I ran across a question recently on a LinkedIn discussion group for construction planning.  The question was, “Besides the subs, who really cares about their productivity rates?”

 

Wow.  That has to be a hard question for an Owner to hear because everyone knows if the subs don’t produce, there will be claims and increased risk that the job will be late.

 

A core component of Vico Office is flowline theory which states that the goal of superior construction planning is to have locations free and clear of disruptions so that subs can work through the area at their maximum productivity rate.  So what that means, in essence, is that EVERYONE cares about the subs’ productivity rates: the GCs who are orchestrating the flow of trades on the jobsite and the Owner who is always looks for building efficiency to shorten the schedule and reduce costs.

 

Last month, I attended the "Construction Tech 2011" event in the Kimmel Center at New York University.  The theme of the event was "Subcontractors to Owners - Transparency in Action” and it was sponsored by the Greater New York Construction User Council and the Subcontractor Trade Association, along with CURT, NYC BIM, the National Subcontractors Alliance, BIMplex, the Associated Specialty Contractors, and the buildingSMARTalliance.  I wanted to hop on LinkedIn and answer the question with a photo of the event along with the caption “THIS is who cares about subs’ productivity rates!” 

 

 

Caption: Owners, GCs, Subs – everyone cares about subs’ productivity rates!

 

I was part of a panel presentation at the event entitled “Validations in BIM: Design Intent to Means and Methods to 5D Contracting.”  Obviously, with the event in New York City, many in the Vico Community couldn’t attend, so I would like to share the discussion here and hear what you have to say.

 

The first question we received was: What is one of the misnomers or myths surrounding BIM that you run into often with Owners, Subs, GCs, and Designers?

 

Of course, this is the myth that any Building Information Model will do.  The truth is, a design intent model is just one type of model.  GCs need to include means and methods data in their models so that they can do clash detection, scheduling, and estimating.  And Subs need to model to a much, much higher level of detail for fabrication.  

 

So what we wanted to stress for Owners is that just because you see a 3D model on a computer screen does not mean it is made for construction.  How do you get that means and methods data into Subs and GC's models?  It's important to be able to harness the available intellectual property in each firm and capture that data in the models.  This knowledge (think: productivity, unit rates, consumption) can be stored in a database so that it is readily accessible for all projects.

 

What is Vico doing to help make this type of data more accessible for GCs?   Even if you don't have complete data, a "means and methods" data set is possible.  Vico can supplement your information with our 5D Data Pack that includes both the building elements for your models and the tasks to install those pieces represented in average productivity rates.

 

We also have a model checking service – what we call our Quality Assurance and Refinement service.  For a flat fee of $2,000 we interrogate your BIM model to see if it is up to snuff for use in construction.  We inspect eleven different aspects of the model and grade it accordingly.  A grade higher than 70% means that it will work for downstream construction activities.  And anything under a 70% needs correcting – and we can give you a price for that.  The basic premise is that in under two weeks, we can help the design team, the GC, the subs, and the Owner determine if their BIM models are at the level of detail necessary for coordination, scheduling, and estimating.

 

Second hot topic: How does BIM change the way contracting is done?

 

Contrary to question from the LinkedIn Group, Subs and GCs should work together during the buyout, sharing models and sharing productivity rates.  From these conversations, GCs can build out the 4D schedule and 5D estimate. But more importantly, GCs and Subs need to work together on-site to try and achieve these rates.

 

Again, this is another key tenet of Vico Software – the schedule doesn’t end in Preconstruction – it goes out to the field and is amended every week with real-time data inputs.  Because we measure quantities by location multiplied by productivity rates to get our calculated durations, we can quickly see how our field actual productivity rates are impacting the schedule.

 

Caption: As the Superintendent walks the site each week, s/he can mark the percent complete for each location and quickly see any areas that need to be addressed.

 

With a quick meeting in the trailer, the Superintendent can work with the Subs to correct the problem and get the schedule back on track.  This on-site production control is a very important piece of the pie for Owners – this real-time data means better input for progress reviews and informed decision making.

