CLM 2014 Construction Committee Conference
August 1, 2014 in Boston, MA
Building Information Modeling
Generating, Reviewing and Communicating the Intentions of the Owner,
Designer and Constructor
Introduction
Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a relatively new process by which the
design, construction and operation of a facility is managed and directed. The process
starts with the generation of a building “model”, which in layman’s terms is a threedimensional depiction of the proposed project. Heretofore, construction documentation
was limited to the traditional two-dimensional variety which included parameters of
length and width. In addition to the third dimension of depth, building models can now
include additional dimensions such as time and cost. With these parameters, BIM can be
utilized as a very efficient construction management tool.
Construction Applications
Time and cost, as a function of a building model, provide the construction project
manager the ability to view the project at any point in the design and construction
process. This proves to be very valuable to the project manager when developing
construction project schedules that must be cost-loaded in order to determine the cash
flow needs and earned values of the project. Earned values are the basis for determining
payments made to the contractor, subcontractors and suppliers. As building information
models are typically assembled from component libraries, this feature easily lends itself
to unit price cost estimating, determination of a schedule of values and payment
application review and approval.
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Project quality control is another valuable aspect of BIM. As the design of the
project progresses, models that are generated by various engineering consultants and
subcontractors can be integrated into the model provided by the architect to detect points
of interference by utilizing the clash detection feature of several available software
programs. A clash can result from the unintended and unwanted intersection of two or
more building components such as piping, HVAC ductwork, electrical conduits or
structural elements. Detecting and correcting this type of issue at the design stage is less
expensive than reconfiguring work that has been installed in the project. As a result,
schedule delays due to the rework of building elements can be reduced or eliminated.
Barriers for Implementation of BIM
Inherently, new products or processes have problems that must be addressed in order
for the state of the art to progress. Such is the case with BIM. The first known BIM
related litigation was filed in 2011 and owing to the precedent, will undoubtedly fill the
pipelines of the legal system. While the software tools are constantly refined, the overall
BIM process has not yet reached a level of maturity that would allow industry to fully
embrace it as a definitive procedure for design, construction or facility management.
Early followers of BIM continue to promote its usefulness and search for more efficient
methods by which to employ its abilities on additional projects. The issues can be mainly
divided into two broad categories: legal (contractual) issues and human factors. The
following section shows an overview of potential BIM issues.
In the United States, the courts judged cases according to construction contract law,
which is based on many years of precedents. Those cases that have been tried many
times before would let all people know the standards of the law and the measures to
resolve disputes. However, BIM is different from other previous 2D software; it brings
the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry to a new level. Not
enough cases have been tested in the courts; therefore, there are no relating laws for BIM
so far. The main legal issues for BIM are ownership and responsibility.
The first issue is ownership. It cannot be determined who will own the final model
and relevant data after the project is complete. According to Larson and Golden, lawyers
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with M.A. Mortenson, the legal principle is clear: "Absent contract language to the
contrary, the party that creates the model owns it". However, the reality is not as simple
as the principle describes because there is no doubt that all the parties participating in the
project will want to get it. Since every participant has contributed data to the model, each
one of them has a reason to own it. For the owners, if they can get the model, it will be
much easier for them to manage their facility. Furthermore, as the owners have paid for
the model, they would think that they are qualified to own it. For the architects, they
have designed the model and need to protect their intellectual property rights; so they
may feel entitled to own it. For the construction contractors, they feel they have provided
proprietary information and need to protect it; therefore, they should have rights to own
it. For example, after architects design the model and share it with other participants of
the project, engineers may use it with their own information. Thus, the model becomes a
repurposed one. That means engineers may also have some ownerships right. For the
suppliers, they have provided equipment and material to the project and other participants
may use this information to build the model for convenience. There is no simple answer
to the question that who will own the final model. To solve this problem, all the
participants need to agree who will get ownership rights in the contract document or all
the parties reach a consensus before the project start. Generally, architects and contractors
may give up the rights of ownership because they think owners pay for the model and the
reason of creating the model is to better finish the owners’ missions. Since the model
contains architects’ design and contractors’ proprietary information, both architects and
contractors think that the model only can be used for the specific project and this requires
the owners not to repurpose the model for other projects.
Another legal issue is liability. If there are inaccurate data input to the model, who
will take the risk and be responsible for them? During the project process, the model
requires all the participants to input their information. On many occasions, parties will
make mistakes or input inaccurate information because of limited technical knowledge.
For example, architects may not have professional knowledge of construction; therefore,
when they design the model, they would not consider construction means and methods.
Some human factors would influence it as well; negligence may be the cause of
inaccurate data. Since these inaccurate data may generate a new cost, it may impact the
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schedule and total cost of the project. To prevent the inclusion of faulty data, a model
manager is responsible for making sure that all inputted data is accurate. With the
increasing cooperation of all parties, however, if the issue still happens, architects may
assume there is something wrong with the construction means and methods. Likewise,
contractors might assume architects’ design might have some problems. The current
legal system indicates the definite responsibilities of each party. All of them know what
they are responsible for when the issues happen, but those liabilities and responsibilities
may not apply to BIM project. The best way to solve this problem is that before using
BIM technology, each of participants should know their responsibilities clearly and reach
a consensus. Furthermore, these responsibilities should be written into the contract
documents. In this way, the risks can be properly allocated.
Besides the legal issues, human factors may be another issue for the BIM project
because BIM software not only requires skillful people to handle it but it also needs
excellent communication between each organization. Human factors can be divided into
three categories: Training, interoperability and communication. Without attention to
each of them, the cost of project may be much more.
Training is one of human factor’s issues that should be acknowledged and considered
before applying BIM to a project. The following are identified as important issues for
training by H. Edward Goldberg, Principal of HEGRA, at the AIA’s National
Convention. The first issue is a steep learning curve. The software of BIM is very hard
to learn and handle; therefore, it requires large amounts of time to learn it. Unfortunately,
there are not many schools which may offer such courses. For an organization, it takes
precious time to train people. Furthermore, if the organization tries to train a lot of
employees at a time, they will learn just a little. So it is best to train a small group of
people at one time. Secondly, there are only a few advanced users who are great at BIM
software. However, as a matter of fact, it seems that those specializing in the software
are young people who may lack of experience; while older people with much more
experience may not have the technological ability to use it. A better solution for this
problem is to assign both of these kinds people into the same project, but the cost of the
project may increase.
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The last issue is interoperability. Interoperability is the ability to communicate and
exchange the data and information. With increasing collaboration, interoperability plays
an important role in a BIM project. According to a survey by the Structural Engineering
Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and the Structural Engineers
Association of Texas, most complain that different parties may use different kinds of
modeling software and poor interoperability has brought about $15.8 billion wasted
annually. To deal with this kind of problem, the International Alliance for
Interoperability (IAI) tried to use Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) as a uniform
standard for communication and exchange of data and information. After these standards
are implemented into BIM projects, the negative effects of interoperability may be less
and less.
At this point in the ongoing development of BIM, one might expect that a plethora of
causations for issues associated with the use of BIM exists. Industries will only move
forward in the development and use of BIM, as long as it proves to be a viable, profitable
concern. Matthew J. DeVries asserts that communication, or lack thereof, could be a
major contributor to problems, disagreements and ultimately, litigation. When speaking
of communication, DeVries outlines three areas in which communication should be
established and maintained. They are:

Communication within your own team. At the contractor level, this would
include the active participation of the preconstruction, scheduling,
estimating and onsite project management personnel. The model is a work
in progress and undergoes constant change due to budget considerations,
timing issues, constructability and in some instances, changes in the
weather.

Communication among the project team. As stated prior, the BIM team is
more than just the design professionals. It involves owners,
subcontractors, suppliers, in some cases tenants and what may be the most
overlooked party of all, the property managers. If a lack of
communication exists between these parties, expectations, requirements,
wants and other important issues can be overlooked, forgotten and
eventually left out of the design and planning process.
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 Communication per the contract documents. Different roles in the process
have certain bias in connection with contract documents. This is the case
when using BIM, as by its nature, involves professionals from the design
and construction industry. Architects are partial to the American Institute
of Architects (AIA) drafted contract documents, which historically and by
the nature of the author(s), gives them more latitude, authority and
precedence when conducting architectural design duties. An increasing
number of contractors, on the other hand, are incorporating a new line of
contracts named “ConsensusDOCS”. Both of these industry groups have
developed contracts for conducting business through what is termed
Integrated Project Delivery. In these, responsibilities, deliverables and
other issues such as risk sharing and rewards are addressed in detail.
Whatever version or profession-oriented contract forms are selected, they
should in the end conform to the interests, expectations, abilities and
understanding of the project at hand.
In light of the forgoing information, how should project teams or team members
conduct their business and actions? BIM will continue to evolve, and so will the way
project teams are assembled and organized. The traditional approach to project delivery
typically involves design professionals, construction professionals, subcontractors and
suppliers, each with different contractual arrangements and agreements. Architecture and
Engineering firms (A/E) provide construction documents (CD’s) that (hopefully) tell the
contractor, their subcontractors and suppliers what to build in order to satisfy the needs
and wishes of their clients. The different tasks and associated responsibilities of each
project participant drive their need to shield themselves from and transfer liability to
other parties. With all parties seeking to protect themselves financially, where is the
motivation for collaboration, risk sharing and reward sharing? In discussing the teaming
alliance for the construction of the Australian National Museum, Noble highlights the
facets of the teaming agreement that served as a successful model for collaboration:
 The main goal of the alliance agreement was for the benefit of the project
as a whole
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 Each alliance member was compensated on an open-book, cost reimbursed
basis with a pre-established profit margin
 “Gain share” rewards and “Pain share” penalties were included in the
alliance agreement as incentives to all parties except the owner
 100% attendance at all project meetings was required to constitute a
quorum
 All decisions regarding the overall project welfare had to be unanimous
 Personnel from alliance organizations were selected and assigned to the
project according to their skills and their ability to serve the needs of the
team
 Owner and all team members agreed to release one another from all
liability arising out of the project except for willful default
 Willful default excluded any error of judgment, mistake, act or omission,
whether negligent or not, made in good faith by an alliance member
Academia has not taken a backseat to the issues inherent with BIM, and in fact has
been proactive in the development, refinement and teaching of various software platforms
and their inclusion in the BIM process. Becerik-Gerber and Kensek discuss several key
factors necessary to the continued improvement and success of BIM:

