ACB Group captures the decarbonisation opportunity in construction using MMC

I am delighted to submit an article for this year’s edition of the BIM Coordinator Summit magazine. ACB are a value add reseller providing External Envelope solutions including roofing, cladding and curtain walling to the Data Centre market. ACB are proud to have BIM processes and procedures embedded in the business facilitating our project delivery. We have worked tirelessly to integrate BIM and deliver better and more sustainable buildings for our clients. Being sustainably focused and integrating modern methods of construction into the BIM process will help us maintain market position of being the leading external envelope supplier.

BIM and Modern Methods of Construction

At ACB Group, we recently launched our ESG strategy which underlines the eight core pillars of the business migrating towards a more sustainable future, which includes the heavy implementation of modern methods of construction. The basis for the ESG strategy comes from the construction industry facing disruption and demand for increased productivity. Industry 4.0 and digital transformation is driving the changes taking place around us in the construction industry working towards the Build Digital Project 2040.

There are urgent environmental calls coming from the worldwide sustainability community with the built environment accounting for 40% of carbon emissions. There are also other drivers for change in the industry such as cost pressures, skills scarcity and digitisation. There are remedies for these drivers for change available to use in the immediate instance. These remedies can be facilitated through BIM and adopting a more integrated approach to the construction of data centres, for example, as there are controversies around their carbon footprint.

ACB Group are proud to have led the way in the Irish forum for Roofing and Cladding industry in BIM, being subcontractors certified to a BIM Level 2 standard. We believe in using BIM to engage early with clients in order to design out waste and mitigate cost increases at a later stage of the project. ACB entering the process at a RIBA 3 can ensure that optimal clash detection takes place to confirm that changes occur within the BIM Model. This practice facilitates the ‘design twice, build once’ ideology, costing a minimal 2% extra upfront to facilitate the optimized design. The minimal increase of upfront costs will lead to an average life-cycling savings of 20% on total building costs.

Engaging ACB Group early allows our expert design team to influence and optimise the design, controlling the program and the manufacturing of bespoke finishing elements from the data centre, coming from ACB-m (ACB Manufacturing).

Manufacturing elements of the data centre building in the ACB-m Hub in Cavan will lead to increased site safety as elements of the work will be completed in a controlled factory environment off-site. This also leads to shorter time on site and a more efficient project delivery.

Furthermore, for ACB-m, we believe that having full control of the BIM model will help us efficiently and effectively implement our modular solutions on projects for clients.

BIM Supports Exceptional Data Management

The MacLeamy curve BIM enables ‘Operations Anywhere’

As part of ACB Group’s wider operations Strategy of ‘Operations Anywhere’ BIM has been an enabler for site teams to view building details in a live environment since implementation. A further development of this capability has come from the ACB Onsite Mobile workshops, where BIM enables site teams to view details prior to cutting raw materials to fit bespoke areas of the building.

BIM360 has improved collaboration and project delivery with all relevant stakeholders (both internal and external), leading to ‘right first time’ culture. Having all data on BIM facilitates one version of the truth and all lessons learned from a project in once place thus enabling sustainable project delivery. The ideology of working smarter not harder applies when utilising BIM360 on projects from inception as all data is stored in a shared environment and is easily shared and accessible to all involved in the project. This type of working allows the specialist teams to focus on what they do best and not waste time on document control enabling projects to run smoother preventing costly and wasteful mistakes such as ordering wrong materials. BIM360 has allowed for automation of tasks cutting down time of project delivery and time on site allowing ACB Group to deliver on large scale projects in much shorter lead times than ever before.