The much heralded date of April 2016 for the implementation of the Government mandated Building Information Modelling (BIM) level 2 on all publically procured projects has now been and gone. There was no fanfare of publicity and it is fair to say that it arrived with a whimper rather than a bang. The earth did not stop revolving and the construction industry did not suddenly come to a shuddering halt so many of you may ask ‘so what was all the fuss about BIM then’?
It is true there were no major public announcements around the April date and in effect it was simply business as usual for the industry. This soft sell approach was because the industry had already been involved in the wide range of activity needed since the mandate for BIM level 2 was announced in 2011 as part of the Government’s Construction Strategy. The construction industry have been working hard to put in place the relevant processes and practical guidance to ensure that BIM level 2 compliance is achievable and the collaboration between all elements of the industry has been impressive. Collaboration is the key to the successful implementation of BIM which in essence requires all asset information, documentation and data relating to a construction project to be delivered in an electronic format which can be utilised throughout the lifecycle of the building.
Initially the BIM development work was focussed on products relating to the construction of the core building structure but in more recent years the modelling of data for internal services and environmental infrastructure products within the building has been championed by manufacturers through BEAMA and other relevant Trade Associations. To this end, the manufacturers have supported the development and use of Product Data Templates which are straightforward excel spreadsheets designed to give a common template for their respective product data to be entered. This in turn allows designers to compare like-for-like product options for projects.
Take-up of BIM by manufacturers is increasing. Comparison of surveys carried out by the BIM for Manufacturers and Manufacturing group (BIM4M2) in October 2014 and November 2015 shows that the percentage of manufacturers investing in BIM increased year on year from 40% to 58%. Given that this increase was measured some time before the mandated April implementation date, it is clear that manufacturers are becoming increasingly aware of the business benefits of BIM.
There should be no doubt that whilst there was no fanfare for the introduction of BIM it will have a significant and rapidly increasing role to play in UK construction projects going forward. We are already seeing BIM level 2 compliance being required for projects outside of the mandated publically procured projects and anybody involved in any part of the construction industry supply chain needs to be engaged with BIM. To support this, the development of BIM guidance in the UK has been exemplary and the UK is at the leading edge of BIM development in Europe and is rapidly becoming a world leader in BIM.
As the successful implementation of BIM is so important, the key guidance documents are freely available as standards or publically available specifications. BEAMA recommend two particularly useful websites for gaining access to relevant BIM information:
www.level2BIM.org which was launched by the BIM Task Group in April and is hosted and developed by BSI to provide a common and clear point of reference for BIM documentation
www.bim4m2.co.uk which is a forum for sharing manufacturer knowledge and experience in BIM. Particularly helpful is ‘The Curve’ section which provides simple tools which help organisations to understand exactly where they are on the learning curve for BIM.
Whilst the implementation of BIM level 2 continues to bed itself in, work has already started on developing BIM level 3. The importance of this work was reinforced by the Government announcement in the recent budget of £15 million investment over the next 3 years to develop the next generation of digital standards for the construction sector under the Digital Built Britain strategy.
BIM level 3 is at the core of the Digital Built Britain strategy which represents the outcomes and recommendations for the next stage of the BIM journey. BIM level 3 is also referenced as one of the Government’s strategic priorities in the recently published Construction Strategy 2016–2020.
BIM level 3 will enable the interconnected digital design of different elements in a built environment and will extend BIM into the operation of assets over their lifetime. It will support the accelerated delivery of smart cities, services and grids and will continue to keep the UK at the forefront of the international development and implementation of BIM.
There is no doubt that BIM will continue to have a major impact on the UK construction industry and the best advice BEAMA can give is to get involved now or risk being left behind.
