#22 - Five Most Important Benefits of BIM

There are many definitions of BIM out there and all are accurate in most senses. BIM is an intelligent model-based process to create building model data that is essentially coordinated and computable and thus AEC professionals can more efficiently design, build and operate buildings and infrastructures. A true BIM model consists of the virtual equivalents of the building elements used to build a building which means a building can be "built" even before its physical realization through a virtual model.

Following are the five most important benefits of BIM:

1. Collaboration and Coordination: Projects in the AEC market are always complex. Any AEC industry project will have multiple stakeholders and service providers contributing to different stages of the project. It becomes essential to share critical information and collaborate with them from multiple source points. Especially in the design stages, where architectural, structural, and MEP designs are separate, it's not a huge surprise that there might be some design clashes. Through cloud functionality and integration scope, BIM ensures accurate coordination and process collaboration. The core benefit of BIM is Information. BIM model has information regarding every project stage and of the different design disciplines. This increase the accessibility of a team. Anyone can review and markup the design. "Through access to multi-discipline design information, BIM helps you streamline and collaborate with coordinated communication across teams and stakeholders."

2. Visualization: One of the main problems with a conventional paper design or even 2D designs is their inability to showcase every facet of the project. It's difficult to imagine the project in reality. It eventually results in complicated and overwhelming design drawings. BIM gives you a platform to comprehend the complete design, including floor plans, elevations, and 3D models. The graphical simulation provided by BIM allows a user to see how their project will look in a real-life scenario. This gives a very effective visualization tool in this visually focused industry. With project renders and architectural visualization, you can actually see the entire design even before starting the construction.

3. Cost-Effectiveness: The cost might be one of the main important that needs to be under control, during the whole project. Imagine a scenario where the project is going into the construction phase and architects find out a clash between structure and duct. It would be immensely costly to HOOLD the construction and redesign that portion. With the help of BIM, one can run the clash detection, before your construction starts and you can cope with those possible clashes. The clash-free design from BIM will assure unnecessary late project completion and extra cost. In BIM, one has a record of every step performed throughout the life cycle. This reduces duplicate documentation at various points and puts the project at a faster pace. Thus you can save both Time and Money through BIM.

4. Accessibility to Information: As all industry professionals are aware, building projects involves time and effort. A single project could involve hundreds of architects, engineers, and drafters. The real problem comes, when a designer makes a change to a floor plan, imagine half of the other designers using the older version of the design than the revised one. Further, it might happen that another designer is changing the plumbing design based on an older floor plan. It can be extremely difficult to be aware of every change that happens at multiple touch-points. The BIM process is completely coordinated at each stage of the design and construction process flow. You can easily access all the available information regarding design in the BIM model. It enables the designer to be aware of the latest design at each moment and that makes the change management really easy and effective.

5. Higher Productivity: The target of every AEC project is to complete the project within the scheduled time and within budget. At any stage, if you get stuck, the entire project can suffer from it. The reasons that can happen are inaccurate design information and wrong design coordination in multi-discipline design. BIM enables you to create a precise project plan in a very concise manner. A coordinated BIM model will have all the information regarding every change made in the design and everyone will be able to access that critical information. So in short, any changes you make in design will be reflected in every connected design aspect. This means the entire design and construction process will go as planned and excessive time in redesign and labor can be saved eventually resulting in an overall cost reduction of the entire project.

Next article, BIM Execution Plan

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