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Volume 64: Issue 1 I January/ February 2010
www.engineersireland.ie
Matthew Edwards writes about the benefits of building information modelling 5d techniques in construction and civil engineering projects over traditional project management methods
Model Behaviour Building in five dimensions Construction and civil engineering planning and programming software technology first started to appear on the construction and civil engineering market back in the late eighties. Planning and programming software companies have since evolved and adapted these software products to suit the customer, while developing software products that would help construction and civil engineering companies deliver their projects on time and within budget. Such software today has a great part to play in the success and timely completion of construction and civil engineering projects. In the same period, CAD software companies have also developed 2D drawing software packages into 3D Building Information Modelling (BIM) design software packages so that architects, structural engineers and mechanical and electrical (M&E) engineers can share their project design information and collaborative flow in a 3D model environment, whilst the client can visualise their project, whether it’s an office building, motorway project or an underground railway station. It is now possible to combine 3D drawings for a project and the project programme time schedule (4D), and project costs incorporated within the programme (5D). Shared vision With this BIM 5D technology, construction and civil engineering companies now have the ability to simulate and manage a project ‘model’ in ‘real time’, so that the entire delivery team can share one virtual vision to enable project success. The main benefit of the BIM 5D process and techniques is that the entire turnkey construction delivery team – clients, engineers, architects, operators, main contractors, subcontractors, manufacturers and materials suppliers can share and understand a single ‘real-time’ view of the entire project. This BIM 5D approach is also dedicated to enabling the construction delivery team to explore options and manage solutions like never before due to the accurate interface of design, programme and engineering costs. BIM 5D construction techniques have the following advantages over current traditional construction project management approaches: • clearly defined processes to manage corporate responsibilities, protect workers’ health and safety, care for the environment and deliver shareholder value; • control over planning and programming, logistics and site conditions to minimise uncertainty, lost production and rework;
• efficient task sequencing and planning of work spaces; • encouragement of engineering innovation and value engineering; • consistent quality and better planned performance; and, • shorter overall project delivery.
Project delivery concerns By most measures, the construction industry is unpredictable, above all in delivery time, cost and quality. In today’s competitive, global construction and civil engineering markets, where profit margins are narrowing, large and small engineering projects are becoming ever more complex. It is now evident that effective risk management is the key objective for every member of a construction team. All construction projects will succeed or fail largely on the basis of how well a team works collectively to explore options and manage solutions in light of potential risks. With complex designs, site constraints, health and safety issues, design revisions and unplanned events, these risks can disrupt momentum, add time and cost, and create more risk. If the project delivery team can’t share a clear view of a continually evolving project, then they will have to communicate and resolve issues efficiently. This gives rise to other potential concerns: • how do they track and report progress clearly and measure earned value accurately for each stage of the project in line with contract requirements (i.e. new government form of contract, FIDIC, NEC)? • how can they connect the architects, structural engineers and M&E engineers’ design within a fixed programme and coordinate the essential details to still deliver work on time and on budget? • how can they allocate and coordinate work space, phases and safety zones and achieve project milestones and logistics effectively? • is the project strategy to analyse and manage risk performing well enough in respect to achieving the objective and goals of the project and forecasting an accurate project completion date? The delivery team’s greatest challenges often demand that they identify the most promising options to solve construction problems, and then select the best competing solutions to implement.
www.engineersireland.ie
Volume 64: Issue 1 I January/ February 2010
A management solution With the advent of BIM 5D techniques, a shared vision of the project to help clarify and resolve competing solutions in the project is instigated. By reviewing and analysing several scenarios in a graphical computer model simulation, as well as understanding the effects on project-earned value and time prior to project commencement, contractors can compare various options so that the best solutions consistently emerge to add real value and target uncertainty right from the beginning. By utilising the BIM 5D approach, the entire team, as needed, can participate in the process of eliminating uncertainty. BIM 5D also brings pre-construction project visualisation to new heights to help develop strategies that will deliver projects on time and within budget. BIM 5D techniques enable contractors to better manage the essential activities of construction delivery to ensure project success by : • enabling dynamic team participation within the BIM process; • enhanced synchronisation of project planning and delivery workflow; dynamically share one vision of the entire project in ‘real -time’; • manage effectively continuous and iterative design revisions during the contract; • coordinate multiple planning and programming scenarios while base-lining, tracking and reporting the project programme status on a regular basis; and, • integrate the supply chain at a detailed level within the model to enable design, procurement and just-in-time delivery to site, in line with the design team’s requirements. 5D techniques BIM 5D project techniques incorporate the ability to define and represent re-usable 3D materials, equipment, human and location resources; and communicate these in a full project visual simulation model. With construction and civil engineering planning and programming techniques now being surpassed with BIM 5D technology, contractors will be able to plan and monitor their projects directly against the design, which will provide a cross-check and clash detection by linking current and revised design to the construction schedule. This will allow ‘real-time collaboration’, in turn allowing each project delivery participant to contribute and manage simultaneously in a BIM 5D model. BIM 5D modelling also has the following advantages over more traditional project management systems and methods: • the ability to allocate workspace for work area planning, programming and coordination; • the facility to arrange multiple planning scenarios to support divergent decision-making techniques; • provision of real-time, programme manipulation and updating with remote access; • identification, segmentation, management and delivery-risk tracking at the task level coordinated with programme logic, and, • accurate analysis and project cash flow forecasting over the duration of the The single, shared view projected in real time through BIM 5D techniques also has the clear advantage that all members of a project team are enabled to have a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities in a dynamic work site. Clients can also attain a visual perspective of the entire construction project and key areas of greatest uncertainty or risk.
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BIM 5D office construction image.
Through communication and dialogue, this enables an interactive programming and virtual construction simulation within the BIM 5D environment. Project teams can also simulate and review two project scenarios with BIM 5D technology and generate AVI (audio and video) progress reports for wide distribution, while undertaking detailed, task management schedules, which interface accurately with the complete inventory of 3D design, machinery and equipment, and permanent and consumable resources on-site. The benefit of the BIM 5D techniques over more traditional project management techniques is that by creating a 3D project model and interfacing a cost and resource loaded contract programme to produce a 5D effect, projects will be more efficiently managed and tracked, at the same time engaging all project stakeholders to communicate clearly in delivering the project on time and within budget.
Matthew Edwards B.Sc (Hons), MCIOB, CEnv, MIEI, ACIArb is a graduate of Napier University, Edinburgh. He has over twenty years experience in major construction and civil engineering projects within the UK and Ireland. He is managing director of Project Programme Management Ltd which is a specialist building information modelling and planning and scheduling consultancy/training and software provider based in Kilkenny.