable benefits to building owners and users.
In order for BIM to reach its potential the fragmented building design and construction industry must go to some sort of a unified, open source database. The problem we will have is that the whole industry is charging forward and nobody has the time to create the standards. BIMStorm is one industry initiative that is an ongoing effort to help varied members of the team work together. (Go to BIMStorm.com to learn more.) One thing that jumped out at me is that BIMStormTM needed volunteers from 100s of firms to work. How do we get the same cooperation when money is at stake?
That leads to the next question. How do we get contracts and compensation models to change as BIM is adopted? Each member of the team’s responsibilities and risks will evolve as BIM is adopted. Changes in compensation must evolve if there are changes in the allocation of project risk. How will this happen? In addition, there is a lot of time and money that will be saved by the owners and users of projects as BIM is adopted. Alan Edgar, NBIMS Project Committee Member estimates that BIM can reduce construction cost 5-8% by reducing change orders and reduce project duration 15-30%. Combined, these two factors alone can save 20% of the project cost. Unfortunately, the cost of adopting BIM falls largely on the design and construction members of the team. How do we change the cost and reward structure of the industry to allow the design and construction firms to make the investments necessary so that owners and users can see savings? Obviously, the design firms and construction firms compensation must increase. However, it is imperative that designers and contractors explain the overall benefits to the owner and justify their increased fees. Without justification, the owners will not be able to justify paying higher fees and our industry will not move forward.
