In this webinar, we heard Sean VonFeldt of Triunity and Matt Abeles of BuiltWorlds discuss how their organizations use BIM project-wide to accelerate and improve decisions from concept through handover. We also saw a live demo of Aconex Connected BIM showing how sharing models can streamline processes like design coordination, approval cycles, and handover to benefit your entire project team.
3. Matt Abeles
Co Founder | Managing Director
A collaborative network fostering a
smarter built environment.
BuiltWorlds
4. BuiltWorlds
We are a collaborative network that
encourages education and awareness of
technology and innovation in the built
industry through:
• Written and video content
• Monthly events
• Connections with the community
Our mission is to create a smarter built
environment and push the $5 trillion
industry forward.
7. BIM standards and mandates
The US General Services
Administration (GSA),
managing all federal
buildings, has been
requiring BIM through
its national 3D-4D-BIM
program.
Created by the
buildingSMART Alliance,
the US National BIM
Standard (NBIMS)
covers exchanges
between stakeholders
during all phases of a
facility’s lifecycle.
UK government’s much
talked about Level 2 BIM
standards. The mandate
is that by 2016 all public
projects will have
minimum collaborative
3D BIM targets.
8. What types of projects benefit most from BIM?
Complex projects with multiple stakeholders that can
significantly benefit from:
Improved
efficiency
Increased
clarity
Fewer project
reworks
Reduced waste
and cost
9. Adopting BIM is a change in both
company behavior and process
10. There are BIM adoption challenges
70%
70% of contractors have
adopted BIM in North America
over the past 10 years
Yet only 30% of projects
actually implement and use
BIM technology
30%
11. Challenges of realizing the full benefits of BIM
project-wide
• Increasing project complexity
• Information silos
• Software cost & accessibility
• Owners requirements
• Training & implementation
• Determining the activities and BIM processes to be adopted
• Defining and controlling model & data structure and versioning
• Facilitating efficient and effective collaboration and communication
13. BIM success study
“BIM is a much higher value-add to our
customer, at the end of the day.”
— Ricardo Khan, Director of Integrated Construction
Mortenson has
implemented BIM in
vertical projects.
AN EARLY ADVOCATE They are applying best
practices
• On infrastructure
projects
• Leveraging BIM’s robust
data to automate
processes
NEW APPLICATIONS
BIM has improved:
• Decision-making process
• Project accessibility for
all stakeholders
• Ability to share
intellectual data
• Communication across
the team
RESULTS
14. Sean VonFeldt
VP, Program/Project Controls and
Construction Management
Triunity Engineering & Management, Inc.
“Approach the unknown
with caution, confidence
and calculated control.”
15. About Triunity
Adding value to our community and our industry
• Founded in 2003
• Hurricane Sandy Relief Effort – New Jersey Transit
• Denver RTD’s FasTracks Program
• MBTA Green Line Extension Project (GLX), MBTA, Boston, MA
• Sound Transit East Link Extension, Seattle, WA
• Wastewater Treatment Plant, Denver Water Board, Denver, CO
16. Owner’s rep on mega global infrastructure
capital programs
• Currently: RTD FasTracks
• Previous projects
• London Underground PPPs
• Network Rail WCRM
• AT&T Nexgen
• Denver International Airport
17. My history with BIM
• Early BIM adopter – early 2000s
• “Building” as a verb, not a noun – to appeal to the “horizontal” or infrastructure
construction world, (same as it applies to vertical ‘buildings’)
• Tying 3D project models to CPM Schedule activities (4D) and Cost/Budget
estimating, planning and accounting (5D)
• Seeking to enable unlimited access to the full Program/Project team for
continuous improvement in communication, collaboration, coordination of all
planned and measured data.
18. State of Infrastructure Industry
- before BIM and Aconex
• Large Infrastructure owners typically
only have 2D plans and profiles of their
current assets.
• All typically have a need for better
collaboration during design
development
19. With BIM and Aconex
• Public owner (airport) required design data to comply with FAA mandate.
• Airport acquires 2D plans from adjacent public owners to incorporate into its
overall 3D/BIM model.
• Using Connected BIM in Aconex, the Airport and adjacent public
infrastructure owners each had secure access to the information they
needed.
20. How owners can use Aconex to leverage the
BIM models provided by their consultants
• Use the Aconex BIM module for visualization and collaborative
project team discussions around the BIM IFC models provided by
their consultants, developed in Revit and other authoring tools.
• Attach project documents from Aconex to the various objects
(assets/sub-assets) in the models to be shared and reviewed with
O&M teams.
21. Key benefits of future BIM for owner agencies
• “Single source of truth”
• Improved accuracy
• Timeliness of communication
• Constant consciousness of Value Engineering opportunities/necessities.
