Enhancing Society Through Consistent BIM Data: RHDHV's Vision and Approach

PEER GRONING: Welcome, everyone, to this class on Enhancing Society Through Consistent BIM Data, sharing Royal HaskoningDHV's vision and approach. My name is Peer Groning, Associate Director at the RHDHV. And together with Jordy Vos, business consultant at Autodesk, we will be presenting this session.

At Royal Haskoning, we take sustainability seriously. In this presentation, we will focus on the approach for using data to have a positive impact on sustainability. Greenhouse gas emissions from human activity are fueling climate change, leading to changes which are impacting the lives of billions of people. Our activities need to reduce emissions whilst also adapting and building resilience to future changes.

Biodiversity underpins the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat, as well as the systems we depend on. Human impacts on species and ecosystems are having long-lasting effects, which will undermine our ability to thrive in the future. Humans continue to extract natural resources from the Earth at an unsustainable rate and to use those resources in a wasteful way. Transforming our systems towards a circular use of resources is a key challenge as we transition towards a truly sustainable society.

Our project delivery has real potential to deliver positive outcomes for communities and wider society through the whole project cycle. And we can actively promote diversity and inclusion, challenging inequality vocally and in practice with clients, stakeholders, and the communities with which we work. Safe working and living environments are a fundamental right, and we are proactively embedding safety in design, operation, and culture. These are the themes that are an integral part of our purpose enhancing society together.

The learning goals of this presentation are to get an understanding of how Royal HaskoningDHV uses BIM data to enhance society, to gain insights on consistent BIM data in the context of sustainability, understand the complexity of consistent BIM data, and to convey an approach to get people to use and produce this consistent BIM data.

We focus on five themes where we believe we can have the biggest positive impact in delivering benefits for society and the environment. These themes are relevant to everything we do for our people, and our clients, and the way we operate as an organization, and how we implement our projects. And they relate to specific United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Mapping the impact of a potential product services and our own operation in this chart enables us not to only challenge ourselves for more positive impact, but also our clients. These key themes are all vital for humanity, and we are in a position to make a difference.

We are an independent, international consulting engineering firm existing for over 140 years with over 6,000 colleagues working from 65 offices on projects in more than 100 countries around the world. The need for solutions to the complex challenges faced by countries, societies, and businesses is more important than ever. In this, we have an important role to play. We design, safeguard, and maintain assets in our living environments that form the backbone of society from buildings and infrastructure, to energy and water supplies, industrial sites, and transport systems.

Scale and a leading position in specific markets allow us to innovate, attract clients and talents, and be profitable. We aim for growth in nine global leading markets and strengthening our position in the Netherlands. We are integrating and digitalizing the way we work to deliver on our purpose of enhancing society together and grow in a global leading markets. In our journey to become a data-driven company, we identify the following maturity steps.

At the first level is building information modeling where core information is organized and design analysis take place. At the second level, coursing and scheduling is added to the model, and design and construction collaboration takes place. We are building the asset twice, once virtually and once in real life.

The third level, we go beyond BIM. We use real-time big data, artificial intelligence, and machine learning affecting the entire value chain. . We will now give a couple of examples of how we use digitalization to enhance society.

You might have seen several examples of how insights from carbon footprint calculations early in the project design phases can have a positive impact on the outcome of the design and helps compare the results beyond its capital investment. This is one such example. Not a building, though, but an infrastructural project, a revetment for water protection.

In this case, our colleagues customize the tool using open data and information models to compute the impact of different design and material options in the overall carbon footprint. With this approach, they could potentially save 1,500 tons of CO2 emission for just 100-meter revetment.

But what does 1,500 tons of CO2 emission actually mean? To give you an idea, this equals to 950-plus economic class return flights from Amsterdam to Las Vegas, or 250 households' of electricity use for one year, or five commercial flights into space. To compensate this, you would need 125 hectares of forest growing for one year, or 725 cars driving electric instead of gasoline for one year, or 11,000 solar panels instead of conventional power for one year.

The carbon footprint of a building is the sum of embodied and operational carbon. A considerable amount of the embodied carbon footprint is related to the practical completion of a building. And also during the usage of a building, carbon emissions occur. This can be related to operations as well as replacement and maintenance.

The carbon factors are split up by life cycle modules and are estimates that improve in accuracy as more is known about the procurement process for the project. As this is a straightforward calculation, the embodied carbon for an entire building can be estimated quickly, even at concept stage, allowing design options to be compared quantitatively alongside the other components of sustainable design.

