My good friend Mike Bordenaro, a co-founder of the BIM Education Co-op, wrote an excellent summary of the second Symposium on Technology for Design and Construction in August. Mike has graciously allowed me to publish the summary on the blog and I'm sure you will all find it well worth the read.
Howard Ashcraft, Esq. with Hanson Bridgett's Construction Group out of California presented and addressed the value of utilizing integrated legal agreements to deliver IPD and BIM.
I want to thank Mike for the excellent summary, the folks at Northwestern University for hosting the event and all the participants for contributing their time and sharing their knowledge. The IPD / BIM and lean movement continues to gain momentum.
James
Symposium
on Technology for Design and Construction
Provides
Comprehensive Perspective
Northwestern
University's McCormick Engineering Master of Project Management
Program provided it's second Symposium on Technology for Design and
Construction in August 2012. A thorough offering of almost 20
presentations provided a comprehensive overview of current
technological issues facing the building industry today.
Dana
K. “Deke” Smith, FAIA, buildingSMART alliance Executive Director,
provided the summarizing presentation. His comments are incorporated
into the following overview by Michael Bordenaro, BIM Education
Co-op, Co-founder.
The
symposium was organized by Burcin
Kaplanoglu and John Jurewicz, faculty members of Northwestern
University’s Master of Project Management Program. The symposium
provided advanced
building industry technology case studies and lessons learned as the
heart of a comprehensive event bringing national and international
leaders to Chicago for three days of focused learning.
The
following is an all-text summary by Mr. Bordenaro.
Stéphane
Cote, a
part of Bentley's Applied Research Group, started the event by
speaking about significant potential for augmented reality in the
AEC market. Providing numerous examples, including an
information-rich walk through the a London subway station, it was not
hard to see the benefits available for building industry
professionals able to link real-world conditions to virtual world
information.
Ground
penetrating radar used to help map existing structures for civil
engineering work and showing cables, pipes and other items in walls
were some of the potential benefits of representing BIM data in
augmented reality business applications.
Mr.
Cote recommended watching “The Future of Augmented Reality” video
on www.YouTube.com
and the “Sight” video by Daniel Lazo at www.Vimeo.com
Howard
Ashcraft, Jr., Esq.,
Construction Group, Hanson Bridgett LLP explained how Integrated
Project Delivery contracting methods are increasing in popularity.
His team has been involved in “35 full blown Integrated Project
Delivery projects” and “gets a serious call once a week now.”
Integrated
Project Delivery contracts allow building industry professionals to
perform in a collaborative manner with confidence, thereby
encouraging the best work from a united team.
Mr.
Ashcraft has been involved in establishing multi party contracts with
as many as 11 parties signing one document.
A
Sutter Health Care project guided by an IPD Contract with 11
signatures was delivered 18 months early and for $30 million less
than similar, non-IPD projects. The project enjoyed a 99 percent
accurate mechanical model. Because of this, there was a .5 percent
mechanical change order rate compared to the typical 7 to 10 percent.
On
one IPD project, the average time for having RFI's answered was 22
minutes . . . “because everyone is working in the model,”
according to Mr. Ashcraft.
Twenty-two
minutes for the average Request For Information response. That
changes everything.
Mr.
Ashcraft described how Integrated Project Delivery contracting
methods previously were being pursued by health care owners almost
exclusively. This is changing as his team is now working on two
non-medical IPD projects – one for an educational owner and one for
an institutional owner. Each is valued at approximately $500 million.
According
to Mr. Ashcraft, the question of who owns the model has usually been
answered, “the owner. ”He added that the intellectual property
rights of participants are protected by having appropriate licensing
rights established from the outset of the project.
Also
established at the outset of the project is a
profit-related-to-performance formula. Participants are paid their
fees and overhead, but profit is not allocated until the project is
completed. There can be a greater profit if less contingency fees are
used.
Insurance
companies are starting to prepare Integrated Project Delivery
products, which will reduce the cost of insuring IPD projects,
according to Ashcraft. XL Group, Zurich and other insurance companies
are developing IPD product lines, he said.
Mr.
