The Implementation of Building Information Modeling for Massey Cladding Solutions - Case Study Example

BIM Execution Plan Name of Student Name of Institution Table of Contents BIM Execution Plan 4 Overview 4 Mission Statement 5 Vision 5 Project Description 5 Goal of Implementation of BIM 6 Project Information 6 Project Goals 6 Stakeholders 8 Implementation Strategy 9 Driven Leadership 10 Analysis of the Current Case/Practice 11 Soft System Analysis 11 Stakeholder Review 12 Analysis of the Competitive Advantages to Be Yielded From BIM Implementation 12 The Implementation 13 Key Performance Indicators 14 BIM Implementation- Across the Design Team 14 Selection of the appropriate tool 15 Addressing the information technology and legal issues 16 Project Scope: Who Owns the Model? 17 Additional information 18 References 18 BIM Execution Plan Overview Massey Cladding Solutions is a company that deals with building and structural engineering. The company was founded in 2008 by three people namely Ray Massey, Darren Massey, Ben Massey and Mike Gould all of whom have a background in the construction world. The company has positioned itself to provide value to the construction world and has since undertaken some of the most ambitious projects in Bristol, Cardiff and other projects. The company strives to give the best quality of work to their clients, good workmanship and designs to their projects (Arayici, Y., Coates, P., Koskela, L., Kagioglou, M., Usher, C. and O'Reilly, K., 2011). The company has consistently employed the use of the very latest design and organization technologies in their operations. Leveraging on software such as the very latest versions of CAD and Office 365 can be associated with their success. As noted above, the company deals with the construction niche with main focus on the provision of construction drawings and designs to their main contractors. The company strives to implement Building Information Modelling in the way it works and in order to continue giving their stakeholders the best value. The company seeks to drastically improve the way it handles the projects mandated and hopefully realize the many benefits associated with BIM such as improved ease of doing job, cost-saving on all fronts and being better positioned in the market (Wah, 2014). Mission Statement The mission statement for the new undertaking will be to focus on creating a shift to developing designs that are advanced and efficient to the environment. The company shifts the thinking to offering the clients with clean designs that do not harm the environment. At the same time the company focuses on making the new products that will be developed to be leaner and take smaller amounts of time, while remaining extremely cost-effective. The company is therefore interested in improving the way the organization works. Vision The company has a vision of realizing higher levels of organizational performance in addition to delivering market-competitive products. The organization, like many others that have taken a closer focus of implementing BIM has a vision of realizing a highly integrated and technologically advanced human potential in the construction world that will enable the advancement in competence of the work delivered to clients. Project Description Massey Cladding Solutions seeks to implement Building Information Management (BIM) technologies in their current work practice and shun the current practice of majorly relying on 2D CAD for designs which has several advantages (Wah, 2014). In addition to adopting the use of BIM as a differentiating strategy in the market, the company seeks to leverage on its capabilities to deliver better products to the clients and to the consumers, improve the way that it works with the many stakeholders mentioned, improve the quality of service, save time and resources, and generally increase the return on investment by the company and position it in a better competitive place in the market. Goal of Implementation of BIM The main goal for implementing BIM and using the best practices is to realize the best and highest level of quality in order to save time and also help in clash detection. Project Information Project owner: Massey Cladding Solutions Project Name: BIM implementation for Massey Cladding Solutions stakeholders Project Location and Address: 16 The Courtyards, Woodlands, Bristol BS32 4NQ, United Kingdom Project Goals The organization’s approach to BIM and to accommodating the expected competence can be seen to be realized in a number of approaches. The goals and objectives of the new approach by Massey Cladding Solutions illustrate the many ways in which the thinking behind Building information Management applies to them. Better designs through analysis- the company seek to utilize the technological potential in its disposal to generate designs of buildings that are low cost or zero cost in terms of emissions. The creations of energy-efficient designs are critical in today’s building and construction world as it makes it to remain in harmony with nature (Wah, 2014). The company focuses to ensure that any emissions are contained or recycled to ensure no harm to the ozone layer and other aspects of the environment. More coordinate designs- the company seeks to give their contractors and other parties that design designs on its behalf to realize a greater level of competence, efficiency and productivity. The addition of the ability to coordinate the designs virtually will be instrumental in allowing them to work