The most important time to calculate embodied carbon is in the early design stages. It is crucial to have time and scope to make changes in light of your embodied carbon assessment. The fundamental principle of an embodied carbon calculation is typically to multiply the quantity of each material or product by a carbon factor for each life cycle module being considered.

We will now give an example of a data center project where we included the product stage information. In Revit, we turn and run a quantity takeoff for the structural, architectural, mechanical, and electrical models, and big equipment components. This list with material components is then linked to resembling products from an embodied carbon library where the carbon footprint is calculated. The results are analyzed and compared to other data centers, and opportunities for improvement are identified.

This chart gives a combined overview of the embodied carbon on the different building elements and systems that together form the whole building. We can provide several interesting insights in the performance of our assets. The Sankey diagram shows the carbon footprint of the different materials and provides an overview of where they are being applied. These kind of insights can only be provided if we have consistent BIM data in our organization.

Here, we face our first challenge, how to create consistent BIM data. What do we actually mean with consistent BIM data? BIM data is the information we create and store in our project information model. This consists of graphical data, non-graphical data, and documentation.

Graphical data in BIM refers to the visual representation of the information model and its objects. This can include 2D and 3D information. Graphical data is used to communicate design intent, identify potential clashes, and visualize the design. This is the 3D visualization of a wall, for example.

Non-graphical data in BIM refers to the information that is not part of the visual representation of the model and its objects. This can include details about the model, or object, or its materials, systems, and processes. This information describes that the wall is made out of concrete from grade C40, for example.

Documentation relates to all other files that we collect during the project, such as certificates for example. So consistent BIM data is the accuracy and uniformity of the information contained within the model. This means that all the data within the BIM model is reliable, up to date, and consistent with other data contained within this and other models or even in other information systems.

This means, for example, that we have modeled the concrete wall the same way across all our projects. We store the material information all in the same parameter, and we all use the same name to indicate this concrete material. With this consistency, we can use this information reliably in our design processes.

Apart from having organized your BIM data in a consistent way, it's also relevant to have a clear understanding of the specific client requirements for your project. The data that is generated should respond to these requirements. We see a shift from 3D modeling through its information management where the client requirements informs the information model.

Now, how do we get people to produce consistent BIM data? This is where the real challenge lies. As explained earlier, Royal HaskoningDHV is a company with 6,000 staff, over 65 offices worldwide. If you want to successfully transform such a large group of people, it is important to be aware of the differences in culture.

This graph provides an overview on different cultural dimensions as defined by Hofstede for three selected countries where RHDHV operates. You can see differences in power distance, individualization, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientations, and indulgence per country. There is no one size that fits all, and a tailored approach is necessary.

Many business transformation strategies concentrate on technology and processes, while almost ignoring the people involved. This is not a good strategy if you want to implement real change. Within Royal HaskoningDHV, we put people first. Strong processes can help people increase efficiency, and technology can help automate these processes.

We look at change management and guiding principles, standardization and collaboration with Autodesk, cloud collaboration, automation, and data-driven insights. Only by giving the proper attention to people, process, and technology, we can have a successful outcome.

An organization can only change when each of its individuals change. The outcome model focuses on guiding individuals through a particular change and addressing any roadblocks or barrier points along the way. An individual needs to achieve the following five outcomes for a change to be successful. Awareness of the need for change, desire to participate and support the change, knowledge on how to change, ability to implement desired skills and behaviors, and reinforcement to sustain the change.

Within Royal HaskoningDHV, we have defined the following guiding principles. Focus on commonalities, not on differences. Aim for the highest possible international standard-- for example, the ISO 19650. A structured knowledge network of coordinators who are responsible for knowledge development of their discipline, ensure co-creation with content owners to enable global implementation of a uniform and consistent way of working, information management as core of our project delivery. We need to state clearly how information will be received, managed, developed, and shared by the whole project team.

Standardized workflows for each domain will result in consistent outcomes and can secure business continuity and domain knowledge. Create optimized, multidisciplinary parametric models that define the relation between design intent and design response. And make use of a data-driven engineering process. I will now give the floor to your Jordy Vos, who will zoom in on our collaboration with Autodesk.

JORDY VOS: Thank you, Peer. So as Peer explained, part of the approach is a collaboration with Autodesk. So this collaboration was made possible thanks to the enterprise business agreement which provides RHDHV with a wide range of resources, such as the latest Autodesk technology, a managed customer success plan, and consultancy services, which I'm part of.

