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How to introduce BIM into your business

Those that have done so talk through the key stages

38 | 15 December 2011 www.cnplus.co.uk

Rolling out BIM in your business might sound like a daunting task. How do you get backing for the change? Do you switch your whole business to BIM in one go? How do you train your sta� ? Here some of the businesses that have done it recall four of the key steps on the road to embracing BIM. They didn’t all take the same approach to adopting it, but they have plenty of lessons to share.

Big bang or cascade?How will you roll out BIM in your fi rm? Architecture, engineering and design practice Bryden Wood opted for the gradual introduction of BIM across its projects and sta� . Jaimie Johnston, director at the fi rm, says: “Cascading it through the business allows you to learn as you go. When you are teaching people working on projects you can cherrypick things that work well and test them out in a safe environment before you roll them out to the next project. When you induct people they learn quickly because you teach them all the lessons learned.”

David Miller’s architecture

very senior who can instil belief in a way forward, you gain a lot of ground very quickly,” says HOK senior vice-president Andrew Barraclough. However, he says teams had already been doing selected projects in BIM for several years before the roll-out so it never felt top-down. It’s important to help people who are having di� culty with the change, he adds.

The impetus at Bryden Wood came from technical people, who were very early adopters of BIM, and later the management, who thought it would be good to use it more widely.

Senior people need to be involved in order to give the roll-out some momentum but not get in the way. “You have to have the top people agree it is good and also agree not to be a blocker,” says Mr Johnston. “They need to realise they know a bit but not as much as the technical people.”

The fi rm put some of the young, technical experts in fairly senior positions and made it clear that other senior sta� must listen to them. “Otherwise you might have senior people saying ‘I don’t want to listen to some whippersnapper with a mouse’,” he says.

BIM trainingThe conference speakers took a range of approaches to training. David Miller Architects hired a BIM champion who provided expertise and ran courses. The six-day training programme for existing sta� could be broken down into 40-minute chunks so they weren’t taken away from projects for too long.

“People always had the oppor-tunity to do training; they could do it over lunch if necessary,” says Mr Miller. New sta� went on a one-week BIM boot camp before they started on a project. “We real-ised that as soon as they start a project they will have lots of other things distracting them and in fi rst week in the o� ce it is a good opportunity to show people how we want to work,” he says.

HOK took a di� erent approach. “Initially we sent people on a training programme before they had a project to work on, which seemed a good idea but sometimes there wasn’t a project for them,” says Mr Barraclough. “Instead we started training them ‘just in time’. It might make the initial stages of a project slower but it is far better for them to use their skills on a project.”

Adoption strategies

IMPLEMENTATIONCHLOE STOTHART

practice decided to roll out BIM to the whole fi rm in one go, but there were only four sta� – there are now 14 – when they began the journey in 2008.

“It was a little bang rather than a big bang,” he jokes. It was also a two-stage process. In 2008 all sta� used BIM on some schemes but it was only rolled out to all new projects 18 to 20 months ago.”

It’s essential to have the

backing of senior management if a fi rm is to roll out BIM extensively. But should the fi rst moves towards its introduction come from the boardroom or below?

Multinational architecture fi rm HOK introduced BIM across the company in 2006 after the chief executive Patrick MacLeamy got approval from the board.

A top-down mandate has advantages. “If you have someone

How do you introduce BIM into your business? Those that have done so talk through the key stages

Prepareto launch

“Cascading BIM through the business allows you to learn as you go”JAIMIE JOHNSTON, BRYDEN WOOD

BIM: sharing knowledge and data is crucial

15 December 2011 | 39www.cnplus.co.uk

Several of the fi rms had “super users” – BIM experts who develop the skills of other sta� , solve problems and might also work on projects.

Engineering fi rm and consultancy Mott MacDonald has centres of excellence around the world where sta� can spend a couple of weeks working on a project and learning enough BIM skills to become the “super user” in the o­ ce on their return.

Several fi rms linked sta� with di� erent levels of BIM knowledge together so that they could learn from each other. Bryden Wood took this a step

63%of delegates said

BIM had helped them win

work

RETAILCHLOE STOTHART

further with an internal wiki page where sta� add new knowledge they have gained about BIM so that others can benefi t.

Strategy and projectsPart of HOK’s strategy was to set

itself goals for the roll-out of BIM. The London o­ ce’s

goal was to get 65 per cent of projects and

relevant sta� working in BIM daily by autumn 2008. That didn’t quite happen – it

reached 52 per cent in September 2008 –

as there were some older projects being

completed in other systems. But now almost all projects and relevant sta� in London are working in BIM. Common

problems hindering roll-out were put to the fi rm’s delivery board for BIM. It gave each o­ ce a plan to fi x them via report cards, which also monitored the o­ ce’s progress against targets and were reviewed at a monthly forum for the group’s BIM champions.

Everyone recommended choosing a simple project as a fi rst foray into BIM. David Miller recommended picking one that did not have too tight a deadline and where BIM was not essential.

