Every year in the NBS National BIM Report we try and source some interesting articles to produce a great combination of survey analysis and some thought provoking content.
This year is no different.
The first article is from Bryden Wood's Jaimie Johnston. Jaimie looks at offsite construction strategies and working with Government clients to digitally model and analyse existing and planned built assets.
Jaimie Johnston - Bryden Wood
Uniclass 2015 analysis of existing estates
Peter Barker from BIM Academy/Ryder reflects back on the UK BIM journey and tells their journey on how they have made a success of the UK approach around the world.
Peter Barker - BIM International
The team behind the second edition of the CIC BIM Protocol, one of the essential BIM Level 2 publications, gives an insight into the revisions and learnings since the first protocol was released. Dale Sinclair provided the article along with contributions form the rest of the team.
Dale Sinclair and the CIC BIM team
There is an update from the UK Government BIM team. Dave Philp gives an update on the activities from the new Centre for Digital Built Britain to UK BIM Alliance to the international development work.
The BIM feedback loop to understand existing performance to inform future
NBS and BSI have jointly worked on an Innovate UK funded project to provide persistable, digital object identifiers for construction manufacturers. An overview of this project is provided by Simon Powell BSI and Adrian Malleson NBS.
Digital transparency in the built environment
The final article is from UK BIM Alliance members May Winfield and Sarah Rock that have analysed the legal picture in the UK with respect to BIM. Their recently published report is summarised here.
A big thank you to all the contributors and everyone who took the time to participate in the survey.
It's always fascinating to see the opinions from hundreds of construction professionals on the subject of BIM. It is also really interesting to compare opinions across the data set we have built up over eight years now.
The first thing to say about this year's report is that the adoption rates are most definitely not showing any signs of slowing down. Whether you look at the 'self claim' against the question around BIM adoption, or the usage statistics of the standards associated with BIM, the figures rise each year.
BIM Adoption over the years
Standard usage
When asked about the UK Government strategy and its success. The respondents are very supportive of the strategy, but believe that more now needs to be done to embed BIM Level 2 in industry. Personally speaking, I think this initiative has been a fantastic success and something to be very proud of - yes, it may not be as embedded in industry as it could be - but that could be looked on as a very 'glass half empty' view point.
Again, on a personal note, it's slightly disappointing to see that BIM isn't yet really delivering on one of the original objectives of creating an industry that has a lower environmental impact. Back in 2011, embodied carbon, recycled content and energy use were very high on the agenda - but we must ask, have the industry really delivered against expectations here?
Assessment against Government objectives
It is very pleasing to see that attitudes seem to be changing with respect to BIM technology being more than just 3D design and coordination tools. Usage of common data environments to manage data and information is happening on at least some projects for 2/3rds of the industry now. It's also great to see some very good competition in this field - the more competition then the better functionality we'll see in future years and the better interoperability.
Another statistic on the technology side is that 8 out 10 respondents are coordinating models and specifications on at least some projects. Clearly only a percentage of the information on a project lives in the 3D model - a big percentage is in data sources that should be coordinated with the 3D model.
Lots of healthy competition in the CDE world
Don't forget about the information in specifications!
One final observation was around BIM objects. There have been endless debates in BIM community about whether generic or manufacturer BIM objects should be used. The answers are pretty conclusive here. The industry wants both!
Early in the design process, it would be expected that more generic objects are used. As the design firms up, the majority of users appreciate the trend for more and more manufacturers to be providing quality BIM objects.
Can we have standardised generic and manufacturer objects please?
As always, we have a great selection of expert articles within the report too. I'll do a second blog post on these. But I've just covered a small section of the results in this post - please download the report yourself and form your own opinions:
Every few months there is a conversation on Social Media about what element or system classification code should be given to a pipe or a brick.
"Can a brick be classified 'Ss_25_13_50 Masonry wall systems' or 'EF_25_10 Walls'?"
"Can a pipe be classified 'Ss_60_40_37_81 Solar heating systems' or 'EF_60_40 Space heating and cooling'.
The answer to both questions is 'no'.
