The GSA has had over 100 BIM models on a single project according to ENR -- and the count may reach 220!  I have been in more than 100 meetings over the past 4 years where people at the conference room table just wanted there to be 1 model that did everything and wanted me to say so.  But true to my beliefs, there is a need for more than 1 model.  There is also a need for a Services team to assist the customer in achieving his or her Construction Management goals, particularly when firms are tooling up their BIM skills and/or when an Owner mandates a project must be done in BIM.

The snippet below is excerpted from Nadine Post's 4-29-09 ENR article, "Digging into 3D Modeling Unearths Many Worms."  The article illustrates that user experience is exactly as I have been portraying it for 5 years.  It's good to hear someone else say it!

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BIM veterans also agree that modeling changes the design and construction process. The idea is simple: eliminate redrawing the drawings by putting information in once and using it over and over again; catch conflicts before construction begins rather than in the field, when construction dollars are being spent; and use VDC for estimating, scheduling and fabrication. The execution is difficult. BIM veterans caution rookies to hang on tight and expect the unexpected.

The redesign of the design process needs to take into account the order of construction and model content. It's important to resist the urge to model until protocols are worked out and the program is set.

Sources have learned the hard way that there are no minor design changes, especially if models have already been coordinated. For example, if an engineer moves a beam it can affect other systems, and their models, down the food chain. Models then have to be reviewed, adjusted, checked and re-coordinated.

In the best of all worlds, the contractor and prime trade contractors should be in the room during design process redesign and at times, during design. Input on cost, constructibility and schedule can save model rework and field problems.

Design-construction collaboration is not as easy in a traditional design-bid-build environment as it is with integrated project delivery, design-build and construction management at-risk. For an IPD hospital project for Sutter Health, 30 leaders of the building team spent nearly six months redesigning the design process, moving sticky notes around on a wall (see p. 28).

BIM means more time is spent on design. This can be irksome to designers if they are not compensated. Many maintain they are doing the contractors' work, without reward. Designers also find that to produce 2D drawings from BIMs they must revamp traditional in-house workflows to align with 3D model conventions.

BIM rookies should get help, define a process and expect the unexpected.

At BIM's conception, many expected there would be one BIM per building. The lesson learned is most BIM-enabled projects have myriad models. Many times the design model cannot be used by the trade contractor directly, thanks to software incompatibility or set-up, or both. Most often designers won't give their models to the contractor for fear of liability if there is a computer glitch or a dimensional inaccuracy. Those that do share usually issue a disclaimer, "Use this at your own risk, for reference only." That means the contractor has to check every detail of a design BIM. Often, the trade contractor's detailer finds it easier to create a model from 2D drawings produced from the design model.

On the courthouse project, there are more than 19 design BIMs and more than 60 construction BIMs. On the hospital, so far there are 125 models. That number is expected to grow to 220.

So much for the idea of one model per project. So much for the idea of entering information once and using it over and over again. So much for reducing the likelihood of human error while remodeling.

Sources advise that if BIM is a mandate from above, be sure to nail down owner's expectations for each building team member-especially if they are not outlined in a contract. Speak up if the expectations seem unreasonable or unreachable. Owners can be naive about BIM's capabilities.

BIM for Coordination is good for any Construction Management business and it helps to mitigate risk, but the real risk to Owners is meeting Cost and Schedule. So as you look at including BIM in your companies arsenal ask yourself why you are doing it?  Frequently the answer will be, "To win more business and improve project results."  If this is the case then Virtual Construction is not just Coordination but a Quantity and Location driven management approach to limiting risk by creating high quality engineering information to help make informed decisions and keep the project on the right course.

I'm sitting in my hotel room overlooking a beautiful gothic scene of snow falling on the castle district in Budapest where the reigning Queen of Hungary had her Hungarian residence but she also (I've recently learned) had so much more as a key member of the Austria Hungary Empire which united the Austrian Empire with the Kingdom of Hungary. You can read more of this history by looking up the Habsburg dynasty which was descended from the Holy Roman Empire. Wow, that's kind of an impressive family!

I've just been to meetings and seminars in Finland, Sweden, Hungary and tomorrow I am meeting a Construction Management firm from the Middle East. What is truly fascinating is how important Virtual Construction has become to so many companies.  At a meeting in Gothemborg, Sweden there were over 40 members of middle management of Skanska who participated in a 2 hour discussion of Flowline Scheduling, Model based Estimating and BIM usage in general. In Finland there are departments which are responsible for moving the BIM use from the planning office to the construction trailer. They are also quite interested in what companies in North America are doing so we are beginning to investigate a way to have a "global forum" on Virtual Construction. Obviously this is something that could initially be done over the web and could grow into local chapters and meetings, it is my feeling that this could help spur partnership, cooperation and of course innovation. After all, these are all countries with very talented engineers who have produced many of the innovations that our industry already has. 

Virtual Construction is a rising tide that promises to float all boats, everyone stands to benefit, from the owner and designer down to every last subcontractor when buildings can be truly planned in great detail and less time spent fixing problems in the field. By the way, for those who read my last post this is another important element of the "Toyota Way" and is known as KAI ZEN "kai" which means "change" or "the action to correct" and "zen" which means good. More information can easily be found on these topics by performing a search on "The Toyota Way."  The Toyota Way is at the core of many things at Vico, we have a continuous learning culture and our Services Project Teams all work to Six Sigma documented processes and we have put a system in place that is internet based called Nexus that allows us to measure our productivity when modeling, estimating, coordination or scheduling and also requires others to review and approve the work. This injects quality measurement into our process and of course both Vico and our customers benefit from this. For our sales team we have created an online training system with a consultant that reinforces our process, our strengths, and how customers can benefit from working with Vico. We also continually coach them (on a bi-weekly basis) so that their learning will continue and the process of continuing to improve will not get stop. 

