Like any form of change management, implementation of BIM would require great planning & preparation. Change implementation has to be in a phased manner with proper planning and execution, let’s look at some of the four key phases in BIM implementation.
The Four Phases of BIM Implementation
- Evaluation/Assessment
- Preparation for the Transition / Project Pre-Planning
- Execution of the Plan / Design and Construction
- Operations and Maintenance through Experience and Expertise
Evaluation or Assessment
Publish the implementation plan and intent for Building Information Modeling in your organization as part of an internal assessment procedure. The following steps are some of the best practices that would help you in the initial phase of BIM implementation.
- BIM Ready Evaluation – Evaluate your team's capability in terms of technology and processes
- Feedback – conduct feedback sessions with the internal team about adopting technology, processes, and workflows
- Due Diligence – Evaluate the legal contracts and deliverables expected from each party
- Management take – Ensure that the higher management fully supports the decision to adopt BIM in the organization.
Preparation for the Transition / Project Pre-Planning
Project pre-planning is paramount for a successful transition to BIM. Standardization in the technology process and trained people are critical for the success of technology implementation.
- Standardization: Make provisions for uniform standards for software implementation ensure to process flow for information exchange, archiving, and updating data on a real-time basis so that no crucial information is lost
- Training: Internal Team has to be equipped with the new software so plan for numerous Training and Development sessions to increase their expertise in using BIM.
Execution of Plan/Design and Construction
The execution of the plan must be decided collaboratively in accordance with every stakeholder in the project. This phase defines the social interactions of the project team throughout the BIM construction life cycle. A BIM execution plan includes:
- Portfolio management
- Test case-based planning and implementation
- Spatial planning
- Team restructuring
- Information handover
- Defining new roles and responsibilities
- Measuring performance
Operations and Maintenance
The high-level digital model built in the design phase can be taken as a base for the operations and maintenance phase as well. The best practice is to use building data from this model and rework on it, to incorporate operations and maintenance for the facility,
Here are some of the factors that determine if the high-level design model can be used for operations and maintenance:
- Which elements were integrated into the model in its design phase?
- Was the digital model regularly updated to include the most recent and accurate information?
- Were all stakeholders who are authorized to access the digital model able to retrieve data with ease?
Every organisation's requirement and structure is different and activities performed in these phases might differ as per their requirement
Different phases of BIM implementation and proposes standard procedures that can ensure a smooth transition to BIM technology however the success of BIM implementation would largely depend on the willingness and capability of the current organisation. Hence it’s advisable to lay down a step-by-step process and execute it diligently for successful implementation.
