Procurement Systems – A Project Management Perspective Chapter 7 – E-Business and Project Procurement Derek H.T. Walker, Guillermo Aranda-Mena, Mario Arlt and Justin Stark
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successfully on the National Museum of Australia for example (Walker, Hampson and Ashton, 2003: p251-254); Improved explorations of form resulting in more innovative yet practical design; Modelling sustainability; and Mass customisation.
A fundamental change in industry has to happen if BIM is to work. Change can come from: Government enforcement; client organisations identifying added value through it use; the private sector identifying business opportunities through its use; or simply through general education across users and designers. Suggested value propositions for education include meeting the following needs: • For greater understanding, among students and graduates, of the process implications of design upon construction delivery: • For integrating design and construction courses; • For promoting 3D thinking among students; • For facilitating a culture of collaboration through integrated learning by the various disciplines involved in design and delivery of construction projects; • For teaching BIM tools and applications for students to be ready to use them; • For understanding of buildability principles; • For improving decision making risk/benefit assessment – define/foresee impacts; • For introducing project management principles (4D modelling, that is integrating 3D design with project management tools); and • For students to better understand the construction process and site logistics through simulation and visualisation. CAD has, perhaps, been the major problem for BIM adoption as drawings have been invariably committed to a hard copy version at numerous (if not at every) stage of a construction project. BIM also supports automation of drawings and blueprints production, for example there is no need to draw floor plans, cross sections or isometrics but only select and print various views from the BIM model. Another fundamental difference between CAD and web enabled BIM is the ability to implement new approaches for design assessment and obtaining planning permission. One of the main fears expressed by many design consultants is risk exposure to losing their design and intellectual property. This has also been discussed and demystified. First, access to data and project information can be restricted by password control in a similar fashion to that currently used by project Intranets. Second, from a legally perspective, breaking into systems is no different to a bugler breaking into an office to steal information. Third, BIM and interoperability are not synonymous with cloning— interoperability means that building components, which may differ in functionality, can share information and use that information to function accordingly.
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