Scenario VPD Blog

Post by Paolo Hilario -

Recently, I have had the opportunity to talk to wide spectrum of people within the AEC/FM community. From projects using Integrated Project Delivery (IPD), Lean Construction, and Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) in its full glory to project teams utilizing Building Information Models (BIM) for the first time. The primary goal of these new project delivery methodologies of course is to increase productivity and reduce waste, and many of these projects have already seen the benefits from reduced change orders, RFI’s, cost, schedules, and more efficient O&M for facilities. However, it seems that many individuals on the project team do not perceive they are getting the personal productivity gains they expect from these new processes & technologies; depending on their role on a project they actually see an increase in the amount of work they need to perform in order to accommodate them. This may explain the reluctance of many people to adopt these new processes and the resistance you may encounter when championing these initiatives within your own organization.

There may be a large return on investment for your project and/or your organization, but individuals on your team are also doing their own ROI calculations as well. That cost to benefit ratio is based on their investment of time and the results they get in return for their effort. In many cases this new and plentiful data is perceived by many as less accessible than before; high costs, difficult deployments, steep learning curves, and scattered data in many different applications and systems keep these new processes and systems from proliferating as they should.

The goal is increased productivity, quality collaborative interactions, and the ability to quickly deliver data to people on the project team so they can make better decisions with pertinent and current information. I believe we would see greater gains in productivity and adoption with an abundance of low cost, easy to use, specialized applications tailored to the roles of individuals on our project teams. These simple applications could be networked, interoperable, and connected to a central multipurpose platform capable of handling the data and communication needs of a project during all phases of design, construction, and O&M. Though the data stores could be massive and the system itself complex, using a combination of applications people already use, light weight web clients, simple desktop applications, and mobile devices; the user experience could be simple and elegant. Simple, powerful, interconnected applications designed with people in mind… imagine that.

Is BIM the New Standard of Care?

Forensic BIM, BIM as the new standard of care for designers and BIM as a risk management tool took center stage as Salmon and Camps teamed up to settle a recent construction dispute.  The two will share insights regarding use of BIM in a traditional legal dispute and their vision for use of BIM on integrated projects.

Camps will explain how Integrated Project Lifecycle Management (IPLM), delivers fully functional digital assets to owners.  Project information in an IPLM environment is available to the entire team via a common technology infrastructure which binds the team, digitally represents the building and fosters a collaborative culture.  This culminates in increased efficiency, lower costs and faster completion.

Salmon will discuss BIM as an emerging standard of care and the basic legal framework required to deploy IPLM, BIM and lean processes effectively.  Salmon will focus on the nature of integrated agreements, negotiating deals rather than disputes, allocating and managing risk effectively and other legal mechanisms critical to collaborative success and intelligent use of BIM.

A 40-minute discussion period will allow meaningful interaction on specific legal hurdles and technical difficulties in the Middle East and elsewhere. Please contact James Salmon for more information.