BIM-Enabled IPD: A Win-Win for Owners and Project Stakeholders

The building and construction industry is faced with a multitude of challenges in areas, ranging from design planning, construction administration and budgeting, to scheduling and facilities management. To add to this, the demands from owners’ regards to timely completion, cost efficiency, constructability and energy performance are becoming increasingly stringent. As a result, multidisciplinary coordination between all the parties involved in an AEC project right from design planning through to on-site construction, administration is paramount to meet these demands.

Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) framework, if implemented appropriately, can ensure ongoing collaboration between diverse stakeholders, including the client, the architect, the main contractor, the MEP designer and the MEP contractor at all the stages of the project from conception to completion. As defined by the American Institute of Architects (AIA), Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) is a process that “collaboratively harnesses the talents and insights of all the participants to optimize project results, increase value to the owner, reduce waste and maximize efficiency through all phases of design, fabrication, and construction.”

A crucial element of the IPD approach is the adoption of building information modelling (BIM) technology. Unlike traditional project delivery methods, the essence of BIM technology is the central parametric model that is developed using 3D input, often times separate BIM models, from different parties involved in an AEC project. By enabling greater collaboration and information-sharing between different participants, data-rich BIM models drive the IPD framework and improve decision-making ability that can positively impact the project’s outcome. Following are the compelling reasons as to why AEC project teams must employ a combination of IPD and BIM and how this approach delivers positive value propositions for all stakeholders:

• The IPD contractual agreements establishes clarity and dismisses ambiguity amongst all the project stakeholders with regards to decision-making, detailed responsibilities of each party, and risk/reward-sharing mechanism for each task. As a result, major participants, including the architects, MEP engineers and main contractors are clear about their respective roles and timeframes.

• Employing parametric BIM models structures the project team in a way that encourages clear, open, and horizontal communication. This facilitates diverse disciplines to seamlessly coordinate during the pre-construction design planning and construction phases.

• IPD necessitates mapping out comprehensive workflows and protocols for developing, sharing and updating the digital BIM models. These plans clearly delineate procedures for intra-discipline as well as inter-discipline design data management and communication.

• Due to an integrated design management structure facilitated by BIM and IPD, the cost and time benefits experienced by the primary project team members spill over to secondary chain participants, including fabricators, installation experts and facility managers.

So, if your firm operates in the AEC industry and is looking for a highly recommended IPD support services provider to handle initial consultation to complete project management, contact us.

Architectural Drafting Services | Architectural 3D Rendering Services

Architectural 3D Rendering Service

Architectural Drafting Services

3D Building Information Modeling (BIM) | BIM Modelling

3D BIM Modeling

BIM Outsourcing

Building Information Modelling (BIM): An Indispensable Decision-Making Tool for Contractors

General contractors, also referred to as main contractors in the UK, play an essential role in managing the cost and schedule of highly complex construction projects, particularly during the post-design phases. Professional contracting firms and professionals are involved in a list of crucial tasks. These include diligently studying construction drawing sets developed by architects, seeking local construction permits and licenses, examining day-to-day on-site activities, estimating project cost, monitoring schedules, and serving as a key bridge between key trades, including mechanical services, electrical services, plumbing services and fire protection services.

XS CAD’s 3D BIM modeling and 3D BIM coordination services assist general contractors (main contractors) by providing them with a high degree of predictability and enabling on-time completion of projects. Considering that general contractors (main contractors) bear significant risk of project implementation, they appreciate the advantage of our BIM services.

Owing to our extensive experience in pre-construction planning, multi-service BIM coordination, and BIM modeling for education, commercial, healthcare, leisure, and residential projects, XS CAD has served as a valuable partner to general contractors (main contractors) in the US, Canada, Australia, India, and the UK to support the design process for architectural, structural and MEP disciplines.   

Apart from helping contractors deliver time and cost efficiencies on their projects, our tailored BIM services and MEP spatially coordinated models enhance coordination and interoperability between general contractors (main contractors) and all the subcontractors responsible for each of the building services -- mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and fire protection. Since the parametric objects created within BIM models represent actual elements within a construction project, this information is valuable for designers, installers and cost consultants.

