Big Project - Causeway Roundtable on BIM, Nov 2012

reaching for the sky

analysing the ambition behind abu Dhabi and Dubai’s neighbouring aviation developments

aLso insiDe: Dubai worLD tribunaL onsite with guLf extrusions fighting the counterfeits

PUBLICATION LICENSED BY IMPZ

080 NOVEMBER 2012

www.bigprojectme.com

Cover project

Iconic Structures

Onsite

Abu Dhabi Midfield Terminal

& Dubai World Central

Astana Arena

Gulf Extrusions

Abu Dhabi

Dubai

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Tel: +966 3 802 4938Fax: +966 3 826 [email protected]

is BiM sUpported as a ConCept or yet to Be Understood in the region?TaHiR sHaRiF: It’s about the opportunity to replace CaD with 3D models and then BIM, and that opportunity prevails the problem.

Dan FRawley: that’s probably one of the biggest problems here because the design model is still the initial kick off model and once you are in that process you are in the regular delivery process and the next step is Qs and contractors, because that’s where the model is going to next.

PaUl MaDeiRa: the concept of starting with the end goal in mind is essential because companies involved in the construction process right now have only the end of their own services in mind, not the actual use for end users of the building.

KHaliD sHUHail: In the government way of handling things, BIM is a new idea but the general feeling is that it is positive. often governments assess something based on how much it will cost; they don’t take it as a process. the challenge

roUndtaBle

Causeway EVP Strategy, Tim Cole, chairs an industry debate on the tangible challenges

of virtual project management and the misconceptions of BIM

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ENg Khalid shuhail, council board member, chairman of arbitration committee, Society of Engineers, UAE.

Paul RalPhUAE director, Davis Langdon/AECOM.

meet the panel


we are now tackling is how to get ahead of that mentality.

ozan KoseoglU: there is a danger in the misunderstanding that if you have BIM as a skill on your Cv you will get a good job.

Ts: I am senior advisor to Jordan Ministry of Public Works and we are working on a taskforce project to interview BIM managers and the actual process is quite interesting when comparing candidates regionally and internationally. Realising that the person you are interviewing doesn’t understand BIM; I see a lot of people who should not even be candidates.

zolna MURRay: one situation unique to this region is that CaD managers are not very highly valued. In turn it’s hard to attract good people because they feel that it may be easier to get a job here but that this region is a demotion for them professionally.

Ts: the 2011 BIM survey showed there is a huge skills gap in the market.

PaUl MaDeiRa: as a company we find this very interesting. It allows us to understand the perception of the market.

to me I looked at that and wasn’t surprise and I wouldn’t characterise that as being too different to other places either. I think the number of people that have never heard about BIM has dropped now but to say 25% of people are BIM users, if that’s the truth that’s relatively healthy.

zM: It’s quite interesting that within the region, when you talk about driving the process backwards, you actually have quite a number of government organisations that are doing much better than anywhere else in the world but when you go to other areas, it’s just a case of ‘give us the job and we’ll figure the BIM out’.

In one way the region is extremely fortunate to have projects of such size, complexity and beauty. It’s the ideal situation, but then you have the providers, opportunists, who are jumping on a bandwagon and the difference between those who will sell you a dream and those

“ thE diffERENcE BEtwEEN thOsE whO will sEll yOu a dREaM aNd thOsE whO caN dEliVER it is hugE. wE call that hOllywOOd BiM”

tahiR shaRif, founding president, BuildingSMART.

daN fRawlEypractice technology section leader, Burt Hill.

Paul MadiERaCOO, Causeway Middle East.

zOlNa MuRRay, Senior BIM manager, Habtoor Leighton Group.

who can deliver it is huge. We call that Hollywood BIM.

oK: there is a misunderstanding between BIM as modelling and as management. In the UK five years ago CaD managers became BIM managers overnight, but modelling the right thing with the right plans, managing the BIM and pushing it to parties, that skill set is different.

TC: Wherever you are there is that sense of being prepared to take those initial steps and it’s not a case of people thinking that around the world they have got this cracked, because that isn’t the case. In america for example until recently it was federal law for a contractor to talk to an architect so there are some obvious barriers to be overcome but the key part is don’t perceive the rest of the world as being in some utopian state with BIM, wherever you go you will find differences. In most cases if you take some early practical steps you will find yourself gaining the benefits and getting ahead.

what drives CoUntries to Mandate BiM?Ts: High cost. I do think other governments will follow because it is tax payers’ money going into these projects. Maybe less here but when working with aDaC on the Midfield terminal Complex, BIM was initially used from an operations perspective but when it came to the discussion of the savings they potentially could make in terms of maintaining the project, it became one of the main drivers.

Ks: the as built drawings are very difficult. We have a lot of new hospitals here, which have huge MEP components, and there are complications in the construction but when it comes to maintenance these problems get even bigger.

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“iN qataR yOu NEEd 300 high quality BiM PROfEssiONals NOw tO just Match ONE Of thOsE sPEcificatiONs” zOlNa MuRRay.


