To BIM or Not To BIM? BIM Modeling Pros and Cons.

Helping industry achieve the maximum out of BIM!

Many clients in construction industry are approaching adoption of BIM, as it encourages greater project team integration. However, there are some challenges faced by the industry that make the clients reluctant for mandatory use of BIM as a design and construction or asset management tool for their projects.

Lack of communication:

First of all effective communication is not done to explain the tool and its benefits. Moreover, most of the firms in the industry are not confident about investment cost of BIM including software, hardware and training.

Different BIM standards:

The biggest challenge for public sector to adopt BIM is that each jurisdiction and agency in the public sector are moving at their own pace in the adoption of BIM as design tool as well as to construct assets and manage them after they are commissioned. The agencies that regularly commission projects and have significant asset portfolios to manage are more advanced than others. Defense, health and education agencies are examples. That is why private sector clients adopt BIM wider than public sector.

Collaborative Design Process:

The other issue faced by the construction industry while adopting BIM is associated with collaborative design process. In the conventional approach to project delivery strategies, design work is undertaken by designers assigned by the clients and this design is sufficient for the client to seek proposals and prices to construct an asset.  But in this approach the constructors including head contractor and sub-contractors are excluded from the initial stage.

On the other hand, if the constructors are involved in the beginning stage of design as a part of integrated design team, it will increase the power of BIM for more effective collaboration focused on meeting the objectives of the client. This approach may challenge the existing policies, but make sure that the selection of suppliers is transparent.

Even though challenges exist, BIM adoption by designers and constructors are growing because of the cost benefits and efficiency of this tool. Once you made the initial investment, you will get the competitive advantage. The rate of BIM adoption is increasing day to day along with the increase in the number of clients that require it.