Benefits of BIM Implementation Plan

Overview

Any major construction project should be starting with the creation of a comprehensive BIM implementation plan so that it can be both implemented and improved during different phases of the project in question. A BIM implementation plan is a comprehensive document that helps the company with identifying all of the various benefits that come with implementing BIM in the different project phases.

It’s not uncommon for a BIM implementation plan to become overcomplicated and stuffed with unnecessary details, making it harder to identify major parts of the project to keep the entire process from staying on the same spot. On the other hand, a proper BIM implementation plan makes it easier to keep everything on track and focus on the most important details, saving a lot of time for all of the participants.

The benefits of a BIM implementation

Next, we’ll go over some of the most prominent benefits that a correct BIM implementation plan can provide.

• Collaboration: It’s not uncommon for each construction project to have some significant difference from the other project types, including requirements, international standards, regulations, and so on. BIM implementation plans allow for real-time collaboration and plan correction to minimize unnecessary problems and silos among project tasks, allowing for each project to receive as much attention as needed, regardless of various standards.
• Time-savings: Schedule compression is one of the worst nightmares for almost any construction project. Surprisingly enough, a proper BIM implementation plan is capable of focusing on the most significant benefits for the project, allowing for different parties involved to not bother with unnecessary details and thus causing delays for project deliverables. The way it works is that only the most important details are highlighted and described, helping everyone with keeping up with their schedule and causing barely any delays in the first place.
• Communication: As one of its significant cornerstones, BIM in general highly encourages instant communication between different teams and parties involved in the project from the beginning, easing the delegation and management of various expectations and responsibilities. BIM also helps when it comes to communication with stakeholders.
• Execution: It’s much easier to work with a BIM implementation plan that’s focused on the project at hand, making it easier to communicate and collaborate. It also eliminates the confusion and the slow down that happens when there are too many file formats and standards in play. A correctly implemented plan keeps everything on track to make sure that the project is done on time and on budget.
• Data sharing: Another BIM implementation plan benefit that’s prevalent is transparency, making BIM implementation data accessible to everyone within the project at any stage, including stakeholders, contractors, and others. BIM implementation data includes file formats, details, model dimension, and much more than that – and all of it is in an easily shareable way with the ability to update the info to the actual one in the shortest time.

BIM Implementation 6-step Guide

Here are the six major steps of creating a BIM implementation plan. Starting with collecting information, and proceeding as shown below:

1. Define your project. Basic information concerning the project is necessary to acquire when starting to form your own BIM implementation plan. One of the reasons for that is to provide all of the parties involved with at least a baseline of the project’s scope. Some of the parts that should be included in this step are:
   • Project name.
   • Project owner.
   • Project duration.
   • Project localization.
   • Key team members.
   • General project milestones.

2. Set a list of specific goals for your project. This step is all about figuring out what benefits of a BIM implementation plan would be the most achievable for your specific project and defining those metrics. Some examples of benefits in this step include:
   • Increasing both the safety and efficiency of the project.
   • Improving the capabilities and skills of the team.
   • Looking for new areas of BIM implementation.
   • Improving the quality of the project itself, etc.

3. Choose specific ways in which BIM would be useful for your specific project in different phases. There’s no shortage of different ways that you can apply BIM within a specific project. Some of the most typical BIM applications include:
   • Cost analysis.
   • 3D modeling.
   • Light performance analysis.
   • Acoustic analysis.
   • Sustainability analysis.
   • Structural analysis.
   • Space management.
   • Maintenance monitoring.

4. Establish various BIM processes based on the collected information. Despite the fact that there’s a big number of possible BIM applications, it’s also important to know your limits – meaning that it’s better to calculate which tools would be the most beneficial and/or have the biggest priority for your specific project. After figuring that out, it’s also recommended to create a general BIM overview map for yourself, connecting different BIM appliances, their results, and the resources they need to work properly. For example, 3D coordination in the form of a clash detection needs several different models to be applied at once, including plumbing systems, electronic systems, and more. Visualization of BIM implementation, in general, is surprisingly helpful with figuring out your next steps, as well as for deciding whether a specific BIM application is worth using or not.

5. Set up information exchange procedures and methods. Different methods and procedures of exchanging the information between project parties can be planned out beforehand. This is most commonly done in the form of a table, addressing who’s interacting with who, what’s everyone’s obligations, and so on.

6. Choose the proper implementation infrastructure before beginning. This boils down to overlooking all of the previously collected information and figuring out which BIM platform/infrastructure would be the most suitable for your specific goals and needs. This step heavily depends on a lot of things we’ve mentioned before and thus has to be decided as the last step of this plan. Some examples of operations that have to be performed at this stage are:
   • Setting up quality control procedures
   • Defining the infrastructure in terms of technology
   • Defining communication methods, etc.