A mutually beneficial industry and academic collaboration will lead to a
growth in strategic BIM research

Identifying the need to produce and maintain a single project information
base (model) throughout the duration of the project and into the
operational and maintenance phase of the building life cycle

Current state of the art of BIM associated software is a barrier to total
implementation of the BIM process

Identifying the need for a stable means of archiving models that can be
repurposed throughout the life-cycle of the building

Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) is probably the most important aspect of
BIM
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
Additional research is necessary to correctly determine the cost-saving
aspect of BIM and the validity of the claims made by BIM proponents
Integrated Project Delivery poses problems that must be addressed both within and
between the parties to a BIM related project. While all parties contribute to the makeup
of the project model, one party must be designated as the lead modeler. This is typically
but not always the architect. This party is now referred to in AIA 302 as the Model
Element Author and acts to update the project model as input is made from each
consulting engineer, contractor and the various subcontractors and suppliers.
Additionally, AIA 302 addresses model file formats, model origin, coordinate system and
units and the file storage locations. This is a step in the right direction for improvement
of the BIM process and management thereof. Undoubtedly, due to the “immaturity” of
AIA 302, its merits and other attributes will be challenged through litigation.
Future Challenges for BIM
Although there are already numerous firms taking advantage of BIM technology,
BIM adoption has been much slower compared to other industries such as, automotive,
petrochemical, aircraft. The main reasons for this can be summarized into two aspects:
technical and managerial.
Technical reasons come from the incomplete system of BIM. In order to eliminate
data interoperability issues, a defined construction process model and integrated
information exchange should be made. The digital design data used to build the models
should also be operable and computable. Little or almost no BIM instruction documents
exist to guide the procedure of BIM application and use, let alone clear consensus among
different uses on how to realize. There is a need to standardize the procedure of BIM and
define it into a formal, normalized technology. All of above, either directly or indirectly
result in the relatively slow adoption of BIM in AEC industry.
The use of BIM technology would increase the certain cost for a project. Based on
some large industrial projects ($75 million to $150 million), it represents a 5% to 10%
premium of the total fee. As a result, it is difficult to convince the owners of the potential
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investment return considering the increased fees and added costs, especially in today’s
competitive economic market.
Facing those challenges, we should acknowledge the implications of BIM data, and
move from an analytical model to an extensive conceptualization of information
modeling. Standardized documents, practical strategies and developed guidance are
significant. More importantly, we should change the way we use the data rather than
simply collecting them. Keep in mind that, building information modeling is an effective
method that helps us broaden our perspective and break the traditions, rather than limit
our choices and constrain our thoughts.
BIM and its associated software are fast becoming the standard by which building
and other types of construction projects are designed, built, managed and maintained. Its
capabilities continue to expand and become more valuable as a quality control measure
for building systems design and fabrication. The inherent ability to quickly analyze and
correct design flaws prior to fabrication and construction will continue to save precious
financial resources for building and project owners. The market demand for the use of
BIM by the private sector will continue to increase as the cost savings continue to
increase because of the maturity of the process. This private demand has followed, to
some extent, the lead of various governmental agencies in dictating BIM as the platform
by which buildings are designed, constructed and maintained.
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