Whilst 3D BIM modeling services support contractors by offering them a thorough pre-construction visualisation with regards to structure, architectural elements, MEP spatial coordination, clash inspection, and interference analysis, 4D BIM allows them to create time-based virtual mock-ups, also known as sequence-based simulations to improve productivity on site. Additionally, 4D BIM services help them detect time and workflow-based clashes resulting in efficient materials and equipment planning, besides improving the flow of multidisciplinary personnel in a constrained space and time.

Furthermore, XS CAD’s 4D BIM Services help general contractors (main contractors) test several "what if" scenarios and make improvements if needed. As a result, the simulation of various project sequences relative to their planned timeframes enables quick and effective decision-making. This decision-making advantage and accurate predictability offered by our BIM modeling services leads to on-time and cost-effective project completion by contractors for their end customers.

CAD and BIM Outsourcing: A Positive Value Proposition to Gain A Competitive Edge

Construction and design documentation form an integral element of any construction project's design and planning stage. With the clients (facility owners) raising benchmarks with regards to quality, cost efficiency and completion timeframes for such projects, the entire AEC fraternity is seeking ways to meet these requirements, whilst staying profitable. In addition to this, there is a growing client-side demand for employing BIM-based 3D virtual planning in combination with traditional 2D CAD methods for multi-faceted benefits. Accordingly, architectural and building services firms are considering CAD and BIM outsourcing as a suitable practice not only to reduce cost but also increase quality, productivity and boost in-house efficiency.

Whether the project requirements include elementary paper-to-CAD conversions or complex MEP modelling and coordination support assignments, there are numerous benefits that architectural, MEP engineering, contracting, project management and MEP consulting firms can derive from outsourcing their construction design and documentation work. Some of them include:

1. Cost-Effective Access to CAD and BIM Expertise

It is extremely difficult for architectural and MEP firms to set up specialised internal teams proficient in developing BIM-based design and construction drawing sets. Transitioning from 2D CAD to BIM is a long learning curve, particularly for small- and medium-sized practises. For such firms, partnering with a third-party vendor who specialises in outsourced CAD services can speed up turnaround times whilst maintaining quality standards and local design regulations.

2. Ability to Concentrate on Core Function

When firms involved in architectural, building services, general contracting, project management and AEC consulting, outsource their CAD and BIM documentation work, they can conveniently reduce operating costs whilst focussing on their respective fundamental services.

3. Support to Share Project Risk

Having a competent and reputed CAD outsourcing partner allows a business to share the project risk. When you subcontract design and construction drawing assignments to a third party, you trim down the risk involved in training your internal team members and having them execute a non-core function. Furthermore, in the AEC industry wherein timelines and quality standards are critical to success, outsourcing can prove to be a valuable route to a business' success.

4. Time and Resources to Develop Internal Team

Outsourcing saves the time, effort, and cost involved in setting up CAD teams, including procuring software licenses, configuring high-tech systems and putting together a team of expert technicians. As a result, the firms that outsource efficiently use the same time and effort to develop their in-house team.

5. Leverage Time-Zone Advantage

By choosing to offload CAD and BIM-driven documentation work, including drafting, 3D modelling, 4D scheduling, MEP drafting, MEP modelling, MEP coordination and clash detection, architectural and MEP engineering firms can easily make full use of the difference in time zones. For instance, if a UK-based architectural practise outsources its design and documentation work to an Indian-based CAD company, your assignment will be worked upon whilst you are away from office and delivered when you return the next morning. As a result, you get round-the-clock operations for your business that will increase productivity.

6. Save on Recruitment Overheads

Offloading CAD and other complex BIM-based design documentation services to third-party providers offers a business the ability to remain flexible and quickly adapt to market fluctuations as the cost, time and efforts of recruiting, training and setting up a quality team of technicians are saved.

7. Enhance End Deliverables

When non-core functions are subcontracted to outsourcing providers, the entire delivery life-cycle shortens whilst maintaining quality benchmarks agreed upon. Since your outsourcing partner can deliver high-quality documentation sets faster, your business can boost up input-to-output time cost-effectively. As a result, you maintain the quality and timeliness of your service, thereby increasing the end client's satisfaction.

8. Trim Operating Costs

Establishing a highly-skilled team of CAD and BIM technicians involves recruitment, employee training, procuring software licenses, besides setting up the hardware and online collaboration infrastructure. When your business chooses CAD and BIM outsourcing as an option, you can cut back on the outlay, time, and efforts required for the same.

