"I am convinced that the BIM revolution we are facing will have effects comparable to the CAD revolution," Artur Jasinski said in an interview with Bartosz Haduch. Has this revolution really arrived yet, or are we still waiting a while for it?
As part of our #ReportThursday series, we present documents, reports and guides on architecture, cities and local government that are certainly worth publicizing and promoting. This week we look at the report "BIM and digital working tools among designers," compiled by Iwona Piekunk-Mantiuk (Faculty of Management Engineering, Bialystok University of Technology) and Piotr Trusiewicz (BIM Ally). The report was released under the media sponsorship of A&B.
The report is available on the BIM Ally website.
Who was asked in the report?
As part of the development of the report, the researchers and researchers conducted a survey targeting designers and architects. In late May and early June of this year. 111 respondents took part in the survey, which was conducted using the CAWI method (online survey). How did the group of respondents shape up?
Almost half of the respondents worked in micro companies (1-9 employees) for a quarter of the respondents worked in large companies and corporations (250 or more employees). The remainder of the respondents were employees of companies with sizes of 10-50 and 51-249 employees, respectively.
Size of companies where respondents work
© BIM Ally
Among the respondents, more than half worked at a company that had been in existence for more than 10 years. The next group was made up of those working for a company that had been in existence for between 5 and 10 years. The remaining companies were much younger - they had been in existence for 2 to 5 years, and some had been operating for even less time, up to two years after the survey was conducted.
how long has the company been in business?
© BIM Ally
In the survey, respondents primarily indicated that they work in volume construction, but industrial construction and structures also received a high percentage. The vast majority of respondents work in design offices, general contractors or technical consultation.
what kind of work the survey respondents do
© BIM Ally
Who uses BIM and why?
As many as 77.47% of respondents indicated that they use BIM technology. Comparing this result to the Autodesk survey, there is a noticeable increase from 2015, when only 25% of respondents said they were using BIM systems. Of those surveyed, 16.22% indicated a desire to implement a BIM system in the coming years. Only 6.31% say they do not intend to use the system.
A question about the use of BIM in the companies surveyed
© BIM Ally
Survey respondents were also asked why they decided to implement the technology. Respondents cited primarily: increasing productivity, the ability to improve the quality of projects and facilitating inter-industry coordination.
question, what prompted the implementation of BIM technology
© BIM Ally
The researchers also asked about the motives for implementing BIM technology, which were broken down by company size. This highlighted very different motivations driving the project teams in question.
Motivations for implementing BIM technology
© BIM Ally
They were also asked about the barriers that block them from possibly using BIM. The most frequently cited answer was a lack of knowledge and skills regarding BIM technology, high implementation costs, and a lack of interest from investors.
As in the case of motivation, responses were divided by company size - which highlighted barriers for medium and large companies (lack of knowledge and support from legislation), as well as for micro and small companies (high implementation costs and a small lack of knowledge).
Barriers to the use of BIM
© BIM Ally
The report is available on the BIM Ally website.
One of the authors of the report, Piotr Trusiewicz, answers about the creation of the document, the biggest opportunities and barriers to the popularization of BIM technology
Wiktor Bochenek: What is the most important conclusion of your report?
Piotr Trusiewicz: I think the most important conclusion of the report is that BIM has in fact already crept into the daily work of designers on a permanent basis. Importantly, it has crept in mainly not because investors demand it, but by factors that improve the efficiency of work and its results. Moreover, it is worth noting that BIM is no longer a revolution. It's a technology that more than ¾ of Polish designers are already using, and almost half of them have been using it for more than 5 years.
Wiktor: What are the biggest problems with the implementation of BIM and its popularization today?
Piotr: The problems with the implementation itself are slowly being minimized already - more and more implementation companies are being created, there is more and more training, both onsite and in remote form. There are also more and more materials and studies provided by industry specialists. A small challenge is still the budget - first of all for the software itself, but also the time it takes for training. As for popularization, our report makes it clear that the biggest problem is the lack of adequate knowledge of all participants in the value chain of the investment and construction process, especially in the context of the benefits of BIM solutions.
Wiktor: In addition to information on popularization, it is also important to know what technology developers need to work on - what are some of these elements?
Piotr: In my opinion, the biggest challenge in the construction industry is still interoperability - especially in the context of data consistency and exchange. The introduction of CCI classifications, which buildingSMART is pushing for not only in Poland, but around the world, will allow, among other things, to maintain a consistent classification among all project participants. This, in turn, will enable more efficient use of open standards such as IFC. Therefore, I believe that technology developers should pay attention primarily to two aspects - one is to support interoperability, and the other is greater flexibility.
Wiktor: Why is it worth paying attention to BIM technology?
Piotr: More than one book could be written on this subject, especially in terms of the benefits of BIM implementation. But the most important thing is to realize that a BIM model is not just a 3D model that we can rotate in all directions or insert as a visualization anywhere in the world. A BIM model is, first and foremost, data that will remain in the model for the entire life cycle of a building. And this data not only allows us to design efficiently and detect potential clashes, but also to manage the energy efficiency of the building.
Victor: Thank you for the interview.
The report is available on the BIM Ally website.