autonomously and leverage on the same technological capabilities to reduce the costs and order of design construction. Availing more data to the creation of designs- the approach seeks to leverage the power of data and modeling throughout the design and construction process to come up with better designs. This is in addition to the collaborative approach to design mentioned above. More coordinate designs- the approach gives the designers the desired capabilities to implement their designs virtually and effectively reduce the design costs. The approach will effectively save those implementing it the hasty and costly design changes especially during the construction phase. This is a critical inclusion to the entire process. Enable better visualization- the implementation will enable the stakeholders of the projects to be able to see what they are getting through leveraging on the power of 3D animations, superior object views and designs (Wah, 2014). The focus is also geared towards realizing more accurate estimates through the generation of models that can quickly be extrapolated to come up with more cost-detailed estimates. Stakeholders The main stakeholders in the plan are the contractors. The premise is to allow them to develop better designs in a cost effective way that aptly addresses the prevailing market needs. The contractors are an important set of stakeholders as they are in charge of direct management of projects. It is further important to appreciate that in projects, contractors do not work alone. The company works with architects to enable them access good quality designs as they take the aspect of implementing the designs into building works (Forbes, L.H. and Ahmed, S.M., 2011). The owners or financiers behind the projects to be undertaken take the position of clients in the buildings to be established and whose design forms the premise for the implementation of BIM. Suppliers are also an important set of stakeholders in the BIM matrix described. A key stakeholder that is behind the implementation of BIM and bringing together the main stakeholders of a build project is to ensure that the project can be managed in a better way. The implementation of BIM and the leveraging on the capabilities of BIM which include aspects such as virtualization of project management is to ensure concurrent development and viewing by all the stakeholders, and essentially enabling the stakeholders to communicate effectively with each other, addressing any changes or adjustments that are due (Forbes, L.H. and Ahmed, S.M., 2011). When all of the stakeholders are able to work together concurrently, then any issues can be mitigated on time. Implementation Strategy The implementation of BIM for Massey Cladding Solutions will be driven in the following steps Stage Activity Review and analysis The development of the current process workflows and charts at Massey Cladding Solutions. Soft system analysis Review of the stakeholders (Forbes, L.H. and Ahmed, S.M., 2011). Review of the BIM tools relevant to the firm Identification of the competitive advantages that can result from good BIM implementation Design of the new business processes and the paths to adoption Detailed strategies Documentation of execution plan Implementation and roll-out Piloting the tested technologies/approaches Training of the staffs and stakeholders mentioned Continuous improvement(Forbes, L.H. and Ahmed, S.M., 2011). Driven Leadership Fundamental to the implementation of the strategy is proper leadership. The company has already defined the vision for the implementation of BIM as seen above. The company needs to incorporate a driven leadership in order to manage the change process. Leadership is essential for Massey Cladding Solutions in order to drive the change process (Forbes, L.H. and Ahmed, S.M., 2011). The staffs and stakeholders implicated by the adoption of BIM have to be motivated throughout the change process. The leadership that is in place is tasked with inspiring the team throughout the transformation phase and ensuring that the results of the process are in tandem with the vision specified. The company has an able leadership in place. The three main founders have a solid foundation in the construction and design sphere hence will be able to guide the strategic leadership of the organization. Guided by the will and desire to implement the BIM successfully, they will be able to guide the implementation of BIM (Forbes, L.H. and Ahmed, S.M., 2011). The leadership that is currently in place will be in charge with the transformation and will be in charge of communicating with the architects, the engineers, the suppliers and the clients so that they see the value of adopting the BIM transformations to their businesses. In the case of Massey Cladding Solutions above, ensuring that the communication channels and avenues between the different stakeholders are maintained is fundamental in realizing the needed objectives. Massey Cladding Solutions will strive to maintain constant communication with the internal parties as well as the external parties in order to ensure that the organization’s commitment to working in tandem with the BIM expectations is affirmed. Analysis of the Current Case/Practice As noted in the introduction, Massey Cladding Solutions currently depends mainly on the traditional technologies such as the CAD and Revit 2015in addition to organizational tools such as 365 and cloud systems for storage management (Forbes, L.H. and Ahmed, S.M., 2011). The initial phase