B2 - Group C - BIM for Owners and Facility Managers

Chapter 4 starts off explaining the advantages of applying BIM to projects.  It also states that typically owners did not spend much time with the planning/construction process previously.  The owners view construction as a relatively small cost when compared to the other costs associated with the building over its lifespan.  With the use of BIM the owners can closely monitor and link design information with business processes.  This serves as a way to collaboratively work on a project across fields instead of independent groups where information can be lost across phases.  The chapter moves on to explain the advantages of owners applying BIM to projects.  The design assessment process is a major reoccurring task that must be checked at all phases of a project.  BIM can organize this task in order to make it easier to relay information to the different groups involved in the building process as well as present models and schedules in clear organized manner.  BIM projects provide coordination between models for each major building system allowing any small conflicts to be recognized early on so they do not compound into a larger more costly problem later on.  Overall BIM can cut back project costs and save money at almost every stage in the building process as a strong visual and organizational aid as well as estimating tool.

The latter half of the chapter goes on to address some of the common issues associated with implementing BIM into projects.  I believe it does a good job of covering the areas of concern that would likely come up when implementing BIM techniques and technology as well as some simple solutions.  These problems were mainly due to transitioning to/learning a new technology which I had seen during my coops.

Comments:

Taylor Castonguay:

I too think there is a large benefit to BIM related programs (such as Revit) as opposed to other CAD programs.  I agree that Revit makes organization much more straightforward and reduces errors in drafting in terms of special requirement.  Larger projects tend to make any program run more slowly and there is more information being used in the BIM programs so this is an issue.

Angelina Castro:

I was also surprised to see how much can be done in BIM.  From my readings, the 4D BIM file also stood out as a very helpful and useful tool to keep everyone on the same page.  I read the section on owners, so the information presented was similar.

Mark Bancroft:

The ability to have multiple disciplines collaborating is a huge benefit to projects and keeping a tight schedule.  It is much easier to spot and fix errors early on between disciplines due largely to collaboration as well as the visual aspect.  I was not aware of some of the analysis that can be completed.