Ashcraft provided an excellent a series of significant, measurable
benefits when advanced technologies, are properly guided with
Integrated Project Delivery contracting mechanisms. And what he
presented were just some of the ways savings are realized with
Integrated Project Delivery, according to Mr. Ashcraft.
“Howard
again reminded us that lawyers are really not bad people and that
there is tremendous value in having good contracts for IPD and what
we do implementing BIM,” said Deke Smith, FAIA, Executive Director,
buildingSMART alliance.
Daniel
Ladek,
an Enterprise IT Architect with CH2M Hill, used a Prezi presentation
format, which is a good way of dealing with the extensive amount of
data needed to be conveyed at building technology seminars.
“We
are all information technologists,” Mr. Ladek said. The secret is
to put access to information in places where people are already
working. “Make it easy for them. Listen to them.”
To
do this, Mr. Ladek suggested following the eight following steps:
1)
Know your 5-year business growth strategy
If
you don't understand where you are aiming to be in 5 years, you will
not know how technology will help you get there.
2)
Establish a technology architecture – a systems road map.
3)
Mergers and Acquisitions – have a repeatable play book for bringing
new people on board with your system
4)
Have mobile and social technology in your road map and play book.
5)
Enterprise Information Management – Classify, manage, retain,
archive, search and dispose data in a predetermined manner.
6)
Use Business Intelligence Dashboards and Reports to make “Big Data”
actionable. Move information from being useful to being actionable.
7)
Governance and controls. Know your Sarbanes–Oxley_Act,
GAAP/IFRS,
ITIL/CMM, International Standards Organization and other governing
issues.
8)
Security. Make your data secure while also making it accessible. A
challenging balance has to be established and maintained.
John
Frazier and Fred Cardenas
of Trimble/Meridian combined with others to show the importance of
digital data, the importance of accurate layouts and increasing
capabilities to get multiple data sets from a single, mobile tool.
An
interesting demonstration of what scanning capabilities can provide
drove home the value of advanced measuring technologies. Precision
Midwest had produced a scan of the auditorium ahead of the event and
mock design program showed how the data is useful for owner. Seeing
the space we were sitting in as a digital point cloud – clearly
representing everything down to the plants on the stage - was a
highly effective teaching technique.
Craig
Larson,
Industry Director, Engineering & Construction, Oracle stated that
half of the databases in the world are Oracle databases. Oracle has a
feature called Spatial that allows access to building and geographic
data.
Larson
used examples from Boston's Big Dig and other projects to illustrate
the way Oracle's Spatial access helps the design and construction
industries.
The
company is supporting Industry Foundation Classes established by
buildingSMART.
Deke
Smith said in his overview, “The buildingSMART alliance is excited
about Oracle's support of IFCs and is hoping the company takes a more
proactive role in the BIM transformation in the future.”
(Michael
Bordenaro's note: If there is one company that will benefit from the
explosion of Building Information Model use around the world, it is
Oracle. Modeling all of the world in visual relational databases
(BIM) will dramatically increase the need for data storage. If there
is a second company that will benefit from BIM, it is Cisco, but that
is another story.)
Peggy
Yee,
Program Expert, U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) addressed
the many BIM programs, pilots and innovations being explored by our
federal facilities manager.
Deke
Smith summed up Ms. Yee's presentation with this sentence. “Peggy
told of the proactive actions that GSA has taken to include
guidelines, multi-national agreements for open BIM, IFC, NBIMS-US,
and COBie support.”
That
one sentence is so packed with meaning that there could be an entire
Master's course on it alone.
I
sum up the GSA's BIM work as the best use of tax dollars since the
creation of NASA. By the way, NASA supports GSA BIM activities and
has some of it's own. But it is the GSA that is being the clear
provider of measurable benefits from BIM, GIS, web services and
basically all key fundamentals for doing business in the building
industry.
Here
is a point list of some of the issues Ms. Yee addressed in her always
clear and understandable manner.
GSA
is using Energy Plus for energy modeling. It is available from the
Government and it IFC compatible. Open standards allow the energy
models to be connected to Building Automation Systems to compare
designed performance to actual performance so reconciliation can
occur.
