Construction of commercial buildings is one of the largest manufacturing industries, consisting of a large number of disparate companies involved in designing, constructing, and operating buildings. This fragmentation of the industry is a major barrier in changing current practice in order to drive greater levels of ef ciency and results in projects that:
• take longer to build,
• take longer to commission, and
• have less than expected operational performance.
During the design phase, there is often not enough communication between all parties involved, quite often due to the contract type.
Currently the construction industry is driving the BIM agenda as they are gaining the most value in quanti cation, organization and coordination. Designers have tunnel vision, very little discussion or thought of facilities management during design and even construction.
Our industry’s performance record is poor with more than 90% of mega-projects above budget and behind schedule1. The biggest reason for this poor performance is that the traditional contract models and processes are disintegrated and adversarial. The challenges include:
• Stakeholder fragmentation
• Lack of cooperation / collaboration and sharing value • Limited knowledge transfer between stakeholders
• Project management is fractured
Our objective is to manage projects to create certainty on schedules, budgets and operational performance. The biggest risk to cost and schedule is repeated work, loop-backs in the process that often are a result of not involving all stakeholders earlier.
Although the industry is looking to BIM to enable collaboration and interoperability, it’s not suf cient. We will not solve our challenges by mere adoption of BIM. The management of BIM culture and processes are imperative2.
Shaping the Future of the Construction Industry