BSI BIM Conference – BIM Toolkit – Post 3 of 3 – Digital Plans of Work

Following a six week prototyping phase, a six month funded development phase and then five months of industry testing and further enhancements it was really good to be able to remove the ‘beta’ logo from the homepage of the BIM Toolkit in time for the 2015 BSI BIM Conference this year.

The removal of the ‘beta’ logo doesn't mean that the toolkit journey is at an end - but it is a sign that all of the functionality is working correctly and that it is ‘release quality’.

At the BSI BIM conference I presented three of the main concepts behind the BIM Toolkit: Classification; Levels of Definition and Digital Plans of Work. I have written three short blog posts to go through these slides as an introduction to these. This third blog post is on digital plans of work.

A digital plan of work allows a collaborative project team to define who is doing what and when throughout the project timeline. The PAS1192-2 graphic below shows how information is developed throughout the eight stages of a construction project. Using the digital plan of work tool within the BIM Toolkit provides a structured way of generating some of the key information that is required for documentation such as the EIR, the BEP and the MIDP.

The information delivery cycle

The slides below show how the free-to-use BIM Toolkit can assist project teams that would like to work to level-2 BIM.

Sign up and access your projects area of the site

Defining the tasks for inclusion in an EIR

Referencing the PLQ, the specific EIR and providing a brief against the task

Developing the response for inclusion in the proposed BEP

Defining modelled deliverables and responsibilities at the briefing stage

Defining the high-level building fabric elements at the concept stage

Defining the high-level building services at the concept stage

Defining the specific systems to meet the concept requirements as the designs progress

 Accessing the LOD guidance from the context of the DPOW

Accessing the LOI guidance from the context of the DPOW

Each LOD and LOI banding is broadly aligned against a typical stage of the plan of work. So LOI-4 is typical for the end of plan of work stage 4. However, it must be stressed that this may vary from system to system and from project to project. For example on a leisure centre project at stage 4:

Variation of LOI at a particular stage of a project

• The floating floor system may be at LOI-5 where all products are fully specified through the manufacturer product references. For example, this is a centre for excellence for gymnastics and the client must have a specific floor from the manufacturer Harlequin.
• The partition systems may be at LOI-4 where all products are fully designed, but the choice of manufacturer has been left to the contractor – providing the specification is met.
• The surveillance system may be at LOI-3 where the overall system performance and how this will be tested prior to handover has been specified. But the choice of compliant products is the design responsibility of the specialist sub-contractor.
• The paving system simply has an LOI of ‘2’. A brief description indicates what the aspirations are and what provisional sum has been assigned to the item in order to fully specify mid-way through the construction process.

Summary slide

An example digital plan of work that I used for these illustrations may be downloaded below. Disclaimer - Please excuse any technical inaccuracies, please treat it as simply showing the principles. The download has an MS Excel version of the file, a little thumbnail image and also a .DPOW file which can be imported into the BIM Toolkit when you create a project.

- Download the Lakeside Restaurant DPOW file

Step 1 - Select to create a new project, then select to use a template

Browse to the DPOW file to import this project file

Further information:

• https://toolkit.thenbs.com/articles/an-introduction-to-the-toolkit - My article introducing the BIM Toolkit
• Post 1 of 3 - Classification
• Post 2 of 3 – Levels of Definition