Many of BIM’s baseline concepts are the same values that busybusy builds into our mobile tools for time tracking, labor estimating, and job costing. When needed, we’re providing key data to those who need it to make the right decisions about projects.
BIM Emphasizes Information Flow & Data Tracking
The BIM Forum for Fall of 2014, held last month on Oct 9th & 10th in Dallas, TX, brought in a lot of brainpower. BIM stands for Building Information Management, referring to the virtual design & construction (VDC) practices and integrated processes used in many large-structure projects today. It’s one of the fastest-growing fields in architecture, engineering & construction.
Software firm Autodesk describes BIM as “an intelligent model-based process that provides insight to help plan, design, construct, and manage buildings and infrastructure. BIM gets the right information to the right people at the right time, helping firms innovate and compete”.
While BIM shares some principles with Lean Construction, it’s a broader concept that has been gaining momentum for a few decades as technology rapidly advances. The BIM Forum events are the premier venue in the US for advancing understanding and adoption of BIM best practices.
One of the featured speakers in Dallas was Chris Heger from Turner Construction, who gave a presentation called “Perfection at the Connection.” Using many real-world examples, Chris showed how BIM accelerates construction projects’ speed. His firm’s modeling tools allow them to “synchronize men and machines faster than ever.” For some projects, they can erect steel structures twice as fast by taking advantage of BIM integration.
As Heger explained more about what makes BIM so powerful, it started to sound really familiar. He talks about the power of information and how, with the right information, everyone involved in a project can make better decisions and be more efficient and productive. And that’s exactly what we talk about when we’re demonstrating to potential customers and our clients how our time tracking app helps their companies become more successful and profitable.
BTW, he even worked in a reference to the OODA Loop (observe, orient, decide and act) and situational awareness. Several weeks ago, we discussed that concept here on the blog in a two-part article on Decisions at the Speed of Business.
