Construction Project Management introduces you to Project Initiation and Planning. Industry experts join Columbia University professor, Ibrahim Odeh, to give an overview of the construction industry. Professor Odeh teaches the fundamentals of the Project Development Cycle while guest lecturers discuss Lean Project Delivery method and Lean Design Behaviors. Technological advances, such as Building Information Modeling, will be introduced with real world examples of the uses of BIM during the Lifecycle of the Project. The course concludes with Professor Odeh discussing the importance of project planning and scheduling and an opportunity to develop a Work Breakdown Structure.
Technology Trends: Defining BIM
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From the course by Columbia University
Construction Project Management
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From the lesson
Building Information Modeling and Technology Trends in Construction
Dareen Salama of the STV Group introduces Building Information Management (BIM) and illustrates the uses of BIM during the Lifecycle of the Project.
Meet the Instructors
Ibrahim Odeh, Ph.D., MBAInstructor, Department of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, Columbia University
Director of Research and Founder, Global Leaders in Construction Management
Hello everyone.
My name is Dareen Salama, and
I'll be talking to you about technology applications for construction m anagement.
I work for STV Group which is a multidisciplinary
firm that covers architecture engineering and construction management.
I'm mostly in construction management and
I've been working in the application of technology for about five years now.
The objectives of this class is first really,
I'm sure a lot of you have heard about the word BIM.
A lot of people in the industry have heard about it but what does it really mean?
What does it really mean to implement BIM on a project?
So we're going to define that and define the uses.
We'll identify the uses in each phase,
because BIM is utilized throughout the whole life cycle of the project.
It's utilized throughout design, construction, and facilities management.
Understanding the role at which the CM plays in the BIM process.
A lot of people may have the misconception that it's a design oriented task.
But it's really throughout the whole life cycle so
everyone on the project has a role to play in that BIM process.
So we'll focus on the construction management portion, and
what does a construction manager do in that BIM process?
We're also going to cover an overview of the best practices of implementing BIM on
a project.
So what do we do to make the process successful?
So like I mentioned, STV Group is a multi-disciplinary firm.
We've got four different divisions.
We've got buildings and facilities, transportation infrastructure,
construction management and energy services.
I mention the org structure because a lot of people wonder,
where does BIM fall within an organization?
Does it fall in a design team?
Does it fall in a construction team?
Who really implements the use of BIM in the company and on a project?
So, for STV what we have is three of these groups are design-oriented.
So if I focus on buildings and facilities or transportation infrastructure or
energy we've got BIM professionals within each of these divisions.
However from a construction management perspective
our BIM team falls in the project controls group that services all
these different divisions with a prime focus on construction management.
We all know that the construction industry
drives different economies in all the different countries around the world.
So within the US the construction industry is expected
to be around $1 trillion in 2016.
That was the forecast according to the FMI construction market overview.
Now, coordinating labor and material, managing construction sites,
managing logistics, deliveries, that contributes to
a lot of efficiency loss because every project is in a different location.
It's not a repetition.
It's not similar to the manufacturing industry where you can really drive
efficiency.
But every construction project is different, even if it's the same kind.
Even if I'm building two airports, in the same country even,
then they will still have differences.
There's a lack of interoperability that contributes to that efficiency loss, and
the waste of time, and the waste of resources.
So, what do we do in order to fix that?
There are different studies to figure out how do we improve the efficiency of
construction, and a lot of them are pointing towards better interoperability,
which I'll describe, and better use of technology, which really
highly focuses on the implementation of BIM on different projects.
So, what is BIM?
If you take a second to think about what does BIM mean to you?
What have you heard about it?
Where have you seen it?
I believe mostly, most people,
the first image that comes to their head is a 3D model.
But is it really just about 3D?
Is it just a pretty picture or an animation that I've seen?
And then I say wow, I've got amazing BIM on this project.
But it's not really just about that.
You'll notice that I mention here building information management
rather than modeling.
The known acronym for it is building information modeling.
But using the word modeling really points towards modeling a 3D object.
So we've started, at least within our company, talking about management.
We're managing the information about the building whether it's 3D related or not.
