Jacob Austin 00:00:17 Hi all, Jacob Austin here from QS.Zone. And welcome to episode 69 of The Subcontractors Blueprint, the show where subcontractors will learn how to ensure profitability, improve cash flow and grow their business. Today's episode is all about the use of building information modeling, or BIM, as it continues to grow in the construction industry, and I'm more interested in specifically the quantity surveyors perspective on measurements and estimating and how BIM might be useful for that. If you're new to the show. Please subscribe for more user friendly advice on all things subcontracting. And let's dive in to the fascinating world of BIM and explore how it's shaping the future of construction, BIM or building information modelling is a process that's often just misunderstood as another form of 3D modeling as AutoCAD for building. However, it's much more than that. BIM is about delivering construction projects more efficiently. Doing what we said we would do in the way we said we do it, and hopefully by the time we said we'd do it too. At its core, BIM involves the management of information related to the construction and lifecycle of an asset, ensuring this information is reusable for the assets entire lifespan.
Jacob Austin 00:01:38 And whilst technology plays a role. BIM is primarily about the processes that underpin the delivery of a project. It's a modern day realization of the efficiency goals championed by industry experts Sir Michael Latham and Sir John Egan, and in simple terms, it's an enabler of efficiency. It allows us better information flow, which leads to better decision making and ultimately better outcomes. It's about creating a golden thread, a single creation and version of the truth that all project stakeholders can access and easily rely upon. And rather than producing isolated 2D or 3D drawings, BIM consolidates all project information into a digital model. This single model serves as a central hub and store from which various reports, including drawings, plans, schedules, and even bills of quantities can be generated. And BIM helps us to build the job before we build it means we can get it right on the first day on the first try. It allows the project team to simulate the construction process in a digital environment, and hopefully identify and resolve key issues and risks before they occur in real time on a live site.
Jacob Austin 00:03:03 BIM fundamentally changes the way project teams work. It forces them to work together traditionally. construction projects have suffered with a lack of collaboration, with each discipline working in their own silo. BIM flips this model entirely on its head, creating an environment where all parties share a common pool of information. This collaborative approach reduces inefficiencies, eliminates unnecessary waste, and improves the quality of the delivered asset or building, and for quantity surveyors and estimating. This means transitioning from traditional methods of measurement to using digital models as the primary source of project information. This shift can not only save time, but also increase the accuracy and reliability of your cost estimates. One of the most significant benefits for quantity surveyors and subcontractors putting estimates together is the ability to use BIM to automate many time consuming tasks, for example, taking off quantities, which is traditionally manual, error prone and time consuming. This can be done directly from the BIM model. This automation allows quantity surveyors to focus on the higher value tasks like cost analysis, pricing changes, risk management and actually negotiating during the procurement process.
Jacob Austin 00:04:27 BIM can also help quantity surveyors stay aligned with design changes. Obviously, updates are made to the digital model and then updated schedules of materials can be easily drawn out of it to update your cost plan or your forecast, and it ensures that stakeholders are working with the most current information. Reducing the risk of errors, clashes and remedial works. And BIM can actually be used well beyond the construction period. BIM models can be used to support facilities management by providing a comprehensive digital layout and representation of a building, and then, for instance, instead of relying on some old paper operation and maintenance documents, FME teams can access an interactive digital model, update it for things that they change post-construction and they've got at their fingertips all the relevant information about their building. It not only improves efficiency, but enhances the accuracy of maintenance and repair activities, and can provide living records that can be updated in real time as work is completed that changes are building. To understand the significance of BIM, it's helpful to look at its origins.
Jacob Austin 00:05:40 The construction industry has long been criticized for its inefficiency and resistance to change, while other regions of the economy, such as retail and manufacturing, have embraced digital technology. Beyond sending your subcontract accounts on an Excel spreadsheet and perhaps looking at drawings as a PDF, construction has been really slow to adopt and adapt to new technologies. The UK government's construction strategy back in 2011 marked a turning point, recognising the potential for BIM to reduce costs and improve project outcomes, and following that, the government mandated its use on all projects that were centrally procured. This mandate accelerated adoption of BIM throughout the UK, and also brought it to the forefront of leading the world into a digital construction age. But of course, in spite of the advantages of BIM, there are plenty of challenges with it also. Firstly, implementation requires a bit of a cultural shift. It takes collaboration to a new level, and project teams have got to embrace that and put aside some of the more traditional methods that seasoned professionals will have got used to. There are also quite large barriers to entry for smaller firms because of the need for the digital technology, training and investment and of course, the willingness to actually use BIM in the first place.
