5.5 years later

Time, thou anticipat’st my dread exploits.

The flighty purpose never is o'ertook

Unless the deed go with it. From this moment

The very firstlings of my heart shall be

The firstlings of my hand. And even now,

To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and done...

Followers of The Bard will maybe spot the topical reference to Macbeth... topical, because just yesterday I was looking at the cinema listings, and this seems to be the film of the moment.  But why open this post with such a quote?  Well, shamefully, it has been  a couple of years since I updated this blog!

The passage above is spoken by Macbeth and tells of his new determination to act immediately and to start following his thoughts with actions.  He goes on to tell how he plans to raid Macduff, seize Fife and kill, well... pretty much everyone.  I will be much less dramatic, and merely seize my thoughts to the point of finally mashing the keyboard and hopefully producing a brief blog update (how the world has changed since those bloodthirsty days of old!).

Time has flown, and it is now just over five and a half years since the birth of McCafferty Consultancy Ltd.  Despite the absence of blog, twitter, Facebook, or YouTube updates, we are still busy analysing construction sites and mapping assets up and down the country, and have taken on some really interesting projects since the last posting.

 
We have now carried out volumetric analysis on around 100 residential housing sites in Scotland, producing crucial information relating to the earthwork movements required on these.

 

We have also worked on some major, large-scale civil engineering projects - including hydro schemes, electrical substations, windfarms, and even the A9 dualling project.  

  

Our portfolio has extended into offshore and subsea, where we have been engaged to produce models to allow for the construction of sea roads, harbours and carry out essential dredging and maintenance projects.

Utility avoidance continues to be an active and busy are of the business, having now provided CAD plans for countless projects across the UK.

What about the BIM???  Well, BIM remains a subject of great interest, and one that we are keen to continue to work at, raising awareness and enabling organisations to realise the benefits that can be achieved.  We were approached by a global contractor to develop a pre-construction conflict avoidance process that was borne out of a BIM-aware approach to project delivery.  

Using our expertise in 3d modelling, and drawing on our knowledge and experience in project delivery, we created a process that was able to successfully identify potential conflicts in subterranean infrastructure that was proposed for a major development.  This process would allow for the avoidance of problems that might only have been discovered during the construction phase, and permit a re-design before any material, resource, or crucially - money, was committed on the site.

Interestingly, I've been thinking this week about how organisations are looking at ways of being able to track and record financial expenditure towards various build assets.  This is becoming a very important task, and is presenting some major issues for the organisations trying to undertake these exercises.  Essentially, what is required is the ability to know where assets are located, how much value is attributable to them, when they were formed and how they have been maintained - with the ability to export, share, and reuse this information...  Yet, "BIM" isn't something that's being said.  The association of intelligent, accurate and dynamic data into assets, and the interoperability of this data is what BIM is about... maybe people are more engaged in BIM than they realise...

 

So life carries on.  We continue to turn out the projects, and we are continually grateful for the support and the business we are given by our clients.

The office move is complete, so this is being written from the softer and more comfortable new surroundings (see right).

And with a picture taken many years ago of Glamis Castle, finally, a blog update is written... what's done is done (Act 3, Scene 2).

Not just BIM?!?

Did you know... McCafferty Consultancy Ltd. is not just about BIM?  In fact, in terms of BIM, most of what we do here is try to promote BIM and educate how the processes can be used to provide additional value to construction companies, consultants, practitioners and the industry as a whole.

We love construction, and the goal is to see our industry operating as intelligently and as smart is as possible, utilising the latest in management practices and leveraging the latest technologies to gain maximum value and achieve the highest standards possible.

The majority of our workload is focused on providing CAD services and volumetric analysis for construction companies and specialist service providers.  In fact - and don't go crazy here - a great deal of this is even 2D!

We regularly turn out some pretty nice 3D work, mostly in our volumetric packages, where we form detailed models to represent proposed construction sites and incorporate existing survey data.

Take a look at a feature video...