So if I read the definition it's really a collaborative process,
so focus on the word process.
Process is very important.
It's not, again, about building a 3D model, a three dimensional object, but
it's really focusing on the process.
How we do we create a process that works for
the whole team in a collaborative environment?
Collaboration, how do we allow the beneficiary use of the data?
How can we make sure that what the architect developed in their model,
in their environment can be transferred seamlessly to the engineering for
them to complete their engineering analysis?
How can that engineering analysis for example, structural model that I've
created, for use specifically for structural analysis, how can this be
transferred into an environment that can produce design documentation?
How is that possible in order to reduce the waste?
You can equate that reuse of data as an example if someone created a spreadsheet.
If they created it in an older version and then I open it in a different format in
a different version of the same software, then I lose information sometimes.
Sometimes you get an error that says formatting is going to be different, or
some animations are missing, or some macros are missing.
So how do we improve interoperability between the different platforms to make
sure that the data is being reused and not recreated every time?
And it's going to be used by the entire team,
so everyone participates in the BIM process.
It's not something that we can say well,
we have this, I'm a company, and I want to implement BIM.
Great, I hired this person, they're going to implement BIM for me and
I don't need to worry about it anymore.
It doesn't really quite work like that.
The entire team has to go through the process, buy into the process and
work collaboratively together on the process.
And finally it's throughout the whole lifecycle.
We cannot say, BIM is just something for the design team to worry about.
BIM is just for the design documentation.
It's not really that, it's more than that, and it's throughout construction and
facilities management.
And today, like I mentioned, we're going to focus on construction management.
Now there's been a lot of proven benefits.
These benefits vary.
We've got multiple reports that identify the return on investment of
implementing BIM on a project or within a company and
mostly I've listed some of the most prominent.
Those are reducing errors in construction documents, and
we'll talk about why later on when we start talking about clash detection.
Providing a new management process.
The processes are sometimes undefined.
A lot of times you'll find yourself in a project, and
people don't agree on what the process should be.
But having a BIM process makes sure that everyone is on the same page and
understand what is really the workflow of how things work around that project.
Reducing rework and field changes.
By reducing the error in construction documents,
that means I'm going out in the field.
I'm building, and I know exactly what I'm going to build,
according to the exact sequence.
I've seen it in a 3D environment.
That way I can visualize it better,
rather than trying to visualize 2D documentation in a 3D environment.
And everyone, a lot of people have gotten very good at that, but
you're still missing certain things.
Reducing the workflow cycle time, so if I can transfer for example the engineering
analysis model Into a designed documentation environment, then I
can really reduce the time and effort spent to rebuild that 3D environment.
Or rebuild what I've created for a different purpose,
like energy analysis, engineering analysis.
If you were in claims and litigation, because people have a better understanding
and a better agreement on their scope of work.
On the sequence of work and a better handle on the progress of the work and
reducing product duration and construction time.
Think about it this way, if you plan, you build better.
And then really helps you plan better,
really helps you visualize the sequence of construction, logistics.
We're going to talk about all these things and how they impact the construction.
Now when I talk about BIM, I don't want everyone to just think about 3D,
there's a lot of other data involved.
So you've got a lot of different schedules,
you've got photographs on the project, you've got any type of analysis.
You've got the specifications, you've got the design drawings,
you've got [INAUDIBLE], you've got shop drawings.
You've got operation maintenance manuals.
You got all kinds of documentation that's about this project.
And it's not only about the geometry at that point,
it becomes about the information that's related to that geometry.
Cuz the building essentially is your geometry.
Now a lot of people ask me, where does BIM forward in an organization?
And I've thought every company can do it differently,
every organization can do it differently depending on what their use of BIM is,
what their implementation of BIM is for.
So within design, you've got different roles.
And sometimes you can have BIM job captains, BIM coordinators and
BIM modelers.
So BIM modelers will help the team in terms of modeling
certain aspects of the project.
They're really technical in that sense with the software.
BIM coordinators will coordinate across different disciplines.
Will focus on clash detection, will focus on putting different disciplines together.
So they'll bring the mechanical model, the electrical model, the architectural model,
the structural model.
