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    McGraw-Hill Construction Report Finds 40 Percent of U.S. BIM Building Owners Expect to Increase Use to 75 Percent of Projects in Next Two Years

    October 22, 2014


    DALLAS - Building owners increasingly are embracing building information modeling (BIM) as a powerful technology benefitting the design process, managing project schedules, controlling costs and minimizing project errors, according to the recent McGraw-Hill Construction SmartMarket Report “The Business Value of BIM for Owners.”

    The latest SmartMarket Report focuses on the business value of BIM from the perspective of building owners in the United States and United Kingdom for whom BIM has been deployed. Initially adopted as a design tool and later evolving into an important tool for contractors, BIM’s adoption among building owners is expanding. Now, with building owners becoming more directly involved with BIM, the report indicates, “their power is even greater to align BIM use with their specific goals, engage more effectively with all stakeholders and extend the value of BIM beyond construction into facility management.”

    “Building Information Modeling (BIM) has taken the industry to a new level over the last several years in terms of leveraging technology for gains in productivity, accuracy, quality, and worker safety,” said Mark Konchar, chief enterprise development officer at Balfour Beatty Construction. “BIM innovation is continuous and as the latest SmartMarket report indicates, building owners are increasingly realizing great value from BIM through strategic collaboration with their AEC partners, in addition to compelling facility management capabilities. As building owners expand their BIM strategies, we encourage them to promote open and creative collaboration among all partners early in the process which often leads to significant opportunities for innovation and project value.”  

    SmartMarket Snapshot: Top Five BIM Benefits for Building Owners
    • BIM visualization enables better understanding of proposed design
    • BIM has a beneficial impact on construction cost control
    • Positive impact on project schedule
    • BIM analysis and simulation capabilities produce a more well-reasoned design
    • Fewer issues occur during construction due to deficient documents or coordination
    SmartMarket Snapshot: U.S. & U.K. Market Observations
    • 40 percent of U.S. owners and 38 percent of U.K. owners expect that more than 75 percent of their projects will involve BIM in just two years, with a particularly high level of growth in the U.S.
    • Growth in the U.K. is being driven by the approaching implementation of a central government mandate requiring use of BIM on all national public projects by 2016.
    • Over two thirds (67 percent) of U.K. owners report the mandate has a high impact on their use of BIM.
    Balfour Beatty Construction’s client Birmingham City University in the United Kingdom was featured in the report as a building owner that leveraged the power of BIM. Richard Draper, Birmingham City University’s BIM process manager, shared his perspectives on BIM which the university implemented prior to the government mandate. “We have used BIM for design and construction, and are now embarking on using BIM for maintenance,” Draper said.

    When it comes to maximizing BIM’s value for owners, Draper explained, “start at the end of the process: what do you want out of the BIM? What do you really want to do with it for the management of your facilities? What information does your maintenance team need access to quickly, and what information do they need linked to the BIM, such as operations and maintenance (O&M) documentation? BIM structure and O&M structure should match.”

    Increasing BIM Skills and Activity Levels
    In the report, owners were asked to rate the potential positive impact of several different factors on the likelihood they can increase BIM involvement and value. The three key factors that building owners believe will increase BIM skills and activity levels are the following:
    • More BIM skills among contractors, trades and fabricators
    • More BIM skills at design firms
    • More use by other owners in the areas where they work
    Building owners are ultimately the greatest beneficiaries of BIM and today are increasingly adopting BIM to add value to their own facility management and operations environments, according to the report. When asked what messages they have for the design and construction industry about the future of BIM, owners’ responses centered on BIM as the future, encouraging the industry not to resist it. As stated in the report, one owner’s response summed up the general sentiment: “To not adopt BIM and all its capabilities is like continuing to use a flip phone instead of a smartphone.”

    To review the full BIM Value for Owners Smart Market Report as well as additional insights from Balfour Beatty Construction experts on leveraging BIM, please click here.