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AECbytes "Builin! the uture" Article #Se$tember %&' ()%*+

Say NO! to Hollywood B"#$ %n %dvanced"ntegration o& the B"# 'rocess at a Builder

%ntonio Ruivo #eireles

Innovation Manager, Mota-Engil

,e ha-e oten seen Builers im$lementin! B/M. But in reality' in most cases' it0s more o a 1olly2oo B/M

than B/M itsel. ,hat 2e0-e accom$lishe at Mota3En!il' a builin! com$any hea4uartere in 5ortu!al' is a

more a-ance inte!ration o the B/M $rocess. This article escribes ho2.

Mota3En!il is a &) year ol com$any' 2ith more than ()'))) em$loyees 2orl2ie. Thou!h the com$any has

se-eral sub3holin!s' construction re$resents about 6)7 o the total turno-er. Last year #()%(+' its turno-er

2as o (())M euros' an it has a $resence in more than () countries.

Our B/M im$lementation strate!y 2as i-ie into se-en ste$s8

9 Benchmar:in!9 Strate!y 5lans an ;oals9 5eo$le an Culture

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Strategy Plans and Goals

The second step in our BIM Implementation was to define a Strategy Plan and our Goals. Since the beginning,

we were aware of three important pillars: oordination, ost, and Time. !e "oined a #nowledge international

group that shared regularly their e$periences, which were %ery similar to our own.

&fter defining our goals, we create a program called SIG&BIM and started the implementation. !e didn't start

off training e%eryone. !e started by defining some standards, e%en if simple ones in the beginning. Then we

defined which software to buy. There are se%eral software pac#ages, with different prices, ranging from ())) to

*+))) euros. Thus, it was %ery important to figure out what we needed and a%oid incurring unwanted costs.

!e proceeded to watch many demos and training %ideos before choosing the software itself.

!e started with training about *) people in une -)*). These were our championsin terms of modeling. Most

of them are still with us, in the company, and are our internal consultants to other colleagues who are starting

to use BIM.

&fter the training, the first thing we d id was a small p ro"ect with the focus on shopdrawings and how to e$tract

them from the model. &fter this, we started with a pilot and focused on /uantityta#eoff based on the model.

This was a %ery interacti%e process, since problems were found, and we had to go bac#andforth and correct

the initial standards. !hat we thought was a linear process ended up being a recursi%e, cyclical process of

maturing during the pilot. By the end of the pilot, our standards had e%ol%ed into a 0th %ersion.

1nly after a year did we %enture into a bigger reallife pilot. It was the construction of a 0),))) m- hospital.

2ere, we tried to implement the processes of e$tracting shopdrawings and /uantity ta#eoff from part of the

pro"ect.

The end of -)** mar#ed the start of some tests with BIM estimating, BIM scheduling, and Time 3 ost ontrol.

People and ulture4hange

This was one of the most important aspects of our BIM implementation process. &s mentioned earlier, it's %ery

difficult to change an 5artist6 into a 5scientist,6 to change mentalities and abandon the idea of building as an

5art6 and face it more as a 5science.6 7ou really need someone in the company to #eep the moti%ation up. &lso,

if you don't ha%e the support of the topmanagement le%els, it is hard to implement BIM. The culture and %alues

of the organi8ation must be aligned with the new approaches. 9mpowerment, sharing, teamwor#, etc., are

characteristics that are not %ery common in the construction business. But things are changing. The problem is

not methodology or technologythe main problem is changing mentalities. It is important to accept that not

e%eryone will be recepti%e to new processes, either for fear of being o%erta#en by the colleagues, information

o%erload ;such as an abundance of emails going around

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In any case, what is real is exciting enough. With BIM, you can increase margins and efficiency right now.

Process Definition

The 4th step in our implementation was what we referred to as the Process Definition. We found that each

company in the field was deeloping its own standards. While it would !e wonderful to hae international

standards, for now, we wor" with what we hae. In Mota#$ngil, we hae also deeloped our own standards,

and eeryone "nows the inputs into the BIM data!ase and the outputs that can !e o!tained.

