Part 3: Acceptance of BIM (2012-2018)

Phase 1: JIO world - 2014

BIM Modelling services were sought by a leading telecom giant for the construction of an international exhibition and convention centre. Request for Proposal (RFP) was floated, and 5 bids were received. An interesting enhancement in the evaluation criteria was the emphasis on prior work experience, over being just restricted to commercials. The principal contractor – Samsung Korea – was appointed to evaluate this process also. They visited the Excelize office, reviewed the company’s processes, quality audit protocols, team capabilities and even the license compliance for the BIM tools to be used in the project.

This is a convention and exhibition centre spread over an area of more than 8 million square feet comprising of high-end retail, Theatre, convention and exhibition centre, service apartments, residential, commercial offices, etc.

Observations:

• This project coordination would have been a massive challenge if BIM was not deployed.

• Roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders were clearly defined when related to BIM implementation

• The modeling approach was a hybrid one:

• • • Design models were provided by foreign design consultants

    • During the construction phase, the BIM team was asked to build the architectural, structural and services models.

    • MEPF (Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing Fixtures) consultants were to build their own models.

• On-site team was responsible for coordination with contractor’s team and the principal contractor was responsible for the construction planning and simulation of design.

• This was the first project that had a requirement for an as-built model along with asset tagging

• This was unique and one of the biggest projects with mixed use design, multiple designers and consultants were involved in the project. To get timely resolution from the consultant was the biggest challenge for coordination.

• Owners team should appoint a BIM champion to drive BIM modelling and allied services. It cannot be done through the contractor as they do not have the complete view of the project.

• Asset strategy should be thought and formulated early in the lifecycle as this affects the LOD of the model

• 4D construction simulation was done but was not used for catch-up planning.

• Models built were not used at coordination meetings but only the clash report was reviewed.

Phase 2: Campus for a large IT services company - 2015

An IT giant required BIM support for setting up multiple campuses. It was mandatory for the project team to setup standards; no BIM execution plan was set up for these projects though.

The Request for Proposal (RFP) had a very clear scope of work identified and the deliverables were documented. A contract was drafted clearly stating these aspects.

Observations:

• The scope extended itself beyond BIM modeling for clash detection and coordination, as laid out in the contract. Besides modeling for clash detection and coordination, it included:

  • Extracting Bill of Quantities (BOQ) from clash free design model and bill verification for the BOQ from model and contractor’s Running Account (RA) bills

  • 4D BIM dashboards and reporting to management

  • Appointment of on-site BIM coordinator

• Most of the issues stemmed from the top-down approach. No time was given to site teams to adopt and evolve through processes.

• Contracts made with the contractor had not specified BIM verification which created tremendous resistance at the contractor’s end.

• Owners kept tweaking the design even while the construction was being done, so many changes had to be incorporated in real-time.

• BIM models were not used to generate the 2D. It was a 2D to 3D effort, which was the reverse of the usual approach which made it more cumbersome.

• Site changes on materials resulted in consumed quantity not matching tender quantity or BIM quantity as estimated in the plan

• On-site coordinator took around 6-7 months to feel included as a part of the team.

• The adoption on the first project was a failure and as BIM consultants, Excelize team faced push back from everyone. By the time, the team started work on the third location, the acceptance had increased manifold.

BIM mandates

BIM will gain momentum only when its implementation will be mandated by the government or at an enterprise level. The adoption of BIM has been mandated in many countries globally, though there is no such mandate in India. The advancement of BIM implementation solely relies on the success or benefit achieved on every project at an organizational level.

For many years in the past decade a BIM Consultant would implement BIM on any project only for coordination during design phase with an objective to get accurate quantities for estimation & bill verification during the construction of the project. Since 2020 while the world has been battling with COVID19, adoption of BIM has increased threefold especially the architecture and design firms. BIM has also been regulated due to mandated in the private sector in India.

The Public sector has been prompt in regulating BIM Implementation depending on the size of the projects and the ease of managing. Even with the successful implementation of 5D BIM on the Maha metro project in Nagpur BIM has not become a mandate on all the metro projects in the country. Likewise, infrastructure projects are looking beyond regulation of BIM implementation and are now looking to adopting digital integration platform in construction phase of projects for the ease of asset management during lifetime of the project. This includes incorporating BIM models, project plans for 4D simulation and monitoring and integration with ERP tools for 5D cost management. All this is possible with mandates at various levels.