Through this partnership, we helped RHDHV to identify their specific needs and challenges. And together, we designed a tailored solution that works the best for their organization. So this project began with a series of discussions to understand the unique challenges and needs of RHDHV. And through these discussions, we identified that RHDHV intends to implement BIM standards to ensure consistent BIM data, to reduce errors, and to increase the efficiency across the Royal organization.

We also concluded that they already had documented a large part of these standards, but they did not have an implementation plan yet. So therefore, we developed for RHDHV an implementation plan that outlined the steps needed to achieve their goals, and we supported the execution of this plan.

To ensure consistent BIM data at RHDHV and long-term success, we developed together an approach that is using the latest technological advantages. For the approach, we drew inspiration from how software developers deal with software code using continuous integration and continuous delivery from DevOps practices. So continuous integration and continuous delivery are processes commonly used in the software development to ensure quality and consistency of software code.

So in a similar way, we applied some of these practices to the BIM standards to ensure that everyone in the organization follows the same process when creating BIM models. This approach creates a continuous feedback loop for the development, deployment, and improvement of the BIM data with a high degree of automation to build and monitor BIM data. So we are focusing here specifically on the BIM model altering processes that involve Autodesk Revit software. So let me explain this approach in more detail.

So the key components of the approach are we have written BIM standards that define how everyone should develop BIM data. We decreased the dependency on people following these standards by using automation to generate important parts of Revit content. We used key users with a lot of experience to test and validate the newly created or improved BIM standards and content before this is released to the wider audience.

We used online platforms like Pinnacle for learning content and Unify for BIM content to share content with the wider audience. We collaborate and share the BIM work in a common data environment during the BIM model creation. And we validate if the BIM models are complying with the BIM standards across the organization using automated tools and insights presented on dashboards.

Based on these insights, we improved the BIM standards, the way they are built, deployed, and used in BIM models to complete our feedback loop. So continuous improvement helps to ensure that BIM data is always up to date and relevant, which is improving the efficiency and accuracy of RHDHV. So I'm now going to explain some of these components in more detail.

So starting with the BIM standards, so the first step in the approach was to develop consistent BIM data by writing down BIM standards. The BIM standards are the foundation of our approach and ensure that everyone in the organization follows the same approach when creating BIM models. These BIM standards cover a wide range of aspects, including guidelines for setting up BIM models, guidelines for creating reference families, as well as templates and naming conventions. The BIM standards also include a collection of plugins that are developed by RHDHV to ease the model altering tasks and to help ensure consistency across the organization.

These BIM standards help downstream processes and systems that use this data by providing consistency, like Peer showed in the examples earlier. But it also helps to speed up the BIM design process. To ensure that everyone in the organization is on board to use these standards, RHDHV collaborated with content owners from each discipline to co-create these standards. So it was important to get everyone's input and buy-in to ensure the standards will be a success.

So once we had everything written down, the next step was to get the whole organization using these BIM standards in their daily work. So we realized early on that getting everyone to use the standards is not easy. So we decided to roll out the standards first in the Netherlands where RHDHV has a large presence and where we could tailor the approach to the region.

So we used change management practices, including the ADKAR method that Peer highlighted to ensure adoption. So this included, amongst others, a roadshow across offices to raise awareness of the standards and to create a desire to start using them, a Train the Trainer program per discipline to increase the knowledge and ability in the organization to use the BIM standards. . And we also use data-driven insights to see where additional reinforcement or improvement in the approach was needed to reach full-scale adoption.

During the awareness sessions, we explained, for example, what the BIM standards are, why they are important, and what's in it for the users. The Train the Trainer program is set up to enable each team and department to conduct the necessary training by themselves while providing the flexibility to decide for their own team and department how to conduct the training in a way that works for them. In addition, we provide ongoing support to ensure that everyone has access to knowledge. This includes, for example, providing access to the online resources.

Then, Revit content-- instead of relying completely on people following these standards, our approach includes also generation of parts of the BIM content to ensure consistency through automation. For example, during the creation of Revit families, we used automation scripts in Dynamo for Revit to create the basics of Revit families, such as the reference planes, dimension lines, parameters, and other Revit content.

Dynamo is a visual scripting tool in Revit that allows you to, for example automate repetitive tasks. And in this case, it helps to ensure that everyone is following the same process when creating content, but it also helps to speed up the process of creating the content itself.