Well, I've got to go now, have a dinner at the Four Seasons tonight, as you can see life is tough here out on the road!

:)

Don H

What do great companies do during a downturn? They turn to productivity and process, invest some time to figure out how to do things better so that when they get real busy again their process and their profits are better! There is a great Wiki site called "The Toyota Way" which does a nice job of giving credit to Toyota and to Jeffrey Liker, the Michigan professor and author of the book with the same name. If you have a few minutes today google "The Toyota Way" and read the 14 guiding principles to this powerful management philosophy and maybe the next time someone says, our Estimating database is no good," or, "It is impossible to keep the field schedule up to date with all the changes we have," you can ask them to share a little more information with you. Then, after careful listening you can look for the root cause of these issues to see if there is something that can be done about them.

I can tell you that I was lucky enough to be a key technology partner of Toyota when they were first developing the Lexus car line. The company I worked for made software for designing the stamping dies for the body panels and every time we thought we had it right and it worked better than anything the Toyota team had used before they would come back to us and say. "Very good, very good, we really like what you have done but we will need a few small adjustments." The literal translation was, good try, but you are not done yet and what I learned over the 4 years that I worked with Toyota was that no matter how good a partner you were, and no matter how perfect you thought you were they were always very politely asking you to do just a little bit more and be a little bit better. Back then it was pretty frustrating as I kept pressing my team to "finish the project" but now looking back I realize that the project would never finish even though it made huge productivity strides for them and helped them automate a very critical process substituting advanced surface mathematics and equations for plastic deformation for craftsman type calibration. IT WOULD NEVER BE DONE!

Maybe that's one thing you can take away from reading the summary of the guiding principles of the Toyota Way is that if you wish to drive your department and your company to improve, you are never finished.

Don H

Just like in the Presidential election we watched from the show floor this week it appears that "Change" is coming to the AEC industry and not a moment too soon.  Customers are telling us that Design Build and IPD style projects are flourishing and 5D BIM with its MPS (Model Progression Specification) is a perfect management tool for the multiple models and hand-offs that occur when running projects in these ways.  It was great to speak with the many Contractors who now  want to learn how to deliver these innovative solutions to Owners who have much tighter restrictions, budgets and deadlines in this tight economy.

Oh yes, and when staying at the Mandalay don't miss Red Square!

In my last posting we discussed three topics that are inevitable considerations as you look at 5D BIM or Virtual Construction solutions, these are:

What can this do for my company?

How long will it take for me to become proficient?

What would you like to accomplish?

In today’s blog I’d like to expand upon the 5 major stages for the use of Virtual Construction BIMs, the major stages are:

1. Presentations, Constructability and Coordination
2. Quantity take-off and Cost Management
3. Schedule analysis, optimization and Simulation
4. Field Operations including Layout, Schedule tracking and updating as well as  
   integration of detailed subcontractor models
5. Implementation of Integrated Construction Management using all of the above connecting Virtual Construction to your Finance and Performance Management systems

When you taking a journey it is always best to have a map or a set of guidelines to help you begin and to scope the size of your projects. One helpful way to perform this scoping is to look at what is possible if you were able to “immediately use all the information in a BIM. The following list is a good high level way to consider where the 5D BIM can help your company lower risk and improve project results. This list is not exhaustive and is broken down by what you can do yourself with the software and what a Services company can do for you but it is a collection of what Vico customers are doing, some are doing all of this and some are doing part of this since after all, this is a journey.

All of this represents a great deal of opportunity for your business so good planning is essential in the adoption of these solutions, I guess when implementing Virtual Construction we should all remember to “Measure twice and cut once!”  Have a great week.

Don H

Donald R. Henrich

Executive Vice President

Vico Software, Inc.

In my role here at Vico I spend 60% of my time working with our customers and prospects at their offices helping them learn more about what 5D BIM or Virtual Construction can do for them.

While everyone is excited by the power of connecting models to quantities and locations they inevitably look a bit concerned and say, "How long will it take us to learn all this?"  This is the first critical part in the adoption process that we often spend a lot of time discussing. 

The answer to this question is another question, "What do you want to do with it?  How much support do you have today for use of new solutions to typical problems, or in other words, "Has this process been broken for so long that you have just decided to live with it?"  

The reason you have to answer the question with a question is each customer must decide for themselves what is right for them and their organization, but as a friend of mine says, "Every journey begins with a step," so get your company involved.

Once you have decided to do something and you have begun to educate your team you can think in terms of 4 big opportunities:

• Presentations, Constructability and Coordination
• Quantity take-off and Cost Management
• Schedule analysis, optimization and Simulation
• Field Operations including Layout, Schedule tracking and updating as well as  
  integration of detailed subcontractor models

We have had the privilege of working with some really great contractors and owners around the world.  In the next posting I'll report in on a visit to St. Joe's Healthcare System, a forward thinking Owner organization who has about 10 5D BIM projects underway and is expanding its goals for each project to reach further and further into actual Construction by connecting their 5D Model to Trimble gear for MEP systems placement and site layout as well as some advanced seismic hangar and bracing coordination.

Have a great week and feel free to email me if you have a question or would like to discuss one of these topics in more detail with a member of our team.

Don H - EVP Vico