 

The third item we discussed was: What are some of the BIM deliverables that Owners can expect from Subs and GCs?

 

The goal of the conference (and the goal of 5D BIM) is to make the construction process more transparent to the Owner.  The construction deliverables that mean the most to Owners are:

- Cost-loaded schedules

- Manpower charts

- Gantt chart

- Cash flow forecasts

- A Resource-based cost report

- Resource forecasts for each subcontractor for the upcoming month

- Percentage of production complete compared to the plan

- Answering what-if scenarios in terms of impact to the schedule and budget

 

All of these reports are available in Vico Office, along with any others you would like to design.  Because Vico Office is a database and our solutions span constructability, scheduling, and estimating, we produce comprehensive construction management reports.  Learn more about the Reporting Engine in our webinar about the topic or hop on over to our video training tutorials on the subject.

 

This conference couldn’t have come at a better time as a counter point to the LinkedIn discussion.  In fact, everyone cares about the Subs’ productivity rates because they contribute so highly to the overall schedule and budget.

 

Do you or don’t you care about Subs’ productivity rates?  Post your comments to this blog article.

 

Contrary to what Nostradamus or the Mayans prognosticated, I do not think 2012 will mark the end of the world. However, I do foresee some pretty significant changes on the horizon for the construction industry, of which we have seen the first signs in 2011.
 
CAD Managers Become BIM Managers
How many discussions about BIM Managers’ job descriptions have we seen this past year?  Too many to count...  A sign that Building Information Modeling and Virtual Construction is no longer "a trend,” assigned to someone in the company with an interest in "CAD and computers,” who can do this on the side. It is now taken seriously, in many cases by completely transforming the way that preconstruction and production processes are being managed.
 
I predict that the BIM Manager will begin to do more than manage models, and start to manage how the project stakeholders interact with them, how they drive better, more integrated processes, and how they enable new efficiencies for the GC.  I predict that the GC’s BIM Strategy will be focused on 4D, 5D, and 6D, and how all departments contribute. This is in stark contrast to planning the upgrade to the newest release of boxed software.
 
BIM Will Redefine Business Processes
Like I was saying above, I predict that the BIM Manager's responsibility reaches much farther than design coordination and constructability management.  BIM is more than 3D models: the cost and schedule data aspects are closely related and have to be considered to take full advantage of integrated 5D data. To accomplish integration and obtain more powerful tools for project management, the BIM Manager will be one of the main orchestrators of a redefined business process for construction firms.
 
As the Director of Customer Success here at Vico, I get to dive into our customers’ projects.  And what I see over and over again on our 5D projects is that the preconstruction schedules and estimates are not thrown away – rather they are refined by operations and updated with real-time information out on the jobsite.  This is the 5D BIM Workflow that results from each piece of data being so tightly integrated with its downstream actions.  The BIM model geometry determines the quantities.  The quantities by location and the Subs’ productivity rates determine the durations.  The schedule plus the material and labor costs determine the estimate.  Tracking the progress onsite keeps us on-schedule and on-budget. 
 
ERP and BIM Will Be Connected
ERP needs BIM inputs.  Budgets, schedules, and resource requirements are all products of 5D Building Information Models and required inputs for ERP systems.  And many construction firms have acquired these ERP systems and are rolling them out.  Why would anyone want to manually input data when we can integrate the entire process?

 

 

I predict that 2012 will be the year that these two technology platforms are connected.  The ERP will be fed with the location-based input and visual 3D feedback which makes the 5D planning data available for operations.  Even something as simple as the accounting clerk being notified by super on the jobsite that the steel sub can be paid because the last beam is in place is an incredible efficiency.  Now imagine that multiplied across all of the GC’s projects and you see why the combination of ERP and BIM is inevitable.

 

It's going to be an interesting year - I am definitely looking forward to it.  Happy 2012!

 

Did you reconnect with your college friends during the Thanksgiving Holiday?

