Humanity has always strived to find ways to describe, model and communicate the projects that comprise its built environment. The latest step of this long and evolutionary process is Building Information Modeling (BIM): an intelligent 3D model-based process that gives architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) professionals the insight and tools to more efficiently plan, design, construct, and manage buildings and infrastructure [1] – and the ability to put an end to the Tower of Babel effect.
All associated parties use one model for getting and storing information; no information lost
Lifecycle approach: aims to examine the different project stages in their dialectic interdependence (image: www.autodesk.com)
BIM & Facility Management at the global and Greek context
At the international level, the potential efficiency that BIM could bring is hardly ever achieved. The lifecycle approach remains largely at an aspirational level, with the use of BIM often stopping at the handover of the project to the client and not going beyond the design and construction phases [1]. Even if it does go beyond the design and construction phases, its efficiency is, in most cases, far from the desired level [2]. These issues have been understood by the sector, and large corporations in cooperation with universities, mainly in the US and northern and western Europe, have recently begun to address them. The United Kingdom has even included provisions for the use of BIM in its building regulations.
In Greece, BIM-based FM is at a rudimentary level. The Greek university has not yet placed the subject as a priority, and the state has not taken any relevant legislative initiative. This situation is reflected in the market: no Greek company offers such services. Various companies that offer facility management services do so without using BIM practices, thus putting an upper limit on their effectiveness and value delivered to the client.
"BIM is the future of the construction industry". Why is that?
Among other things, because:
- BIM is a developing global market expected to generate $11.7 billion in revenue by 2022 [4]
- the shift of the market's emphasis to cost reduction and sustainability, caused by the global economic crisis, can be perfectly aligned with the basic logic behind BIM
- BIM is promoted by business leaders of the construction industry worldwide - and by countries that rank high in the post-war hierarchy [US, UK etc.]
- a model is worth a thousand drawings!
References
1. Autodesk, BIM and the Future of AEC, https://www.autodesk.com/solutions/bim
2. Jordani, D. A., 2010. BIM and FM: The portal to lifecycle facility management. Journal of Building Information Modeling, Volume 6, pp. 13-16.
3. Lucas, J., Bulbul, T. and Thabet, W. (2013). An object-oriented model to support healthcare facility information management. Automation in construction, 281-291.
4. RICS, BIM rises in the United States, 2016, https://resources.rics.org/content/bim-rises-united-states