• Provides transparency of information to all organizational stakeholders
• Provides a structure for ‘clear and present’ accountability, thereby reducing
risk.
22. BIM best practices
• Align BIM to project processes
• Procurement
• Construction/Installation
• Asset management
• System O&M projects
• Initiate BIM early in the design process
• Create a central repository for all BIM (IFC) models
23. Results to be achieved by owners
• Direct cost reductions
Value Engineering coordination, more efficient
information flow, decision making, schedule
acceleration, dispute avoidance, and rework
reductions.
• Development of Standard BIM Specification
Standard BIM specification and implementation plan
for all new facility and infrastructure capital projects.
Improved decisions
Project-wide
Reduced rework
Fewer disputes and errors
24. 24
How BIM can accelerate project-wide
review cycles
John Barkwell, Aconex
How BIM can improve decisions and reduce errors
John Barkwell, Director of BIM, Aconex
25. 25
Cloud & Mobile
Information & Process
Management
Engineering
& Construction
Project-Wide
Across the
Project Lifecycle
Plan Design Construct OperateBid
OperatorSub-contractorsContractorConsultantsOwner EPC Designer
Aconex collaboration
Save money, increase productivity. Manage project risk.
27. 27
Managing model files Managing project data
Disconnected BIM
Limited to the design team Everyone on the project
Disparate datasets Fully connected dataset
Design & Construct Full lifecycle, handover
Restricted access, requires
specialized software
Common Data Environment
via browser and mobile
Connected BIM, for better delivery
Connected BIM
28. 28
Design team
Rest of your project team
Document
Control
RFIs &
change
orders
Bidding &
Tenders
Workflows &
approvals
Commissioning Submittals Field
Inspections
Handover
Authoring tools Coordination tools
But “Traditional BIM” leaves project teams,
information & processes disconnected
How do I…
• View models without special software?
• Link RFIs with objects for resolution of clashes
and issues
How do I…
• Link information into my model for a
complete BIM handover?
• Get an audit trail of decisions made?
How do I…
• Distribute huge BIM files?
• Reduce cycle times on clash resolution?
• Version control to avoid errors on out-
of-date models?
How do I…
• Access models on my mobile device?
29. 29
Rest of your project team
Authoring tools
Coordination tools
Document
Control
RFIs &
change
orders
Bidding &
Tenders
Workflows &
approvals
Commissioning
Packages &
Deliverables
Field
Inspections
Handover
Document
Control
RFIs &
change
orders
Bidding &
Tenders
Workflows &
approvals
Commissioning Submittals Field
Inspections
Handover
Native model data
Open BIM, IFC, COBie
The Solution: Aconex “Connected BIM”…
driving everyone project-wide to participate in BIM
Open
BIM
Handover
Design team
30. 30
Updates
model, submits
to Aconex
Retrieves
models, runs
clash detection
Submits clash
report, assigns
to disciplines
Retrieves
assigned
clashes
Smarter and faster processes and decisions
Project-wide clash detection / design coordination
Designer / Engineer BIM Coordinator
31. 31
Finds issue
on site, checks
BIM model
Resolves issue
on site
Responds with instruction
Receives RFI,
clicks through
to BIM model
Reviews linked
information for
full context
Raises RFI
Informed and connected review cycle
Project-wide access to the model
Contractor Designer / Engineer
32. 32
Leading to better delivery of the asset
Better design
coordination and
constructability
Construction
Improved decisions,
fewer errors
Operations
Richer, higher
quality data into
asset operations
Design
33. 33
Demo: Improving decisions and reducing errors
This was a 20-minute platform demo in the live webinar
To request a personal demo: aconex.com/Demo
• Overview
• Federated Model Visualization
• Model collaboration
• Model enrichment
• RFI review cycle – Model mark up
34. CONFIDENTIAL | 34
Summary
Traditional BIM
• Disconnected teams and
information
• BIM in silos
• Managing files not data
Managing files instead
of data
Connected BIM
• Improved coordination
• Better decisions
• Fewer errors
• Higher quality built asset
operations
• More efficient
operations
35. CONFIDENTIAL | 35
Most trusted platform
$1 Trillion
Asset value delivered across 50,000
orgs, more than any other platform.
Project-wide Support
Training & support for your entire project
community guarantees everyone’s success.
Secure Performance
Scalable, reliable platform to support global
projects. ISO 27001 certified.
36. 36 Trusted by the world’s largest projects
Our thanks to our participants from
Triunity and BuiltWorlds
Learn more at
aconex.com/Demo
Editor's Notes
Janet:
Matt will start today’s session with an industry landscape and provide a brief overview of BuiltWorlds and their mission of fostering a smarter built environment through knowledge sharing and promoting a deeper understanding of the new and emerging tech applications and possibilities that empower us all.
