Money for Building Information Modeling Will Come Through Addressing Lifecycle Costs
Building information modeling is a very useful tool for optimizing initial construction build and lowering facility development cost.
It's great technology, but how do you fund it? If you can't fund it, you can't get it.
I think the answer is that we can fund BIM as a facility development cost if we show owners the value of incorporating BIM into a master system integration strategy that will reduce operations and maintenance costs long after construction is completed.
BIM has been focused on the 25% of total facility costs bound up in design and construction, but if we can show owners how BIM can become a tool to help pull down the other 75% of total ownership costs tied up in operations and maintenance, there will be money on the table.
Start With The Specs
In my role as BIM Pre-Construction Manager for engineering and construction services firm Cupertino Electric, Inc., I am involved with many large, complex construction projects. In a given week, a good number of BIM specifications documents come across my desk from leading general contractors and owners. Most focus on how to optimize initial construction build through coordination, but they are vague to silent on the subject of facility management and the lifecycle efficiency of a building.
During BIM-focused projects, we at Cupertino Electric typically endure through various scope changes and as-built models. And often, somewhere along that process, an owner’s representative suggests that we should leverage the BIM model to do more for the facility and operations teams with modern technology. That often implies designing and engineering a networked building information system with monitors and sensors at well-selected data connection points. But because this request is typically not included in the original scope of work, responding to the late suggestion can be costly, and it becomes more costly the later it is made.
To avoid such additional cost and streamline efforts, a comprehensive approach should be taken to incorporate all key data connection points into the original BIM model to maximize facility and operations use down the road.
What I’m suggesting is the convergence of BIM with electrical metering, building systems and IT networks into a Master System Integration (MSI) strategy that starts during the pre-construction, BIM development phase.
Optimizing the lifecycle of a building should be planned for during the earliest phases of construction so that BIM efforts dovetail with an ultimate MSI strategy. With BIM more mature than ever today, BIM models more prevalent, and “open” building information management systems readily available at lower costs, the timing is right for this approach.
Begin with the End
Antiquated business practices and procurement methods long have led to deferral of the conversation about energy management until the final stages of construction, when it can become prohibitively expensive.
One challenge to overcoming this that we have experienced is that the goals and objectives of our customers vary, as does the timing when they begin to think about optimizing design and systems to maximize facilities and operations efficiency. This lack of an established timeframe and protocol to discuss BIM within an MSI strategy means that the cost of achieving some later-realized goals inevitably increases.
As engineering and construction services providers, our professions have the opportunity to lead owners to an understanding of how the use of a BIM with an MIS strategy can reduce facilities cost for the lifecycle. But to do so means that we have to begin our construction projects with the “end in mind,” to quote efficiency expert and best-selling author Stephen Covey. It may seem like common sense, but if we BIM experts are not asking our customers to think about what they ultimately want to achieve in terms of lifecycle facility efficiency before setting out on a pre-construction path, we are not helping them be as efficient and effective as they need to be in today’s tight economy.
The role of the electrical contractor in planning for energy management is crucial. As the construction team member familiar with electrical systems, building models, and the evolving technologies of operational and environmental controls, electrical contractors like Cupertino Electric can work with customers to identify how to add more value when it comes to energy management, monitoring and targeting. For example, our company is exploring an open software system that integrates with major system suppliers and provides low-cost data points (SmartMeters or Current Transformers installed to monitor the energy usage of electrical equipment) that are rolled out as the project is turned over to an owner.
Lower cost means faster payback, and with a rapid payback schedule and easy-to-use online interface, today’s master systems integration offerings can enable facilities and operations managers to chart, manage and realize the aggressive energy goals set by environmentally-conscious owners.
Today’s challenge is not in identifying an energy solution; it is in communicating the value proposition to the customer at the right time during the planning and construction phases to maximize results and meet increasingly important energy goals.
If we realign the initial construction plan to encompass practical BIM benefits, along with a plan for future Master System Integration, we will see a dramatic reduction of lifecycle costs, improved building control and better options for future expansion or modification.
And by integrating the BIM and MSI into a construction deliverable that will significantly reduce cost over the lifecycle, we will find owners to be willing to fund the integrated BIM and MSI models that we need to take full advantage of these excellent technologies.
Scott Arfsten is Building Information Modeling Manager at Cupertino Electric, Inc., San Jose, Calif.
