BIM for Lean Integrated Project Delivery

PRESENTER: Good afternoon, everyone. And hope you all think it's a good time to start. I really appreciate you guys all coming in. When I first saw the list of attendees, I thought there'd be like probably 20, 25 people who I have to speak in front of. And I saw through the list it was 110 people from over 25 countries in the world. And I was like, man, I really have to speak in front of all of them. So I really appreciate you guys turning up here. And I hope I make your time worthwhile.

So the main thing is the same presentation I've been speaking a lot in the last two or three years. I've given at IFMA, which is the International Facility Manager's Association in India, as well as in Sweden this year, Hong Kong BIM in 2016, and a few other AIE conventions as well. So I hope you find it something that you can use.

And I know the initial part of it takes you through a journey about general BIM. And the whole convention is based on Autodesk products, so you'll hear the words BIM and integrated project delivery a lot-- things like virtual reality, and augmented reality, and things like that. But how to do the whole process on a project together is something I'll try to take you on the journey together today, and a few projects that I've done in the past.

And at any time if you have any questions, please feel free to ask and interrupt. A little bit about me-- the photo got-- I don't know what happened to it when the PDF was being made-- but I went to school at Kansas State University. And I'm also an architect and a BIM manager, and I've done LEED credential as well, and also a member of APA.

Well, one of my client and one of my mentors stressed on one important thing in life-- that there's no Nike way. There's nothing like "just do it." If you're doing something, do it right. In that sense, that is the sense of using the design engineering, all the technology, all the latest software that we use, because you want to get it right. If we don't get it right, it's a cost of time, cost of money, and it's a pain for everyone.

So to make sure that those things don't get lost in translation, so that we are all on the same page, that is the essence of integrated project delivery-- to making sure that we set the right expectations at the beginning of the project and everyone is on the same page. I'll keep repeating the same words again and again, but I can stress it 100 times and still get it wrong when it's to be done in a project.

Essentially, those are the three things. And when people walked in, they said, well, at the beginning of the presentation, you took off the Lean off it. I said, you know, people will see me. It's better I take the irony out of it. So I took off the Lean. But the sense is the same-- that how to use BIM-- the Billing Information Modeling-- and the asset management, and the big key words like that. Because it seems like the entire dictionary is being used because there's no one governing body or one agency that's giving out those terms.

Everyone makes their own term up. UK will have their own terminology. US will have its own. Singapore will have its own. And everyone will be trying to learn all those things. Essentially, they all tend to lead to the same thing-- that you need to do the things right and get it right the first time.

When we go into the integrated environment, the key thing is to respect all the stakeholders. Make sure that the owners agenda is set out in the beginning of the project. One of the key challenges a lot of people when there are adopting BIM face that the expectations are not met. The expectations are set by the salespeople of the software, and they promise a Mercedes. And later on, I've had people tell me at least give us a Toyota out of it.

That's what happens a lot of times-- that the setting up of the expectations is not done right. And that is one of the key of making sure that BIM is done right. And the way to do it is to make sure that the BIM execution plans are done correctly. And it can be done using the UK BIM Level 2 or the Level 3 that will be coming up-- AIA E202 definition that has been set by AIA. But there's no real meaning to that booklet still.

And the key thing when I was doing a project in India-- it was a software project for one of the Fortune 500 companies called NetApp-- we faced that there is no global standard yet. UK talks about its own standard. US its own. And then Singapore with its own standard. But there is not a global standard yet for BIM. And we made our own. We made sure that we understood what were our deliverables on the project, what were our goals for the project, and we set out the process using those expectations and the driving factors for the project.

When we talk about the cornerstones of the project, again we use the same thing-- the BIM, Lean construction, and the integrated project delivery. The key essence for this was to make sure we follow BIM at not just doing construction documents, or for piecemeal things like clash detection, or doing services, but take ingraining it in the very thought of the project. And we used it for schematics, design, construction, even commissioning and maintenance. And I'll drill more into those in the coming slides.

