Efficient Project Management Through BIM Technology

Shaun Farrell, IM and BIM Advisory Lead, Buro Happold

What changes have you seen in recent times in terms of the implementation and use of BIM in the construction industry?

Our team and projects experienced significant growth during the pandemic. However, it is noteworthy that we have struggled for recognition from 2011-2016. Despite being part of the early sustainability movement, sustainability was often viewed as a passing fad, and our efforts were disregarded. Nevertheless, sustainability has emerged as a crucial topic, and clients are contractually making it a requirement. Building Information Modeling (BIM) is also at a similar stage, where its importance for integration into projects and the impact it could have on the industry still needs to be fully understood. BIM is still viewed as an optional feature, and there are only a few companies and projects where it is the standard approach. Contractual obligation is necessary to ensure its adoption, as it is yet to be business as usual for a large proportion of the industry.

One perspective to consider is the increasing recognition of business as usual concerning BIM adoption. There are two schools of thought or action in this regard. Some clients have established BIM as a standard practice and are now seeking to understand why others have yet to follow suit. Others, including design, construction, planning, and costing practices, are still attempting to realize the benefits of BIM. Some companies see BIM as their unique selling point and choose to keep their knowledge private. In contrast, we recognize the collaborative nature of BIM and the need for open sharing to enable its full potential.

The pandemic provided an opportunity for increased engagement in BIM discussions due to the availability of individuals with more time and better connectivity. Remote work has also led to greater adoption of digital technologies such as BIM, which enable teams to work together effectively. However, the downside has been increased meeting frequency, leading to a balancing act between productivity and managing meeting overload. In conclusion, BIM adoption has grown substantially during the pandemic, and its importance in the construction industry is increasingly being recognized as business as usual.

How do you implement and utilize BIM in your planned projects?

We have two business units at Buro Happold, one that focuses on leveraging BIM internally, led by Michael Barksdale, and another that focuses on helping clients and other organizations leverage BIM, led by me. We decided in 2009, at the board level, to adopt digital technology to improve project delivery efficiency and add value. The decision was based on an understanding of the potential of digital technology and a commitment to improve and move forward continuously. By going digital, we aimed to go global by adopting methods to deliver projects more efficiently and add value to their services. The goal was to ensure that engineers, technicians, and designers could spend more time on engineering and designing than on day-to-day deliverables. We set an ROI goal to increase productivity and time efficiency by doing more with fewer or the same people. 

We also recognized the importance of computational technology in engineering and aimed to integrate it with BIM to enhance their analytical capabilities. Our journey towards leveraging digital technology is documented and available to the public upon request.

We currently have a process to evaluate bids and projects to determine the level of digital strategies required. The level of effort needed is determined by a sliding scale, with some projects requiring minimal digital input while others require a significant amount. Resources and technology are assigned accordingly, and we always look for ways to improve and deliver more value. Our approach encompasses IAM, BIM, BIM Lean, and the application of computational technology.

Our organization embarked on a deliberate investment plan to reduce the time and effort spent on day-to-day deliverables by our engineers, technicians, and designers while increasing productivity and return on investment. To achieve this, we developed a four-year internal change management project, with a structured organizational framework implemented globally. This involved appointing personnel at the project, office, regional, and country levels, with specific responsibilities for overseeing the implementation of digital processes. We recruited volunteers and allocated roles where necessary, including project BIM leads, office BIM leads, regional BIM leads, and our global BIM lead. In addition to this framework, we provided the necessary materials and training to support the implementation of these processes.

Our approach also included ensuring that our BIM and IAM were part of our ISO 9001 certification, thereby making them accountable to our insurers. We received a commendation for this from our insurers, as we demonstrated a level of accountability and professionalism that is rare in our industry. We are committed to constantly improving and finding new ways to deliver value to our clients through the application of cutting-edge computational technology and the optimization of our processes.

What are the steps you take to make BIM a business essential for Buro Happold?

In terms of our approach to clients, our focus is to avoid coming in as management consultants who dictate what needs to change. Rather, we prioritize listening to the client and understanding their challenges. We aim to help them ask better questions by identifying their needs and goals. Our approach involves working closely with our legal and commercial teams as we engage with clients at various levels.

We offer four core services, with one of them primarily focused on delivery. The other three involve working closely with clients. The first is our "client guardian" service, where we engage with the client before the project begins. Our aim is to understand their challenges, outcomes, and needs, and then map these to our capabilities, such as BIM and IAM. However, we avoid focusing solely on these capabilities and instead prioritize identifying the underlying process, policy, and culture issues that must be addressed.

Our approach is based on four key areas: people and culture, processes, policy, and tools. While the industry tends to focus on tools and processes, success is only achievable when we address all four areas comprehensively. By engaging with clients in this way, we aim to help them achieve their goals and deliver value.

When working with clients, we listen to their challenges and focus on their outcomes and needs. We offer four core services, where we listen to clients before a project even starts. The success of a project is determined by process and policy (20-30 percent) and culture/people (60-70 percent), so we make sure to understand the client's culture and needs. We help them write better requirements and offer delivery guidance to give them autonomy and confidence in delivering the project.

The key to successful client engagement is to avoid dictating solutions, but rather to work with them and educate both the client and delivery team. As client guardians, we prioritize understanding the client's culture and needs, rather than just offering shiny solutions. Our services cover four core areas: people and culture, process, policy, and tools. While tools may be exciting, we ensure they have a clear purpose and avoid offering them as toys. Our goal is to help clients ask better questions and achieve successful outcomes.

We work with clients on three main areas in BIM: strategy, project delivery, and digital transformation. Clients often have different focuses and come to us for guidance. We have expertise in 52 disciplines and can provide input to join all the pieces together. 

BIM has a role to play in building safety, but it's important not to dominate the conversation and to focus on the main goal of saving human life. BIM and data are tools that can be blended with other factors, and policy recognizes BIM's role in building safety. It's unfortunate that a disaster was necessary for this recognition, but it's good to see a response.

Which major technological advances are transforming the construction industry's progress into more sustainable operations?

For designers, the focus will likely shift towards computation and automation of regulatory compliance, enabling them to incorporate the necessary rules and guidelines into their designs. This will augment designers and allow them to work within a legal framework, ultimately benefiting the industry as a whole. On construction sites, machine learning and AI will likely be utilized more extensively for safety, progress monitoring, and coordination. 

The clients will likely leverage these technologies to gain a better understanding of how their projects are progressing and to determine the best time to intervene without impacting cost, quality, or time. However, the sheer amount of data generated may prove challenging to manage, and strategies for data processing and analysis will need to be developed. With increased measurement and understanding, the resulting information may reveal inconvenient truths about the state of the environment, which could be difficult to confront.

What is your advice for budding professionals in the field?

My advice to my peers and other senior leaders in the industry is to ask better questions. When writing specifications or requirements, make sure they are informed and achievable, not just buzzwords grabbed off the internet. As consultants, we should spend time educating clients and not just throwing strategies and buzzwords at them. We should put ourselves in the other person's shoes and imagine how we would like something explained to us if we didn't know. 

“Augmented and virtual reality is making inroads into the BIM process and AEC industry. Perfect for presentation and evaluation purposes, these technologies are augmenting the entire modeling process.”

Listening and communicating well is crucial, and we should ensure there is a common aim to move forward without mistakes. It's worth investing time to get an accurate understanding and get clients to play back what they've told us, so we can arrive at a common goal to move forward. This applies to writing better specifications, requirements, contracts, and emails. It's also important to talk to people, not just rely on digital means of communication like emails and Teams meetings, as they sometimes need to convey understanding and face-to-face communication.