BIM, a Plus or Minus – April 29th 2010
Owners and regulatory entities have begun to demand that BIM be utilized on most jobs, due to the fact that the utilization of BIM will save the owners both time and money. This is a fine requirement as long as you are a large organization with substantial resources that can be used to implement and utilize BIM within your organization. However that is not the case for most of us. Here in the real world, we deal with shrinking budgets and very small margins. How are we to participate in this process, when we do not have enough resources available to commit to it? Since most of us cannot participate, the level of competition will be reduced, and thus the owners will have to pay higher prices to complete their projects. This contradicts the primary reason for adopting BIM in the first place. Utilization of BIM should not be an obstacle for participation on projects. If an owner believes that their particular project can benefit from utilization of BIM they should also be aware that level of competition will be reduced unless they make provisions within the contract to assist those of us that are willing but not able to utilize BIM.
Sam Negahban Ph.D
Brawner Builders, Inc.
BIM Utilization by Small to Medium Size Construction Organizations – April 2nd 2010
Everyone is talking BIM. It has become the latest and greatest thing to have and to implement. However no one is talking about how BIM would be feasible for small groups that are the back bone of this industry. How are they going to participate in the projects that require BIM, when they can not even play with it? Certainly the cost and training required for BIM utilization could be a prohibitive factor. The time has come to think of some alternative ways for small groups to have access to BIM utilization. These alternatives could include participation or access through industry groups, or pay as you go type arrangements. Larger construction organizations need to step up and provide support to their smaller subcontractors. This will require a whole new relationship of arrangements between Primes and their subs.
Sam Negahban Ph.D
Brawner Builders, Inc.
Impact of BIM on Procurement Methodology -March 1st 2010
Building Information Modeling (BIM) has begun to have an increasingly dominant role across the construction industry. However it will be hampered by the current procurement methodologies that are in use. In order for BIM to become the effective tool that it could be BIM needs participation from all members of the construction team including the contractor and sub-contractors. However a majority of current procurement methodologies do not allow for their full participation until it is too late. We need to rethink the procurement strategies that are used for BIM driven projects. Traditional procurement methods of lump sum contracting associated with current design-bid-build process and or any other version, would not work for BIM driven Projects. A more suitable method would be a design-build process in which an entire construction team is selected and engaged from the beginning of the project life cycle.
Sam S. Negahban Ph.D.
Brawner Builders, Inc.