Put it all together and
figure out how does the BIM model fit from each discipline in one environment?
And does the design work?
Is the design coordinated?
And then BIM job captain would coordinate all that work.
Would probably be one of the architects and engineers on the project and
also serve as the BIM job captain.
In construction, you have a similar arrangement except those BIM staff
have different skills and have different purpose of being on the project.
So you've got a BIM coordinator.
But in that case, they're not collecting models from different design teams,
they're collecting models from trades.
So they need to be well-versed in completely different software that's used
for fabrication purposes and not necessarily for design purposes.
They have to be well-versed in field coordination and
what's the level of detail of coordinating different types of work in the field.
Not just on the drawings or in the design environment.
And you also have BIM modelers that support all the trade contractors
in modeling their shop drawings.
The facility staff, the owner of a school, of a hospital,
of an airport, needs to have BIM staff on their team.
And a lot of owners are still looking to figure out where does the bin staff fall.
Does it fall within IT?
Probably not very recommended.
The BIM staff has to be part of the facility staff.
And because it's an owner organization, they don't need
to be as technical as the staff that's on the construction team or the design team.
They need to be looking at it from a facilities standpoint.
How will the facility utilize the model.
Search for information that they're needing for
that particular day or particular task of maintenance for example.
Pull up operational maintenance manuals, pull up the equipment.
Maintain the model, receive models from their consultants whether they're
contractors or construction managers or designers.
So they have different skill sets.
And then you've got project controls, which is really looking at the controls
of the project in terms of scheduling, in terms of estimating, in terms of risk.
How does BIM really integrate with that environment?
How does BIM integrate with the use of, if you have a model,
how do you integrate it with a schedule?
So we've got different tasks and different skill sets that are required.
So you have something called a 4D Scheduler.
It's a scheduler that's really well been versed and then is able to produce
sequencing animations and sequencing models that I'll show you shortly.
And then there became that rise of the idea of having a programmer on board and
why does that happen?
Why did that happen in construction?
Because you've got all these software and tools that are great,
that are in the industry.
They are commercially available, you can go buy them, you can buy licenses.
And you've got people who have processed experience.
Who can build processors, who can figure out how that works,
how to implement it and I've got experience in the field.
But then people found that there's a gap.
Where can I fit for example,
if I need to transfer information from one software to the next.
Or I don't want to import into Excel and export into Excel or
have a lot of data transfer.
Or someone like a document control specialist sitting there,
downloading documents from one system putting it into another system.
I don't need to have that, I don't need someone downloading a 3D model then
recreating that 3D model in another environment for different purpose.
I want it to be a seamless experience, so
then became the idea that you have to have a programmer on board.
And then you have to use the application programming interfaces of the different
software applications.
So that you can start creating different custom apps within this software.
That you utilize for your own purpose and not what is only commercially available.
And that develops a competitive edge for a lot of the the companies out there.
Now, if we start really focusing on
what do people talk about when they talk about them.
You'll hear a lot of people saying 3D, 4D, 5D, 6D, we get to a point where we say ND.
Because N means that I can produce, I can add any type of parameter.
So for example, first I've got 3D which is the geometry and the information.
What's included in that 3D model?
First, you've got design documentation.
So you've got the 3D model and you've got sheets and you've got sections.
You've got elevations, you've got all of the design documentation in there.
You also can use that model for engineering analysis.
Like I mentioned, if there's a column, there's
the dimensions of that column is known, the material of that column is known.
The connections between that column and other structure members are known.
That way you can do any type of engineering analysis on it.
You have the visualization aspect,
everyone likes to see a 3D model, it's a nice picture.
It's a nice way to understand what is the scope of this project
even if you're a non-technical person.
We have to perform some content validation during that 3D stage.
We have to make sure that every information that we have in the model
is accurate.
We also can do clash detection and
coordination, which I was talking about earlier.
Where you can have multiple different models
basically interacting with each other.
So you have the mechanical model or the duct work and you have all this steel.
Then you can figure out if there are clashes between those two.
Then you can use it for sight logistics and planning.
Imagine the sight in a tight area in a busy city and
then you need to figure out where are the entries of the site,
where are the exits, where do I park my trucks, my cars.