Another, perhaps lesser known, service that we provide is our area takeoff service.  This is something that is particularly useful for groundwork companies or developers, and involves the preparation of site-wide take-off drawings, that are categorised into different physical areas.  A detailed spreadsheet then accompanies the take-off drawing, detailing the individual and aggregate measured areas across the proposed site.  This information can be useful during planning, development, tender and ongoing build stages.

Take a look at a feature video...

These are just a couple of the other services that we are able to provide, but if you think they could be of interest, or even if you wish to discuss our other capabilities or investigate how we can help your business, please feel free to get in touch.

BIM first, ask questions later

It's been a while since the last post here, but the time has come to put across my view on the tricky question of BIM ownership.  I'm not an active "BIM practitioner", but am a self-declared advocate and enthusiast, so these thoughts should be read with that in mind.

This is a much-debated and frequently raised subject, and not one that I'm particularly fond of, but it's clearly something that needs to be discussed.

Who owns the model?

During a recent talk I gave at Glasgow University, a point that I made was that the construction industry would really be required to re-visit and re-think its approach to contractual relationships in order for BIM to be allowed to flourish.  This is no easy or small ask, as it would involve a completely fresh approach to the way that information and data is shared and handled between stakeholders and key parties.

 

At present, I believe there is no suitable contractual framework in the UK to address this issue.  This is essential, as BIM by nature is based on a notion of openness and sharing of information.

Such a contractual framework would need to outline and define the level of modeling required for a particular project, the responsibilities of each party or stakeholder involved in input or manipulation of data, as well as the deliverable expected from the model to each party.

In USA, addenda have been introduced – AIA-E202 & ConsensusDocs301.  The objective of these was to balance the risk and benefits associated with the sharing of models and intellectual data.   

Part of AIA states:

“1.3.2.1 Drawings, Specifications and other documents, including those in electronic form, prepared by the Architect and the Architect's consultants are Instruments of Service for use solely with respect to this project. The Architect and Architect's consultants shall be deemed the authors and owners of their respective Instruments of Service and shall retain all common law, statutory and other reserved right, including copyrights.”

This seems to fit the general state in the UK, where the architect / designer would be the “owner”.  However, my thoughts are that the building itself ultimately would be the “owner” of the model, and each party would act as a “custodian” during the period that they were engaged in inputting data (see previous blog post).  The data relates specifically to the project, and so should be “owned” by the same.  Practically speaking, the client / project owner would be the keeper of the BIM, and would act as the legacy manager for it.  In order for BIM to succeed and for the full benefits to be realised, the true owner must be the building / project owner – i.e. the client.

Through out the life of a building for example, the largest cost / profit / benefit / use is post-construction, during the occupation of the building.  The aim of BIM is to define and create a usable pool of data that can be leveraged to extract value during the design, delivery, but crucially the operation of the building.  The building owner will be the last party (prior to decommissioning) who will handle and use the data, so they should be the ultimate owner of the BIM.

 

What about liability?

My own belief is that liability would remain largely unchanged throughout the design and delivery process, when transitioning to BIM.  My own thought, as outlined above, is that each party – designer, consultant, engineer, contractor, etc – simply act as “custodians” of the data for a period in the project lifecycle.  Their input and the expectations of their delivery would remain largely the same within or outwith a BIM-centred project.

Key to this would be the main point outlined above – the contractual framework.  As stated, this would need to define and address the deliverable expected from each party.  Simply, does that party meet the expectation defined for their role within the framework?

 Additionally, the form of deliverable from the BIM to each party could be detailed and scheduled.  This could be something as simple as a spreadsheet schedule or plan 2D PDF be extracted from the data for a particular party to use for a particular activity.  This could remove some of the complexity or uncertainty that an individual may feel is a barrier if required to navigate around the data-rich model itself.  Just because all the data is available, doesn’t mean that it all needs to be used by everyone.

At present, I do not believe there is a specific policy that has been developed in the UK for limiting liability of parties engaged in BIM.  Would current insurance be appropriate?  I’m no lawyer, but I would expect that a deliverable could be assessed on the basis of “does the outcome meet the expectation?”.

