Experience the Power of BIM throughout the whole value chain

We are on the verge of the fourth industrial revolution, and the lines between the physical and digital spheres are getting blurred. We are facing the future of smart cities, smart energy, and transportation; an infrastructure that is connected as a whole. Building Information Models (BIM) have been used in architecture, engineering, and construction for decades. The added value that the BIM brings has already been recognized across the board.

In BIM modeling, architecture, engineering, and construction people all work using the same 3D environment. This makes the process of planning and constructing buildings smoother and more efficient, but the models are still not being used across the silos as they should be. To use the BIM outside the worksite and design environment, we need to have all the information at hand.

To bring more value to all the stakeholders, the BIM should also contain the data and the details relevant from the design phase through the fit-out. But what is visible to the naked eye - surfaces, decoration, furnitureis still missing. The finishing related details, fixtures, and data like kitchen cabinet drawings, must be included. We must invite the tile provider and the store that is selling the couch to the party. The amount of information that is needed for all of this to work is quite high. The Digital Twin, a virtual replicant of a building that is created and maintained by utilizing 3D BIM data models, needs to be close to perfect to serve its purpose: to help occupiers, owners, and other stakeholders to manage and monitor the space. Getting all the information under the same umbrella is not an easy task, and there is still no easy way to edit or fix BIMs.

No fit-out BIM is yet available, mainly because the value of this information is not yet fully understood.

The customer journey and material management for the builders and developers under the same umbrella should be the common goal. It is important that we overcome the regulatory, commercial, cultural, organizational, and technological barriers. We should drive for cooperation in DT creation as we already do when creating the main BIM by combining HVAC, structure, architectural and electricity models. If we can bring the BIM to a higher level, we are able to push that into other places as well: sales, marketing, customer success, fit-out process, cabinets, furniture and decorations, Bill of Quantity (BOQ) and Bill of Material (BOM), entreprise resource planning and other integrations. The gathering data will no longer be fragmented or lost but becomes enriched and useful for the twin’s counterpart in the real world throughout its life cycle. As residents, owners, and property offices change, the digital twin remains available to all stakeholders.

The data offered by the digital twin helps to optimize the next construction project right from the planning and pre-marketing phases. The big data, generated by projects also after their completion, create significant and indisputable capital for its holder. This will organically sprout different kinds of new digital services and business activities and revolutionize the whole construction industry while doing so. We are entering the era of BIM, and there is no turning back. The traditional and slow-to-change construction industry has already digitized its sales process and project management.

The digital era has created a new kind of consumer, a new kind of freedom of expression; importance of empowering the customer cannot be emphasized enough. The role of construction industry is expanding rapidly from construction itself to enabling a continuous development focused on the home and its inhabitants. It is time to move from silos to systems, to the future where the data is shared smoothly and in real time with all the stakeholders and where the point solutions are replaced with more holistic approach. A shared language and a common platform made possible by BIM models should be the goal for all of us. GBuilder is a Finnish born and now London based software company with over 40,000 homes built through their platform. GBuilder offers Digital Twin of each individual home within any development enabling investors, homeowners, or tenants to select their desired furniture, and to see how it suits and fits within their future home. GBuilder is the only company in the world to use BIM as a service to manage interior specifications and customer choices. The software is already widely used by Scandinavia’s largest residential developers and construction companies, YIT, Bonava, Skanska, and Hartela. There are already ongoing projects in the UK and in other countries, Germany, Austria, Belgium, and the CEE Countries.