Before initiating the process, one must first define goals. What is the purpose% To what ends will the model !e

used% What is the leel of detail needed% When should the models !e deliered&the model progression

specification% We really care a!out costs in Mota#$ngil, and would li"e to aoid money !eing wasted !ecause

we didn't thin" !eforehand of the purpose of the model. If you only need the model for coordination, chances

are you'll need a ery low detailed model. If the extraction of (uantities is your aim, may!e you'll need a higher

leel of detail. If the model is needed for detailed shop#drawings, perhaps you'll need an een higher leel of

detail in your model. )o again, one needs to first decide* +oals # or what% -eel of Detail # ow% Model

Progression )pecification # When%

/hoice of )oftware

0s mentioned ear lier, software should !e chosen only after identifying what is needed and what the process

would !e. We chose some commercial applications li"e 0rchi/0D, )oli!ri and 1ico )oftware. But it didn't end

there. We felt the need to deelop our own $xcel#!ased Macro tools to optimi2e or improe the process, after

wor"ing with BIM for a while. 3ur own adanced algorithms, !ased in 1isual Basic, guarantee !etter (uality

and efficiency in the process. or instance, we hae an 0danced /ontent Plan that gies us (uantity ta"eoff

!ased in formulas that use ta"eoff items that resulted in the com!ination of model o!ects. With this, we can

also compare our (uantities with the ones calculated in 1I/3 and ensure the (uality of the exported model

from 0rchi/0D.

Pgina ( de 8Say NO! to Hollywood BIM: AECbyte B"ilding t#e $"t"%e A%ti&le

'()*+)'*1,#tt-:..www/ae&byte/&o0.b"ildingt#e"t"%e.'*1(.BIM2MotaEngil/#t0l

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Another point worth mentioning is that our ArchiCAD model is linked to Vico Office through several formulae

that connect every object of the model with the line items of the Bill of Quantity !hese can be done laboriously"

and manually #thus susceptible to error$ !he algorithm we developed creates these formulae in a more

efficient" faster" and error%free way !he bigger the project" the more we use these tools

&n all the presentations &'ve seen on B&( implementation" & always notice the () *+cel visible among the

various software icons &'ll venture to say that *+cel is an essential B&( tool,

-hen we develop our standards and methodologies" we are always conscious that (ota%*ngil is present in

different countries with their own standards" so an awareness of creating something useful across borders is

always present -e also know that a simple Bill of Quantities #BOQ$ in the .) may follow a different standard

than in *urope" Africa" or /atin America !o make a BOQ" with all the formulae to connect to the 0uantities of

the model would normally take two to three weeks -ith our tools" we can abbreviate this to two to three days"

resulting in greater efficiency and cost saving

!raining

1or B&( implementation in construction" the training should be oriented to producing a multi%functional2multi%

skilled team !hey should have knowledge of shop%drawings" e+tracting 0uantities" scheduling" estimating" and

time and cost control &f not" we will end up with separate departments targeting different goals" bringing along

more inefficiency

3ilots and *valuation

-hile & have already described our approach to pilot projects in the 4)trategy 3lans and 5oals6 section" & would

like to reiterate the step-by-stepprocess -e started off our pilots in 7898 with only the :D B&( up to middle of

7899 !hen we introduced ;D !ime )cheduling and Control" while still evolving on the :D" and giving training in

modeling Only in 7897 did we start to implement the

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? e+t" define a B&( oadmap @ere you should ask the following 0uestions> -hat is the 5oal -ho will beinvolved -hen they will be involved -here we will implement this

? -ith this B&( oadmap in hand" define your B&( !ask 5roup )elect the right people !hese may notnecessarily be the most e+perienced" but look for fresh bright minds" that think 4out of the bo+6 our groupmust also accept that there are sometimes bugs in the software" so patience is also important Avoid barriersand develop internal B&( standards when there aren't any national standards

