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Issue link: https://library.trimble.com/i/1153763
Who should be promoting and regulating BIM in design? This is a question with a very simple answer. However, it's not necessarily a popular one. Quite simply, everyone in the supply chain, with the – perhaps surprising – exception of the client should be becoming increasingly involved with the promotion of BIM. While a lack of client demand may well be cited frequently as a reason not to engage with BIM, there's an argument that it's up to supply chain stakeholders to actively push for properly standardised and regulated BIM to be used more widely. Predominantly, BIM is about processes. It involves the sharing of information towards a collaborative way of working that benefits everyone involved with the design/build process. It should not be the case that any stakeholder feels justified in waiting until client demand imposes BIM – in a downward trajectory – through the supply chain. Not only does this place the burden of responsibility on the shoulders of the party often least well-versed in what BIM actually means, it also sows the seeds for all parties to fall foul of a poorly regulated and badly implemented BIM strategy. Specifically, if everyone is just capitulating to client demand for BIM then it's highly unlikely that true collaborative aims will be met or that the supply chain will be able to fully realize the potential BIM offers them for greater profitability. Nor does a top down approach, where either just the Architect, Project Manager or Contractor take responsibility for BIM implementation work. Again, this can lead to a poorly implemented or deregulated BIM plan whereby no one fully benefits from the potential gains the process offers. However, the idea that everyone involved in a project has an understanding of BIM and how (and why) to implement it, relies upon the notion that everyone involved fully understands both the benefits it offers and the practicalities of its adoption. As seen repeatedly in surveys, alongside a lack of client demand, a dearth of case studies and knowledge sharing, couched in understandable terms, are responsible for putting up barriers, particularly among SMEs. What is imperative is that communication is improved and openness increased. Only then will the whole industry be able, fully, to reap the rich rewards of what is – undoubtedly – an evolutionary step- forward in promoting better building design. BIM & Design: From Architects to Subcontractors – Who does what?