 

Do you have a friend or family member who is the type of person that just gets software and can use it to its full potential in no time?  Do you have someone you call everytime you need to troubleshoot a computer issue?

 

Vico is looking for a new team member with exactly that type of quality to join our fast-paced global company as a Virtual Construction Engineer and work with our customers around the world.

 

As a Virtual Construction Engineer, you:

 

1. Become part of our internal team of experts who design and test real-world environments and work flows;
2. Provide on-site and web-based training to new Vico customers, manage follow-up assignments and certification;
3. Provide technical support for Vico's customers around the world;
4. Perform software demonstrations to new client prospects for both the Vico direct sales team and Vico resellers worldwide;
5. Develop software support and implementation tools such as documentation, tutorials, blog articles, etc.

 

Do you have what it takes to become part of the BIM/Virtual Construction revolution? 

• IT experience with networks, firewalls, database systems, software installation, computer problem-solving
• Excellent customer support skills and problem-solving abilities
• Excellent CRM skills
• Prior experience in a B2B software company

 

Check out the Virtual Construction Engineer job description on the website and then contact us for more information!

 

At Vico, we believe that BIM involves much more than just creating a 3D model and spinning it around on the screen. It might be better defined as a new, integrated construction planning and management methodology, also referred to as Virtual Construction. Although 3D coordination is an extremely valuable capability that many firms have adapted by now, we think that it is only the beginning of planning and managing construction projects in a more efficient, effective and understandable way.

 

Therefore, when we started the development of our BIM Score Calculator, we began by defining the aspects (or areas of proficiency) that we believe should be part of an integrated construction planning and management approach, which ranges from design team engagement to cost and schedule planning and project/enterprise management.

 

The 7 categories of BIM proficiency include:

 

                1. Portfolio and Project Management

                2. Cost Planning

                3. Cost Controlling

                4. Schedule Planning

                5. Production Controlling

                6. Design Coordination

                7. Design Team Engagement

 

 

Portfolio and Project Management involves the creation and use of project status reports that provide managers insight in planned versus actual progress, material and resource usage, as well as forecasts based on the performance so far. Portfolio Management contains a roll up of this type of reports to the enterprise level.

 

Cost Planning is the evolution of estimating into a more proactive methodology to calculate and report projected cost, using the integration and cooperation with the design discipline to provide rapid and more frequent feedback to partners and owners.

 

Cost Controlling goes along with Cost Planning and is used to determine current status of the project's cost, as compared to earlier versions, as well as a set of cost targets per building system.

 

The integrated approach for Schedule Planning is more than just drawing bars that reflect the expected (desired?) duration of a task, which results in just an uncoordinated "window of opportunity" for subcontractors that come on board in a later stage.  It determines the amount of work by using BIM quantities per location and applying production rates obtained by measuring performance in previous and current projects.

 

Production Controlling using BIM means checking completion of the project per location, and deriving the actual progress from quantities rather than guesstimates. This actual production is then fed back into the baseline schedule to reforecast the entire job – based on progress to date. This means valuable real-time feedback for more accurate forecasting and decision making.

 

Most companies who have tried BIM today are already familiar with the Design Coordination category:  clash detections are run on the sets of trade models and issues are resolved by working with the various parties involved, to create a coordinated 3D model for all trades. Design Coordination also involves change management and constructability reviews.

 

Lastly, planning and organizing your design, cost, and schedule content to connect seamlessly and defining a process that all parties follow during the design phases of the project falls in the Design Team Engagement category.

 

For all of the categories, we have developed three questions: one about use of software, one about best practices and processes, and one question about the level of integration with other categories.

 

When you answer the three questions per seven aspects, the calculator cranks out your BIM Score.

 

We send you a detailed report after completing the questions in the survey.  We also point out areas where we think you have a "gap" between your current situation and potential BIM use. The maximum score is 100 points – so go to our website to calculate your BIM Score and let me know what you think!

