So you’ve decided to adopt BIM (building information modelling). That’s great news
and we are 100% behind you.
A word of warning though, you probably are going to face some barriers along the implementation
journey. Here, we’re going to take a look at the three most substantial ones and offer
you some advice on how to overcome them.
At the start of our list is cost.
Depending on your role or discipline in the construction industry, implementing BIM is
probably going to cost you a bit of time and money initially on things like training or
software programmes.
Those things are short term and you need to offset your investment in them with a longer
term view of the value they can bring. There’s more about the benefits in our other videos
on The B1M, including some great documentaries looking at the successes that other companies have had.
Clearly we’re talking in generic terms in this video but our advice would be to create
a solid business case that is unique to the needs and objectives of your organisation,
and to get the leaders of your organisation to back it. If people can see the clear parameters
of investment, and the hard facts around the return they will get for it, to their organisation,
the cost can be considered in a much more pragmatic way. Simply asking people to spend
money on BIM, isn’t going to get you anywhere.
Bear in mind as well that your Board shouldn’t view this as just another request for development
money. Adopting BIM forces organisations to consider many other aspects of the way they
work too. It has the potential to improve their business for the better whilst ensuring
they keep up with the competition.
Next up is the potential lack of Client Demand.
It’s our second biggest barrier, but probably the biggest excuse in the book: “We can’t
do BIM because our client hasn’t asked for it”.
The only people you’re kidding with this is yourselves. Whilst you’re not doing BIM,
your competitors will be. Building up their experience and their in-house expertise whilst
impressing their clients and attracting new ones.
Put yourself in your client’s shoes. Depending on who they are, they probably don’t procure
built assets that often at all. They’ve taken a huge step to approach our industry
– our industry full of experts – and to spend several million pounds with us that
they’ve either saved up or secured through a grant or land deal in exchange for a built
asset.
We’re effectively telling them that if they don’t ask for BIM in the right way or with
the right documentation they’re going to get a second rate service and lower quality
product at the end of the day.
When you’re buying a car, you shouldn’t expect to have to specify the manufacturing
process in order to ensure that it gets built properly. You’re paying a lot of money to
ensure the experts do that for you.
There are a couple of ways around this:
The first is linked to that cost barrier I mentioned earlier; get your organisation to
realise the business case for them and to invest in BIM now for the value it can bring,
rather than waiting for somebody else to ask them to do it.
Another option is to sit down with your client and to understand their business or organisational
objectives in their terms. Use plain language questions and don’t blind them with jargon.
Then take that information and use it to develop a set of Employer’s Information Requirements
(EIRs) that ensures they get the right data at the right points in the process to support
their needs.
At number 1, we have the biggest and probably most stubborn barrier of all: culture.
Now, we need to unpack this area in a pretty careful way.
There’s a lot of noise about BIM in our industry. There are BIM enthusiasts, there
are some very vocal people who oppose it and who think it’s all a waste of time – and
they are completely entitled to their view – and then there’s a silent majority in
the middle formed of several hundred million people around the world.
Those people hear the noise. They hear the acronym. They hear the debate. They associate
it with change. Confusion. Increased costs. Things generally being better – but quite
a long way down the road and currently being led or sorted out by other people. Some in
that group have become very keen, some have become a bit frightened and actually taken
a step back from the starting line and many are neutral.
They are the people you are most likely to encounter on your BIM implementation journey.
They are the people we are trying to reach with these videos. They are the people that
will decide where the future of this industry really goes. They are the people that matter.
The trick to reaching those people in my experience is actually not to mention BIM. Take it on
an individual basis first and try setting out how a different approach can make their
working lives easier, more efficient and more enjoyable. Tailor the value proposition to
them.
Take one of your estimators for example and get them familiar with developing costs from
an information model, a process known as 5D BIM. Once they can see the benefit, and are
doing more take-offs in a day than their peers and adding more value to the process by offering
up-front cost advice, sit them amongst your other estimators and see how some of that
new approach starts to rub-off. People are more likely to trust recommendations from
their friends and colleagues than mandates from on high or an advert on a billboard.
If you can do this simultaneously, in several different parts of your organisation you will,
in time, steadily shift your culture.
We wish you the very best of luck in overcoming these barriers and implementing BIM. If you
need any more advice drop us a note in the comments below or check out the other helpful
videos on The B1M channel.