After Matt provides the landscape, Sean Vonfeldt with RTD will talk about how RTD is continuously reviewing and improving their business processes and implementing solutions like Aconex to best optimize the benefits of BIM and meet their business goals.
We will conclude with John Barkwell providing an overview and demonstration of the Aconex system, showing us how to optimize the benefits of BIM across entire project teams and throughout the project lifecycle. John is the Aconex Director of BIM, who has worked in the industry for 25 years.
We will take questions at the end, so please feel free to send those through at any time using the questions function on your Go To Webinar control panel.
Let’s get started. I will turn the webinar over to Matt who will give us an overview of the current industry trends and some of the challenges BIM addresses.
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Matt:
Thank you Janet.
I am very happy to be here today to share what we are seeing in the industry and some exciting results achieved using BIM to improve how projects are delivered.
I’d like to start out by sharing a few slides about innovation in our industry, trends and challenges then tell you a bit more about BuiltWorlds and how we work with BIM and organizations across the US, then I’ll wrap up with specific examples and results.
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Matt:
As Janet mentioned in the introduction, BuiltWorlds is a collaborative network. We founded BuiltWorlds to bring additional awareness and education on innovative ways to use technology in the built industry.
To help push this critical $5 trillion global industry forward, we provide written and video content, live events across the US and we work to be a central hub to facilitate connections.
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Matt:
Emerging technologies are part of most of our daily lives and many of these technologies are disruptive, taking time and resources and changing mind sets to reap the benefits.
I would put BIM among these important emerging technologies. Let’s take a closer look at BIM adoption.
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Matt:
As you can see from this graph there is a significant increase in BIM adoption around the world.
The benefits of digital optimization are increasingly leading governments, local councils and facility owners, to mandate BIM on their projects.
Just one example is the UK governments much talked about Level 2 BIM standards. The mandate is that by 2016 all public projects will have minimum collaborative 3D BIM targets.
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Matt:
As adoption
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Matt:
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Matt:
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Matt:
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Matt:
I would like to keep a slide on the challenges of gaining the benefits project-wide.
I can get a new image.
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Matt:
Defining project BIM process upfront
Consistent requirements across the project team
Ongoing training as new members join the project team
Central system to support project-wide access to the model
Aligning the BIM model to all project phases (design, procurement, handover…)
As much as possible we apply the successes of one project to another. This helps to shape and define our processes.
As demonstrated earlier in the model map, the success of a project is contingent on project team members having access to the models and visibility into the models.
The ability to analyse models and data is hugely beneficial for our organization. We are able to tap into the project through exploring the foundations of the models which are databases at their heart. Only then can we reveal the true health of the project models.
And importantly we need to remain dynamic to be able to alter workflows to suit specific people and projects.
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Matt:
Any ROI? Reduced an approval cycle by x% etc.
Thank you for the opportunity to be here today. I’ll turn the presentation over to Sean VonFeldt from RTD and I’ll stay on the line for Q&A.
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Sean:
Thank you Matt. It was great to hear what you’re seeing in the industry.
I have been working with the Denver Regional Transportation District for past 8 years and in my role I measure and help control Scope, Schedule and Budget for the $5.5 Billion FasTracks Program.
Let me tell you a little about my background on Mega Infrastructure programs and projects.
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Sean:
As you can see, all of these programs cover vast geographies (or sizable footprints) and interface with multiple public and private stakeholders, and I can assure you their projects definitely follow the trend of increasingly complex infrastructure projects.
RTD and Greenline
It is complex projects that gain the most benefit from BIM.
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Sean:
I have had a long career working as an owners rep.
To give you some background of my background, I have worked with Parsons Birkerhoff and Parsons Brinkerhoff Ltd.
As you can see, all of these programs cover vast geographies (or sizable footprints) and interface with multiple public and private stakeholders, and I can assure you their projects definitely follow the trend of increasingly complex infrastructure projects.
It is complex projects that gain the most benefit from BIM.
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Sean:
As a Programwide/Projectwide Controls Manager working for various mega public infrastructure owners, you might say I’m an “early adopter” in recognizing the potential benefits of using 3D project models to collaborate Scope elements (i.e Transit Assets) with Master Program CPM Schedule activities (4D) and the respective Cost & Budget (5D) data for estimating, planning and accounting.
My early adoption ambitions to tie all Scope, Schedule, Cost and Documentation configurations together go back as far as early 2000’s when I worked at London Underground.
I have been working with my RTD colleagues, strategizing BIM implementation at RTD FasTracks since circa 2010… and we are now in our 2nd year of looking at BM implementation for process improvements on the owner side in Design/Build projects like RTD FasTracks, including working with a graduate student who was working in this area. Including value to as built dataand handover to O&M for ongoing facilities management.
