B3 -Group D - Week 3 – Samuel Kim

Samuel Kim B3: Current advantages of BIM/Revit

There is a study done by SmartMarketBrief.com where it examines how NIM and information mobility are transforming the construction industry based on respondents from the largest architecture, engineering and contracting companies in the U.S. According to this article, about half number of companies that were examined in this study use BIM because they see a 5 percent decrease or more in final construction cost. As I talked about BIM from the first blog, BIM benefits engineers and architects by allowing virtual walk through of construction models, explore structural components and details, and identify any potential design, construction or operational issues. This feature saves time and eliminates possibilities of errors. This means there is less demand of workers that need to think about potential design or examine and address operational issues. This can save the construction cost of a project.

Among the participated companies, 51 percent claimed that they see a 5 percent or more of project schedule reduction. BIM allows to effectively collaborate a design with all parties such as design professionals, suppliers, contractors and clients. Due to this advantage, there is significant time saving advantages. There is less frequent meeting of engineers and architects to discuss about the design because they can communicate remotely utilizing BIM. Another feature that can reduce project schedule is auto update feature of BIM, if you make a revision in an element of a 3D BIM(Revit) model, all the views and details in the model automatically updates accordingly. By this feature, update and revision of a 3D model is quicken.

There is a 25 percent improvement in labor productivity from 31 percent of the companies in the study. Revit minimizes coordination issues, as all views are worked on at the same time. Schedules have a multi-directional relationship with the drawings. Also, product data can be assigned to components in the Revit model, making the model extremely valuable to facility managers after construction is complete. Use of BIM in the construction industry is rapidly growing. I believe that utilization of BIM globally will benefit engineers and architects to communicate effectively therefore making the construction industry advance quicker.

 

Resources:

https://www.constructionmonitor.com/blog/2015/12/03/pros-cons-of-using-a-bim-model-for-your-next-project/

http://www.frch.com/media/105374/retail_environments_-_january_february_2015_-_bim_article_jm.pdf

http://www.achrnews.com/articles/131348-bim-offers-substantial-benefits-for-construction-industry-says-study

Comments:

Ng Andrew
Your blog addresses BIM application use in electric design in a building. It is interesting to me to think about how an advanced electric design can influence the construction industry. When this application is used I think that there can be similar advantages like BIM such as speed up the construction progress and cost savings.

Alsaleem
Integration of cost estimation to the BIM applications is a brilliant idea. Instead of having another employee or a whole department of a company to work on the estimation, this feature can predict and advise the cost estimation. This will save time and money of the overall construction cost. However, in order to execute a cost estimate, model design needs to be completed. So I am thinking this feature can be somewhat limited. But in overall, I think this is a great future advantage of BIM.

Maissoun Ksara
Data between BIM applications are transferable but like what you stated in your blog, yet, data is not fully transferable. This is inconvenient since data of 3D model design include bountiful information of the design. I agree with you that transfer compatibility of data between applications needs to be manageable if not fully transferable.