9. Provide Competitive Edge

As there is a greater push than ever by all the key stakeholders to avoid budget overruns during all phases of the design and build, outsourced CAD services can certainly prove to be a positive value proposition for architects, MEP (M&E) consulting firms, and general contractors looking for a scalable yet cost-effective alternative to setting up in-house teams. This, in effect, provides a highly competitive edge whilst offering a flexibility to tackle the ups and downs of market cycles.

Kuldeep Bwail is a Director at XS CAD Limited, one of the leading Revit 3D BIM Modeling companies providing outsourced CAD services to architects, engineers, MEP (M&E) consultants and contractors across the UK, US, Australia, Canada, Europe, India and the Middle East.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kuldeep_Bwail

3D BIM Modeling: Key is to Interpret Client’s ‘Real’ Needs

The concept of building information modelling (BIM) has received universal acceptance from the building services, structural engineering and architectural fraternity mainly due to its need for lean construction and also its cross-disciplinary usability. 3D BIM modeling has existed for a number of years now and the industry is aggressively adapting itself to embrace the new workflows of the BIM process; however, there is still a lack of clarity amongst the owners (the clients) as to what exactly they can achieve from these models, what they need to achieve and how they can make optimum use of this concept.

3D BIM Modeling

This article seeks to explore some beliefs related to the use of BIM and sheds light on when it should be used and to what extent. For the sake of clarity, it is important to know the difference between non-BIM 3D CAD models and a parametric BIM models.

3D CAD models are virtual representations of a facility that provide only visual details. Applications such as AutoCAD Architecture and AutoCAD MEP are used to create 3D CAD models that can be used for design, development, construction and pre-fabrication. On the other hand, BIM models are intelligent models embedded with parametric details that are extremely important for design, development, construction, pre-fabrication, assembly, analysing energy performance and facility management of the built environment. For BIM projects, the details can be effectively shared between different project stakeholders: facility owners, designers/architects, MEP (M&E) engineers, fabricators, consultants and contractors. Revit Architecture and Revit MEP are applications used for BIM modelling whilst Navisworks is employed to detect clashes between different system models.

One of the most crucial aspects that helps decide whether BIM is actually required or not is gaining an in-depth understanding of the model’s purpose. More often than not, there is so much difference between client’s ‘stated’ needs and his/her ‘real’ needs.  In a lot of cases, clients state that they require a BIM model but actually what they require is a smart clash-free 3D model which can be used to extract respective construction drawings. In such scenarios, AutoCAD MEP or AutoCAD Architecture could easily be used to provide a 3D model that meets this need. Alternatively, a BIM software tool could be used to provide a 3D model without providing additional elements such as data rich 'information'.

In other cases, a BIM model may actually be the basis to plan, design, construct, and manage a particular facility. These scenarios require multidisciplinary project stakeholders to access the BIM model at different stages in the project lifecycle. As a result, the most important factor that dictates the success of any project employing BIM is the richness of ‘information’ embedded into the models. So, depending on the project’s scope, a full-fledged BIM model may contain valuable information, such as dimensions of building elements, quantity take-off data, material requirements, time scheduling, costing, prefabrication data, activity simulation, and energy performance. Other important factors that contribute to success of BIM include the data-sharing and interoperability standards to allow smooth multidisciplinary collaboration between key disciplines.

Irrespective of whether the client actually requires BIM or non-BIM CAD model, the BIM wave that has spread across the AEC industry has forced the agenda to adopt a more progressive approach to planning, designing and coordinating models and drawings. The industry continues to transition from non-BIM 2D approaches to collaborative BIM workflows and 3D CAD workflows and even that is a huge shift for the industry. This change is more often than not influenced by the demand side i.e. the clients.

Nevertheless, the current wave of change in favour of adopting BIM applications and processes has helped the entire AEC supply chain embrace intelligent virtual planning and development techniques for architectural and building services design, spatial coordination and collaboration.

Kuldeep Bwail is a Director at XS CAD Limited, one of the leading BIM outsourcing providers offering BIM Services to architects, engineers, MEP (M&E) consultants, and contractors across the UK, US, Australia, Canada, Europe, India and the Middle East.