BIM is a revolutionary change in the way a project design is
prepared and implemented, offering a number of benefits such as coordination,
clash detection, cost estimating, etc. (as discussed in class/blog posts during
the term). This all is meant to increase productivity/efficiency, reduce life
cycle costs, and raise infrastructure value. BIM has a few drawbacks that are
preventing its widespread and efficient use across the construction industry,
ranging from training needed to learn the software, high initial investment
costs, to legal issues. More often it is the organizational change, not the
technology itself, which hinders BIM’s potential to streamline costs and
processes. Executive leadership is crucial in order to create the right
incentives and organizational structure for it to work, rather than offering
mere support and expecting middle management to be the driving force for
adopting BIM. The learning curve involved with BIM is another of the main
issues that comes with the software; however I believe this to be a short-term problem
that can be solved with practice and training (J-Curve shown below, illustrating
the learning curve most organizations take when implementing BIM) [1].
Legal issues regarding BIM use stem off into a few branches:
ownership, control, licensure matters, and more. BIM lacks established
standards for determining who is responsible when an issue arises with a
product when multiple parties have contributed information to it. Tracking the
the source of the issue is and when it had occurred can be difficult as well. Also, most states require that the
professional practices in the AEC industry be under the responsibility of a licensed
architect or engineer. While this is easily understood in 2D models and plans, compliance
problems arise when an unlicensed individual enters data into the 3D BIM model,
as well as determining the responsibility of keeping track of automatic changes
the software makes accordingly. Many of the legal risks/issues associated with
BIM can be resolved or limited by drawing up BIM-specific contractual
agreements; this involves identifying potential issues, discussion and
negotiation. This contractual protection can fairly balance the benefits and
risks associated with using the software among multiple parties [2].
Yasmin's,
ReplyDeleteHaving to write on Revit and AutoCad generally and then comment on Maria's post, which was essentially explaining each software and what are their capabilities, didn't give me enough insight on their disadvantages. Therefore, I found your post to be very interesting and informative. The most shocking problem to me that you mentioned in your post was how hard it is to evaluate and present data sequence using BIM. As a Drexel student, I absolutely agree and I wonder how the creators of BIM are going to address such challenge. Thank you