Proper
use of BIM and COBie data exchanges enables immediate as-builts,
immediate inventories and immediate lists of
equipment/component/parts/special tools.
Preparation
for work order systems and connections to CMMS is dramatically
reduced, allowing for immediate and measurable management benefits.
Improvements include better management of warranties in the first
year when service is contracted. Commissioning service improvements
from having data accessible and actionable.
Job
site staging and material flow issues are resolved more easily
according to results a GSA pilot projects.
Single
Dashboard exploration, involving facility managers in creation of BIM
Execution Plans and looking at the larger problem of existing
condition surveys are just some of the other forward-looking
initiatives the GSA is addressing.
Unlike
private companies, the GSA is obligated to share all it's
breakthroughs with the public. As one of the largest building owners
in the world, what the GSA learns about planning, designing,
constructing, operating and maintaining buildings is of great value
to all building industry professionals.
One
of the key solutions to the management of so much information is the
creation of a central repository and use of a BIM server, according
to Ms. Yee. The central repository becomes the one place for trusted
data and the BIM server allows various levels of access. Together,
valid reports can be created.
The
GSA works with agencies of other countries, such as Finland, which
already has a BIM Server in effective use. Through it's BIM IDIQ
contracting system, the GSA is working with US companies developing
BIM Server capabilities for testing in pilot projects.
Andy
Stapleton,
Mortenson Construction, has a background that includes working with
production home builders and on the seminal Walt Disney Concert Hall
in Los Angeles. Mr. Stapleton brings a wealth of experience to his
work for Mortenson in Chicago.
In
a key pilot project with the University of Chicago, Mr. Stapleton
said Mortenson was able to participate in generating many technology
benefits for a $3.3 million renovation project. Completed in 29
months, the 22,500 square foot, three-story renovation, included
integration of Revit information and general information in a hard
drive organized like a web-browser instead of in a three-ring binder.
The
improved management data allowed for a smoother input of data into
the Maximo CMMS system used by University of Chicago.
Mr.
Stapleton said the Construction Operation Building Information
Exchange (COBie) template had to be customized for the project, but
that is what is intended. A third party vendor was used to integrate
the COBie data into Maximo.
“Spares
are a big issue for large owners,” Mr. Stapleton said. Having
easily accessible data about what equipment is in a building and what
replacements are in stock is a great contributor to increased
productivity.
Eric
Zoetmulder from
SciQuest talked about his company's work with KBR to assist in
management of large construction contracts. Using a case study from
the Oil & Gas industry, Mr. Zoetmulder discussed the benefits of
contract management on strategic procurement and supplier management
solutions.
Using
contract dashboards with “Not to Exceed” red lights, green lights
and yellow lights helped people understand when they need to get
together and address potential problems with costs, schedule and
other issues on the Gorgon Project. Early appearance of change orders
on their dashboard is a clear sign of concern.
Having
similar systems in place for building industry contract management
can provide information management benefits, according to Mr.
Zoetmulder.
Stanley
Pepper,
CEO, Plansandspecs was joined by colleagues who told a compelling
story of the benefits of Autodesk 360 Glue, a web-based viewing tool
that allows so many benefits, it is hard to keep up with all of them.
Mr.
Pepper pointed to the ever increasing number of project team members
and their need for information. Using 360 Glue as a secure portal is
one way of giving and taking information from team members.
Milin
Trivedi who was with Horizontal Glue when it was purchased by
Autodesk and rebranded 360 Glue, stated that the system parses 55
file types to allow accurate viewing and data sharing from many
programs at the same time.
(Mr.
Trivedi agreed to provide a webinar for the Chicago BIM/IPD
Community. We will keep you updated on how that develops and how you
can access it in person or on the web.)
Raymond
Topping,
PE, Fiatech Director, explained how his organization promotes
innovative practices in technology that brings business value to
companies that want assistance in deployment of advanced hardware and
software.
Mr.
Topping had been at CH2M Hill as a project manager of large-scale
activities, such as London's Olympic facilities. He took the position
with Fiatech after being on the board for more than two years.
Mr.
Topping said that one of the many key initiatives at Fiatech is
Regulatory Streamlining. It's AutoCodes program is being rolled out
to introduce the ability of reading Building Information Models to
determine basic egress and circulation issues.
