How can construction companies leverage BIM technology to pursue sustainable development in the context of modern society and environmental challenges? On September 12th, this topic took center stage at the 2014 Guanglian Da Construction Industry Annual Summit held in Hangzhou. During a sub-forum focused on construction, Yang Wei, Chief Engineer of the Guangzhou Chow Tai Fook Financial Center (East Tower) general contracting project, delivered a keynote speech titled “Construction General Contracting Project Management System Based on BIM Technology – Guangzhou East Tower.” His presentation offered practical insights and inspiration for the industry regarding the application of BIM.
Yang Wei, Chief Engineer of Guangzhou Chow Tai Fook Financial Center (East Tower) General Contracting Project
Challenges in Managing Super High-Rise General Contracting Projects
The East Tower project is located along the central axis of the core area in the Pearl River New Town within Guangzhou’s Central Business District. It stands at a total height of 530 meters, comprising 111 floors above ground and 5 basement levels. With an investment of approximately 10 billion yuan, the structure features a frame tube design reinforced with multiple layers.
Currently, the structural framework has been topped out, mechanical and electrical systems for office areas below the 70th floor are mostly completed, and the fine decoration phase has commenced.
Project management is critical during construction, yet connecting the entire project management chain—especially for super large-scale projects—remains challenging. When the East Tower project began in 2011, the team conducted extensive research on BIM. Such super high-rise projects face difficulties in managing progress, contracts, costs, changes, drawings, materials, labor, and more.
Through this research, the team realized that project management is fundamentally about collecting and processing information. One of the main issues is that information is often scattered and voluminous, complicating effective management.
The Limitations of Traditional Project Meetings
All engineering professionals can relate to the experience of frequent meetings—whether project meetings, quality reviews, or safety briefings. Department leaders often spend 70% to 80% of their time in meetings, gathering relevant information and then passing it on to subsequent teams.
However, relying on meetings for project management limits the timeliness and accuracy of information transmission. The data shared is often incomplete or withheld, creating bottlenecks in the management process.
Exploring Alternatives: Software and BIM Integration
Besides meetings, the team explored many advanced project management software solutions, both domestic and international. While these programs have powerful functions, localization to meet specific project needs proved difficult, making them hard to use at the project level.
Addressing these challenges led to deepening BIM application research for the project.
Progress management in super large projects is especially complex. For example, in one office area of the East Tower, there are roughly 300 processes from structural work to final decoration, involving about 300 stakeholders. Without real-time knowledge of each work area’s status, effective management is impossible.
Thus, a real-time data platform that updates construction status and related information is essential to support general contracting management.
Developing the Dongta BIM Information Integration Platform
In selecting a BIM system for Dongta, the team faced several challenges. First, data exchange between different software was problematic. Mainstream BIM tools such as Guanglian Da, MagiCAD, Revit, Tekla, and Bentley are specialized for individual disciplines, but lack unified BIM data standards. This results in inconsistent data formats and hinders comprehensive general contractor management.
Second, fully utilizing existing detailed models across disciplines is difficult. Variations in modeling rules and incompatibility of data formats prevent integration of models for mechanical, electrical, and steel structure engineering.
Additional issues include difficulties linking information and models, and the limited application of BIM software in construction management.
To address this, the project adopted a two-level research and implementation approach. First, Guanglian Da, as the software provider, developed a customized platform to integrate previously developed detailed models across professions. This platform selectively screens relevant information based on actual project needs, ensuring effective data exchange through extensive software interaction experiments.
Secondly, a tailored interface for general contracting project management was created to support project control.
The selected modeling software included Guanglian Da for civil engineering and steel bar modeling, MagiCAD for mechanical and electrical systems, and TEKLA for steel structures. These tools produce detailed BIM design models, which are integrated on the platform by establishing unified modeling rules and ensuring precise spatial positioning.
Together with Guanglian Da Company, the team developed the Dongta BIM Information Integration Platform, which imports various specialized models to achieve accurate integration and fusion of detailed BIM designs across disciplines. Using unified information association rules, the platform automatically links models with vast datasets such as progress reports, work areas, drawings, lists, and contract terms.
BIM’s Comprehensive Role in Dongta Project Management
With the Dongta BIM Information Integration Platform in place, BIM applications in general contracting span schedule and work area management, drawing and change control, contract and cost management, and more.
Progress and Work Management: The platform dynamically displays a 3D real-time model showing construction progress, including simulations of key work nodes. Detailed information is easily accessible. Work progress is mapped onto the model, but bridging this with on-site management requires expanding physical work plans into integrated supporting plans, linking all general contracting business processes for efficient information sharing.
Drawing and Change Management: The system associates drawings with model components, enabling quick retrieval of professional drawing information for specific elements. It alerts users to changes—their locations, impact, content, quantity, construction status, and progress of supporting work. It also tracks drawing versions, change negotiations, and cross-references all drawing revisions with dynamic tracking and alerts.
Contract and Cost Management: The platform automates engineering quantity calculations and summaries across various dimensions. It facilitates contract planning, quick querying of contract terms—including main and subcontract agreements—and links unit price information between contracts.
Additional BIM applications include clash detection, which identifies and visually highlights conflicts between different professional designs; operation and maintenance management, using model data such as component positioning, dimensions, materials, manufacturers, concealed works, mechanical pipelines, and valve assemblies; and labor management, tracking personnel information, attendance, and payroll across work areas.
Technological Breakthroughs and On-Site Management Improvements
The East Tower project achieved several key BIM technology breakthroughs:
- Unified Information Association Rules: Enabling real-time dynamic linking of large datasets including models, schedules, drawings, contracts, and lists.
- Data Interface Technology: Integrating model data from major BIM software such as Guanglian Da, MagiCAD, and Tekla.
- Support for Super Large Models: Utilizing fast model loading and internal/external storage exchange to browse comprehensive BIM models.
- Model Server Technology: Addressing high hardware demands through network-based server model access and intelligent caching.
These advancements have significantly improved on-site management of progress, work areas, drawings, changes, contracts, and costs.
Moreover, the project accumulated extensive experience data, establishing detailed design and modeling standards for multiple disciplines including civil engineering, steel reinforcement, rough decoration, steel structures, mechanical and electrical installation, and curtain walls. The project amassed over 500 component types, 70 physical work packages, and 60 supporting work packages covering 418 types of supporting work.
It also developed a preliminary classification system for general contract terms, with more than 3,700 contract lists, over 660 summary clauses for subcontracting contracts, and over 3,400 detailed cost items. Over 100 templates for registering drawings, contracts, costs, and schedules were created for reuse in future projects.
Key Takeaways from Chief Engineer Yang Wei
Chief Engineer Yang Wei concluded with five lessons learned from the Dongta project, sharing them with fellow industry professionals:
- Always start from project requirements—avoid implementing BIM just for BIM’s sake.
- Value modeling standards and collaboration norms.
- Ensure active participation and promotion by top leadership.
- Emphasize teamwork across all disciplines and departments.
- Recognize the importance of accumulating experience data.
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