Who has to be involved in the creation of a BIM Plan?

Every BIM implementation plan must have a planning team assembled as early as the project. A team like that would have to include representatives from all the relevant teams – contractors, facility managers, engineers, designers, contractors, owners, etc. Both the owner and the collection of team members from different teams have to be included in this team, and it also has to be completely on board with the BIM plan in question.

The main reason for that is for the original goals of every different team to not conflict with each other since having a target and a plan set in stone makes the overall project completion much easier for everyone involved. When the primary goals are defined and agreed upon, it is time to create a more detailed set of smaller goals that BIM coordinators can easily implement at different project phases.

There should also be a clearly defined BIM plan coordination leader – it is never the same role. The timing of the plan development, the expertise of every participant, and even the project delivery method greatly influence the decision of who will be the lead party for this specific BIM plan creation. Some of the more common roles that could also be in the lead role for a BIM plan are the architect, the project manager, the owner, and the construction manager.

That’s not to say that only a single party has to have the lead role in BIM plan creation. In some cases, it may be even more beneficial for one role to initiate the process of BIM plan creation and then for a different party to complete said plan. It is even possible for a third-party team to handle most of the BIM plan creation if all of the existing roles are not experienced enough for these kinds of jobs.

Multiple meetings have to happen for a proper BIM Plan to be created

Developing a BIM plan in isolation goes against the core idea of BIM as a technology. As such, no single party in a project would be capable of correctly outlining the entire BIM plan for everyone while also ensuring that every other party is committed to doing their role in this plan. Full collaboration is necessary here, but creating a complete BIM plan in a single meeting with everyone is practically impossible.

A standard BIM plan creation can usually be split into three or four meetings, at the very least. In this scenario, the very first meeting would be where the general outline of a plan is created, and all other meetings are where different details of a BIM plan are specified. In this scenario, it is also worth mentioning that every meeting other than the very first would be much easier to coordinate and schedule because those meetings usually require fewer people when the outline is already done and ready.

What is the timeline of a BIM Implementation Plan?

It is possible to split the implementation process of a BIM plan into two stages – pre-contract and post-contract. The pre-contract stage covers the time frame before the contract agreement, with potential suppliers proposing their BIM plans to demonstrate their capabilities to potential employers and their requirements.

The post-contract stage, on the other hand, covers everything after the contract finalization. This is where the supplier that won the contract must expand their BIM plan, focusing most of their efforts on their capability to create and support supply chains. Two other plans are getting implemented here – a Task Information Delivery Plan (TIDP) and a Master Information Delivery Plan (MIDP).

A TIDP defines the responsibility for every single task, no matter how small or big it is. At the same time, a MIDP provides information flow guidelines – including information preparation, information development via certain protocols, and more.

What a complete BIM Implementation Plan must include?

There are many different information categories that a finished BIM Implementation Plan must cover, including:

• Critical schedule dates, project location, and description are several examples of general project information that has to be included in a BIM plan
• Key project personnel contact information
• A detailed illustration of the BIM Implementation Process with the help of process maps
• A list of collaborative efforts between different teams within a project, including file permissions, file structures, agendas, meeting schedules, etc.
• The chosen delivery strategy for the project, with two of the biggest choices being design-build and design-bid-build
• A general overview of the BIM Implementation Plan, with a focus on what warranted the creation of the said plan
• A more detailed look at every single element that BIM can improve in the context of this project, including different model elements, different levels of detail, and more.
• A list of deliverables that the client requested to be delivered with the project
• As soon as the responsibilities of different stages of BIM are defined, all of them also have to be documented in a BIM plan – including both the organizers and the staff required to perform every project phase
• The detailed model structure also has to be documented within this plan – be it modeling standards, file naming structure, model structure, coordinate systems, as well as many others
• Aside from all the software and standards, many different hardware appliances have to be used for BIM Implementation Plan – such as network infrastructure, the actual hardware, and specialized software
• The client’s requests regarding BIM have to be defined and documented in a BIM plan
• To make sure that all of the project participants are working on their specific tasks, there are plenty of different quality control procedures that are supposed to be implemented – and documented in a BIM plan

Additional information about BIM implementation plans:

Another important part of this is there’s not a universal BIM implementation plan for every project. Meaning there needs to be a unique curated plan for each project, with its own benefits and caveats, as well as various little details or some industry-specific effects. From this perspective, it becomes evident that only teams that completely understand the purpose and the specifics of their project would be capable of creating a good BIM implementation plan. Luckily enough, there are some ways to prevent companies from starting from scratch every time a new project is created.

For example, it’s not uncommon for companies to have templates that implementation plans can be based upon, filling up different kinds of information according to various requirements for the specific project. All in all, there’s a plethora of benefits that come from following a BIM implementation plan, and the companies should not be afraid to try something new to achieve even greater heights than before.