With the fundamental basis of collaboration and the sharing of data in place, it’s not unreasonable to expect that a greater level of transparency and auditability could be demonstrated during the development and execution of a project.  Regular data audits could be performed, and used as the basis to assess the performance of the “BIM”.  Appropriate levels of data, of the right quality could be determined, along with the point in the project timeline when the data was added, and therefore the party responsible.

Moving to a more efficient, higher-quality method of project delivery is in everyone’s interest.  The ability to produce better projects that have higher-performance levels as well as a lower environmental and financial impact is a goal that we would all like to see achieved.

As an industry, is it possible or practicable to make a move to come together to try and achieve this ideal and start collaborating more without delaying to consider how we can apportion blame if we can’t play nicely together?

BIM first, ask questions later?*

*no kittens were harmed during the writing of this post

Yo, VIP, let's kick it!

I doubt many people are going to admit to recognising the title of this post, although I'm sure it's triggering some memories for a few of you.  

The year was 1990, and the artist was Robert Van Winkle - aka Vanilla Ice.

Of course, the lyrics I should have used come only a few lines later...

 
 



 Stop, Collaborate and Listen.


 
What a great way to go about thinking about making a transition to operating within a BIM process.

This week, I was delighted to attend a great BIM event in Glasgow - twitter users out there, search #BIMSCOTLAND to find out a little more.

I was very pleased to hear the message being firmly pushed home that in order to make a succesful move into "BIM", we - as an industry - need to put aside our conventional methods and perceptions and open our minds to a completely new way of working.

Procurement, development and relationships all need to be re-visited or re-learned to allow the BIM to realise its potential.

Let's "do" BIM - step 1... throw away the rule books; 

forget "the way it's always been done"

Sure, this won't be easy and there will be stumbles along the way... but believe me, the journey will be worth the effort.

We'll overcome the classic questions that often appear as obsitcles, such as "who owns the model?".  In my view, when considering a building, I'd suggest that the building itself "owns" the model... different stakeholders will act as "stewards" of that model at various stages throughout the development, ownership and maintenance of the asset.  Each steward will have their own responsibilites, risks and rewards during their period of ownership.

Thinking about "throwing away the rule book", what better opportunity can we ask for to start afresh with new forms of contract etc, that suit construction today - rather than yesterday?

 

With a young family, I'm acutely aware of the trials and adventures that take place at East High School, in Albuquerque (the uninitiated should google "High School Musical").  The Wildcats present us with a fitting notion...

"We're all in this together".

If ever there was a message to be applied to enabling or implementing BIM, I'd suggest this is the one.

Life, the universe and everyBIM?

Once upon a time, long ago, a band of super-intelligent beings (mice) decided to finally answer the great question of Life, The Universe and Everything.

"Deep Thought"

To achieve this, a great super computer called Deep Thought was built.  The most powerful computer ever built spent 7.5 million years in serious consideration before announcing the answer.

The Ultimate answer to Life, the Universe and Everything is...

(You're not going to like it...)

Is...

 

Which suggests that what you really need to know is 'What was the Question?'.

What this great computer kindly pointed out was that the problem really was that no-one knew the question.

Recently, we have seen a massive uptake in interest in ‘BIM’, with countless websites, conferences and commentaries all offering their own slant and definitions to what ‘BIM’ is and why we need it.

The fact is BIM can mean so many different things to different people.  When implementing a BIM strategy, make sure you know what your ultimate goal is.

The great thing about BIM is that the principles of data integration and collaborative work processes can be applied to so much, including – but certainly not limited to…

BIM for design integration

BIM for error avoidance

BIM for construction coordination

BIM for building management

BIM for manufacture

BIM for project collaboration

BIM for energy efficiency

BIM for facilities management

BIM for asset monitoring

Or simply, BIM for visual appreciation

 

When moving to such a potentially powerful and inclusive management process, it could be easy to lose track and find yourself off message… The end result may still be fantastic, but was it what you originally aimed for?

In developing your BIM answer – make sure you know what the question is, and that your conclusion addresses this.