“Ours was a £1 million, seven-unit housing scheme. It was not very di­ cult and it went reasonably smoothly – if it went wrong we could have reversed out quickly and redone in over a weekend in CAD,” he says.

Some of the UK’s biggest retailers have set up a group to advance the use of BIM in the sector.

Asda head of model and specifi cation James Brown told the conference that Asda, Waitrose, John Lewis and three other retailers will form the BIM for Retail Forum, with advice from architects HOK and engineers Ramboll. Another of the “big four” supermarkets and a clothing chain have also expressed interest in joining the group.

The fi rst meeting of the forum,

on 3 November, was attended by Cabinet O­ ce head of BIM implementation David Philp, who talked them through the government’s BIM strategy.

Mr Brown said the group plans to agree standards and processes for BIM that will improve the quality of design information and reduce construction and survey costs. It will develop a list of BIM suppliers – named contacts at architecture, engineering and cost consultancies and fi rms – that can provide data in the right format.

Initially the group will focus on converting existing buildings to BIM, COBie standards for

spreadsheet data, and the most e­ cient processes and workfl ow.

Mr Brown said: “At the moment any client who wants to convert an existing building to a BIM platform does not know who provides the information, what standard to work to or how to manage it. This [forum] will provide a good-practice, standard approach.”

He said the forum should help the retailers avoid duplicating work as they learn to use BIM and

so grow their experience faster.RIBA Enterprises, which

includes software provider NBS, and software house Autodesk were interested in supporting the group, he added.

The forum could provide the software houses with suggestions for extra functionality that could be added to their products.

Mr Brown said the group would be keen to give the government its views on the planned adoption of the COBie standard for BIM data. “Hopefully it will enable us to see COBie standards and comment on them,” he said.

The group is thought to be one of the fi rst client forums for BIM.

Asda and John Lewis launch forum to share and increase BIM knowledge

HOK vice-president Andrew Barraclough has several tips for those taking their first steps in BIM:� Choose your first project wisely. I would not recommend starting with a large, complex refurbishment as a first one in BIM.� Get the designers on board. If there was resistance from the designers, it would not happen.� Put a BIM strategy in place before you start.� Train people ‘just in time’. Do not do train them six to nine months ahead because the project might not happen or staff might end up working on different projects.� Learn from others. I am sure if we did it again we could learn from our mistakes.

TIPS: FIRST STEPS

“We started training people ‘just in time’… it is far better for them to use their skills on a project”ANDREW BARRACLOUGH, HOK

David Miller Architects’ model for the George Eliot School, Westminster

Retailers to share the best of BIM

BIM

In association with

32 | 15 December 2011 www.cnplus.co.uk

Breakfast of champions

“We understand the technology. We’re here to see what other organisations are doing and learn from them.”

These words from one delegate at the Autodesk BIM Conference breakfast workshop summed up what many people wanted from the event.

The briefi ng brought together a hand-picked group of delegates with all levels of BIM involvement, including experienced building information modelling afi cionados who would speak at the conference later that day. Over breakfast they related their experiences of BIM and discussed the issues that will need to be tackled as more people start to implement BIM.

Each of the guests gave their fi rm a rating out of fi ve for its level of BIM adoption. Although the

average rating in the room was about three, it refl ected a huge range. Pioneering fi rms scored full marks, while other delegates who were keen to use BIM but had not yet done so, modestly gave themselves one out of fi ve.

Moving over to BIM requires investment in training and equipment, as well as a sea change in business culture and practice, meaning fi rms need to take a long-term view of the benefi ts.

“BIM has taken o� at a time when the market

is depressed. It goes hand-in-hand with people trying to drive e� ciency, but it’s the worst possible time for

people to invest in software and

training,” says Jaimie Johnston,

director of architect, engineer and manufacturer Bryden Wood.

“People who stumped up the cash early are starting to see the benefi ts, but it’s a big ask to say to the rest of the industry ‘You have

to believe it will get better’.”Unsurprisingly, the need to get

companies and disciplines to collaborate was raised frequently. There was talk of “lonely BIM” projects – those at the fi rst stage of adoption – where only one fi rm in a team used it and so did not gain the benefi ts of collaboration

However, David Philp, head of BIM implementation for the Cabinet O� ce, reported back that some people had successfully created communities of BIM practice within their fi rms.

The next step is wider collaboration. Collaboration will be helped enormously by standardisation of data and the growing interoperability of software.

“You create a model with your own standards and then share it

with someone else who has di� erent standards,” observed RPA Group director Mr Pratley. “We need to share standards in the industry.”

Using data to manage a building more e� ciently once it is in use is one of the biggest benefi ts BIM has to o� er. BIM data can be used in all sorts of ways, from scheduling repairs and cleaning to monitoring e� cient use of o� ce space and energy. Mr Philp said people felt they were “starting to understand the project life cycle” and supply chains were getting ready to help clients use the data through the life of buildings.

Several people said they had to overcome doubt and scepticism from others in their fi rms before convincing them that adopting BIM was the right thing to do.