How do the employees get to the site for them to start their working day.
All these different site logistics or planning can be done in a 3D environment.
Then you start adding different parameters and you start building up your dimensions.
So the fourth dimension becomes time and I get questions about that all the time.
What is the 4D again?
What is the 5D again?
What is the 6D again?
D again so that's what we're focusing on.
The 4D is the time aspect, that means i'm going to link that model to a schedule,
mostly any construction project should have a schedule.
Most of the time its built upon the critical path method, so you've got a CPM
schedule and you can link that, its a series of activities that you can link
to your model through link to your objects and then, you can create sequencing.
You can visualize that schedule and we'll talk about why that's extremely vital for
the project team.
Once you see that sequencing
building up right in front of your eyes you understand that much better.
You can track the working place, you can track the production.
You can do a time phased logistics planning so
not only where the locations of parking lots.
Where the locations of cranes.
Where the locations of delivery and staging areas for the site, but
you can also have that type phased, so if I have multiple deliveries,
when are they coming in, is there room for the multiple?
Where are the cranes, what is the swing range for each crane?
Will they be interacting with each other at some point, will they be clashing with
each other, do I have room to put all of these screens on site?
All these questions are answered by using that technology,
the fifth dimension is the cost aspect, sop what do I do with cost?
Now there are two ways to look at it.
First is before I have the cost of the project.
So I can use the model to produce quantities.
I can use the model to manage change orders.
I can use the model to develop my estimates,
to support that development of my estimates.
Once I have the cost of my project, If I have a cost flow of that schedule then
I can see the cash flow of that project.
I can see the cash flow in an animated form and I'll show you that as well.
You can forecast what is the cost of working place of the end of the project
You can forecast based on your trends, what happened in the past and
what is expected to happen in the future and
that's really what a lot of people look for.
We always on a project we're trying to figure out what's next?
Are we going to be on time?
Are we going to be delayed?
What do we need to do today to make sure that we finish the project on time and
on budget.
We'll talk about the concept of earned valued analysis and we'll talk about 6D.
So 6D is that sixth dimension now some people might refer to 6D
as energy analysis Or you really refer to the lifecycle.
And that's what's most common.
So you're, when we mention 6D we're referring to a whole,
the final phase of a project lifecycle.
Which is that facility management and operation.
What does the facility do with it.
And that's a very interesting topic today.
A lot of owners are trying to figure out what can they do with these models?
They are receiving these models.
They're on DVD's and hard drives and CD's and everything and
putting it on a shelf somewhere and not really doing much with it.
Why?
Because their staff is not equipped to deal with this type of work.
And that brings us back to that idea,
of where does BIM fall within your organization?
It has to be part of all teams.
You have to have a BIM profession person, and all teams that you have.
For facilities management, you can use it for transferring information.
So before it was the handover of documents, you get boxes and
boxes of information.
Hard copies that are put on someone's desk or in some storage room.
And for someone to figure out where is the document that they need,
that took a pretty long time, and most often they may choose to just
maintain a piece of equipment, the way they know how to, rather than look for
the right way in a piece of documentation that's in a room full of paper.
So now, you have all these information electronically.
How do you transfer over to the owner?
How does it get transferred into an Asset Management Platform?
And how can you do other things with it,
like space management, like facility management, managing the facility itself,
not just the equipment, and integrating it with the building management system.
So having control over the temperatures, over cooling and
heating in specific rooms, monitoring that energy, monitoring your energy.
The usage of that can be done just by you utilizing them on the project.
Now when we talk about them you can't help to talk about other technologies,
that doesn't really fall under the BIM umbrella because you can do
them if you're not working on a BIM project but
because again all these things are new in the technology, and technology for
construction and in the construction industry, then you find the person who's
working on BIM is the same person working on other technologies, or the same team.
So that team has grown.
In some companies they're referred to as the retro design and
construction, retro design only, retro construction, or the BIM team.
But really, all these things refer to a group of people that
figure out what's the newest technology.
How can I utilize it on my project and make me more efficient?
