Barry McAuley, PhD Post-Doctoral Researcher 086 014 4853 bmcauley@cita.ie www.bicp.ie
BICP Case Study 2 – BIM 2 FM: Schools Bundles 4 Background
Barriers
The Schools Bundle 4 (SB4) PPP tender was the first public tender competition in the Irish state which included a BIM requirement in the tender invitation.
Many challenges were faced throughout this project most notably the lack of BIM Maturity within the current Irish market.
The tender requested that “The BIM model shall be completed by the PPP Co. to a level required for 7D facilities management which refers to the intelligent linking of 3D components or assembles with all aspects of project lifecycle management information. The BIM file shall include for information in relation to the FM and operation and maintenance (O&M) functions including – space and asset management, and maintenance management”.
BAM wanted to reduce not just material waste but also waste associated with labour and time. Further improvements were sought with regards to specialist contractors by ensuring they had a better knowledge of the design intent, less construction errors, and an improved understanding of construction sequencing. BAM were also keen to explore a more rewarding methodology with regards to the management of data during the operational phase.
In an effort to reduce bid costs and to maintain an open and accessible bidding process, the National Development Finance Agency (NDFA) did not specify that BIM was a requirement to produce the design and bid. BAM PPP was appointed as the Preferred Tenderer in Q3 of 2014. Construction started on site in early January 2015 and the first School Comeragh College in Carrick on Suir, was opened on time and under budget on Monday 14th March 2016. Figure one illustrates a model of one of the schools from SB4. Figure one illustrates a model of one of the schools from SB4.
Solution Using BIM during the bidding stage of the competition resulted in a more robust bid submission. BAM were able to rapidly produce high quality visualizations directly from the Building Information Models, therefore generating significant gains by identifying possible Facilities Management (FM) difficulties. Significant efficiencies and savings in time were achieved by using 4D processes for each school. BAM also found that these savings reduced the overall risk contingency by nearly 2% as a result of processes employed at bid stage. The benefits of developing the design through BIM at the bid stage also had a positive impact on the construction phase. All the documentation including drawings, reports, models etc. were easily identifiable and the models were used as a project overview tool to better inform those who had not been involved in the project to that point.
Figure 1 – Figure 1 – School from SB 4
The use of BIM meant that an early contractor engagement approach should be deployed. This was 1|Page
achieved by requiring that all principal SubContractors signed the CIC BIM Protocol Contract.
BIM in Action
To ensure all specialist contractors were BIM Level 2 ready BAM conducted capability assessments to establish where assistance would be required and introduced a training and support programme for the project.
BAM estimate that over the life-cycle of the SB4 project (bidding through to handover) a 92% reduction of time searching for information and a reduction of 85% in the number of support calls for information management can be attributed to the compliant CDE.
BAM FM identified their asset requirement through both an OIR (Organisational Information Requirement) and an AIR (Asset Information Requirement). This provided clear BIM guidelines ensuring no time was wasted in the production of model information. The full suite of Autodesk products were used from design stage, construction stage and right through to operations stage. The application of BIM 360 Glue ensured seamless collaboration amongst stakeholders. This cloud based BIM coordination tool has a built in issue management system which allows the automatic notification of all design related issues to the relevant parties involved. It also provided realtime access to project performance metrics through its cloud based dashboard system as illustrated in figure 2.
Figure 2 – BIM 360 Field Project Dashboard From the bid stage BAM implemented a compliant CDE (Common Data Environment) on the project. The COBie data-set was progressively enhanced throughout the construction delivery phase. This data-set was associated with BIM objects and coupled with all other data capture through BIM 360 Field. This meant that BAM had a complete data-set at project completion stage.
A further reduction of 72% in construction errors attributed to outdated information and a 35% reduction in regards to information release control can also be attributed to the CDE. In order to ensure that information was captured at the time of installation the Autodesk BIM 360 Field and Glue products were applied from the beginning. These products are cloud based interlinked BIM tools. All relevant asset information (including data sheets and commissioning information) could be captured on mobile devices by the right people at the right time. COBie data was used throughout this process as a way of creating standardised data. BAM Ireland has exclusive access to the development team for Autodesk’s new CAFM (Computer Aided Facilities Management) System known as Building OPS. BAM and Autodesk have worked closely together over the last twelve months on the development of this new CAFM system to satisfy BAM FM’s contractual obligations under the SB4 PPP Project. The Autodesk Building OPS system that BAM FM are now employing has been built from the ground up in conjunction with Autodesk and has a major focus on the user experience. OPS will allow multiple end users access to the CAFM system through an intelligent HTML5 interface via smartphone, web or mobile devices. This system is simplistic in its design and will encourage end-user engagement which is critical for BAM FM, as engagement with the system will assist in the analytics required for lifecycle decision making. BAM FM have also rolled out a training programme for this system.
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Using this system BAM were able to schedule the maintenance tasks. Each of the selected assets were tagged with a QR code and a unique asset ID. Using a mobile device technicians and operations staff could scan a QR code to bring them directly to the asset information, as illustrated in figure 3. Information includes; location product data sheets, commissioning certs, scheduled maintenance requirements, photographs and history of previous issues, failures or replacements. This system enables BAM FM to keep an up-to-date record of all asset management tasks throughout the duration of the Service Period. It also ensures that the Client benefits at handback stage by having all information available in one central location. Having this system available to the operations team means the asset information is accessible immediately avoiding the need to access a safety file.
BAM FM reported that to log a standard issue on the previous CAFM system took approximately 2mins 53 seconds. To log the same issue on Building OPS took approximately 31 seconds. Considering 8,500 items were logged to the BAM FM helpdesk in 2015 across 8 school buildings, Building OPS would have offered a saving of 37 working days. They also reported that to access technical information took an average of 6 minutes which can now be achieved in approximately 20 seconds by searching in Building OPS – or instantaneously if one scans the QR code on site. A further benefit of this process has been the use of the BIM model as a learning tool for the schools. As the interface to Building OPS is so intuitive the students will be shown how scanning a bar code on an iPhone will allow them to mine the information of an asset.
Conclusion BAM reported that project delivery has been significantly improved as a direct result of the available BIM related technologies and workflows on this project. The technology has provided a fully transparent and auditable process, which in turn means BAM have better visibility on the performance and engagement of all project team members. BIM has allowed BAM to have a single source of digital truth for the project delivery.
Figure 3 – Asset Barcode Building OPS also serves as a Helpdesk with an intuitive dashboard screen giving key statistics on logging in to the system. A user can log on to the system and receive tickets assigned to them or they can raise a ticket e.g. the room is cold. As soon as a ticket is raised it is immediately assigned to the appropriate person. Users can add photographs of before and after events to demonstrate the extent of work completed. This system provides transparency on all tasks completed. Current asset transfer using Autodesk Building OPS took 15-30 minutes depending on the quantity of assets being transferred.
This project was a significant success for all parties concerned providing an innovative solution that created a much-needed modern school facility for the Carrick on Suir community. It also created a digitally rich model that ensures that the PPP consortium can carry out their responsibilities by efficiently managing the asset over the remaining PPP programme. Acknowledgements Paul Brennan and Michael Murphy (BAM Ireland) Case Study prepared by Dr. Barry McAuley (CitA/DIT), Dr. Alan Hore (CitA/DIT) and Prof Roger West (TCD). Published: February 2017
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