Minnesota-based
retailer Target has sponsored part of the AutoCodes project and has
allowed the design of a store to be used as the test project by
participating municipalities and jurisdictions having authority. Mr.
Topping noted that Target pays more than $12 million each year to
resubmit the same plans to different jurisdictions. As a testament to
the potential improvements, Mr. Topping said that in four states that
were able to streamline regulations, Target saved $50,000 per
building on 150 projects.
An
effort to improve acceptance of Digital Signatures is being pursued
and a vision paper on Interoperability is available at
www.Fiatech.org
according to, Mr. Topping.
Deke
Smith said, “Our hat is off to FIATECH’s efforts toward culture
change. These are big issues that we must work towards. Autocodes is
a great example. We are also working with FIATECH in coordinating ISO
15926 and 16739.”
Stuart
Bull,
BIM Coordinator and Associate, Arup, Sydney, Australia, presented
some real-life mega projects that likely demonstrate what the future
may look like for other building industry professionals.
In
his usual, enthusiastic presentation style, Mr. Bull showed case
studies, shared lessons learned and made suggestions about technology
implementation.
Mr.
Bull made a strong case for attending to the culture of new processes
as much as the technology behind them. At one airport project, Mr.
Bull had to delegate day-to-day team management for a short while and
everyone went back to working on 2D processes alone. “We lost 30
days!” Mr. Bull exclaimed.
Looking
to the use of visualization business processes for infrastructure
projects can provide a wealth of education. “Infrastructure
professionals are visualizing the client's investment,” Mr. Bull
said as an expression of the highest value you can provide clients.
When clients see their investment in clear terms they can make
increasingly subtle decisions that give them a competitive advantage.
On
a sludge processing facility, Mr. Bull commented on the high level of
detail in the model created by the team he joined in progress. “Every
component had 20 fields of input,” Mr. Bull said. Professionals
using COBie would be very happy to have 20 fields of data for every
component in a model.
Mr.
Bull noted that the use of multiple tools has been a benefit in is
projects. Using multiple tools implies a need for a unifying code,
which points to Industry Foundation Classes from buildingSMART as a
common language for Building Information Model software tools. Being
able to share information among multiple tools allowed his Sydney
Opera House team to develop a Emergency Response tool to assist fire
department personnel . . . in one day.
After
a false alarm, during which it took 15 minutes to procure paper
drawings for the fire chief, Mr. Bull and his team developed a
SmartPhone application that now will allow emergency responders a
more immediate map of critical spaces.
Mark
J. Frisch,
Principal, Solomon Cordwell Buenz, provided a view of one
architecture firm's journey through adoption of new technologies and
processes. The company now does a great amount of animations and
analysis in house along with designing for digital fabrication. Deke
Smith said, “Mark walked us through his companies journey through
CAD to BIM to help others with the transition.”
Robert
Snyder
spoke on Bentley's Hypermodeling capabilities released this year.
Robert
demonstrated a tool that links 2D and 3D visualizations in a way that
speeds decision making about complex subjects. What he presented may
seem so advanced to many people that might seem like science fiction,
but it is possible today.
Mr.
Snyder noted that even industry leaders have been slow to recognize
the inevitable next generation of technology. He noted that in 1926
Jack Warner of Warner Brothers movie studio said talking pictures
will never be widely available.
So
it is important to recognize the fast moving data sharing
capabilities of advanced technologies as demonstrated through
Bentley's Hypermodeling.
Cory
Davis,
Director of Capital Renovation and New Construction for Chicago
Public Schools, noted the large number of projects being managed and
the significant benefits being enjoyed through advanced technologies.
Chicago Public Schools has nearly 700 schools, 150 active projects,
$540 million in capital projects and 400,000 students.
Harmonization
of facilities and student needs can be achieved by accurate
understanding of data. Through its close working relationship with
Oracle and its
Primevera
enterprise project management software, Chicago Public Schools has
been able to measure its
success
in many ways.
In
2011 there were 139 people in Mr. Davis' department. He now is able
to achieve the same results with approximately 20 fewer people. Even
with this leaner management staff, the change order rate has declined
from 12% in 2010 to 4.5% in 2012. This has resulted in avoided costs
and savings
of
approximately $40 million.
