BIM ThinkSpace

BIM News Bits - Interesting Developments

I try not to to blog industry news but sometimes it feels 'irresponsible' not to do so. However, I'll follow the three BIM Nodes logic in my reporting:

On the Technology front: the emergent Microsoft Live Mesh technology deserves some attention... Would an enterprise version enable a different approach to BIM Integration (Stage 3) alongside Model Servers and what I term BIMaaS (BIM as a Service - read this and that)? It's too early to tell but its a space worth monitoring with wide-open BIM eyes.

On the Process side, I've been invited to have a look at the Build London Live effort. I'm personally not into grand gestures but I do think such efforts play a valuable role in promoting BIM Thinking within a decreasingly skeptical industry. In fact, I would love to include a couple of clients in a BIMStorm™ if it hits the Asia-Pacific!

On the BIM Policy front, an excellent effort by the AIA and I couldn't but reproduce the news:

"On May 15th 2008 the AIA released two new model agreements for integrated project delivery. The documents follow concepts in Integrated Project Delivery: A Guide, and provide two levels of design and construction integration. One is a transitional agreement for those less familiar with IPD; the second, a “single purpose entity”, offers a fully integrated way to deliver a project. Get more information about the IPD documents at http://aiacontractdocuments.org/ipd/."

In summary, the above three bits vary in importance but are all equally welcome BIM News. To achieve integrated project delivery, integrated design solutions or whatever you want to call the BIM climax, a great number of technology, process and policy steps are needed...Which reminds me, I need to upload Episode 9: understanding BIM Steps sometime soon...

BIM and the Process Improvement Movement

It gives me pleasure to introduce a guest author to BIM ThinkSpace – Sohail Razvi. Through the wonders of web-based professional networking, I met Sohail and we started a discussion that continues to date. This is Sohail's first web contribution into the topic and I'm delighted he's chosen BIM ThinkSpace for his well-thought piece. The below article explores a new angle into BIM Framework generation as Sohail argues how it could develop around a set of well established, measurable and institutionalised framework, the CMMI…You can download this 8-page article as a PDF file (317KB) from here.

BIM and the Process Improvement Movement

Building a case for a combined BIM-CMMI Framework

Introduction

The Architecture, Engineering, Construction and Facilities Management (AEC/FM) industry is almost certainly the only functionally-critical (and highly regulated) industry that builds its prototypes live on the production line. This is mostly still done without the benefits of digital modeling, prototyping and simulations as many peer industries have done (think of the car and aerospace industries for example). The consequences of working without such models are apparent, at times painfully, to anyone who has financed, built, owned, designed or operated a piece of built environment of any size or function.

Other major industries have quickly recognized the immense power of constructing and testing a virtual prototype of their product designs through digital techniques before ‘going live’. This ‘prototyping behavior’ has required an immense amount of effort by these industries to get their act together yet allowed their services and products to be repeatedly delivered to clients with dependable quality, timing and cost. In so many industries, the ability to manage and control an increasingly complex ‘product’ throughout its lifecycle is dependent on highly systemized processes and efficiencies acquired through digital technology.