Basically for the initial parts of analysis, we did look into it for making sure we got the energy and comfort simulations done in the project, the facade analysis done. And not just the thermal comfort factors, but also other things were looked into it using the BIM models. So essentially, BIM models were not just 3D decorative things for us. They were [INAUDIBLE] assets that we use to make sure that the analysis were run, and making sure that we respect the nature and design accordingly.

The next thing the schematics, making sure that the blocks and the massing was done using-- we used a couple of softwares like Sefaira for that, and made sure that the facade was designed accordingly. During the design process, again we made sure that we used things and tools to our benefit, and made sure that the design was optimized for the best performance, not just in terms of using it for analysis like energy analysis, but also making sure that the procurement of the project. Because we integrated-- if you know NetApp is a Fortune 500 company that deals with software databases and data centers.

We developed an in-house product to link their ERP module for procurement to the procurement for the construction to be held on-site. And that's what we used for the BIM in construction phase. At the handover stage, and the commissioning, and for the facility managements phase, we made sure that the asset information in the model included the RFID information, so that now if anybody needs to do a maintenance of the facility, they just go with the RFID sensor in the morning and it will read which light fixture has gone wrong and report it to the database.

The database includes the warranty information, when the product needs to be replaced, or if it's in warranty or not. And automatically, the whole process is set in motion. And that's the thing about the maintenance. I know you guys are all here because you believe in the benefits of using integrated project delivery and BIM. And there are multiple benefits to it. When everyone is working as a team, there are less chances of errors which need to be solved on-site. And that helps us cut down on the cost as well as the time. And the end result is much better as well. It's a more optimized and refined design.

So those are the benefits of integrated project delivery. The owner stands to gain in terms of it's a lesser cost for the owner, the designer is able to design a better building for the future, as well as the current generation, and the builders and fabricators are able to save money by increasing their profits. So obviously the traditional method had its own pros and cons, but it's a step ahead in terms of design engineering, using BIM, that we need to tackle in the future. And I'll drill into a little more in the coming slides for them.

Typically, the graph for BIM if not done correct, is the lower one. And if you do it right, it's a little better. There are still challenges. But I often believe that currently, we are at a stage where cell phones were in late '90s and early 2000s. They were like iPhone 1, and 2, and 3. What we see now is the iPhone 10. Same as with BIM and IPD. What we are seeing now, there are still challenges. And wait for five, or seven, or eight years, and we'll have a more refined product in hand.

For the construction viewpoint, we can use it for the same goal-- things like reducing the cost by doing clash protection analysis at the beginning of the project. I know, having worked on different kinds of projects-- there are hospitals, residences-- and after working on them, the key thing about what I learned is every project, every type of project, every client is so different, that we need to cater to them in a very unique way. And that is one of the challenges of BIM that we need to work on.

As I said before, BIM is a team game and it's all about connecting the dots. There are so many things involved in the whole process, that it's very important to make sure that the dots can be connected. And it just does not relate to making sure that all the software formats are interoperable as they say, or have the same format. It goes beyond that in making sure that the goals are set correctly, deliverables are met, and designs are done correctly.

As I said before, they had their own data centers, so we developed the SQL database for NetApp. And the key thing I repeat, the project again and again is because it is 150 million software campus built in Bangalore in India, and it's a classy building. And if any one of you gets a chance to visit it, it's better than most of the software campuses in California.

These are the various softwares that we used. Often enough, BIM is thought to be-- a lot of people have asked me is BIM Revit or a particular software. BIM is more of a process rather than a particular software, and it goes beyond into-- and it's about using the right software or right technique at the right time.

This gives a little more perspective about the data flow that we had during the process of the project. These are some pictures that we took during the project, how the various stakeholders on the project interacted with each other. I know that Starbucks thing is a little off-topic here, but a lot of people working all night on a lot of days. That's why I put it there. I'll repeat the same thing. It's about doing the things right.

