Avoiding the digital dusty drawer.

Some don’t even consider BIM until too late, long after the design consultants have been appointed, sometimes even after construction has started. In doing so they effectively relegate BIM to not much more than a tick-box exercise, and the value it can bring is soon forgotten as it lies languishing in a metaphorical ‘digital dusty drawer’.  

So, how do we stop this from happening? How do we persuade people to look at BIM differently? And how do we ensure BIM takes pride of place on the estate manager’s desk?

In some ways, the answer is simple: it’s about ensuring BIM is part of the planning process from the very beginning, and not re-engineered as an afterthought or paying lip-service to a supposed need. And when we strip everything back to its bare bones, it’s about delivering structured data that will enable the client to subsequently make better-informed decisions.

The food label analogy

Take the analogy of the food labels we see daily in supermarkets. Comparing one product against another, we may look at the traffic light data system on the label regarding its salt and sugar content, calories, fats etc to decide which best suits our needs. This information is presented in a standard format that’s instantly recognisable and understood, making that process infinitely easier.  

Now, translate this thought process to the built environment. If we understand the data that we’re trying to collect from the outset and present it in a standardised way which everyone understands, it ultimately enables better decisions to be made about how we manage our buildings’ assets.

If we take this logic further, asking the right questions from the beginning and understanding the client’s objectives is the secret to success. And these can be very specific. Is it important, for example, for the client to quickly and easily understand embodied carbon? Is data relating to static water assets important to address the risk of Legionella? Understanding the objectives and addressing the risks in advance affects the BIM outcome and is better achieved through early engagement than retrospectively or through a generic set of standards that aren’t specific to the client’s business.

A recent case illustrates the point. Within a client’s estate they retrofitted new data cabling using the existing cable trays but had no record of the types of cables already installed. This meant that new began interfering with old, causing significant operational disruption. Engaging with the client at the early stages of the next project, we were able to understand these operational issues and provide clear cable tray labelling data within the 3D models. This is specific information that was valuable to the client and they were delighted to receive it, rather than screeds of data with no real purpose. This shows how simple the solution can be, and the time and costs that can be saved.

Understanding what adds value

To solve this and stop data ending up in the ‘digital dusty drawer’, we need to understand what adds value at the very start of a project. We need to know how to capture information that’s business critical to the client and present it in a way that can be easily understood and acted upon. Again, the answer is relatively straightforward. It’s about being consistent in how assets are classified and named, so that they can be understood across an entire estate. Their names should match, and the information shouldn’t be stored across multiple, disparate systems, but through a single, common data environment.

Looking at this, it’s easy to see why the data BIM provides can find itself left in a digital drawer gathering dust. But this needn’t and mustn’t be the case.  

Some are already doing this. For example, some public sector funding bodies require BIM and a dedicated client-side BIM manager as part of their funding criteria, making BIM part of the discussion from the outset. This enables those all-important questions to be asked up front, ensuring the end data is useful and interesting to the client, so it avoids ending up in that dusty drawer. For the true value of BIM to be recognised, we need more clients and funding bodies to adopt this approach.  

But the first step, is to pause and as part of the initial strategic phase of any project, ask ourselves what data is needed that will be of most value to the end-client in managing their estate safely and efficiently for years to come. And ensuring we capture that data in a common and futureproofed way. This is ultimately what will send us down a road where BIM never gets dusty again.

By Trevor Strahan, Director, BIM, BakerHicks