BIM for the Terrified - NBS and CPA free report

The free report BIM for the Terrified authored by NBS and the Construction Product Association was published this week.

The report is primarily aimed at manufacturers but I'd say that it's a good read for anyone interested in BIM.

CPA deputy chief executive John Tebbit said: “In order for any of the BIM agenda to work and benefits to be delivered, manufacturers and suppliers will need to put significant resources into the data and models underpinning BIM.

“Some have been doing this for years but for others the market case has not yet been made.  The publication is a small part of making that case. Others will need to play their part too, primarily through demonstrating demand and sticking to open, non-proprietary standards for both data structures and data itself.”

The report is in five main parts:

1. What is BIM?
   A basic introduction to BIM and who the report is aimed at.
   
2. The background to BIM
   A history of coordinated project information and object modelling
   
3. What manufacturers should do
   Recommendations in terms of developing a BIM strategy and analysing your client's requirements and how to structure your project information so it can most easily be taken into the BIM process.
   
4. Open standards
   
   A look at standards such as GBXML, IFC and COBie and how open standards can create efficiencies and certainty within the industry. There is also information about the latest Government information requirements linked to plain language questions within the BIM Task Group Labs Area.
   
5. BIM and FM
   Most industry commentators recognise that the biggest benefit of BIM will be in the operation stage. This section of the report looks at this.

It then has some manufacturer case studies from Kingspan Insulation, Glazing Vision and Kalzip followed by a glossary of terms used commonly in BIM.

In terms of the input from NBS - big shouts out to John Gelder, Drew Wiggett and Stefan Mordue for their authoring contributions.