A lesson learned by several adopters was not to be put o� . “We all wished we had ignored the naysayers and just done it,” says Mr Johnston. And on that note the delegates took their seats in the conference hall to fi nd out how they, too, could “just do it”.

8%of delegates said

BIM was embedded in all projects

Breakfast briefi ng

Experts, novices and those in-between shared lessons learned, challenges faced and pitfalls to avoid on the building information modelling journey at a briefi ng that set the tone for the day

“We all wished we had ignored the nay-sayers and just done it”JAIMIE JOHNSTON, BRYDEN WOOD

PRE-CONFERENCE BRIEFINGCHLOE STOTHART

15 December 2011 | 33www.cnplus.co.uk

BIM

JAIMIE JOHNSTON DIRECTOR, BRYDEN WOOD

“My lesson is: don’t wait for the perfect opportunity. If we had waited until we had developed a detailed BIM strategy with roles and responsibilities, return on investment and a business case, we would probably still be discussing it and missing opportunities. We sometimes use projects to test ideas and potentially over-deliver in preference to having to deliver for the fi rst time in a high-pressure situation. If something works, we can demonstrate a value-adding skill. If it doesn’t, we haven’t disappointed a client or jeopardised a project.”

  JAMES BROWN HEAD OF CONSTRUCTION MODEL AND SPECIFICATION, ASDA

“My lesson is that we took too long to make it mandatory. I took at face value people saying ‘This will cost more, it is too di� cult, you can’t do it’. I talked to a BIM expert and realised what was possible. My advice would be to immerse yourself in it from day one, so when someone says it is too di� cult or costs too much, you know whether it is true. I would like us to use BIM from assessing feasibility all the way through the project. The areas we need to develop are the cost/quantity surveying side and how we extract information from BIM models, including sustainability data.”

ANDREW SHARP BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR, RYDON

“Clients have to push to get BIM implemented, otherwise things will continue to be done in the old way. Some clients are not interested in pushing it and aren’t well informed about it. We are keen to work closely with clients to implement it on projects. My reason for coming to the conference was to fi nd ways

GLENN JOWETT UK REVIT LEADER, OPUS INTERNATIONAL

Companies introducing BIM should get the support of senior management from the start, advises Glenn Jowett, UK Revit leader for Opus International.

Having had significant input into the initial company introduction of Revit across the structural, architectural and mechanical and electrical engineering disciplines in New Zealand, he has experienced the frustrations that can be faced when introducing this new technology from the ‘bottom-up’.

“As soon as senior management understood the benefits to be gained through BIM, company direction from the top meant that the roll-out quickly gained real momentum and has since driven Opus to develop its BIM capability worldwide,” he says.

DEREK PRATLEYDIRECTOR, RPA GROUP

“There needs to be a standard for BIM. There’s a convention for AutoCAD: everyone knows that if

you pick up a drawing anyone can work on it. But there’s no standard for BIM.

“The best way to learn is on the job. Get your team to build BIM into a project. It might mean you are a bit slower at first but they are learning.

“Get people to go through the Autodesk training stages. We brought training into the academy we already have within our business and now we are an accredited training centre.”

ROBERT SPENCERASSOCIATE IN SUSTAINABILITY, URS SCOTT WILSON

URS Scott Wilson displayed its rapid energy modelling for retrofit applications.

The technology shows the largest sources of energy use in a building, as well as heating and lighting levels.

The firm uses it to produce a cost-benefit analysis of possible energy-saving solutions.

It also shows how long it will take to pay for the modifications, using money saved in reduced energy costs.

“This is a good way to get started on the BIM journey; it is a quick, straightforward way to understand how buildings perform,” says Robert Spencer, associate in sustainability and innovation at the firm.

of engaging with people so that we can work with clients and everyone else in the industry to push it forward.”

PETER BARKER OPERATIONS DIRECTOR, BIM ACADEMY

“BIM means di� erent things to di� erent parts of the construction industry. I think clients are still struggling to understand and articulate their needs and are seeking help in this area. I’m also curious to know how the government will measure and report success on the journey to 2016 – I hope more clarity will come out from the government pilot projects to be procured in Spring 2012.”

BRENDAN PATCHELLBIM MANAGER, RYDER LEVETT BUCKNALL

“BIM is not immediately obvious, or simple and does need investment in hardware, software and training. But the potential benefi ts cannot be ignored. The most obvious to QSs is quantity extraction, but there are a lot more. We need to proactively add information to the data pool to give the client a data rich model. Most design teams consider project delivery an end in itself, but a client needs information to operate, maintain and modify the facility. Ask not what your BIM can do for you – ask what you can do for your BIM.”

COLIN WESTPFEL DESIGN LEAD – CONSTRUCTION, BOUYGUES UK

“We now incorporate 3D info from the outset, so all new contracts have an element of building information modelling. We want to meet more quantity surveyors and cost planners who work in BIM. We are having real di� culty fi nding relevant services engineers and quantity surveyors in the industry who really work in BIM.”

SPEAKERS’ CORNER

Firms attending the conference put aside time to talk to delegates face to face about latest practice and their top tips on all things BIM.

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