Through
a variety of contractor training programs, Tuesday and Thursday
workshops, phone support and other vendor provided assistance,
Chicago Public Schools now
is
ahead of schedule on 84% of projects, according to Mr. Davis. He also
noted that $3.5 million has been saved with electronic design
management that provides 100% web-based as-built drawings that reduce
the need to print documents.
Mr.
Davis said
now that his department has better organized information, it
is considering a greater role for Building Information Models. “BIM
is where we are going. It has to be,” said Mr. Davis.
Deke
Smith said, “Cory identified the management tools CPS has
implemented and reminded us it is not all about graphics. The bottom
line is you can’t improve what you can’t count. He has
demonstrated significant successes in his short time with CPS. BIM is
also now on his radar screen.”
Bryan
Jurewicz,
President of GradeBeam.com, A Division of Textura Corporation,
started with an interesting premise. He stated that there is no
longer a technology problem in the building industry. There is almost
too much technology. How to share the information is the real issue.
GradeBeam
allows a way to almost reorganize internal processes to interact with
general contractors and subs. With featured provides, it is possible
to score subs in a way that reflects your business metrics, so you
work with the subs who work your way. Also, it is possible to
establish a customizable GC dashboard so large portfolio owners can
see who is doing what and when they are doing it.
“Bryan
looked at the B2B issues of managing projects and integrating various
ERPs. Their companies extensive work with business process modeling
could be the basis of future best business practices to help
re-engineer the management practices surrounding the facilities
industry,” said Deke Smith.
Sandy
Damasco and James Park,
of Lend Lease provided a high-level view of building industry
technology and a ground-level, working view of scanning advancements
they are making.
Mr.
Damasco started by directly stating the real issue. The building
industry is lagging behind every other industry in the world in terms
of using technology to gain real, measurable benefits. Because every
other industry provides case studies, software, hardware, processes
and other learning opportunities, we can have considerable confidence
approaching the dramatic changes that accompany the challenge of a
tool set change over.
While
there are challenges, Mr. Damasco noted that benefits of technology
integration exist, “it is only a matter of if you are smart enough
to make it work.”
The
concept of Value Engineering as something that is done separate from
the core design process was dismissed by Mr. Damasco. “Make changes
as they are happening, like every other industry,” Mr. Damasco
advocated.
The
use of advanced technology allows processes to occur faster, be
eliminated or added. “Work flow has to be defined within your own
organization,” he said. Showing a slide of the many
responsibilities of a Project Manager, Mr. Damasco stated that this
person has to be able to address information in many forms through
every step of every phase.
According
to Mr. Damasco, the AIA BIM Level of Detail system provides an
advantageous way to structure and understand projects. The AIA Levels
provide a rating system between 100 and 500 to express how Building
Information Models can be detailed. “You need to redefine your
process,” he said. People can determine sub numbering systems
within the AIA's general framework to express their own understanding
of model completeness.
In
addition to keeping up with all the current advanced technology, Mr.
Damasco indicated there is an opportunity looking forward to meet
evident needs. “It would be good if there was a mini app that would
scroll the model and it into a COBie format,” he said. Since there
are COBie developers working on that, his vision is spot on.
Mr.
Damasco also noted the market for post construction information.
Clearly, the BIM-to-FM buzz moving through the industry is evidence
of the acceptance of the value that can be derived by institutional
owners.
Mr.
Parks discussed the use of ASCII in the implementation of laser
scanning processes. “Instead of just having point clouds,
intelligent points are collected,” said Mr. Parks.
Point
clouds are excellent for capturing three dimensional shapes that let
people see what a space looks like. The points can have data related
to how far they are from the scanner and how much light is at that
point. By using ASCII – which allows the data points to be shared
as CSV or Excel documents – more data can be conveyed about each
point. Values that can be shared include existing conditions behind
each point and the conditions of the surface – is it in need of
renovation, cleaning, painting and almost any other desired data set.
Mr.