And a very important aspect of it is not to utilize BIM just because it's fancy,
just because it's new or
just because it's a competitive edge where a lot of companies do that.
But really because it's beneficial for the project because it reduces cost,
because it helps the project team manage it better, better quality,
better safety, and better schedule management.
One of these technologies that are related but
not exactly BIM are photogrammetry and that's on the rise.
Photogrammetry is being utilized by drones.
So all these drones that could potentially be flying around the construction site,
taking different pictures.
You can do a lot with these pictures, not produce images but
also produce 3D point clouds.
We're going to talk about that.
These 3D point clouds are dimensionally accurate.
So, I can take measurements, either from the point clouds or
even from the images themselves, which is a tremendous advantage because there
are some sites that you can't really every time send a photographer to go to, or
fly a plane over to get aerial photography but now you can do that with drones.
Laser scanning which has been around for awhile but has gotten cheaper.
So it's much more utilized on projects.
Our computers are much better equipped to handle the results of the point clouds.
So now you find more and more people using it.
And what does that do?
It also produces point clouds and it's at a rapid rate.
So if you want to scan a whole building from the inside,
then you would definitely use a laser scanner.
If you want to scan a whole building from the outside
then you're probably faster to get a result with a drone.
Virtual reality is another aspect of it.
And you'll probably see it on different commercials, different industries, and
not just in construction.
And that's that idea of having that gaming world start spreading into more than just
having games that we play just for fun but actually utilize it.
So having the construction site and a gaming environment imagine having for
a screen as you walk into the site in the trailer, and
someone can go up to it with a joystick and
walk around the latest construction model what people are actually building to.
So you wouldn't have to go into a room and find drawings.
You would go to that screen, walk around and figure out what it is you need to look
at and then maybe you want to dig deeper into actual detailed drawings.
Or you can put on goggles and imagine that you are in that space.
Augmented reality is very new.
Find the meeting of the virtual world and the real world.
So let's say things like, all the different goggles that you can put on.
That you can, let's say, look at an object and then information about that object
would pop up either through your goggles or through, for example an iPad.
You would just point it towards the specific object and
start seeing information overlayed with reality.
In a very simple application that you could probably try on your own with
apps that you can download.
There are some apps for interior spaces,
where you can install on your phone or on your iPad.
And you want, let's say, design your apartment.
You can bring different sofas, tables, and look at your real apartment and
start placing objects in it, and then figure out what would it look like.
So that's of tremendous value, because before,
not everyone can really visualize the space and how much information can they
process in terms of okay, what happens if I change the colors of the walls?
What happens if I move the furniture this way or that way?
That would really help architects and engineer design better spaces.
So coming down to the concept of BIM, what is it really to work in a BIM environment?
And there's something gets really challenging to get people to understand is
that your 2D drawings are really produced from the model.
They're not something that was created in a separate environment,
like AutoCAD, and then we recreate a 3D model from it.
That defeats the purpose of implementing BIM.
That's a slow process, that's inefficient, and that's not reusing data.
So we've got a 3D model right here.
And what's happening is that I've clicked on this wall right here, right?
So you've got this wall and
then looking at that wall, I can also see that I have information right here.
And I know that it's a basic wall.
It's an exterior wall and it's brick two on studs.
So I know that this is a brick wall and I know that it's an exterior wall.
And I know that it's on the first floor.
So all this information is of tremendous value that I wouldn't have gotten before.
So all this information right here is infinite.
It could be dimensions, it could be a system.
So what type of system it belongs to?
It could be cost, it could be location data, or it could be the supplier data.
If it's a piece of equipment, for example, I could tell.
So if there's all this equipment that's on the roof, if I'm able to click on it and
pop-up all this information, I'll get a lot out of it.
And I find that is a great learning opportunity if you're looking at the model
rather than looking at these drawings.
So for example our estimators, as they're trying to estimate the cost of this
building and you show them this model, they get a very good idea about the scope.
They can click on different object, figure out different materials.
But if they look at these drawings right here, then how much are they getting in
the amount of time they're actually looking at that information?
They're going to be flipping through pages of drawings, marking things up,
doing manual take offs.
But with the model, they can do much more than that.
