With a massive buildout of data centers in India, the pressure keeps mounting to build faster, safer and at the same time cheaper. Girish Kamath, Business Developer-Data Center, Hilti India is of the view that many factors could justify the poor productivity gains in the construction industry.
“Poor organization, inadequate communication, flawed performance management and insufficient planning are the causes,” he said. Kamath’s views are echoed by studies, which have also shown that around 30 percent of the work performed by construction companies is actually rework—often as high as 5 percent of a project’s contract value.
What is Building Information Modeling Approach?
It is not all doom and gloom though. Some practices are emerging that can drive higher productivity at different stages of a project, from concept and design to project execution.
These practices include modular design, standardization, prefabrication and Building Information Modeling (BIM). BIM is an acronym for Building Information Modeling or Building Information Management. It is a highly collaborative process that allows architects, engineers, real estate developers, contractors, manufacturers, and other construction professionals to plan, design, and construct a structure or building within one 3D model.
BIM promises the highest savings and efficiency in all project phases. It can significantly improve project planning through better coordination of all relevant stakeholders, also driving time and cost savings (e.g. avoid design clashes and reduce bill of materials).
”Better planning will enable smooth project management in the execution phase and facilitate maintenance during operations,” says Kamath. Additionally, BIM allows all relevant project information to be stored in a single location and in detail.
This includes 3-D models, structural and non-structural details, amongst others. Even though BIM implementation is gaining momentum, complexity and scalability issues remain.
For example, BIM is used to plan laying of pipes, ducts and cables, the matching mechanical, electrical and plumbing supports are often not considered in the design stage. This makes things go haywire as solutions are improvised and not properly engineered. Other issues include incomplete documentation, high waste of materials, amongst others.
The key sources of productivity gain with BIM design services are :
Design Optimization
Each trade separately defines their own supports and subsequently installs them at different points in time. Designing on BIM enables us to organize as much as possible all trades into the same support – multi-trade supports.
Pre-fabrication
When fabrication happens on-site, there are always uncertainties to be considered. Missing elements on the project and the complexity of the installation process can become an issue. This results in an inefficient installation process often with compromised quality.
The output of BIM model with all the MEP supports and needed information to enable pre-fabrication, i.e. (partial) assembly of the designed supports in a production environment instead of at the jobsite.
Pre-fabrication can increase job site productivity up to 70 % in terms of combined time and material savings. Furthermore, pre-fabrication promotes higher safety during installation and build-as-designed solutions.
Advanced logistics
Successful delivery and profitability of a construction project are heavily influenced by accurate material and resource planning. It becomes increasingly important to trace the progress of production, delivery and timely installation. Hence, project managers spend significant time maintaining transparency on progress and supply chain information. Live information throughout the supply chain process is a key success factor.
BIM detailed model enables our team to extract information, including quantities for all the project, but also filter that information, regarding different areas and at different stages of the project.
BIM to Field
Another use case proven by many projects is BIM to Field. To this day, it is still common
practice to use tools like ropes and duct tapes to lay out positions on the jobsite, including the fastening points of the MEP supports. This is a very time-consuming task that can lead to large deviations from the designed grid.
Having engineered and optimized MEP support solutions in the BIM model, allows us to utilize the latest measuring and laser tools to lay out the positioning of the supports and its fastening points.
Conclusion
BIM Design Services are focused on optimizing the planning and execution of mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) trades.
Key areas of improvement in these workflows are:
• Execution of the MEP supports as usually, each subcontractor plans and installs their own trade system independently of each other. This often results in clashes between trades at the jobsite, with consequent waste of space, time and materials.
• On-site assembly of MEP supports, associated with high labor costs and material waste.
• Inefficient logistics coordination, often with wrong quantities of material and at the wrong time on the jobsite.
• Labor-intensive and imprecise methods regarding the positioning of MEP elements.
As BIM shifts from a nice-to-have to a need, it is imperative that organizations evaluate and leverage its benefits. Else, they are at risk of falling behind in this ‘new normal’ of rapid change.
