Cadalyst - October 2008 - (Page 42)

aecinsight them came back and said ‘I can’t believe we weren’t doing this sooner.’” “Each time we do it, we learn more,” added Bostic,“ . . . how to use the tools, how to apply the tools and facilitate the process. I’m also advocating for BIM usage in the design phase. On most of the projects we’ve done so far, we were still working with a 2D product that was in the pipeline. Our next two will be 3D from design to 4D/5D in construction.” Follow the Money Bostic noted “statistically, it’s difficult to document cost avoidance, but we can say with a great deal of confidence that we’ve saved millions of dollars worth of change orders. We have three major health care projects completed already without a single claim by any contractor or sub.” Beyond construction and downstream to facilities management (FM), Bostic said, “In our long-range plan, we absolutely want to expand BIM into FM. We will update the model throughout construction and then hand off to the hospital [for them] to model energy-management strategies. We’re not there yet, but that’s our future intention.” Figure 2. Vico Software’s 5D Construction Suite delivers the benefits demanded by project owners throughout all phases of information modeling, estimating and budgeting, scheduling and coordination, and overall workflow. These benefits are especially important on health care projects with complex MEP systems. federal courthouse projects, which have complex spatial and circulation requirements. Healthy Investment Complex circulation patterns are just one of the special demands posed by health care projects. Elaborate requirements for building services — various piped liquids and gases, as well as stringent standards for heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems — make interdisciplinary construction coordination a number one priority for most health care projects. Jim Bostic, assistant vice-president of construction at St. Joseph Health System, with 14 hospitals in California and a $2.5 billion construction program, explained, “MEP [mechanical, electrical, and plumbing] coordination in the field has been our biggest problem. Until 2006 we still did this over a light table — a long, tedious process with lots of personality conflicts as the foremen from multiple trades tried to figure out the issues based on overlaid 2D drawings. After learning about what BIM could do for clash detection, particularly through NavisWorks, we tried it on a project at St. Jude’s Hospital. Our experience on that first attempt wasn’t so good — the problem was that the subcontractors were too inexperienced in BIM. “So, we recognized we needed facilitators for the BIM process. We tried two or three, but found they couldn’t deliver as promised. Finally, we met Vico . . . and they have successfully facilitated several projects for us. We now have a half-dozen targeted efforts on clash detection, plus two replacement hospital projects coming out that we will do in full 4D and 5D with Vico (figure 2).” Subcontractors initially resist the tool, Bostic said, because “they can’t see the benefits up front. Take two projects: Santa Rosa Memorial and St. Joe’s Eureka. The subs initially resisted but went through the facilitation anyway. The results in the field were such that every sub realized the benefit of all that up-front work — every one of BIM promises to improve accuracy, consistency, integration, coordination, and synchronization at all stages of the building lifecycle. At the upstream end of the process, Bostic observed that “just like subcontractors, A/Es [architects/engineers] can be a bit resistant. If you look around the A/E industry, there are many who say they’re doing BIM, but they really only have one foot in and one foot out. Maybe there’s only a half-dozen firms who are really doing BIM. We try to work with A/E firms as strategic partners that will do repeat business with St. Joe, but some A/Es need inspiration. So we clearly communicate that if you want to work with St. Joseph Health System, you have to invest in this process — the software, the people, the training, and so on. We don’t care what tool they use for their 3D (BIM) models, as long as it’s compatible via IFC with what we use for construction, which is Vico.” Industry analyst and consultant Jerry Laiserin helps AEC/O businesses — and the technology providers who serve them — build smarter through the integration of technology strategy and business process. E-mail him at jerry@laiserin.com. 42 www.cadalyst.com cadalyst October 2008 http://www.cadalyst.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Cadalyst - October 2008

Cadalyst - October 2008 Contents Editor’s Window Cad Central SimCity for Real Designs Spring to Life — 3D Publishing Tools Make File Sharing as Easy as Opening a Book Xi MTower 2P64X — Dual Quad-Core Workstation ArchiCAD 12 — BIM Software Dell Precision M6300 — High-End Mobile Workstation Cad Manager Mcad Modeling Aec Insight Cad Cartoon Issue Indexes Hot Tip Harry

Cadalyst - October 2008

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