 

My colleagues have also penned some interesting articles on the topic:

• How Does Your Firm Stack Up with BIM?
• Granite Countertops and BIM

 

 

 

 

In previous my role in Vico's Product Management, I have met with many customers to talk with them about their ideas about Virtual Construction, our software and our concepts. During these meetings, one point that consistently came up is why it is sometimes difficult to “get over the hump” of implementation. Typical feedback was, “we are too busy with our day jobs to create a good plan to get this rolled out and make it standard practice."

 

In my role as Director of Customer Success, my team and I are addressing exactly this problem: we took what we learned from our customers and developed a comprehensive plan to empower the organization with training, support, and one-on-one care, all built into a one-year “curriculum," that will help your organization adopt these new tools and processes.

 

Oftentimes we will hear from CMs and GCs during our first meeting with them that they have tried the prescribed couple seats of modeling software and clash detection, but there just isn’t a burst of new efficiencies or capabilities like they expected.  In some cases, creating a BIM Department and outfitting them with hardware and software has even been a sinkhole of time and money.

 

There has to be more to BIM than just hardware and software, after all, it’s about sharing information and accelerating project success.  Having performed over 400 BIM projects around the world during the past five years, we have codified what makes firms successful with BIM: discipline, executive support, and a trusted partner.  And we’ve turned our findings into our Customer Success Plan for your team.

 

The Vico Customer Success Plan is a one-year commitment to 5D BIM.  Your company agrees to proper training and support, unique executive workshops, specialized consulting, mentoring, and peer review.  Vico agrees to keep your momentum rolling throughout the year, building upon installation, implementation, training, and project success.  Together, this commitment results in your 5D BIM success.  Here are the key components:

 

Discipline.  Successful firms don’t dabble in BIM – they consume it, they inhale it.  It isn’t one department’s responsibility – it is pervasive throughout the firm.  Yes, there are going to be growing pains and agita over some new workflows and different ways of sharing project data, but as soon as you see the “big picture,” you know it’s worth it.

 

The Customer Success Plan includes corporate training plans involving each department.  This training isn’t about where to move your mouse and click, though!  This training illustrates the 5D BIM Workflow through each department and out to the field.  The training includes separate follow-up assignments, grading, and mentoring, resulting in certification. 

 

The workshops designed for the implementation phase help your team to build upon the knowledge gained during the training sessions, and help you customize the 5D Processes for optimal results in your organization.

 

Executive Support.  5D BIM isn’t a purchase order.  It’s a decision to change the company workflow – how you pursue projects, how you perform projects, and how you leverage your firm’s experience and talent.  And that requires backing. 

 

We are keenly aware of this and have developed Executive Workshops to help your management team see where their expertise and leadership is needed.  To quote Vico’s own CEO, “Those who lead the change [to 5D BIM] and those who embrace the change must become the positive examples in your company that others are inspired to follow.”

 

A Trusted Partner.  We probably have one or two people in our lives who hold our feet to the fire when it comes to commitments and goals.  That’s the same approach Vico takes.  We coach you through the challenges of deployment and adoption.  We’re with you every step of the way to make you both accountable and successful.

 

Our Customer Success Plan includes quarterly goals with monthly progress reports.  We are doggedly consumed with your success and will keep you on track, despite the inevitable fire drills that come up during your year-to-year operations.

 

Learn more about our Customer Success Plan and see if it makes sense for your firm.  When you’re ready to get serious about transforming your team, we’re ready to help.

 

It is often the case that the team that is responsible for creating a building model in Revit is not in the same office or even in the same company as the team who will be taking advantage of the model-based quantity takeoff capabilities of BIM. The consequence of the missing communication between "producing" party and "consuming" party is that the naming of model content may not be optimal for use in construction quantity takeoff, cost planning and model-based schedule planning.

 

Vico Office provides 3 property options that can be used for the creation of Takeoff Items (groups of similar elements for which quantities are aggregated) from Revit models: "Family", "Family Type" and "Mark".

 

Family and Family Type are often used to define and organize a company's Revit element library and may or may not be a good way to name elements in the model so that Takeoff Items can be created for optimal use in cost and schedule planning.

