黑洞社区

Entertaining the guests at this month鈥檚 黑洞社区 Awards, comedian Rory Bremner dared to make a number of jokes directed squarely at the industry. 鈥淚鈥檓 going to be talking a lot about BIM later,鈥� he said at one point, 鈥渨hich is a bit of a worry, because I really don鈥檛 know anything about it.
鈥淏ut that鈥檚 OK,鈥� he deadpanned, 鈥渂ecause I鈥檓 pretty sure none of you do either.鈥�

The gag worked because since the launch of the government鈥檚 plan to use level 2 building information modelling (BIM) on every central government construction contract by 2016, BIM has been the buzziest of all the industry鈥檚 buzzwords. And undoubtedly the number of genuine practitioners of the collaborative digital design technology using it properly in live projects has been vastly outweighed by the bandwagon-jumpers desperate to spray the terminology around in order to sound as up to date as possible.

But whether you鈥檙e an evangelist or a sceptic, the latest figures from the most authoritative annual survey of uptake of BIM in the UK show that use is quickly gathering momentum. A sneak preview of the annual BIM survey conducted by specification provider NBS (see box, overleaf), and due to be launched next week at BIM Show Live, reveals that awareness of the technology is virtually universal, having risen to 95% this year. And, more importantly, the last year has seen a huge leap in those people who have used BIM on live projects - up from 39% to 54% of all respondents.

With almost 拢1bn of public construction projects now using the technology, the shift is so stark that Adrian Malleson, head of research at RIBA Enterprises, which owns NBS, says a tipping point has been reached.

鈥淲e鈥檝e gone through the early adopter phase. This is now starting to become the norm.鈥� So is this truly the case? And if so, what does it mean for the 46% of firms who haven鈥檛 yet started on the journey to working with BIM?

Leading the charge

Certainly the man in charge of the government task group set up to guide the industry towards the 2016 target, Mark Bew, is pretty pleased with NBS鈥� findings. 鈥淓very year we have seen a marked improvement in the response from the supply chain,鈥� says the BIM Task Group chairman. 鈥淥ur industry is not known for moving particularly fast. There aren鈥檛 that many government programmes with the construction industry that have shown such progress. I鈥檓 confident we can hit the deadline.鈥�

We鈥檝e gone through the early adopter phase. This is now starting to become the norm

Adrian Malleson, RIBA Enterprises

RIBA Enterprise鈥檚 Malleson, likewise, hails the progress that has been made, despite the fact the vast majority of central government鈥檚 拢20bn construction spend is still not being delivered using BIM. 鈥淕iven the government鈥檚 track record at hitting targets generally,鈥� he says, 鈥渋f you wanted to pick one to have faith in them achieving, then this would probably be it.鈥�

And the government isn鈥檛 the only client specifying that its suppliers work with BIM. Progressive clients such as Great Portland Estates are doing likewise, with GPE鈥檚 head of projects James Pellatt saying Lend Lease鈥檚 investment in the technology was instrumental to its successful 拢500m tender for the Rathbone Place project in central London. 鈥淚t definitely helped them win the project. We remain very enthusiastic about BIM and it鈥檚 starting to deliver real benefits.鈥�

Phil Bevan, head of residential at architect AWW, says his firm is another example of where investment in the technology is starting to bear fruit. 鈥淚 think the market for firms to do work without using BIM is in terminal decline. Those firms that don鈥檛 learn the technology will soon not be able to compete.鈥�
Probably the quickest uptake has been among the major contractors for whom public sector work is bread and butter - they have had little alternative but to invest heavily in the technology and training required, knowing the government deadline is fast approaching. Many of those firms, such as Skanska, Laing O鈥橰ourke and Balfour Beatty, are now seeing the benefits of using BIM on all their projects - and requiring their consultant teams to do the same.

Bevan says: 鈥淭he main contractors are being very demanding about it. Many have their own protocols which we鈥檙e having to adopt on their projects. So anyone working with major contractors will soon have to move across.鈥�

Richard Saxon, the former chairman of BDP and now an independent consultant and member of the BIM Steering Group, agrees: 鈥淭he contractors are now saying you鈥檒l only work with us if you work in BIM.鈥�

Slower on the uptake

However, as Saxon and others readily admit, it is not quite as simple a picture of unalloyed progress as that. While BIM awareness is near universal, actual adoption is not merely a case of whether you have or haven鈥檛 used a particular piece of software. It鈥檚 a continuum, moving all the way from creating drawings on AutoCAD at one end (so-called level 0 BIM), to the fully collaborative working of all parties on a single model that contains physical, programming, cost and management information at the other. The government requirement is for level 2 BIM, which calls for different parties in the supply chain to use protocols that allow them to share data, and requires so-called 鈥�5D鈥� information - the physical design plus construction sequencing and cost data.

