by Brianna Crandall — October 16, 2015—Two recent surveys indicate that the building services sector and surveying / real estate sector have a ways to go to in their readiness to use building information modeling (BIM) on projects.
ECA building services firms survey
Fewer than one in six firms (16%) in the building services sector are “fully ready” to use BIM on projects, according to new survey findings from the U.K.’s Electrical Contractors’ Association (ECA). The survey was conducted to see how prepared the sector is for the looming U.K. government deadline for the mandatory use of BIM Level 2 in all centrally procured contracts coming up in January 2016.
Building services and engineering consultancy BSRIA explains “Level 2 BIM” as the process of working with digital building information, including data-rich objects, which can be effectively shared between those who are building and/or maintaining the building and its services. This is “collaborative 3D BIM,” and it involves using tools such as COBie, BS/PAS 1192, “Soft Landings” and various BIM protocols.
With the deadline just months away, nearly six in 10 firms (57%) said they were not fully ready, while over a quarter (27%) said they were “not ready at all.” Yet, despite the above findings, nearly two-thirds of respondents (65%) say that BIM Level 2 will be “good for the sector,” while almost six in 10 (57%) say it will be the “future for building services.”
Paul Reeve, director of Business Services at ECA, commented, “The survey results show that ‘BIM awareness’ is generally high across building services, but many contractors, and others associated with our sector, still have a long way to go to be ready for the government’s 2016 BIM deadline.
“The results indicate that while some companies have already engaged successfully with BIM, many more have yet to engage with the aspects that allow effective information sharing with others in their supply chain. In addition to flagging up our findings to government and the industry, we will be working with our ‘BIM readiness’ partners to tackle the important gaps identified by the survey, as soon as possible.”
The sector-wide “BIM readiness” survey was held in conjunction with the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) and BSRIA. CIBSE says it is working closely with industry partners to develop specific tools and guidance for the MEP sector. The full results of the survey will be released shortly.
RICS surveying firms survey
BSRIA also recently cited similar research published by international real estate organization RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors), and expressed concern over the fact that three-quarters of surveyors believe non-adoption of BIM could seriously hinder the U.K. construction sector over the next year. The RICS survey also found that although a large majority of surveying firms have considered the business case for BIM adoption (74%), there is still a large proportion of firms (49%) not using BIM in the day-to-day aspects of their work.
Of those not currently using BIM within their organization, 68% of respondents said that “they don’t think there is enough information available for small companies in order to aid them with adoption.” In addition, 31% of surveyors claim that there is not a need to use the technology in their organization, while over a quarter (26%) stated that they do not feel their firm has the technical skills in place to implement the technology.