We also provide a sample content for these Revit families that is developed with this approach. So this serves as an example for developing and maintaining the centralized library of BIM content. And all of this content is then shared across the organization with tools like Unify.

Once the BIM standards are deployed in the organization, the big question is, of course, if everyone is using the standards consistently or if there are any barriers for adoption. To get an answer to that, we are deploying the Autodesk Validation Tool, which allows us to automatically validate this across all BIM models in the organization.

So this cloud service runs on top of models stored in the BIM 360 or Autodesk Construction Cloud and validates if models are complying with predefined check sets. We can validate, for example, if models are built using objects from the RHDHV object library and if certain model-altering rules are followed, like, for example, avoiding using family in place objects, mirroring objects, or having duplicate objects. So this is a relatively new tool that was already partly available via the Revit interoperability tools for desktop PCs.

But now it is running in the cloud. And this allows us to validate BIM models at large scale overnight without the need to occupy staff and their PCs to run these checks manually. All this creates insights into compliance with BIM models, saves time by avoiding doing manual checks, and it improves the model performance as well.

So let's have a quick look how this works in practice. So BIM models are created for several projects in Revit. And then these Revit models are stored via cloud work sharing in BIM 360 and Autodesk Construction Cloud throughout the project for collaboration purposes.

In the web portal of the Autodesk Validation Tool, the validation checks are then configured and set up recurrently per project, let's say, once per week per project. The validation tool then validates the models automatically. So this generates reports, which are timestamped and all stored at a central location in SharePoint.

A Power BI dashboard visualizes then all the data stored in SharePoint in a single dashboard and refreshes this data also once per week. This dashboard is then accessible for the whole organization anytime and from anywhere. So dashboards are a powerful tool that can be used to present data in an easy, digestible format. And in this case, there's a lot of information to be evaluated.

To do so, we first used readily available templates from Autodesk best practices to set up these dashboards since they already covered quite some aspects that were also covered by the BIM standards of RHDHV. And we are now developing customized dashboards that are completely in line with the RHDHV standards.

So let's have a closer look at some of these dashboards. So here, you see a snapshot of one of the screens in the Autodesk Best Practices dashboard. And on this dashboard, we monitor, for example, BIM model performance aspects across all models, which impacts if you can navigate fast through your model, for example, like the average model size, the number of elements in a model, or number of imported files, like images and DWGs.

It also monitors data quality aspects, like the number of mirrored objects or the number of duplicate objects, which typically leads to incorrect data. It also shows the completeness of systems in the BIM model, like, for example, in unconnected MEP systems in case there are, for example, unconnected ducts, or pipes, and these kind of things.

So all of these things matter for having consistent BIM data and producing this data efficiently. On this dashboard that you're currently looking, at you see a mockup of a dashboard that is in development. So this dashboard monitors several aspects specifically for the RHDHV BIM standards. As such, it shows, for example, if the BIM models are set up with the RHDHV Revit template, or was it created with, for example, the default Revit template? It also shows if the objects in the models are coming from the RHDHV object library, or maybe someone took some not-approved content from the internet.

It also monitors if the elements in the model are coming from the RHDHV template-- like, for example, dimension styles, or maybe someone created some other types of dimension styles. It also shows if the elements in the model comply with the naming convention and if the required object parameters contain values.

So summarize-- these dashboards help BIM coordinators and managers provide the right steering information in projects and to ensure that everyone is following the same process. It is also used by the team behind the standards to identify if and where there are any barriers for adoption for the standards so that the standards and implementation approach can be further improved.

So this is how we close the loop from monitoring the users of BIM standards back to using these insights then to plan how to improve the standards as well as the approach to release and deploy it. In conclusion, this approach helps to ensure that everyone in the organization is following the same process when creating BIM models, resulting in consistent BIM data that improves the efficiency and accuracy of RHDHV to realize their mission to enhance society together. This leads us to the key takeaway from today's sessions. And therefore, I hand over back to Peer.

PEER GRONING: Thanks, Jordy. As we conclude this session, we would like to ask you to consider how you can contribute towards a more sustainable world. And we encourage you to reflect on the data that you are using and producing. Is it consistent, reliable, and how can it help you making a positive impact on society? By adopting a more sustainable mindset and making conscious decisions, we can all play our part in shaping a better future for our planet. Thank you for being a part of this session and a journey towards a better world.