Hair today, gone tomorrow

The title for this post was glaring out at me following my first visit to the hairdresser after looking back over my recent holiday photos.  The increased presence of visible (and rather sunburnt) scalp resulted in the decision to start becoming a bit more aggressive with the ‘pruning’ of the remaining hair – a process that, so far, seems to be fairly successful in minimising the visual impact.

What was most alarming was the seemingly short time-frame within which this androgenetic alopecia (apparently) has occurred.

There are various theories as to what causes hair loss, ranging from genetics to environment, covering pretty much everything along the way.  However, there is now a new factor on the table…

At a recent BIM seminar, I was presented with the following explanation:

BIM causes baldness!

It didn’t take long for this suggestion to sink in… the history fit, and the evidence was there (or rather, not there) on the top of my head.  The more time I’ve spent over the past couple of years speaking about BIM, attending seminars, carrying out presentations, and so on has coincided with a definite reduction in my scalp covering.

Forget concerns over model ownership, and interoperability exchange formats… what we have here is a REAL issue.  Contract form and company policies will inevitably need to undergo some degree of evolution (or altogether re-structure) in order to give fully collaborative and open project execution a fighting chance – these are matters that can (and must) be overcome.

Choice is a powerful thing.  With regard to BIM, one of my favourite quotes came from Paul Morrell, who said...

“Very soon looking back on BIM and thinking it was a choice will be funny”.

For me, the reality is, looking back on wearing a hat in the summer and thinking it was a choice is funny.

BIM - Are you ready?

 

Construction is on the brink of a revolution – this is not the first time you’ve read this recently… but that doesn’t mean it’s not true.  The BIM era has been making its approach and is now on the brink of infiltrating mainstream methodology here in the UK.

It can be difficult to avoid the seemingly endless discussions and debates that surround the emergence of BIM as a process, but the fact that so many people are talking about this and looking at ways to realise the benefits of BIM and VDC should be a good indicator of the way things are going.

Paul Morrell

The point to note is that BIM is coming and it’s coming FAST.  Anyone fortunate enough to have received a talk by Paul Morrell on the subject will have been given a clue about the pace of BIM, in the lightening-fast powerpoint presentation that will probably have accompanied the subject.  This may prove to be one of the biggest challenges to the historically-lethargic UK construction industry, as the trend is to sit back and “see what everyone else does first”.

The fact is, there are some who have decided that things need to change before change is forced.  Last year’s report by the Innovation and Growth Team recommended BIM be mandatory on government projects over £50m.  In order to achieve real, wide scale integration and adoption this could be made broader.

At a talk this month, Paul Morrell seemed to agree as he labelled the above recommendation as “unambitious”.  Instead, we can expect a further announcement in June that outlines a plan to roll out BIM as mandatory on virtually all government projects within five years.

Surprisingly perhaps, this may come as welcome news to some UK contractors.  There are people out there who have been working on strategies and plans to lay the foundations required to make BIM & VDC real and effective parts of everyday construction methodology.

Among those who have developed BIM strategies are Atkins, Balfour Beatty, Laing O’Rourke and Skanska.  Excitingly, some of these firms have also put in place their own mandates to ensure that BIM can be not only enabled, but encouraged.

A recent presentation by David Philp (see http://vdcandme.blogspot.com/) of Balfour Beatty outlined the strength and determination of their global BIM strategy to improve construction methodology across the board.  Over a significant period of time, Balfour Beatty has developed procedures to allow BIM to become embedded into their core management processes.  This is a recognition of the business value of BIM as a process and the benefits it can bring across the life of a project.

 

A personal childhood favourite of mine, Lego, is also operating in the BIM world.  David Philp alerted me to the existence of “Lego Digital Designer”, a tool that has legitimised my newfound return to the world of plastic bricks.  This tool allows for the “virtual design and construct”, scheduling, conflict resolution and cost planning of lego models.  It may seem like silly fun, but the principles are the same and the processes are very real.

So, BIM is coming… or BIM is here?  With mandates pushing from the top down, contractors pulling from the middle in and hoards of eager schoolboys pushing from the bottom up where do you find yourself when it comes to being prepared for BIM?