 

The third option - "Mark" - is very suitable as a solution to prepare the Revit model for use in Vico Office without having to change any of the Family or Family Type names. The steps below explain a quick and straightforward way to do this, using Revit's "Schedule" functionality.

 

To begin, select the "Schedule/Quantities" function from the "View" ribbon.

 

 

 

Define a new schedule that contains the information that you need to assign a "Mark" description - the future name of your Takeoff Item in Vico Office.

 

 

Next, on the "Sorting/Grouping" tab in the "Schedule Properties" dialog, group the model content by the properties that should determine how they are going to be quantified in Vico Office. Make sure to uncheck the "Itemize every instance" option.

 

 

After clicking "OK", a table appears that shows the content of your model, grouped by the criteria selected in the "Sorting/Grouping" tab. A "Mark" description can now be assigned quickly and easily by just typing it into the "Mark" column.

 

 

When selecting an element in the model, the entered information will be visible in the "Properties" palette.

 

 

Items that do not have a "Mark" value will be activated and visible in Vico Office, but will not be assigned to any Takeoff Item. (They can be found by using a view filter, using the "Show Only Unassigned" option.)

 

After publishing to Vico Office, activate the model with only the "Mark" option selected.

 

 

Your quantity takeoff is now ready for use in Cost Components and Schedule Tasks.

 

 

Please let me know if this has been useful and what other approaches you have come up with to make sure that the quantity takeoff potential of BIM can be used in your firm!

 

This and many more tips can be found in the Vico Office Cost Planner video training series.

 

And don't forget to read my colleague's blog on the broader topic, What Can Be Done to Improve Model Fidelity.

 

On my way back from a visit to our development center in Ukraine, I was pondering what I had learned about the use of “Agile” development work planning and tracking while there. (Wikipedia has a quick description of agile development work.)The teams that work on the various projects plan their work load by going through the requirements as a team, and then assigning unitless “points” to each of the requirements. The number of assigned points reflects the order of magnitude of the requirement that was presented to the team by the product design team; software development teams learn – over time – how many of these assigned points can be completed during a – say – four-week iteration, which helps them determine how much of the proposed features will fit in a new version of the software.

 

It struck me that the use of iterations, and trying to plan the amount of work that can be completed in an iteration of work, is quite similar to what we try to accomplish with what we call “stages” in the Virtual Design and Construction world. What often complicates the task of planning a Model Progression Specification is that it is hard to put a number of required days on a design, engineering or planning task. This made me think: what if we would assign “units of MPS work” to each of the element classifications in the project, per targeted Level of Detail? Would that give us a better way to obtain insight in the order of magnitude of work required to reach the next stage (thus deliverable) in an MPS?

 

A simple example of how I believe this could work: during a team meeting, the group agrees that “Foundation” and “Superstructure” corresponds to 20 and 20 units of work when the targeted Level of Detail is 200. The team also agrees that “Foundation” will be another 40 units of work for Level of Detail 300 and “Superstructure” will be 60 units of work.

Now let’s assume that the team is capable of completing 40 units of work per stage (for example, based on a 4-week stage duration). This means that “Foundation and Superstructure at LoD 200” and “Foundation at LoD 300” can all be completed in one stage, but that the work for “Superstructure at LoD 300” has to be sub-divided into more granular Building Element Categories and planned separately, in order to allow for planning the work in more than one state. When a high number of points is assigned to a Building Element Category at a specific Level of Detail, it also becomes clear where the complexity in the project can be found. Another benefit is that assessing the amount of work by assigning points as a group forces the team to communicate in an early stage.

 

 

Caption: Model Progression Specification stages are typically more granular than the image, but the sequence of events could read:

1. Conceptual design and feasibility study

2. Bid quantities, cost and schedule

3. Foundation detailed cost and schedule

4. Steel structure detailed cost and schedule

5. Concrete structure detailed cost and schedule

… (continued)

 

It seemed to me that the “Agile” concept, which is widely adopted in the software industry, would be capable of providing a tool set for MPS planning in Virtual Construction, too. The unitless nature of “points”, combined with experience that the team will gather by going through multiple iterations regarding the number of “points” that can be completed, makes this a flexible, yet powerful way to plan the work involved with all facets that should be included in the project data set as targeted by the Model Progression Specification. Tracking the number of completed points during the stage will make it easier for the BIM Manager to determine progress.

