Reaping Building Information Management (BIM) returns begins with owner-centric BIM. Read expert insights on how real estate owners can move beyond vendor-centric BIM.
Over the past two decades, Building Information Modeling (BIM) has solidified its place in the AEC industry by using technology to facilitate BIM-based contract documents, model coordination, and clash detection. Let’s call this traditional BIM, and it has been working well for design and construction vendors. This vendor-centric, traditional BIM is mostly about building information models and their management. The stage is set for the next phase of BIM evolution when owners take greater leadership by providing clear, concise, and consistent BIM requirements that can benefit all project stakeholders across the owner’s portfolio for the entire building lifecycle. This ensures the most important stakeholder—the owner—will receive model deliverables with the required data in a form directly consumable by the owner for their own internal use cases. This is owner-centric BIM.
Most commercial designers and contractors will use BIM software and leverage the BIM process to produce project deliverables more efficiently, whether owners require BIM or not. Architects have discovered that using BIM authoring tools like Revit can accelerate the production of contract documents with fewer documentation errors. Similarly, contractors have found that finding and resolving issues early saves time and money on a project.
After surveying 32 BIM-assisted projects, the Center for Integrated Facilities Engineering (CIFE) at Stanford University found that the use of BIM technology resulted in:
BIM is as much about building information management as it is about technology; technology has just been an enabler. BIM is rapidly evolving into a long-term, management-intensive process throughout the entire building lifecycle. Owners who are serial builders or owner-developers who maintain a large portfolio of buildings and campuses need to control the BIM processes necessary for the optimal success of enterprise-wide project delivery. The best way to control the BIM process is by authoring a comprehensive set of BIM guidelines made available to vendors during the RFP procurement process, with contractual language that gives the guidelines teeth.
This owner-centric BIM approach enables best practice implementation of BIM processes that provide a firm foundation for valuable downstream use cases beyond traditional BIM. This foundational BIM ensures that the vendor deliverables will be configured for multiple reuses of the geometry and data by the owner for the entire building lifecycle, including estimating, cost control, scheduling, operations, digital twins, and various other valuable use cases. The more times the owner can utilize foundational BIMs and their data, the more value can be derived from the BIM process, leading to stronger owner advantages.
Foundational BIM is owner-centric and translates into direct competitive advantages in project management, cost efficiency, quality control, and long-term asset management by providing:
Register for our Next-Level BIM Workshop by November 29, 2024, or contact our BIM training team to book a group of ten or more at LearnBIM@anseradvisory.com.
John Stebbins is a pioneer in Building Information Modeling (BIM), with over 35 years of experience in digital design and construction technologies. He has spent 11 years aiding some of the world’s largest owners in digitally transforming their operations. John is a respected expert in BIM strategy, project planning, and execution. He has taught BIM at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, CA, and the University of Southern California, has delivered numerous lectures, seminars, workshops, and has led user groups throughout California and Arizona on the power of BIM.