DF: From the australian perspective, the government support has been in favour of increased productivity as a recent report concluded that a 9% increase in construction productivity could add $5m to the gDP of australia.

TC: that’s definitely one of the UK drivers because if they invest in construction activity, they get a much higher percentage of the expenditure remaining within the region and per million gBP spent, the number of jobs created that positively contribute to the economy and employment rate is the highest worth of any expenditure they can make as a government. But their targets were probably based on CaPEX, initially.

zM: transparency, accountability, financial crisis and use of public money makes it more important. From private companies the big driver is the unsustainable working practices. I personally believe that it’s not a question of whether we should be going BIM, because the way we are working is not sustainable. We have been distracted by various ‘bubbles’ but now that is gone, if another one comes we will really be in a ‘Hollywood BIM’ scenario.

davis langdon has operations aroUnd the world, is there any

gloBal perspeCtive on whiCh areas are adopting BiM faster than others? PaUl RalPH: the Us is leading the way. they are very comfortable and are using 4D modelling, whether that is the whole BIM process or not. the UK is catching up and the Middle East is delivering on a number of projects now that have modelling. It may not be the full BIM approach, but it is being used.

We have the advantage of being a global company so for example on the mega-project King Khalid Medical City, saudi arabia, we bring together expertise from all over the globe. a lot of design there is being done from the states; cost consulting is being done from the UaE; there’s input from design studios elsewhere around the world and the medical team has input too. so that is a global project using different levels of expertise, but the modelling facilitates that level of collaboration. the client benefits from the increases in productivity and for aECoM [who we work with] they are really leveraging the advantages.

how MUCh shoUld governMent Be responsiBle for driving and pUshing this and how shoUld the governMent position itself in this deBate? Ks: the federal side is a little slower because the decision making has to go

tiM cOlEEVP Strategy, Causeway.

Phil augustECauseway Middle East.

dR OzaN KOsEOglulecturer in construction management and surveying, Heriot Watt.

setting the scene: tim Cole, Causeway

we need to look at the obstacles; pushing harder behind a good idea is usually a very futile effort. if you can identify what is stopping you going forward and take that away, then you can make progress. BiM’s strength in systems and experience lies in the 3d models, but the scope – if we aim to achieve what people are trying to – it also has to impact on the lifecycle

of the project and how that facility runs. Currently, BiM arrives downstream, but the influence of it needs to flow back up the process.

one of the things the Mideast has to its advantage is the amount of opportunity in the construction space..

Maybe the right way to go forward is to not worry about being perfect in integrating the project. if we are to really integrate teams, collaboration needs to solve

earlier the problems that occur downstream.

those who are more sceptical by nature and decide not to integrate actually create their own failure and that reinforces their inertia.

too many people are waiting for BiM to impact upon them but you need to understand what BiM is about and to tell people what you want from BiM when it reaches you; ensure that you are dictating the requirement.

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through processes but when it comes to the government it could be that the decision is made quickly. If you want to reach the government you must educate the engineers through a body like the society of Engineers because no matter what the budget is they have to go to the lowest price and there is a big difference in the quality and level of the project and contractor.

zM: I say the governments should push it. It is a moral question rather than technical, because for us as a species to survive there are certain things we need to change and this is one of them. It is morally right to have a universal approach and I believe that personally.

Ts: the power is in the hands of the government but they should incentivise with training programmes, enforced education and university programmes.

DF: the governments aren’t the regulators they are the innovators in some sense. For example Estidama, which is a great initiative, is regulating the design process. When it gets to construction and operational phases there are not many buildings that have achieved three pearl operational. so essentially we have come up with a perfect design, whether that’s prescriptive or performance rated but at the point it is constructed and operated that model ceases to be.

Ts: But that’s the point now, it’s the contract language and if the government is going to be getting that it’s looking for the contracts and specifications in those contracts needed to support that. I’m not looking at it as a consultant, but from an industry perspective there should be standards; there should be education and so the government/owner can have what they need to have rather than having their own interests in mind.

DF: Pretty much every building in this region has a building management system (BMs) built in, but all of that data just goes nowhere. there are masses of data and an original design model and at no point do we think to link those. that’s where the government has to step in. Maybe it will create new work chains, but it will improve things.

Ts: In singapore they are driving through incentives and in the UK they have a 20% target and that’s very clear.

In the gCC, what I can say is that a local government has decided to support open BIM and they want BuildingsMaRt to participate in helping to develop the national BIM standard and also to regulate and quality, because it’s ok to have specification but if the owner doesn’t understand how to do the quality assurance then what are they getting?

they want a BIM model but it isn’t very clear what that has to look like, but in creating the output they have forced the process to be at the very beginning and with a very small step they have created a big impact.

oK: the way projects are procured here must change because the contractors and other parties come too late to the process. With E-procurement and PFI everyone gets on board in the early phases but if you look at the traditional process there is something from the design team two years back and now you are trying to create a BIM model for the construction and maintenance phase, which is very time consuming and wastes a lot of money.