All public agencies are engaging in ever-increasingly complex projects, RTD is finding it needs to succinctly and transparently collaborate Scope requirements (i.e Plans and Specs for Transit Assets) with an integrated Master Schedule (4D) and with Cost/Budget Control analysis (5D), as well as, ideally capture all “as-built records” pertinent to O&M, for hand-over from Capital Projects into Operations.
… also a need for a centralized work-flow platform to enable unlimited access by agency personnel to its Business Operability Obligations Management (BOOM) processes.
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Sean:
A couple real scenarios on projects in my past…
On one design/build project including both roadway and railway bridges, all bridge designs were inadvertently developed using roadway bridge specifications for the foundations.
Lack of visibility and collaboration of the bridge designs and design requirements by all relevant stakeholders, allowed error to go unnoticed.
Impact: Some bridges were completely built before the design error was caught, and some had to be re-designed, demolished and reconstructed. More eyes may have caught the issue earlier, saving the contractor significant time and money.
Others: Unidentified underground utilities (Utility companies with known easements not invited to participate in design reviews).
Bottom Line: Better collaborative visualization during design development (as with use of BIM processes and a central SSoT “visualization” tool like Aconex BIM Module) can help prevent errors from going unchecked and unnoticed.
Project-wide access to the model.
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Sean:
Adjacent public owner (airport) required as-built design data for their BIM model, to comply with a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulatory mandate, and to allow operations of others’ facilities within their jurisdiction.
Simultaneously, other public and private entities are looking for a way to collaborate with the airport for as-built data for various rooms/facilities provided for their tenant fit-out and occupancy, but not owned by them.
Issue: Airport has a 3D/BIM model of all facilities on their property, but 3rd Parties only have 2D plans, profiles and sections for their facilities, structures, overhead power, underground utilities, etc…
Resolution: Using Connected BIM in Aconex, the Airport can share a portion of their BIM model for other’s use and reference during service operations and maintenance. Likewise, the other 3rd parties are able to provide 2D CAD drawings to the Airport for their use in completing the BIM model required by FAA for operations.
They need to have a complete model including all interfaces, such as rail infrastructure going into the airport.
Need to accept all drawing and model formats, and view and comment on them, and connected BIM allows that.
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Sean:
Perspective of the infrastructure owner/operator:
BIM vs. Connected BIM
True BIM development is all on the design/build contractor.
Owner Agency want to be allowed to see or visualize and “capture reality” about their projects and assets…
Goal is to:
All project stakeholders collaborate and talk to the 65% design model – attach docs and comments to it.
Then when 90% model is published and supersedes, still keep or promote those attached docs where appropriate… likewise for the 100% and Issue for Construction models.
Needs to keep the history of design development for planning and engineering’s use, but only hand-over the accurate/relevant “as-built” model and cost/schedule/quality data to the O&M or FM group for their use during operations through the ongoing life of the asset.
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Sean:
“Single source of truth” for collaboration of project/asset technical information.
Promotes accuracy (many eyes validating/verifying)
Promotes timeliness of communication for coordination purposes
Promotes constant consciousness of Value Engineering opportunities/necessities.
Provides transparency of pertinent project/asset information to all organizational stakeholders, internal and external.
Provides a structure for ‘clear and present’ accountability
another favorite quote of mine… “Risk is… without accountability”
Each designer/builder has ownership and control of the information provided for the asset/system/discipline they are supplying.
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Sean:
Best Practice #1: Important to establish a BIM protocol from the beginning or a BIM Implementation Plan which will align your BIM models to your key business and project delivery processes
RTD developed a scheme in 2013 with assistance of a graduate student intern, who was writing his Master’s thesis on “BIM for Infrastructure”
Scheme: Scope vs BIM Development… whereby we would establish a correlation between Capital Program/Project WBS and BIM LOD, in both:
Levels of Definition (design details required for procurement and installation),
and Levels of Development (design development from major Asset/System to sub-Assets/sub-Systems)
Why?… essentially borne out of a necessity for collaboration and integration of technical information, from inception of Capital Projects into Asset Management (O&M).
Best Practice #2: BIM>BAM for Asset Management… Establish a master Business Asset Model (BAM) in a central enterprise GIS system, which is a repository for all independent BIM (IFC) models, for all assets created by capital projects.
In 2014 I started a trial use of Aconex BIM Module as a pilot BAM for any all BIM models created for FasTracks projects.
Why?… BIM repository and viewer are already available with Aconex; easy to use; all basic info/data collaboration functionality.
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Sean:
By implementing a central secure collaboration platform, Owners are able to benefit from value engineering coordination, more efficient information flow, decision making, schedule acceleration, dispute avoidance, and rework reductions.
also assists owners in developing a Standard BIM Specification and BIM Implementation Plan to be piloted on the next major facility or infrastructure capital project.
Now, I’ll hand the presentation over to John Barkwell with Aconex.
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