of the implementation has to take into consideration the existing practices and then seek to understand how the present changes can be implemented, either by being built on top of the case or conducting a total overhaul. Conducting a contextual design analysis is fundamental to understand the present state of the system and aid the modifications and modellings such as communication flows, sequence flows, and the management of the physical environment. Soft System Analysis In this phase, the company will seek to track the problems that exist and to build a model to realize the desired result. The model to be developed will be based on the BIM practice. Like in the case mentioned above, it can be seen that CAD is the most predominant technology in use. While it is an important tool, it can be said that the tool is lacking in functionality and that it is what informs the transition (Forbes, L.H. and Ahmed, S.M., 2011). The analysis found that while CAD has some intelligent objects and that it had tracking capabilities on objects, there are clear defects such as backgrounds. In addition to that, there is a clear lack of 3D functionalities which is fundamental in allowing for extraction of the needed information. The main significance of the soft analysis is that it will enable the organization to understand and realize the benefits that it stands to benefits through an implementation of BIM. The use of 2D in the firm is characterized by some inefficiencies which include timescales, lack of management of deadlines, the problem of duplication of copies of work, deadline pressures, lack of an established continuity in the supply chain as collaboration is not well effected, lack of an established and reliable data plan, lack of a stringent process to govern designing, and others like overproduction. The company can therefore be seen to be at a point where it needs to improve its level of collaboration, adopt the necessary technologies that will give it faster and a more robust business process, the needed business intelligence and the ability to scale. Stakeholder Review The stakeholders in the organization will have to be appraised on the need to transition to BIM. This is fundamental as the changes will affect both the internal and external stakeholders. A section of the stakeholders are likely to favor either intelligent or non-intelligent outputs from the system. This output is still superior to the one offered by CAD systems. The primary role that the stakeholders’ involvement plays is that of facilitating the built objects. This implies that the outputting mechanism adopted has to be flexible in order to favor a broad range of stakeholders. Analysis of the Competitive Advantages to Be Yielded From BIM Implementation A comprehensive competitive analysis is necessary in finding out the internal and external conditions of the systems and the way they will be implicated. A comprehensive strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis is critical and the same should extend to an analysis of the emerging technologies and how the company can use the same to extend competitive advantage in the market. An example of a competitive advantage that the organization stands to gain in the market is rapid prototyping of designs and collaboration. From a competitive point of view, it can be seen that the organization’s objectives are mainly inclined towards realizing cost leadership that will be instrumental in helping the company it costs by cutting off unnecessary production costs especially those associated with production, differentiation in the market through offering the stakeholders a new feel of the business, cost focus, adding a differential focus and implementing a collaborative environment with all the stakeholders (Wah, 2014). The focus of BIM fits them all; it is critical in the provision of advantages in all these areas, when well implemented it can lead to reduced time and effort in the generation of architectural information, it gives the company the chance to be more competitive with the way they bid for projects as it acts as a differentiating feature, and as the approach leads to a minimization of errors, the company can potentially reduce redundancies. Another competitive advantage that the company stands to harness is ensuring that it builds highly sustainable projects (Wah, 2014). The implementation of BIM is instrumental in enabling the business to analyze the environmental factors that are prevailing and at a low cost. Through the provision of a central focus on the collaborative aspect of development between the different teams. The Implementation The work is then implemented basing on all these factors and metrics as discussed above. Key Performance Indicators Harnessing the benefits of collaboration and communication during the project lifecycle- the ability to seamlessly collaborate among the different project stakeholders forms the main performance indicators. Achieving high levels of interoperability holds the significance of savings time and costs. The same applies to communication. Time saving- the project will be evaluated on how much production time it saves during the project life cycle. The objective behind the establishment of BIM in the organization is to save the project time. Cost benefits and associated savings Improved communications and information handover. Transfer of data from construction to operation systems Man-hours spent per project- significant gains can only be said to happen if the members