 

I would be interested in learning how teams are estimating MPS work today, and how progress is being tracked on a daily and/or weekly basis – let me know by posting a response!

 

Marcel

 

P.S.  See how our agile development efforts are impacting the Vico Office release schedule.

 

ABSOLUTELY NOT! 

 

Let's rephrase the question: Does the use of BIM for quantity takeoff and cost planning require a change in the job description of Estimators? In other words: do estimators have to become modelers?

 

These are questions that we often get during the Q&A sessions of our Fridays with Vico webinar series. I suspect that the question typically comes up when people realize that the Building Information Model does have to be built first, when you want to be able to use the model-based takeoff and cost planning tools. It seems that the fear for the complexity of modeling tools creates a hurdle that is not easily taken, even though the value of the model's automated takeoff and visual feedback is much appreciated.

 

There are, however, various ways to get over that obstacle. "Starting easy" is option number one. Creating simple volumes by tracing 2D plans is as easy as onscreen quantity takeoff, results in more quantities for the conceptual cost planning phase and provides a nice visual tool for the project team on top of that. It can be learned and done in a day...

 

Option two: in most projects that are designed today, BIM is used by the design team. When project teams define and agree on the content, methodology and naming conventions used in design models, these models can provide usable input for quantity takeoff. It is quite likely that not all quantities can be obtained from the design model, but the model's visual feedback and the ability to ‘mix and match' with manual quantities will make it possible to quickly start taking advantage of BIM tools.

 

A third option is to work with an internal or external "VDC" team, whose members are made responsible for the creation of the model (either with the design team, or based on 2D input). The estimator can in this case interact with the VDC team by providing a list of "desired model-based quantities," based on which the team can then develop the model with the needed content and level of detail. Many of Vico's customers are working like this today and the created input creates much better input for meetings in which cost and quantities have to be explained to owner and project team: all doubts melt away as soon as the virtual elements that provide the discussed quantities are isolated and presented on a screen.

 

Bottom line is that instead of seeing the difficulties, estimators should look at the opportunities that the new technology can provide today: BIM means an enrichment of the job description, not a redefinition!

 

For more information on this topic, please read my colleague's perspective, "When Estimators Block BIM."  Olli Seppanen offers advice for building a cooperative team where the power of the BIM model is exploited by schedulers and estimators.

 

We have a new webinar that addresses these issues.  Please watch BIM-Based Estimating Basics, created specifically for our friends at the American Society of Professional Estimators.

 

To see the theory behind Options 1, 2, and 3, please view the recorded BIM 501 webinar on model-based estimating.

 

The see the practice involved with Option 3, please view the recorded Vico Office for Preconstruction and Estimating Teams.

 

An advanced course for your Virtual Design and Construction Team is the archived Connecting the Conceptual Estimate to the Model Progression Specification webinar.

 

We also offer a step-by-step guide to our 5D virtual construction workflow with video tutorials. These videos are just 2-5 minutes in length, but illustrate how to use a particular piece of functionality. You can access the video library index and view just what you need, or download the complete set of training videos.

When a budget is prepared for a project, the cost calculation tends to go through a number of phases.  Typically the estimate goes from a "back of a napkin" cost calculation to a highly-detailed cost estimate that can later be used for cost control in the production phase.  The AACEI (Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering International) rates cost estimating work in 5 classes, starting at "Concept Screening" (Class 5), followed by "Study and Feasibility" (Class 4) and "Budget, Authorization and Control" (Class 3). The final cost plans are either a Class 2 or a Class 1 cost plan, based on a 30%-70% complete project definition or on a 50%-100% complete project definition.

