When seeking to achieve excellence in the engineering, architecture, design, or consulting industry, businesses can never rest on their laurels. What was cutting edge one day, will quickly become the standard, and then before long you’re using a legacy system that’s been superseded.

Building Information Modelling (BIM), is a term that you’re already familiar with, however few Australian firms have truly integrated it into their way of working. And while Australia still has a long way to go before mandating BIM on a national scale, the direction the industry is heading is clear, with plenty to gain for motivated and proactive technology focused practices.

From a business standpoint, multiple studies have found that BIM implementation can result in positive ROI for practices through:

• Faster and more efficient processes
• Increased productivity and speeds up delivery
• Reduced uncertainty
• Controlled whole-life costs and environmental data
• Avoidance of rework costs
• Improved safety; opportunity to secure government contracts
• Reduced on-site waste
• The prevention of errors.

To really understand the importance of BIM, it’s necessary to understand that it’s more than just a tool or software, but an evolving system for managing the entire life-cycle of infrastructure and buildings. BIM’s scope and scale will grow through staged developments, commonly referred to as the “dimensions” of BIM.

The current and conventional model of three-dimensional (3D) BIM is evolving into a 4D, 5D, 6D, or even 7D model, and, in the future, eight-dimensional (8D) versions based on the application of PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) to construction. This solution is known as BLM (Building Lifecycle Management) or unified project management.

• 4D: A virtual model of the built structure with construction plans and work progress control capability; with additional possibility to prospectively visualize a virtually constructed building in any moment in time.
• 5D: Cost data is fed into 3D model, coupled with the construction schedule. Benefits of the fifth dimension of BIM may consist in the higher precision and predictability of changes occurring in the project together with a more reliable cost analysis of different construction scenarios.
• 6D: Introduction of sustainable development principles into the investment process with an emphasis on energy efficiency. The sixth dimension of BIM allows for obtaining information about the building’s projected energy consumption at a very early (concept) stage.
• 7D: Integration of the Facility Management concept into BIM. It allows tracking of the status of given building components, their specifications and guarantee periods. The seventh dimension of BIM encompasses the management of the full life cycle of a building from the concept to the demolition.
• 8D: Supplementing the model with security and healthcare information. This dimension focuses on three tasks: identification of threats resulting from chosen design and construction solutions, indication of alternatives to the riskiest solutions, signalling the need to control specific risks on the construction site.

[Reizgevicius, M.; Ustinovicius, L.; Cibulskiene, D.; Kutut, V.; and Nazarko, L. ‘Promoting Sustainability through investment in Building Information Modelling (BIM) Technologies: A Design Company Perspective’, 2018.]

With the rise of this level of data and the integration of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), it’s reasonable to assume that entire neighbourhoods and public infrastructure will eventually share data, creating entire cities managed under these types of models, totally revolutionising all aspects of the built environment. This emerging idea is becoming known as city information modelling (CIM).

BIM Standards
The UK is really at the forefront of BIM adaptation. The British Standards Institution (BSI) has started to publish international standards for building information modelling (BIM), the first two of which were published in 2018, with the second two due for release in 2020. If you’re interested in realising the potential of technology and BIM in your business, please contact Dinesh Rajalingam on DRajalingam@m4d.com.au.