Parks indicated how this scanning approach helped on a high rise
renovation. The scanning process used helped identify clashes between
existing structure and new mechanical systems. More than 20 clashes
were resolved on each floor, saving $4,500 per clash. It is possible
to estimate savings of more than $1 million from the use of laser
scans on the high rise renovation project.
Ville
Kyytsönen,
Development Manager, Tekla BIMsight, talked about how Tekla has been
involved with Building Information Models since the 1960s. It is
using all of it's technology processes in the construction of it's
new US headquarters in Denver.
A
cornerstone of Trimble's growing building industry technology group,
Tekla now offers BIMSight as a free iPad application to allow zero
training use of advanced building industry technologies. Released in
2011 BIMsight allows combining and checking of models from different
programs using IFC data sharing processes. Images and text from the
combined models can be captured and sent to colleagues.
Deke
Smith said, “Ville described how Tekla integrates with Trimble and
spoke of their view of BI Modeling, BI Management and BI Consumption.
They fully support and use IFC. He said “If you are really doing
BIM then you use IFC.”
Mr.
Kyytsönen
noted that Tekla and SketchUp, another Trimble company, are sharing
data in meaningful ways. Companies are using SketchUp to make the
stark engineer-based drawing style of Tekla structures easier for all
stakeholders to understand. “SketchUp doesn't support IFC, but
creates visualization options that work fine,” Mr. Kyytsönen said.
Kirk
Olson
talked about how the Syncro scheduling/CMP tool can support a project
by visualizing construction and identify problems. Synchro supports
IFC and many other formats.
This
allows the repurposing of model elements and schedules in many ways
that previously were not possible. Being able to see existing data in
new ways contributes to significant savings with relatively little
effort.
Deke
Smith said, “Kirk talked about how the Syncro scheduling/CMP tool
can visually support the project by visualizing construction and
identify problems. They support IFC and many other formats. Their
goal is to get from a 2D and 3D world to a 4D world. They would like
to have all normalized data in Syncro. All about repurposing data.”
Dana
K. “Deke” Smith,
FAIA, buildingSMART alliance Executive Director, provided a short
introduction to the buildingSMART movement, including it's
international and national implications.
www.buildingSMARTalliance.org
Based,
in part on BIM developments in the U.S. and including
Construction-Operation Building Information Exchange (COBie)
processes developed by the US Army Corps of Engineers, NASA and
others, the U.K. BIM requirements show that legislative action can
help encourage large-scale savings for government building owners.
China
is watching the US BIM initiatives very closely, according to Mr.
Smith. A building industry delegation from China recently visited
Washington, D.C. and provided an update on their BIM activities,
which very closely mirrored U.S. BIM activities, according to Mr.
Smith.
Mr.
Smith provided a presentation-by-presentation synopsis of the 3-day
symposium. Slides 5 – 12 are his summaries of each presentation.
The other slides illustrate his overall summary of the State of the
Building Industry related to advanced technology.
Mr.
Smith emphasized the collaborative requirements of working with
advanced technology. “BIM
is a team sport. You are not doing BIM if information is not being
transferred from authoritative sources to end users.”
Citing
established case studies and effectively implemented programs, Mr.
Smith told the story of how BIM and related processes helped the $176
million USC College of Cinematic Arts be finished four months ahead
of schedule for $6.4 million less than estimated.
While
providing a wealth of references and resources, Mr. Smith indicated
that the path to effective use of today's tools is not necessarily
easy, but it is possible. “We
are transforming the facilities industry to the information age –
that is a significant cultural change, equal to or greater than
moving to the industrial age. Expect some pain before the gain,”
Mr. Smith said.
To
ease the transition, Mr. Smith added that training is key. “Education
is a key factor – it is a long term investment in our future.” He
noted that the online Whole Building Design Guide from the National
Institute of Building Sciences provides a wealth of educational
material. One American Institute of Architects staff member noted
that all the AIA continuing education credits for two years can be
obtained for free at www.WBDG.org
Mr.
Smith also advocated attendance at the National Institute of Building
Sciences' first independent conference in Washington, D.C. January 7
– 11, 2013. See more about the Building Innovation conference at
http://www.nibs.org/?page=conference
End
James L. Salmon, Esq.
