All News Building Information Modelling (BIM) emerges as a solution for modernizing and restructuring the construction sector, stimulating the collaboration amongst project stakeholders, promoting digitization as a response to the need for optimizing communication and obtaining more efficient processes.
Although often seen as a technology, BIM is also (and foremost) a new work methodology. On one hand, it’s a technology that integrates in a three-dimensional model all the information produced along the whole building lifecycle, enabling the optimization and automation of the organization, management, access and use of that information. On the other hand, it’s a collaborative methodology that enables the implementation of new processes in an agile way, significantly increasing the value of the information produced within the construction industry.
The existence of an “intelligent” model that aggregates all project information changes the frequency, speed, and the ways in which that information is shared, making the communication more efficient, avoiding the need for rework, and allowing us to anticipate coordination issues that, up until now, would only have been detected during construction. The BIM methodology reveals itself extremely useful in coordination, as well as in the process of quantification and costing, through a high level of automation. Therefore, we can achieve better precision in quantities extraction and estimating materials costs, possibly in earlier stages of design development, facilitating better cost management throughout the project and significantly reducing waste.
Besides the innovation and advantages introduced during project stages (design – construction), BIM also comes in to transform the management and maintenance processes of real estate assets, with the post-construction handover information consolidated into As Built models, which can easily be extracted into Excel and/or integrated into Facilities Maintenance (FM) management platforms.
The construction sector in Europe represents circa 10% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), employing nearly 14 million people. In Portugal, construction represents circa 6% of the country’s GDP and involves over 470 thousand workers. However, despite its influence in the economy, the construction industry presents itself with reduced productivity and low innovation levels, which obstructs the development of an integrated and resilient structure, capable of resisting the constant challenges and complexities of the industry and of society[1].
Several studies estimate that the financial opportunity for the digitization of engineering, construction and operation processes sits between 10% and 20% of expenditure in vertical construction (buildings) and infrastructure [2]. There are also reports that predict that wide implementation of BIM could allow savings around 15% to 25% in the global market for infrastructures by 2025 [3].
In this logic, if the national market can obtain an increase in productivity for 10% in construction, it could generate savings of circa 1.284 million euros [4].
With companies specialized in the different stages of real estate investment – development, construction and asset management – BIM implementation is an investment that will bring benefits to all of the Group’s companies and our clients, optimizing collaboration amongst teams throughout the whole lifecycle of the real estate business, allowing greater control over the quality and the costs of the project, as well as the management and maintenance of the end product.
On the other hand, by adopting more efficient processes, BIM also has an important role in delivering the Group’s sustainability strategy, avoiding the waste of resources and materials.
[1] McKinsey Global Institute, «Reinventing Construction: A Route to Higher Productivity», Fevereiro 2017
[2] BCG, «Digital in Engineering and Construction: The Transformative Power of Building Information Modeling», 2017
[3] EUBIM Handbook (www.eubim.eu), 2017; BCG, Digital in Engineering and Construction, 2016; McKinsey, Construction Productivity, 2017
[4] Considering 2019 reference values. Source: pt.countryeconomy.com/governo/pib/portugal
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