Jacob Austin 00:07:05 But that investment could pay dividends. One of the most transformative aspects of BIM is its ability to enhance the cost planning process, and therefore the estimating process. Traditionally, cost planning and estimating involves a significant amount of manual work taking off with a scale ruler and dim paper, or even the more technologically advanced version of running your mouse around all of the corners on Blue Beam Stealth to come up with something accurate. It does take time, and that's before you move into preparing the detailed estimate altogether. BIM can simplify this process by providing a digital model that serves as the single point of truth for all project data, and that single point of truth allows for more accurate cost information. For example, you can easily extract some BIM data and use this to produce a three point estimate or a three point forecast with your best case, worst case, and most likely case, or upper, lower, and middle cost estimates. And you can do this with a higher degree of confidence. Because of the extracted data. There is also better risk management by enabling virtual prototyping of projects and the running of simulations, such as Monte Carlo simulations, that will iteratively complete the project in theoretical format to see what the various outcomes are.
Jacob Austin 00:08:33 This helps you understand the potential issues and how they might impact your job before construction even begins. And doing this proactively reduces the likelihood of costly surprises and ensures that risk factors are addressed early in the process. There's also the benefit of being able to evaluate the financial impact of design changes, market fluctuations, and other external factors such as poor performance within the supply chain, etc. this will enable you to give the people that you're working for a clearer picture of potential risks and also potential opportunities. Imagine a situation where an architect can amend the BIM model to incorporate a client change, and at the same time as being able to pull all of their revised drawings out of that BIM model. You can also pull out of it an updated list of components. Quickly push that into your bill of quantities and you've got a revised price in minutes. It can be really powerful, but in order for it to be as useful as it can be to the whole project team, it needs some thinking about in advance. As with all things, the best results come out with careful planning, particularly in this case when it comes to the data generation and the management of that data design teams need to structure their models in a way that aligns with cost planning requirements.
Jacob Austin 00:10:00 And some of these are really minor tweaks, such as segregating and tagging different materials. Collaboration is key. BIM thrives in a collaborative environment and quantity. Surveyors. Designers. Subcontractors, contractors these parties must work together to develop the model that works for everybody's needs. BIM also like some of the new AI tools that are readily available, is a really powerful tool. But on its own it isn't a solution. The effectiveness of using these tools is dependent entirely upon the people using them. And this is where training for your team really will pay off in dividends. But of course, technology will continue to evolve and its impact on you as a subcontractor and on quantity surveying and estimating this will continue to change. The likes of GNM attempted to make it easier to integrate BIM into the cost planning process, and it's likely that in the future, the quantity surveyors role will shift from pure measurement and basic data collection to analysis of that data, to improve the accuracy of estimates, to pick up and changes, and to be able to price things accurately and quickly.
Jacob Austin 00:11:16 That should give you, as a subcontractor, greater confidence in the estimates that you're producing, the greater ability to react to changes so that you can get quotations for those over to your contractor quickly and with a good standard of detail, and you would position yourself as a subcontractor, ready to drive innovation and efficiency in construction. My mission with this podcast is to help the million SME contractors working out there in our industry. If you've taken some value away from today's episode, I'd love it if you'd share the show and pass that value on to somebody else who'd benefit from hearing it. And of course, subscribe yourself if you haven't already. And thanks for tuning in. If you like what you've heard and you want to learn more, then please do find us at www.QS.Zone where you can subscribe to our training and support system for like minded subcontractors. We're also on all your favourite socials at @QS.zone. Feel free to give us a follow and give us some feedback. Thanks again! I've been Jacob Austin and you've been awesome!
