BIM: is the industry ready? Of course, it’s really an unanswerable question, because it firstly presupposes that there is a unified entity called “the industry” and, secondly, that we will know or recognise what “readiness” might look like.
The reality is that in April 2016 the diversified range of supplier companies in “the industry” will look much the same as in April 2015. There will be the companies driving BIM adoption in the fast lane; the companies doing a good job of keeping
up with the traffic in the middle lane, and the companies getting comprehensively outpaced in the slow lane.
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Likewise, clients’ readiness will be a distinctly patchy affair. If there was one recurring theme of the BIM+ round table, it is that the participants felt that the supply side of the industry was noticeably further down the path of BIM adoption than the clients, who need more guidance, encouragement and training. Apart from those clients speeding ahead – the Highways Agency, the Ministry of Justice, Great Portland Estates – most are still in preparation mode. And according to Balfour Beatty’s BIM director Peter Trebilcock, many public sector clients are in fact “BIM neutral” – with the interest in what it can offer them offset by fear of the need to change procurement processes and FM practices.
In other words, a simple question has multiple answers, and that’s likely to be the case for many years to come. But for 2015, there are other, equally unanswerable and equally valid questions to ponder. Will those fast-lane pace-setters really demonstrate the efficiency gains and margin increases that BIM has dangled in front of our eyes, or will it simply adjust the baseline, with everyone setting prices and margins according to normal commercial criteria? Will the industry be able to upskill staff well and fast enough to make the most of BIM’s transformative and collaborative potential, or will projects be delivered with lowest-common-denominator BIM?
And more fundamentally, is BIM the race we will all be watching, or will “the industry’s” attention turn elsewhere, most obviously, to the General Election and knock-on consequences for public spending and procurement? Or the growing interest of Chinese, Japanese and European contractors in the opportunities in our market? Or to the industry’s employment of low-skilled EU labourers, and pressure from Westminster to train and upskill more British workers?
At the start of the year, it’s tempting to look at the questions where we expect the next 12 months to bring answers. But perhaps we’ll find that BIM stops being the question everyone is trying to answer, and starts being simply a component part of every project. BIM adoption, after all, is a tractable problem, which responds to training, awareness-raising and investment. The really tough questions of 2015 could prove a lot more challenging than getting to grips with LODs, EIRs and PASs.
Elaine Knutt, editor