TC: I have actually changed by view on this; I’m a big advocate of integrating projects but I found myself talking to people who were doing BIM on projects, and not just Hollywood BIM; I respect that because one of the dangers is that people see a very pure way it should work and think it’s too high a mountain to climb, so stay in the valley. But with each project that is tackled in that way the integration works more.

PM: as an Established UK company, we came to the Middle East seven years ago and engaged closely with major contractors, devlelopers and consultants

“yOu haVE tO qualify thE usE aNd uNdERstaNdiNg Of thE BiM at aBOut 25%, But yOu haVE tO BE caREful with that BEcausE if yOu dig dEEPER, as wE haVE, yOu’ll PROBaBly fiNd it’s aBOut 5%” tahiR shaRif.

the impact of bim in the middle east

21% not familiar with BiM - unable to complete survey 54% identified themselves as non-BiM users (although in some cases they had exposure and even training

25% were self-defined BiM users Mostly ‘beginner level’ - deploying BiM only for Visualisation, ill-equipped to use more advanced BiM processes Consultants and Contractors accounted for highest number of BiM users

Developers recorded highest percentage of BiM users within their sector

did NOt cOMPlEtE

BiM usER

NOt a BiM usER

BiM aROuND thE WORlD: COuNtRiES CuRRENtly MaNDatiNg BiM

n uk

n Singapore

n finland

n Denmark

n jordan

n Norway

n uSa

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and we are continually being driven by the requirements of our customers. We recognised that countries like singapore and their government are talking at a different level to where BIM, is compared to say the Middle East. From this we learnt and understood where our software had to be in terms of interoperability, standards, IFCs, and have adapted our software methodology to start and mirror more what they’re doing. We believe that when full open BIM comes to the Middle East we are in a credible position to help the market.

oUtside governMent what role Can edUCational and professional organisations play? PR: I know the RICs are taking this very seriously and they are developing standards and they are advising government. I think it’s absolutely fundamental that we have standards that are adopted industry wide and they don’t have to be too prescriptive but they do need to set out exactly what we need to be getting as an industry so that people know what they can get from a model and these approaches can be adopted.

if yoU CoUld Make one thing happen in BiM, what woUld it Be?DF: I work with the British University of Dubai and one of the things discussed with the students is the practice of tertiary level collaboration. if we had graduates now who had collaborated at different levels and were ready to go, that would be the biggest push. With young people and technology there is unlimited potential.

oK: It would be to educate people in the right stance, rather than talking about the technology itself and the magic of the BIM, it should be clarifying what BIM is and then how it should work.

PM: My education was in organisation and methods; identifying unconnected processes and making recommendations to the board of Directors to improve efficiency. In this case, for people, process and technology, these three bubbles are what make a more efficient and connected process. While I speak from a vendor perspective, I actually believe that the industry should step back

from it being either technology or vendor focus and just look at the whole connected BIM process to understand it.

Ks: My request would be for the Minister of Public works to set a standard to implement BIM.

Ts: to have government mandate BIM.

zM: I would like to hang around long enough to see BIM become more mature.

PR: I would like to see government or the government entities driving BIM adoption and hand in hand seeing industry standards being set so governments can define what they actually want from the process and see that being achieved. Ts: a word of warning for Qatar – the time frame allowed for projects doens’t allow for anything else. the government

bodies and the stadium committee and central planning office, all these parties understand the benefits of having BIM. the danger is that if an organisation like BuildingsMaRt doesn’t get in front of those parties then it will be a vendor who does, and then by default the industry is going to find the outcome of that painful.

CoUld the legaCy of the 2022 world CUp tUrn oUt to Be the wider adoption of ConstrUCtion it?zM: It goes back to that and again if you take into account what Qatar is publically asking now, the industry should be spinning around looking for it. You need 300 high quality BIM professionals now to just match one of those specifications. Can you see any of that? No. You are talking about thousands of people employed in various companies that are all told today that if you are on our project you must do BIM throughout, not just a little bit, everything. and if you take it into account then it’s really a big question for me.

Ts: When we said ‘Hollywood BIM’ that actually is the problem; where people have had the influence from parties who would like to single handedly intercept the market that has influenced many things in terms of what’s happening over there. But we have to be careful to ensure we can achieve the goals that we must have, rather than a wish list. I think when you go deeper, industry begins to pitch in and I think industry has to play a part to educate, through the owners, that these Hollywood shows that are going on aren’t realistic. the industry has to evolve. n

time for government support? Melanie Mingas there is a chain of infrastructure to establish before BiM can possibly take off in this region to the same extent it has in others, and this stretches from education (both academic and Cpd-based), to government guidance and even the broadband width to communicate electronically from remote sites.the dialogue surrounding this is so positive – even going to far as to use the phrases “no option” and “dictating requirements” – yet, the expectation of establishing such framework is still one of “slowly slowly”.

in the mean time, governments around the world who are mandating BiM in projects are demonstrating how successful federal support of the right technology is, increasing the need to ask that million dollar question: “what’s the delay?” Maybe the urgent question that we should be asking is: “what is the future of the industry if this continues to stall?”

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Big Project - Causeway Roundtable on BIM, Nov 2012