For all the noise and mandates, no one is going to force you to adopt building information
modelling (BIM).
If you want to, you can just carry on as you are and tune out from all the jargon.
But what will happen if you don’t do BIM?
For the first few days, you’ll barely notice it.
You might even feel like a huge weight has been lifted from your shoulders.
You’ll be able to get on with things without worrying about BIM all the time.
But then it will start to get you.
Let’s take a look at what will happen if you are an individual working for organisation.
You’ll find that things start changing around you.
You’ll find you’re just not as efficient as you used to be.
Other people are designing better buildings than you, doing faster take-offs, getting
praised for more accurate programmes, finding information more quickly in something common
data environment (CDE) and generally getting on better with their teams through a more
collaborative way of working.
You might find that tenders start come in asking you to detail your BIM capability.
You’ll pass it on to the resident BIM expert – who answers all the questions about BIM
in tenders – and get it submitted.
And then you’ll find yourself working on a project where the expectations of your project
team and client have all suddenly shifted.
You might find you’re not allocated to the project you really wanted because it needed
a strong BIM team and the new girl …well she’s just got more experience than you.
You might hear that Danny, the really annoying guy up on level eight, got promoted way before
you did because he knows his BIM stuff and is just too important to let go.
Of course the repercussions for individuals are tough but to an extent people are shielded
by the organisations that they work for.
Unfortunately the fate awaiting those organisations themselves… is far more brutal.
So let’s take a look at what will happen if you run an organisation and you decide
not to adopt BIM.
Again you’ll probably feel instant relief that another problem has left your desk just
in time for the weekend.
But come Monday, things will be shaping up pretty badly.
There’ll be the news before 8am that the must-win project you were after has gone to
your closet competitor.
Something to do with really understanding what the Client was after and offering them
not just a price, but a built asset that really supported their business outcomes.
At 9am you’ll get a phone call from one of your best employees who has just accepted
an offer to work elsewhere for a firm who are pushing really pushing ahead with technology
and delivering excellent buildings for their clients.
At 10am you’ll have a meeting with your finance team where the reasons for all this
will suddenly become clear.
You’ll once again review your massive turnover, high cost base and the tiny margins it’s
all delivered you.
There’ll be that killer comparison chart showing your competitor increasing their turnover
and margins whilst keeping their cost base the same.
And the penny will drop that that big new salary they’re paying the top employee you
just lost will be coming from those funds.
It’ll be to do with your competitors adopting BIM and a digital approach to construction
across their projects and almost every part of their business.
There’ll have become more efficient by being able to find accurate data, faster, in a single
shared online area and from being able to make decisions on that data that are right
first time.
Some studies (such as Avanti) have estimated that adopting BIM could generate efficiency
savings of 20-25%.
In a five day working week, 20% represents an entire day.
Those that realise these efficiency savings are effectively gaining an extra day in every
week of their financial years.
That time allows them to take on more work whilst keeping their cost base the same, increasing
their turnover and their profit.
It allows them to increase their market share, whilst investing in development and in building
and retaining excellent teams of people.
They become the first choice for clients because they’re able to offer a better value project
on a more efficient timescale at a more attractive price.
For those not adopting BIM or going digital, this is all very hard to compete with.
As if your morning wasn’t bad enough, you’re then into the workload review meeting at 2pm.
Your client base work with other people now.
The people you always used to collaborate with keep saying they’re too busy and don’t
return your calls.
You’re now forced to look at projects that are low-budget, unattractive, through a horrible
procurement route and with people you really don’t like or trust.
If your business is in product manufacturing, you might be hit with the statistic that your
competitor’s product has been specified twice as much as yours because their 3D component
is really useful and easy to access.
Now, we know that scaring people is patronising and not helpful and that really isn’t what
we’ve tried to do with this video.
We just want to help you visualise what will happen if let you the environment around you
change without seriously considering what you need to do to keep up.
We want to see construction improve and we think BIM can play a huge part in that.
If you want to adopt BIM, check out our other videos on The B1M all tailored to try and
make the subject as straight-forward as possible.
But we can’t force you…