Classification deals with 'types of' things. Modelling is what defines what is 'part of'.
So a brick may be a type of 'Pr_20_93_52_15 Clay bricks' and the pipe may be a type of 'Pr_65_52_63_17 Copper pipelines'.
A modelling tool is what then determines whether that type of brick is part of a particular type of wall system. A modelling tool determines whether that type of pipe is part of a particular type of heating system.
This may not just be the modelled relationship between a product and a system, but any 'part of' relationship. Further examples would be:
A digital projector (Pr) is part of a classroom or meeting room (SL)
A security system (Ss) is part of health club or doctor's surgery (En)
The job of a classification system is limited to grouping types of similar items. A construction professional will then use modelling tools to link objects together to represent the physical built asset.
More advanced modelling tools may suggest relationships to help the construction professional do this modelling. For example, a design tool may allow the user to easily show which space type a door opens into and out from. Equally a specification tool may suggest suitable systems when a product is added to a job - 'would you like to add this ceramic tile to a wall tiling system or floor tiling system?'. But that is the job of the modelling tool, not the classification system.
It looks at BIM as technology enabling collaborative project teams to work with consistent, standardised data. It asks why construction is less productive than other industries and proposes a 27 point action plan grouped in nine categories.
It concludes that the supply chain should collaborate and work more closely together. Clients, in particular governments around the world, should mandate BIM on their projects, running pilot projects and investing in training and incentives. Finally, it re-iterates the benefits such as improved quality, reduced costs, decisions that reduce environmental impact and greater certainty around outcomes.
It's always a nice suprise to see NBS initiatives mentioned in global publications - so it was great to see NBS National BIM Library being given as an example of creating a digital marketplace for construction.
Top marks to the BIM Show Live team and the delegates for putting on a fantastic show this week despite of the worst snow in Newcastle for the last decade.
A review and some useful links from some of the sessions below...
1. Dave Philp, Digital Built Britain
As always with BIM Show Live, Dave Philp opened the show. He arrived on stage with an electric guitar player playing 'I would walk 500 miles', which was fitting considering the weather conditions and the public transport options to get to the conference!
Dave gave an update from Digital Built Britain. He promoted the success of the standards, the difference this was making at home and the recognition this was getting overseas.
There was a mention of ISO 19650 parts 1 and 2 which are now well progressed and looked at the influence the PAS 1192 standards have had over these.
Looking to the future, the Government want to create a 'National Digital Twin' of the countries physical infrastructure. But let's get the foundations right.
2. Rob Charlton, Space Group
Rob gave the state of the nation address. He reflected on previous years where he looked at which disciplines were adopting BIM and which were not. Rob now believes everyone is committed. He then looked at some examples that he sees through his BIM Technologies business. The big private sector clients, the big tier one contractors and the university estates and building teams - all now fully committed to a digital future.
The Boiler Room in the North East - Where Innovation Happens
(like the design for the steam engine that was used for 150 years)
Is everyone perfectly adopting the PAS 1192 standards? Maybe not, but it's not similar to ISO 9001. Where we may not be perfect. But the majority are now 'there or thereabouts'.
AI, Blockchain, VR and AR were identified as emerging technologies. But then there was a reflection on Carillion going out of business and the disaster that was Grenfell. Why is the construction industry on the front page of the newspapers for the wrong reason.
How can we check that what is specified is specified correctly and then is followed through on site? There used to be a clerk of works working for the client that gave reassurance on quality. Can we use new technology to provide a 'digital clerk of works' checking that the products specified are installed and the quality levels specified are followed?
Personally speaking, this message is one that the data providers and software companies can help with. Provide standardised data structures, provide technology that helps coordinate this and provide technologies that help provide transparency of decision making.
3. Anders Hvid, Dare Disrupt
Anders looked at how digital technologies have changed and are changing the world.
He started by looking at the improvements in robotics in recent years.
When looking at the difference between small improvements vs revolutionary disruptions he gave two examples:
- Kodak improved by taking their film capacity from 24 to 36 to 44 photographs. With digital you can now get 100,000 photographs on a 128MB memory card for £20.
