B.I.M. (Building Information Modeling)
Working with BIM around the world
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- Building Information Modeling, BIM, is largely developed around the world but not developed the same way everywhere. Its central pillar is multidisciplinary or interoperability collaboration. While some countries made it a requirement or developed standards, others are trying to catch up. BIM is first a process. A process that has been defined in several ways, confusing many who work in the industry. The ISO, International Organization for Standardization, developed the ISO 19650 to support the BIM process internationally by setting some common strategies. The goal is to have a project team be able to collaborate and, therefore, be more efficient. We are covering only Part One and Two of the standards because the other parts are under development. So join me, Fanny Angeles, BIM consultant and trainer, and I will help you understand the value of international BIM standards. If you are ready, let's go.
How does the ISO benefit BIM?
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- So, why BIM? Why would BIM benefit from international standards? As BIM is probably used around the world, it is also used and defined differently. Many standards have been developed by the public and the private industry. I must admit that while most standards are beneficial, some have questionable value. Maybe part of the problem is that even though we've been talking about BIM for more than 20 years, BIM is still being defined and redefined. With an international standard, BIM would benefit from being clearly defined, and therefore, increase the efficiency and quality of the implementation process. ISO, by gathering knowledge and experience, will help the building industry to agree on a common definition and process. In part one of ISO 19650, we see that today, the industry is spending time on making a correction to unstructured information or incorrect management of information by untrained personnel and on solving problem-related to information reuse and reproduction. I agree with ISO in that this issue will be reduced considerably by applying a proper process. Or in their own terms, the issue will be resolved if the concepts and principles within this document are applied.
What are ISO standard life cycle stages?
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- Before getting too deep into what's the ISO 19650 delivery phase of the assets processes, let's look at how ISO defines the basic life-cycle stages of a project. Information exchange requirements are identified as being relevant to particular stages in a project. The ISO 22263 is used as the primary reference for identifying these stages. And it is what specifies the framework for organizing project information. It identifies the following main stages. The inception or initiation stage is the start of the project. In this stage, the idea of the project is elaborated and explored. The goal is to examine the project's feasibility in term of the clients business requirements. Next we have the brief stage. Which further develops the initial project idea and any related feasibility studies to enable the creation of a concept design. It also involves preparation tasks such as assembling the project team and defining each parties role and responsibilities. Then comes the design stage which includes all the pre-construction activities. This stage typically consists of space programming, design coordination and design specification creation. Along with the full financial approval of the project. The production or construction stage finalize all major delivery goals to proceed to the construction. Which is then followed but the handover of the asset. The maintenance stage is the operation and maintenance of the production in an effective and efficient manner. The loop is closed with the demolition stage which involves the decommissioning, the dismantlement and disposition of components of the project and the project itself. ISO 19650 focuses on the development of the information management process during the delivery phase of assets. The delivery phase of assets starts with the inception and goes all the way to the production stage. The life cycle is divided into three stages and eight activities. Imagine that you want to buy a new kitchen for your home. In ISO 19650 the kitchen is the project. The first activity is the assessment and need. If you want a new kitchen, that's a good start. But you may also want to define the style, type of appliance. When you expect it to be delivered and so on. Then comes the procurement stage. With the invitation to bids, and proposal response activities. You will contact different companies with all of your needs laid out. In order to receive different quotes, delays, and maybe some design propositions. Followed by the planning stage with the appointment and the mobilizations activities. After choosing the company that will design and install your new kitchen, you meet with them and confirm your needs, their capabilities, and agree upon the deliverable. The company will then mobilize the team, and the technology needed to design and install the kitchen. They should verify if the technology selected will achieve the desired results. Finally, we go into the production stage. With the collaborative production and the delivery activities. Teams will start collaborating to produce and install your kitchen and complete a quality assurance and quality control check prior to the hand-off. You will then review your new kitchen. And in case you refuse any aspect of it, they will start over at the collaborative production stage. Otherwise, if you like your new kitchen, the final activities will be the project close-out. You and the company archive the paperwork and review the process to look for lessons learned. To summarize our eight activities. Identify your needs. Ask for quotes. Teams write a proposal. Select the team to work with. Meet with the team. The team goes to work. Team delivers. If you're not happy, start over. If you are, thank the team. And everyone finally closes the project.
What’s ISO and why do you need "standards"?
