Construct IT Autumn 2008 Members' Meeting

in conjunction with buildingSMART
 
Summary (1 of 3)
The Autumn 2008 Members' meeting was held in conjunction with buildingSMART on the 20th November in Brighton. The theme of the event was focused on virtual & Building Information Modelling towards integrated project delivery (IPD).
 
Following the welcome, introduction and brief progress update by Professor Peter Rebbeck (Construct IT Chair), Professor Farzad Khosrowshahi (Director Construct IT) and Dr Jason Underwood (Manager Construct IT), the first session of the day began with a facilitated workshop on evolving towards integrated project delivery (IPD). This session explored and debated the evolutionary progress that the construction industry has made to date along with what potentially lies ahead in moving from traditional 2D drafting through virtual modelling, embracing collaborative working, towards full IPD.
 
Mark Bew (Director of Business Information Systems, Scott Wilson; Vice Chairman, buildingSMART UK) began by providing an industry perspective. He gave an overview of his organisation before highlighting the current poor position of the stock price and some of the key issues affecting this such as weakening market sentiment, forecasts substantially reduced, stress testing estimates, government spending plans, private sector investment, company financial strengths, market potentials overseas, industry consolidation, stability of UK markets, and potential for a sector re-rating. It was stressed that BIM was not on this list. Mark then went on to discuss where IPD or BIM or iBIM is in relation to issues that were presented in a paper entitled 'Going BIM in a Commercial World' at the ECCPM 2008 conference. He emphasised that although there have been some great projects of BIM implementations, these have not been sustainable. He then discussed the 'hypothesised journey/ramp' from 2D/CAD through 3D/virtual modelling towards interoperable BIM - which no one has achieved yet!! Next, the key issues of people, process and technology were presented. In relation to thinking about people, this included the concept of e-readiness of organisations to adopt ICT effectively, achieving sustainable repeatable change, A & B teams, leadership, vision & strategic thinking and transient supply chains. For processes: process becoming of interest following the emergence of the Internet, standards to support process, measuring process towards continuous improvement and rules of engagement. In terms of technology, it was stated that a vast number of tools exist, enough to begin to make a start towards IPD, and the need to get penetration of these tools along with standards. Mark then discussed where Scott Wilson is in relation to the 'hypothesised journey/ramp' and stressed that a solid infrastructure is required in order to ensure the implementation/integration is successful and that this needs to be part of the overall business strategy. Finally, it was recommended to find out where you are on the ramp, have a plan to move up the hill, make it part of the business plan as it is too big not to, to remember it is mostly about people, and that it is achievable although the ramp/hill is steep!
 
Next, Christopher Groome (buildingSMART) provided a standards body's perspective and a political spin to the discussion. Christopher began by giving an overview of the industry issues such as size of the industry, being SME dominated, effect of global sustainability, and poor communication and process resulting in poor efficiency. It was emphasised that many other industries have successfully overcome most of the issues associated with integration/interoperability. Next, the concept of buildingSMART in providing a standard to support the whole project lifecycle and achieve integration/interoperability across supply chains was presented followed by sustainable construction and building information models. A 3 staged 'journey' towards integrated working was then presented in relation to people, process and technology. Echoing Marks previous comments, Christopher stated that technical capability only accounts for about 20% of what is required whereby people and process accounts for the largest part. The business effects of ICT from automational (operational thinking with increased productivity) through informational (tactical thinking with increased functionality) to transformational (strategic thinking with increased markets) and achieving sustainable competitive advantage were discussed. Christopher then presented the buildingSMART way of adopting BIM through the development of BIM followed by implementing and deploying BIM into business development. He then went on to introduce buildingSMART on a global scale in relation to countries, chapters and organisations along with the buildingSMART 'Aquarium' model for achieving quick wins through problem resolution between problem owners, buildingSMART and software vendors. Finally, Christopher stated that the vision/perception towards IPD is happening before emphasising the need for buildingSMART by providing an overview of the issues associated with the current industry's poor performance of the industry followed by how buildingSMART addresses them.
 
Following Christopher, a vendor's perspective was provided by Steve Dunwell (Senior Director Engineering, Construction & Real Estate (EMEA), Global Industries Business Unit, Oracle). Steve began by stating what he hears from industry through his discussions with them is not pleasant in a lot of cases and that it is down to industry to address them. These current UK industry inhibitors include contracts not rewarding collaborative working, no external incentive to innovate, no motivation for parties to seek ways to deliver a better or quicker product, spending more to save more is tough to justify, and old habits die hard! The current credit crunch was discussed in relation to survival obviously being important, consolidation naturally occurring, the UK market suffering if it does not change, and the opportunity in preparing for the future upturn as no one thinks about doing things differently during the good periods. BIM across the extended enterprise from the perspective of Oracle was presented. Steve stated that BIM is currently being used tactically and sporadically, however it needs to be embedded into the lean construction strategy otherwise it will just remain tactical. He then discussed lessons from other industries that the construction sector needs to look towards of where it has been achieved and stressed that "there are Industry differences, but the fundamentals are the same". Oracle's BIM vision and strategy was then presented. The vision is being driven by lean construction initiatives, while establishing enterprise BIM is at the core of an IPD strategy. The vision is standards based (IFC) and interoperable, supports nD working (minimum of 'Actual 5D'), and includes 'As-Built'/'To-be-Maintained' model definition for Asset Management. Their strategy is to build/buy 'Best in Class' solutions that integrate end-to-end and the BIM enablement of Oracle construction applications. The acquisition of Primavera by Oracle to create the first, comprehensive enterprise project portfolio management solution for project-intensive industries was presented as part of this strategy. Finally, Steve concluded that maximum value will come from using BIM and IPD processes in harmony and that it is not a technology issue as the technology is largely available to deliver the collaborative working processes and to progress up the ramp. Furthermore, if UK construction does not become more competitive then foreign constructors will take a large share of the market, while for software vendors the 'field of dreams' theory is not enough, it needs adoption & revenue to drive/fund development.
 
Simon Loader (Lumenicity) concluded the session in providing observations from a client's perspective. He began by discussing that the market is changing radically and clients need to understand where they get value from their investments. Simon raised such issues that clients have difficulty pulling information from different people/sources, money is important to clients, and there are issues at the backend of the project delivery during handover to maintenance and understanding how BIM can support this. He mentioned that the client feels as though BIM is being sold to them and they are always paying for it. The importance of certainty was discussed in providing the client with the necessary information to enable them to make effective decisions along with BIM providing a sales package for the client. Simon concluded by stating that the market is going to change through acquisitions, etc. and this provides the opportunity for BIM to be integrated.
 
These key industrialists' perspectives set the scene and created the platform for discussion around three questions; what does client led mean? are there clients who will lead? and should the client lead? This led to various key issues of discussion: investing in the asset; difficult to provide a business case for BIM and the benefits of BIM not being well documented, i.e. compelling evidence in relation to the bottom line of earning per share; investment in people, process and technology is required for continued improvement; the need for a 'compelling event' to make this happen and drive change - not happened but maybe the current economic climate could be it; government initiatives as they have a major role as the main procurer; constantly changing technology restricts people/process capabilities and sustaining the implementation; industry adopting self regulation and a mindset change; there is no one to sign off models as opposed to drawings, while industry thinking of project complexity is in terms if drawings; standards are helping to bring stability to the market; the industry sees itself as a 'construction' industry rather than a 'facility' industry; lack of repeatability of project compared to other industries; who owns the model and where does the information reside? ... more>