- Opening a bookshops costs roughly the same every time you open a shop. Selling books digitally costs are very similar whether you sell 100 books or 1,000,000.
When Apple released their phone. It didn't do converstions as well as Nokia - poorer quality audio and a rubbish batter life. But users accept a little pain to get future gain. The lesson being that you may have to go through a little pain at first before seeing big enhancements.
4. Sarah Rock and May Winfield, UK BIM Alliance
Sarah and May presented their BIM+Legal report.
The Winfield Rock Report
One of the headline recommendations is saying 'This is going to be a BIM project' or 'This is going to be a BIM Level 2 project' isn't enough. As part of the contract documentation a set of Employer's Information Requirements and responding BIM Execution Plan is what sets the rules of (a) what is expected and then (b) what is agreed at the start of the project.
The BIM Level 2 standards give the framework, but on a specific project the rules must be agreed within this framework.
5. Paul Swaddle, NBS
My colleague Paul Swaddle did a session on cyber security and it was fascinating with lots and lots of good links. A selection of these are below that are definitely worth reading:
"Do the best you can until you know better... ...then when you know better, do better"
Finally, apparently this was the user interface that controlled the Hawaii missile alert systems:
Which link am I supposed to click?
6. My session
My session at 4pm on day two was slightly late in the day considering that red and orange weather warnings across the country telling people to get home :)
However, I really appreciated those that stayed back to take part.
Three - Consider how emerging technologies can help you
I looked at AI and AR and the rise of the cloud and big data.
I then reflected back on the challenge that Rob Charlton set at the start of the conference about creating a 'Digital Clerk of Work'.
A couple of video sequences below, click play and then maximise the screen if you'd like to see them:
Structured digital data = greater clarity and transparency
Publish a coordinated model and specification to the cloud
Finally, we've just posted a great team case study on theNBS.com of a collaborative team working to BIM Level 2 on a school project. Short video interviews with the client, the contractors, architect, building service engineer and structural engineer. Please check it out and share:
Last year I was interviewed by the CBI on emerging technologies and the construction industry as part of their Innovation Survey. I received a hard copy of the resulting report a few days ago and it was nice to see a quote from that interview included...
CBI Report on Disrupting the Future
The report focuses on the three technologies that the survey suggested would have the biggest industry impact in the upcoming years.
It's a free report that gives an introduction to each subject, then insight into likely adoption patterns, opinions, case studies, barriers, recommendations and tips. Download now for free to have a read:
Some bits and pieces that I highlighted from the report are below:
Introduction:
Adoption of technology is essential to raising productivity, spreading properity and opening-up new paths for growth.
Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain and the Internet of Things are set to go mainstream.
The Internet of Things unlocks data. Artificial Intelligence solves problems. Blockchain changes how businesses exchange value.
A third of companies declare themselves 'early adopters' of technologies. A quarter of companies declare themselves as 'followers'.
Artificial Intelligence:
Has transitioned from programmed 'intelligent' behavior (the enemy in a computer game) to 'neural networks' that work in a similar way to the human brain.
Over the next five years AI holds the top spot as the technology set to impact across all sectors
90% of the world's data has been created in the last 24 months
Although not yet used in construction, around 35% expect to use it within the next five years. However, almost 50% of technology companies already use it.
75% of businesses recognise that AI will help with prediction and pre-emptive decisions
Block chain:
A virtual record of transparent, secure, transactions
Rebecca De Cicco from Digital Node speaking about experience consulting globally
There is also, myself and my NBS colleague Paul Swaddle speaking. Plug below (it would be great if we both made it onto people's schedule)...
Paul on the Wednesday
Me on the Thursday
There will be three or four NBS folk there throughout the event - so please come and see us if you want to know more about our solutions.
Over the years I have blogged from pretty much all of the BIM Show Live events. I've tagged every one of these posts - so please feel free to check them out by clicking below - it will give you a good flavour of what to expect at the event:
- BIM Show Live Blog Post Collection 2012 to 2018
Hopefully see you there. For ticket information please see:
- bimshowlive.co.uk