are able to spend less time in building designs and handing over completed works on time. BIM Implementation- Across the Design Team The company will focus on two main aspects: Selection of the appropriate tool/software Addressing the information technology and legal issues Selection of the appropriate tool There are many tools that the company can choose from. At the moment, it is prudent that the company thinks more about choosing a common platform than a specific tool. This is the best way because the many tools are known to support many disciplines and that there may be preferential in terms of tools by either the design teams or the architect. The platforms that the company can choose from include: Bentley Triforma which has been embodied into MicroStation V8i Graphisoft ArchiCAD AutoDesk Revit AutoDesk Architectural Desktop Digital Project Nemetchek All Plan The company can also choose a preferred tool which fits the team’s rewuirement well. A common trend is to choose a common integration environment such as Navisworks, Innovaya or Digital Project among others. The project is heavily dependent on the internet and the company has to choose from many implementations of wide area networks at the organization’s level and also add capabilities for remote collaborations as noted above (Mihindu & Arayici, 2008). While models like the use of FTP have prevailed in the past, adoption of a shared network complete with support for VPN would seem like a more viable option and one that fits the immediate company’s goals and specifications. Addressing the information technology and legal issues In order to ensure smooth implementation, the team will have to focus on training the stakeholders’ concerning the impending changes and how they will be affected (Wong, A.K.D., Wong, F.K. and Nadeem, A., 2009). The main areas of concern during the training should be to appraise the staffs of the basic operation skills and best practices in the use of BIM in order to harness maximum value from it, the modeling standards in order to prepare them adequately for the shift, and how to work and collaborate with others leveraging on the available tools and technologies (Wong, A.K.D., Wong, F.K. and Nadeem, A., 2009). As part of the training, the company has to review the contract documents with the aim of including the new specifications and ensuring that any future conflicts relating to the same is mitigated on time. The document has to be interpretive as possible. Other submittals include RFIs and record documents. The teams or stakeholders have to be appraised of the changes in the contracting processing at the firm and the role that BIM will play in overhauling the processes. The implementation will be in respect to the many compliance regulations and standards such as NBIMS, AIA, AISC and AGC among others. The implementation further has to address some legal issues especially those arising from the use of BIM for collaborative purposes. Project Scope: Who Owns the Model? The end model can be seen to be a collection of sub-models. Each party from the many stakeholders owns, maintains and is therefore fully responsible for their part. The models are kept in a read-write mode by the reading party. The sharing is done with respect to the contractual bounds (Arayici, 2011). The model’s administration will be managed by the relevant stakeholders as a team, each of them mandated to manage their spheres. The technical, administrative and substantive facets of the business will be thus addressed in totality. The diagram below shows the relationship between entities/stakeholders and how they work on the project. (Adapted from: Arayici, Coates, Koskela, Kagioglou, Usher and O'Reilly, 2011. BIM adoption and implementation for architectural practices. Structural survey) Additional information The implementation will further entail the implementation of a model management process that will entail the use of a proper versioning system, putting in place well-designed coordination plans to manage the coordination and collaboration in the firm (Mihindu & Arayici, 2008). References Arayici, Y., , 2011. Technology adoption in the BIM implementation for lean architectural practice. Automation in Construction, 20 (2), pp.189-195. Arayici, Y., Coates, P., Koskela, L., Kagioglou, M., Usher, C. and O'Reilly, K., 2011. BIM adoption and implementation for architectural practices. Structural survey, 29(1), pp.7- 25. Arayici, Y., Egbu, C.O. and Coates, P., 2012. Building information modelling (BIM) implementation and remote construction projects: issues, challenges, and critiques. Journal of Information Technology in Construction, 17, pp.75-92. Eadie, R., Browne, M., Odeyinka, H., McKeown, C. and McNiff, S., 2013. BIM implementation throughout the UK construction project lifecycle: An analysis. Automation in Construction, 36, pp.145-151. Mihindu, S. and Arayici, Y., 2008, July. Digital construction through BIM systems will drive the re-engineering of construction business practices. In Visualisation, 2008 International Conference (pp. 29-34). IEEE. Forbes, L.H. and Ahmed, S.M., 2011. Modern construction. CRC Press,. Wah, L.S., 2014, October. The Singapore BIM Roadmap. In Government BIM Symposium. Wong, A.K.D., Wong, F.K. and Nadeem, A., 2009, October. Comparative roles of major stakeholders for the implementation of BIM in various countries. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Changing Roles: New Roles, New Challenges, Noordwijk Aan Zee, The Netherlands (pp. 5-9) Read More