Beyond construction: How BIM can support building management

Chris Wilson, Energy Manager, SPIE UK

“In recent years Building Information Modelling (BIM) has become an important tool for the built environment to drive greater efficiencies across the entire lifecycle of a building or piece of infrastructure. By creating an exact digital footprint from which informed decisions can be made, BIM can help facilities managers optimise the management, energy usage, and refurbishment of physical assets.

Unfortunately, BIM is often only used in a design capacity which disguises the multiple efficiency gains it can deliver. For one, it limits the level of cooperation between the various stakeholders that exist in our industry. Thinking more creatively about how BIM can support building management will be sorely needed as we tackle the UK’s growing built environment needs in conjunction with existential societal challenges such as the climate crisis.

Improved visibility and communication

On a project, teams typically share reliable data on all project phases from design through construction with site management professionals who will use it to inform the facility’s operations. However, gaps in understanding can appear as buildings are passed from the construction phase to the operational phase, because building data is incorrectly transferred or not fully handed over.

These knowledge gaps and inaccuracies can have knock on impacts to the building’s maintenance. 

In using BIM, all the data about a building is stored in one place, allowing this to be easily handed over to facilities managers as they take on the maintenance and operations of a physical asset. This data can then be easily integrated within their own systems without any loss or inaccuracy. As a result, building managers will have access to a clear picture of what has been installed, how it ought to operate and the associated cost to ensure better programming of Planned Preventative Maintenance (PPM) or Condition Based Maintenance (CBM) activities.

Such exact data sharing is even more crucial following the recommendations for a ‘golden thread’ of information made in the Building a Safer Future report by Dame Judith Hackitt. BIM will be a key part of realising the recommendations of the report to create a single source of truth, improve accountability, and foster a more collaborative culture across the sector.

By creating an exact digital footprint from which informed decisions can be made, BIM can help facilities managers optimise the management, energy usage, and refurbishment of physical assets

Reducing costs through stakeholder collaboration

A huge benefit of BIM is that it encourages buy in and collaboration from all stakeholders from the conceptual stage through t Chris Wilson o the operational stage. This collaboration can and does play a critical role in ensuring that the design, construction and operation of the built environment is the very best that it can be. For example, by bringing their unique insight into likely usage patterns and understanding from other buildings, facilities managers can play a key role in advising on the design of environments and systems that will improve occupant wellbeing or improve energy usage and sustainability. Without this early involvement, key considerations may be overlooked.

Centralising data stores can also be useful here, as well as incorporating complementary technologies such as digital twins. By placing high quality data in a centralised location which all key stakeholders can access, BIM can provide the basis for Digital Twins that can then be used to test and predict how the asset will operate under different conditions; an increasingly important function as we design and build buildings and infrastructure that must cope with changing climates over the coming decades. This ability to test and retest how systems react to different conditions, or to hypothesise about how people may use a building in certain circumstances, will play a major role in optimising energy usage and improving user wellbeing in the future.

Getting smarter about smart buildings

Buildings continue to become smarter with all new and improved sensors for measuring factors such as temperature, air quality, and building occupancy. Having this data means we can further optimise the running of the building. However, before systems can be optimised, we need to understand their baseline operating efficiency. BIM provides this through accessible high-quality data on a building’s systems, allowing facilities managers to compare real world usage patterns with best case scenarios. As a result, facilities managers are able to effectively optimise operations to improve building usage, energy efficiency, and a whole host of other factors.

BIM is not a silver bullet for all the potential problems facing the built environment, but it can help make significant improvements to operations and efficiency across the entire lifecycle of our buildings and infrastructure. Used effectively it provides the means with which to bring all stakeholders to the table to drive collaboration and improve the ways in which we design, build, and operate the spaces in which we live and work. As the industry tackles ever more complex issues and circumstances arising from increased urban density, pollution, and climate change, whilst also being tasked with creating spaces that improve health and wellbeing, that collaboration is going to be critical to the sectors future success.”