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- The International Organization for Standardization, ISO, is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies. Their goal is to provide international common standards in any domain. The ISO committees in liaison with other international organizations, governmental or nongovernmental, work together through an established process to develop and update new standards. So why do we need standards? Standards ensure that the products and services are safe, reliable, and of good quality. For businesses, there are strategic tools that reduce cost by minimizing waste and error and increasing productivity. They help companies to access new markets, level the playing field for developing countries, and facilitate free and fair global trade.
How does the ISO define BIM?
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- ISO first defined BIM in the beginning of the century. It started with a broad definition, a technical specification for a framework to them become an international standard, defining data exchanges processes within the building life cycle. ISO published six documents related to BIM. Some of them have been reviewed and have new versions while some are still in development. Here's a list of all the publications. The most significant one is the 19650, since it talks about the process itself and not only about the methodology and framework. The title itself give us a lot of context. Organization and digitalization of information about buildings and civil engineering works, including Building Information Modeling, information management using Building Information Modeling. Information management differs from information production and delivery. Information management should be applied throughout the entire life cycle of an asset and should be assigned to the most appropriate team. Only relevant information should be made available between the operational and delivery phase activities. And the quantity of information being managed during these phases, should be expected to increase. An information management process is always started by the appointment of a new delivery or operational phase, regardless of any formality. The process involved preparing requirements, reviewing of appointed parties, planning for information delivery and timing, and a review of deliverables against requirements prior to the integration with operational systems. The process's scale and complexity should be proportional to the project or activity. Information requirement are delegated to the most relevant appointed party in the delivery team. Deliverables are collected and gathered by the lead appointed party and then delivered to the client. Information exchange is used to transfer the information between parties when authorized by the client. The common data environment workflow is used to support collaborative production, management, sharing and exchange of all information during the operational and delivery phases. Information models containing federated information deliverables are produced as a result of a common data environment workflow to address the perspective of all interested parties.
How does the client initialize the process?
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- Every project starts with the clients' needs which is the inception stage. It describes the clients' process to establish the project requirement and then defines the selection criteria for the bidding process. The first step is to define the assessment and needs. It is a process to determine the needs or desire for future conditions. The difference between the current condition and the desired condition must be measurable to appropriately identify the needs. The difference between the current condition and the desired condition must be measurable to appropriately identify the needs. The client will need to establish a long term asset information strategy and follow the process during the project to ensure that the delivery goals are met. As an example, let's look at a project, an extension of an existing hotel. We first develop a plan of action to address the assessments and needs for information management process. For this, the client will need to appoint individuals to undertake the information management function. The client must establish clearly the team in charge of the process on their side, define responsibilities and competencies. The client can also seek support or delegate information management to a third party. Establish a project information requirement and delivery milestones. The client must understand what information is needed at each key point of the project to check in on the available strategic objectives for the different type of information. Each key decision point will be defined in the projects information delivery milestone which can include both the clients and the delivery teams information. Following our example, the client will define any information related to the hotel project such as milestone, delivery information, the number of rooms, base finishes, and even the lamps. Establish the projects information standard, production method and procedures. Information standards come from the exchange of information between parties, classification and level of information, and the intent of use for the operational phase. Prediction methods and procedures should be established to capture the existing information in order to generate, review, approve, and deliver information. The client will define which object classification to use like the Omni class and define the level of information for each object. For example, the hotel wants to manage the guest key access codes of the room during asset management. Maybe the hotel software can only read codes with number but no letters. The client could also require specific software such as Rivic to be used and even specify certain usage rules. Establish the project reference information and shared resources with the existing asset information and any shared resources like templates or libraries. This will avoid the duplication of effort and other interoperabilities issues. For example, our client may provide a 3D scan of the existing building, the material and furniture libraries that the hotel brand approved, a BIM execution plan and a master information delivery template. Establish the projects common data environments and information protocol. A common data environment is a single source of information which collects, manage, and distribute approved information. It is typically served by a management system that facilitates the sharing of information among project teams. Information within a common data environment needs to carry different attributes such as status, classification, and user information. The common data environment should be defined and set up by the client or at least the client should describe the essentially required features so that the delivery team can select the appropriate platform. If the client doesn't feel confident about doing it themself they can ask a third party to host, manage, or support the projects common data environment. The client should also define the information protocol including any associated license agreements. A web-based common data environment such as BIM 360 and ProjectWise should be able to provide any security, manage user access, submit reviews, get status information, and so on. Once the client establishes their needs and organize them, they can start the bidding process. An invitation to bid is created by compiling the information developed during the assessment and needs activity. The client will provide the exchange information requirements, assemble reference and shared resource and describe the bid responses requirements and selection criteria. And these are the first steps to initiate any new project.