If 2017 was a year of rapid development for BIM, then 2018 has already seen a surge in popularity for BIM. According to the “Analysis Report on BIM Application in Construction Industry in China (2017)” survey, 64.8% of construction enterprises use BIM in projects that have already started construction. Some construction enterprises have established relevant organizations such as BIM centers and gradually started BIM practice in pilot projects, promoting the development of enterprise BIM application in depth. For construction companies, there are still many challenges in implementing BIM applications.
— Construction companies should pay more attention to the implementation of BIM; —
From the perspective of the most visible but intangible “policies”, BIM has gradually become one of the key words in construction policies. The “Development Outline” of the 13th Five Year Plan clearly proposes to promote the innovative application of information technology such as BIM. In the coming years, the focus of the construction industry will be more on new formats and management innovation. Various provinces have introduced refined policies with regional characteristics, whether it is preferential policies or standardized regulations, which have added a flame to the development of BIM applications nationwide.
From the perspective of the “survival environment” of construction enterprises, the implementation of BIM application is indeed an important issue faced by some enterprises in promoting the development of BIM technology. According to the “Analysis Report on BIM Application in Construction Industry in China (2017)” survey, at present, more than 70% of senior management of construction enterprises have shifted their focus to how to better promote the implementation of BIM application, rather than whether to use BIM two years ago. This shows that the awareness and popularization of BIM in the industry have begun to show results, and any enterprise in the reform vortex cannot stay out of it. In 2000, the Nokia N series was still a hot flagship product, but Nokia’s decline was very poor. Frank Nuovo, former Vice President of Design and Chief Designer of Nokia, said, “Looking back, I found that Nokia became a big company that valued maintaining its market position more than investing in new opportunities. If Nokia could resist the later Google and Apple through innovation, what would the current situation be? So it is particularly important for construction companies to choose when facing new technological innovations.
Of course, in the face of unknown opportunities, everyone will strive for them. But you never know, when you say ‘we will do it’ at a critical moment, your opponent is already considering ‘what we will do next’. The implementation of BIM application is not an easy task, and there is still a distance of “three thousand meters” between application and implementation. Many construction enterprises that have entered the pilot application stage often roast that the “flowers” of others’ homes look delicate and lovely, and the BIM of their own home is like a fake flower, only seeing its shape, not smelling its fragrance. What’s the reason why you can’t see the effect during the application process?
— How can enterprises bypass the four major pitfalls of BIM implementation? —
1. Incomplete BIM planning scheme
According to incomplete statistics, at the beginning of the second quarter of 2018, key winning projects worth 300 billion yuan in various provinces across the country, including the Beijing Shanghai Expressway and Hangzhou Metro, were fully funded, including projects that required the introduction of advanced information technologies such as BIM and VR. As the years of BIM application in enterprises grow and the number of project applications increases, the demand for BIM will tend towards high-speed growth, diversification, and customization.
In war, whether it is attacking cities with Xiaomi rifles or saving the country by encircling cities from the countryside, the strategic command center needs to develop a comprehensive combat plan and choose the optimal solution. In the early stage of application, the enterprise level does not have a complete BIM application plan, and still retains the idea of converging with the public and buying tickets after getting on the bus. How can it resist the rolling reality problems in the later stage? It may not be impossible to find a solution, but among many enterprises that are trying to cross the river, it is particularly important to adjust and improve BIM planning.
The concept of planning and management in China has a long history and can be traced back to the primitive society’s collective hunting behavior. The character “Ce” in “L ü shi Chunqiu” refers to a complete planning scheme, and there are countless proverbs and cases of this kind. Developing long-term plans based on one’s own characteristics and the external environment, and making risk estimates and filings in advance, conforms to the universal law of smooth implementation of new technologies, and is also the easiest way to avoid pitfalls. If your BIM application is difficult to advance, the first thing to do is to review the plan for any problems, make timely adjustments, and implement it.
2. Insufficient BIM talent pool with fractures
No one is difficult to accomplish, and this applies to all industries. Essentially, construction companies often face a shortage of suitable BIM talents and an inadequate talent pool. It is understood that the core personnel composition of BIM centers that have been built in construction enterprises is roughly between 20 people, and a project often covers thousands of people. To use a new team of 20 people to leverage more than ten times the size of the population, the familiarity and technical ability of these 20 people with BIM may have gaps and deficiencies, and the effect can be imagined. In addition, in the process of promoting BIM application, enterprises with longer application years and more projects believe that the importance of talent shortage is lower.