As I mentioned, we used Sefaira. It was a glass facade building. And we used the software to calculate the u-value and making sure that we used the right reflectance of the glass, because the climate there is very different, and making sure that the heat and light analysis for the building was done correctly. There are some more examples. And I can take-- if somebody has questions, please feel free to ask me on these. We also used a software called TAS, which was used to do comprehensive load, energy, and daylight studies for the project.

Here's the interesting thing. I don't know if you guys have seen it before. For most of the projects for fire codes-- even for this room, the occupancy is 110-- in case of a fire, we need to know where which exit will be. And that's the same thing we get to hear every time we board a airplane. Apparently, we used a Dynamo script to find out the travel distances from any given point in the building and make sure that the building met the codes-- the local fire codes.

We also used BIM for acoustics. We used a model and ran it through acoustic softwares to make sure. Because within the software campus, there were libraries, there were also conference rooms like these, and everyone had to maintain a particular decibel level. We made sure that those decibel levels were met on the project. The same thing if somebody has any questions, please feel free to email me and I can let you know in more detail about what the process was for [INAUDIBLE].

BIM for construction management. We used it for planning the logistics on-site, as well as making sure that the products which were coming from various parts of the world came in using the ERP database which was linked to the BIM model. This is the same thing. I'll run ahead a little bit and show you a few more projects that I did before. And these are the projects that I've done, led as a BIM manager.

If you see on the right, that's the tallest building being made in Middle East. I worked in Middle East. I worked for residential projects of around 2,000 residences in Singapore. The one you see on the left is Nakheel Mall on the top in Dubai. And the one on the bottom on the left is in Singapore. These are a couple of projects in Saudi Arabia in Riyadh. The one you see on the top-right, that's a 500-acre garden in the middle of desert that I was part of. And on the left, you see is a hospital, which is the fourth largest hospital in Asia. All of these were done in BIM and I did it.

Some of my projects in US include Walmarts, big-boxes, commercial and retail stores, a few of the Hilton Hotels, as well as Holiday Inn, retail projects-- as I mentioned, Walmarts. The toughest project I've done-- this was done in BIM. We had a client in Houston at one time. And they wanted a ship to be rebuilt using BIM. And we modeled it. It was the most challenging project that I've done till now. So there ends my short presentation. Please feel free to ask questions if anybody has.

AUDIENCE: Of all the projects you've worked on, were they all IPD projects? And then if not, what is your takeaway from [INAUDIBLE]

PRESENTER: Well, most of them were, yes. But the best one was the NetApp project that we did because we used entire BIM as well as IPD on that project.

AUDIENCE: Were those IPD projects all full IPDs like in the [INAUDIBLE] agreement?

PRESENTER: Yes. Yes. The ones that were, yes. NetApp was, yes. Yes, please?

AUDIENCE: Could you talk about more of the integration of the construction of the projects-- the [INAUDIBLE] model or how that works?

PRESENTER: I mean, which part would you want to know?

AUDIENCE: As a designer if you have the BIM model, how do you run the construction? Does construction use that model? Like how do they actually use it?

PRESENTER: Sure. So typically, what happens is we create a schematic model. Then it goes through a process of analysis. And then comes the phase of clash detection, making sure it's clash-free. Beyond that, people start making the construction documents. Once the construction documents are made, then for construction there are things like using 4D timeliners as well as detailed cost studies that are done. And they are part of the bid samples as well. And one can go a step beyond and use a 6D of-- 7D of facility management as well. Yes, please?

AUDIENCE: Yeah, [INAUDIBLE]. What are you using to get the information [INAUDIBLE] facility managers? Are you using COBie because that's [INAUDIBLE].

PRESENTER: Well, yes. COBie is very popular in Europe. But we typically used a live BIM model with the asset built into the model that we gave. It was not based on COBie.

AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] is that Revit?

PRESENTER: Yes. Yes. Because COBie-- the fundamental of COBie is it gives the physical parameter of x, y, and z. The more important information that we wanted to cater to the client is the manufacturer information or the spec sheet is built into the model, rather than just the x, y and z of that particular fixture.

AUDIENCE: On the projects that you're doing coordination and design phase that's at design [INAUDIBLE], who's running that process? Is it somebody from the construction side? And how are you accounting for details that are yet to develop? Whether it be storm drainage because you don't exactly far down into the depth you're going to be, there's certain things that you just don't know the parameter geometry works with construction coordination.

PRESENTER: True. And one thing I mentioned is every project, every place is so different. How project is done in Saudi Arabia is very different than how it is done in Connecticut where I'm working now. And currently, what kind of projects we are working on are essentially high-end residences. Those single-family homes are to the tune of 38,000 to 40,000 square feet, running into $80 to $100 million in Connecticut. So every project type is so very different in itself. The design process for each one of them is so different, because it's not just there is a steel building construction, there's a wooden construction, and a concrete construction, but the whole culture shift is also there.

But to answer to your question, that's why the definition of BIM execution plan and level of development comes into play is when you define where to use the 100, 200 of schematic design. And where to bring in to play the 400, which is construction document in the 500. So if you're not sure when it will come through, you just use a block model. And then develop it when you'll be more set with the design of that particular item or fixture. Yes, please?

AUDIENCE: Does the owner of the company [INAUDIBLE] how knowledgeable are they or how involved are they [INAUDIBLE] of the project? [INAUDIBLE]

PRESENTER: True. Well, that's a good question. Again, it goes back to the same thing, that every project is so different. In Singapore, the owner is the local housing board which is trying to build 2,000 units. Whereas the owner in Connecticut is just one rich person trying to have a $100 million home. Owners are involved. It depends on their involvement.

But the key thing is to make sure we take their expectations into account and develop a process accordingly. I know it's a generic answer, but there's no single answer to the question about owners because every owner is so different. It could be a sheikh in Dubai, or somebody in Connecticut, or a hospital association. They're all very different types of owners.

AUDIENCE: I want to rephrase the question.

PRESENTER: Yes, please.

AUDIENCE: Have you measured this subjective [INAUDIBLE] maybe a owner knows about this thing, or will it not make any difference, or what?

PRESENTER: True. So I'll go back to the point I made about the BIM execution plans. One of the key features of any BIM execution plan is what are the expectations you are setting, what are the goals you are writing down at the beginning of the project. The goals are definitely something every owner looks into. Somebody is putting in their money. When we buy things for even $10, we make sure and we do our research on Amazon.

Make sure that when they're putting in their billions and millions, they are going to do the research as well. And often enough times, it's not just one owner, there are owner representatives that look into it. But yes, the BIM execution plan should define what the goals are for that owner. Yes, please.

AUDIENCE: Does your BIM execution plan typically include facilities management? Or do you have [INAUDIBLE]?

PRESENTER: Well, it depends. It could, like on the NetApp project. We took it to the LOD 500 level. Often enough, some of the owners don't want to take it to that level. So it's not no real reason to do that. And it's basically, we do what we are getting paid for. So if somebody wants a LOD 300 model, we'll just develop it to that level. Yes, please.

AUDIENCE: So as a follow-up, what are you turning over to the owner at the very end? What LOD model are you turning over at the very end?

PRESENTER: If they have asked for in the beginning LOD 500, that's what they get. Typically, if they don't want it, a lot of people are happy with the 350 or 400 and construction documents. That's typically the goal of the project-- to make sure that it gets built and they have live construction documents to work with and preserve for the future. So both things happen. Sometimes, people run out of money and the project could be [INAUDIBLE] at LOD 200 level as well. Happens a lot. So if no more questions, then I really appreciate every one of you. And thanks for being up with me.

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