And we'll talk more about that quantity take off aspect.
Now that you've got the fundamental of what BIM is and what it's used for,
you'll notice that I mentioned so many different multiple applications.
All these applications can be used.
Yes, of course you can implement all of them on a project, but
is it really cost effective?
Do you really need to implement all of this on a project?
Most of the time, not exactly.
You need some of them.
And you need to be able to identify what are the applications that are required for
this specific project?
If it's a small project, if it's a large project.
Do you have staff, do you have the skills?
Do you have the software, do you have the need?
So these are different applications, very few of really what's out there, but
it gives you an idea that you don't have to implement all of this.
You have to pick what really works for your project.
You also have to bear in mind that there are requirements.
BIM today is not only
a fancy thing that we do just to have 3D models for rendering,
just to fundraise, but it's really a requirement on a lot of the projects.
In the UK, it's become a requirement by the government.
In the UAE, there are some requirements for it.
In the US, there are owners who require it on their projects.
In the Middle East, there are owners who require it on their projects.
In Europe, there are owners who require it on their projects.
So all these BIM guidelines are available for
everyone to take a look at, so I really encourage you to go and search for them.
Search for some BIM guidelines, read them.
You'll really understand what it is that the owners are looking for.
So that's one of the first things I do when I get on a project,
I look for their BIM guideline.
So it's part of owners' requirements with healthcare organizations,
schools and universities, a lot of public agencies.
They outline in these guidelines what software they're allowed to use,
they're allowing their consultants to use.
What do they really want to get out of them?
What requirements do they have?
Do they require you to have a BIM execution plan on the project?
What's the template of that?
So that they can really unify all of the deliverables that they're getting
from their different consultants working on the different projects.
It's also not only part of a guideline that's referenced, but
it's part of the contractual requirements.
So if you flip through and figure out,
okay, on this project I'm probably required to produce a schedule.
Sometimes I'm required to produce it in Microsoft Project,
sometimes I'm required to produce it in Primavera P6.
But today, you start finding that, okay, produce a Microsoft Project schedule.
Produce a Primavera schedule, but also you have to link that to the model and
give me what's called a 4D model every month.
So these requirements are growing.
Before, it was just use BIM, then it became use BIM for
coordination, then it became use BIM for 4D modeling.
Then it's becoming use BIM for cost estimating as well.
So some owners will require,
together with the model deliverable and one of bill of quantities.
That bill of quantities has to be produced from the model.
So that means that the owners are really requiring their contractors and
their design teams to utilize BIM for more and more everyday.
And it's going to get to a point where I need to utilize BIM for
facilities management, and what are the requirements for that?
So we're already starting to go through that today.
Now like I mentioned,
multiple applications throughout the whole lifecycle of the project.
So right here,
you've got multiple applications during each phase of the lifecycle.
So during planning, what happens?
I can use the model to model existing conditions, right?
So I can start modeling the site that I'm going to be working In.
And there are applications that make that much easier than it was before,
that can pull data from any GIS database that you have available for the city or
the state or the country that you're in.
You can pull that data and quickly model where is your site, your address,
what are the surrounding buildings, how high are they,
how wide are the roads around you?
Where are the access points, where are the schools, where are the universities,
where are the fire stations?
You can pull any kind of information and model your existing conditions.
You can also use laser scanning.
There's also cost estimation that starts happening during the planning phase.
What can I do in order to cost estimate my project and with better accuracy?
And yes, at the planning phase.
Some people may tell you well,
not really because the model is not that detailed at that point.
No, there are tools available that allow you to model your
building with very little information, based on your concept.
What is your concept design at that point?
And you figure out, okay, I want, for example,
a school that have that much capacity, that is probably going to be whatever,
eight floors, five buildings, in this space.
And then you can get a cost out of that software that you have.
So there are tools available that you can do that and they are BIM-based tools.
So I'm not going to go through all these different applications.
But this is just for you to know that the applications that I'm going
through today are a select few that happened during each phase.
But we can talk about that all day, about what are the different applications and
then start going in depth.
So this is for you to research more on your interests, to seek more information
if you're interested in any of these other topics or other applications of BIM.
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