Excellent talents should not be subject to too many limitations when learning a new technology. The shortage of talent in the BIM talent pool is caused by various reasons. BIM, as a new information technology, is also normal for talent shortage. How to select and cultivate the BIM talent pool in enterprises is the most urgent contradiction to be solved at this stage. Firstly, enterprises should clarify their needs for various types of talents, and then develop suitable training and promotion methods based on their own needs to ensure the quality and sustainability of human resources. Secondly, diversified exploration of BIM application talents can also be selected and cultivated through internal practice, increasing the possibility of BIM talent exploration and cultivation.
Comrade Deng Xiaoping once said, “We say capitalism is not good, but it is very bold in discovering and using talents. It has a characteristic of using qualified people without seniority, and taking it for granted. From this perspective, our system of selecting cadres is backward. seniority based selection is a habitual force and a backward habit of snobbery.” Standardized selection of internal personnel based on seniority and experience is an effective way of talent introduction. If a dynamic, specialized, and customized BIM talent training plan can be combined, selecting the best from the best, why worry about not having an invincible army for the enterprise itself?
3. Summary of a single methodology
For enterprises or individuals in the initial stage of BIM pilot application, the most common problem is to develop their own BIM modeling guidance plan, BIM application operation manual, and other methodologies after a successful BIM pilot application, and regard them as a treasure trove for enterprise implementation, attempting to replicate and use them multiple times in other projects.
People are taught according to their aptitude, while methods are tailored to local conditions. For enterprises, the application methods of BIM technology vary for different types and volumes of projects. The BIM application methodology with enterprise characteristics should be diverse and dynamic. For construction enterprises, BIM application methods for similar projects can be summarized through project practice in different situations, and dynamic optimization can be carried out through continuous practice to form more comprehensive BIM application methods.
During the construction process, the upgrade of BIM technology is essentially an upgrade of enterprise management format triggered by technology. The famous management guru Peter Drucker mentioned in “The Effective Manager” that “no matter how great the wisdom is, if it cannot be applied to action, it will only be meaningless data.” Personal management is like this, as is enterprise management, and the summary of BIM implementation methodology is naturally included. In this regard, it is recommended that construction companies prioritize BIM application solutions for different project types, BIM application content lists and output results for different positions, data integration methods corresponding to different application contents, software matching methods corresponding to different application contents, and consciously summarize BIM application methods applicable to the enterprise from these four dimensions in the process of continuous promotion, so as to achieve the orderly development of enterprise BIM technology.
4. The leadership team that does not attach enough importance to the development of BIM
The emphasis mentioned here refers to the long-term, continuous attention and phased guidance decision-making of the enterprise leadership on the implementation of BIM applications in the enterprise. Merely giving attention in the early stages of BIM application, or allowing it to develop freely after the initial success of BIM pilot projects, will lay hidden dangers for the comprehensive promotion of BIM in enterprises, and many hidden dangers are unpredictable. Especially at the nodes of individual project pilot and subsequent large-scale promotion, the level of attention from leaders may have irreversible and critical impacts on success or failure.
The era never lacks people who aspire to change. Any technological innovation and iteration is accompanied by pain, and any reform and reform need to touch interests. Since ancient times, there have been many reformers, few successful ones, and thousands of failures crushed like ants. It is impossible to achieve the grand blueprint outlined earlier without touching on fundamental interests and resolving the main contradictions.
In the early stage of BIM implementation, the key role of leadership decision-making mainly focuses on whether to use BIM or not. During the period of large-scale promotion and implementation, the improvement of BIM shook the traditional management mode that had existed for many years in enterprises. Information technology not only changes traditional technological tools, but also the usage habits and thinking patterns of the people behind the tools at a deeper level. As the saying goes, ‘one pull affects the whole body’. When new ideologies collide head-on with traditional concepts, the decisions made by the leadership affect the success or failure of BIM implementation. No matter how bumpy the road of BIM implementation may be, the sustained attention and firm determination given by the leadership are crucial.
The mountain rain is about to come, and the wind fills the building. BIM application has shown a trend of sweeping away fallen leaves in China’s construction field. Whether it can successfully avoid the minefield that affects the implementation of BIM application, and whether it can achieve a qualitative transformation from BIM “application” to “implementation”, requires every construction enterprise to practice, explore, adjust, verify, and optimize in a down-to-earth manner, solidly take every step of the development of enterprise BIM, and ultimately achieve a double leap in enterprise technology and management.
Must log in before commenting!
Sign Up