 

The results of the cost estimating work, done throughout the phases defined as "Classes" by AACEI, are often autonomous. Relations between cost estimates do not always exist and it can therefore be hard for project teams to understand what the impact of a certain design decision is. 

 

Also, because preparing a cost estimate is a laborious effort (especially during bid and tender checking phases, when the set of project information is most detailed), the number of estimates that can be completed during the design and bid phases is limited, which may lead to large variances between versions of the cost estimate for a project, due to the amount of significant design decisions made in between.

 

This situation could be improved by building on a previous estimate to create the next version of the estimate, which results in "evolving" the estimate to the next phase of a project. Benefits of this approach are that the variance with the previous budget can be analyzed immediately, as line items (or "allocations") are gradually replaced with more detailed information. In addition to this, "evolving the estimate," or "planning cost" as we like to call it, allows for releasing an unlimited number of cost plans, because a 100% complete cost is available at any moment (items that have not been replaced with more detailed cost items continue to be part of the overall cost plan). Using the approach, a theoretically unlimited number of cost plans can be created with the same amount of work.

 

Caption: Because the 5D platform is integrated, a change in the model geometry is reflected in the quantities which drive the schedule and estimate.  In this view, the Estimator can see the cost plan, the budget, and the 3D model.  By clicking on an item from the cost plan, s/he can see the element highlighted in the model and the budget.

 

The gradual increase in cost plan granularity allows the cost planner to determine when additional information can be added to replace previous assumptions and where this is needed - typically in those parts of the project that carry the highest risk. The ability to generate a 100% cost plan at any time provides benefits for project team and owner, because "cost variance surprises" are reduced to the individual line item level, which has the potential to dramatically improve cost status awareness situation in projects for all participants.

 

Vico has five detailed resources to further demonstrate the benefits of cost planning:

1.) BIM 501: Model-Based Estimating

2.) Connecting the Conceptual Estimate to the Model Progression Specification

3.) Cost Planning for Preconstruction and Estimating Teams

4.) Cost Planning Strategies in a Hard Bid

5.) BIM-Based Estimating Fundaments

 

These webinars delineate the differences between traditional estimating practices and model-based estimating and cost planning. 

 

Also refer to this discussion of cost planning verus estimating, including a video explanation.

 

We also offer a step-by-step guide to our 5D virtual construction workflow with video tutorials. These videos are just 2-5 minutes in length, but illustrate how to use a particular piece of functionality. You can access the video library index and view just what you need, or download the complete set of training videos.

 

We look forward to your comments.

 

During the most recent AGC BIM Forum conference, held two weeks ago in La Quinta, CA, "trust" was a returning theme during the various presentations and discussions that I attended. Probably "trust", as in "the ability to count on each stakeholder's work" can be considered the most important constraint for IPD projects to be successful.

 

Because in IPD project risk and profit are shared amongst the stakeholders, participants need to rely heavily on the quality and timely delivery of each other's work.

Where contracts and claims take care of reaching a certain ‘comfort level' in the more traditionally organized projects, craftsmanship and good communication are critical in IPD to let managers sleep calmly.

 

"We caught ourselves calculating the ETC (Estimate To Complete) more frequently", as John Tocci stated during his presentation about the new Autodesk office project, currently built using an IPD contract, expressing the need for continuous insight in the project's status.

 

Craftsmanship can never replace by better information technology in construction. However, with BIM technology such as Virtual Construction teams can provide all stakeholders with the same view on the project and derived constructability, cost and schedule information, which greatly enhances the communicative capabilities of project teams, as exemplified by presentations such as the valuable Weitz/SCI contribution to the conference.

 

During the software forum panel discussion, an important topic was ‘change management', where we talked about how to support the need for ‘bite size' and role specific project information. With building contractors turning into ‘change managers', it is extremely important to not only understand the current status of the project, but also to understand which decisions got the team there.

 

During the development of the upcoming "Vico Office" software, we are continuously keep this in mind - our goal is to provide (IPD) project teams with tools that helps them to focus on craftsmanship, not on explaining project data!