Saxon says: 鈥淭he problem is it鈥檚 鈥榟ow long is a piece of string?鈥� If you ask people whether they鈥檝e done level 2 BIM, they all say yes. But then if you ask them if they鈥檙e really doing it 5D, the answer鈥檚 no. Or if they鈥檙e using COBie [the technology platform that turns BIM into a tool to aid facilities management], the answer鈥檚 no.鈥�

This view is backed by the survey data. The use of COBie is still a minority pursuit: just 23% of BIM users have experience with it. Similarly, less than half of those using BIM have adopted the industry foundation class, or IFC, open file format. This allows teams to share work irrespective of the IT platform they鈥檙e using, and is seen as essential for the growth of the sector as it allows companies to avoid the expense of software licences. No wonder Bew says that BIM 鈥渕aturity and industry capacity鈥� is going to be the focus of the BIM Task Force over the next two years to the 2016 deadline.

And while some private clients are using BIM, they are still very much the exception. AWW鈥檚 Bevan says while his firm now works more efficiently by using BIM on all projects, it is not doing it to meet demand from private clients. 鈥淲ith private clients we鈥檙e driving the process. They often don鈥檛 understand the benefits,鈥� he says. GPE鈥檚 Pellatt agrees: 鈥淚鈥檓 somewhat surprised but many other private clients don鈥檛 seem as keen as we are.鈥�

Time and money

Pellatt says GPE is seeing huge benefits from moving to BIM, but is also having to meet upfront costs of implementing it - mostly in terms of employing a 鈥淏IM facilitator鈥� on projects.

He credits the delivery on time of the developer鈥檚 240 Blackfriars in London, despite one of the toughest winters of the last decade in terms of days lost to bad weather, to BIM work put in upfront and is adamant GPE makes this cost back twofold in better delivery. 鈥淥ur fees would be cheaper if we didn鈥檛 do this 鈥� we鈥檇 be spending hundreds of thousands less on each project. And it causes friction with the team, as not all the consultants want to make this investment. But for us any cost is just bringing forward contingency spend.鈥� Overall he estimates GPE spends about 0.5% of the project cost on using BIM.

Clearly however, not all clients - including the government - are prepared to accept that they may have to pay more for the benefits that come with BIM. At the same time, many in the supply chain - both consultants and smaller contractors 鈥� are struggling to find the capacity and cash to invest in the technology, particularly with work picking up after a cash-draining recession. Bevan says moving to BIM actually reduced productivity at AWW for a year to 18 months while its designers got used to the systems, saying it was the comparative lack of work in the recession that gave them the ability to cope with this. 鈥淲e鈥檝e all had our staff saying, 鈥楾his will take two weeks in [BIM software] Revit, but I could do it in three days in AutoCAD.鈥� And then you鈥檝e got to buy new kit. Now we鈥檙e getting huge efficiencies but it takes a while.鈥�

With workloads picking up, firms may be too busy to divert resources to the task of upgrading, and may also feel a false sense of security that they can win jobs without innovating. The reality is that small contractors and private clients will continue procuring without requiring BIM for many years to come 鈥� though this part of the market will inexorably reduce.

For Saxon, the real death knell for those without BIM capability will come when the kind of collaborative working the technology can enable starts to become commonplace. At this point, he says, the industry will start to group into much more stable alliances and supply chains. 鈥淭hat will ultimately be the driver. No-one will want to be left out of these supply chains. The tide will go out on those firms not part of a stable team.鈥�

But with the government only requiring level 2 BIM by 2016, this level of collaboration is still some way off. 鈥淎t the bottom end of the market it鈥檒l be a long time before BIM becomes standard practice, maybe not even by the end of this decade,鈥� says Saxon.
So maybe it鈥檚 a slower train than the hype would have you believe. But it鈥檚 definitely coming.