? After defining the B&( group" train them and start with a small pilot project" working your way up But eventhough it's a pilot" you should place some stress as in a real project

? &n the end" make an assessment of your project emember this is not a simple se0uential process !his is aninteractive" 4rewriting"6 growing process &t's a one step at a timeprocess &f you involve trueB&( e+perts in

your implementation and discuss your e+periences with them" you will implement everything faster and withless risk !ry to avoid reinventing the wheel

(ain Benefits for a Builder

!he main benefits of this integrated B&( implementation for a construction company" based on our own

e+periences with it" are as follows>

? Better Communication? OptimiEed Crews? 3roblem &dentification and esolution? Design OptimiEation? )hop Drawings? Quantity *+traction and Cost *stimation? Better scheduling and risk mitigation

!he first benefit" better communication" is a very important one that is difficult to 0uantify But for all those who

have some construction site e+perience" it will be easy to understand and remember the difficulty sometimes to

communicate" in meetings" what the 7D drawings convey !o make things more comple+" there are usually a

lot of these 7D designs -ith B&(" in a couple of months" you can have a detailed model to better understand

the project" discuss strategies" se0uencing of works" etc

!he second benefit relates to optimiEed crews !his does not involve firing people" but instead" re%0ualifying

our workers *arlier" we had people working only on very specific jobs in the whole process ow" we need

multi%skilled people working in different areas like 0uantity takeoff" estimation" or scheduling -hat we will havein the future are engineers that can manage data in a holistic way -e conducted a small study in (ota%*ngil

about crew composition !hough difficult to prove" we believe that" with a mature B&( crew" we could save 9F

to 7F of the costs on site By this" & mean we could have more people in the office managing data" and fewer

on site

Pgina 5 de 8Say NO! to Hollywood BIM: AECbyte B"ilding t#e $"t"%e A%ti&le

'()*+)'*,-#tt.://www0ae&byte0&o1/b"ildingt#e2"t"%e/'*,(/BIM3MotaEngil0#t1l

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In a 15000m2 construction site, we extracted a BIM based Bill of Quantities and compared it to the one derived

using the traditional wa! "his was done for thousands of lines and then we went on to stud the differences!

"he interesting part was that due to our internal modeling rules, the differences we found were not due to

software bugs or incapacities, but were based or errors done in the modeling! "he could also be attributed to

the #uantit surveor$ we found out that he used an approximate number in some of the cases due to lac% of

time! &ither wa, the errors were human made, which is normal! "his highlights the fact that we onl need

#ualit chec%ing processes that guarantee the #ualit and consistenc of our data!

'n the list of benefits is also Better (cheduling! )s I*ve mentioned above, we*re using the Line of Balance

methodolog! +rom our experience in pilot proects and in discussing with our partners, we can safel sa that

a 20- gain in the total duration of the construction has been achieved, with the proportional saving in site

costs! (o in a 10M. site, a site could represent 10- of the cost! "his 20- gain in duration would reflect in

saving 200!000.!

/e found that the Line of Balance based discussion clarifies problems and options! In one small sheet of

paper, one can see all logical se#uencing of tas%s that, in the traditional M method, would ta%e several long

sheets that few could comprehend!

/e are testing some indicators based on ( curves, istogram 3esources, and &arned 4alue )nalsis for our

"op Management! )ll of these are enriched with a BIM based schedule and estimate! Thisis true 5 BIM!

'ur next step is to wor% with the owners to help them move towards the goal of 6BIM7 +acilit Management!

Pgina + de 8Say NO! to Hollywood BIM: AECbyte B"ilding t#e $"t"%e A%ti&le

'()*+)'*,-#tt.://www0ae&byte0&o1/b"ildingt#e2"t"%e/'*,(/BIM3MotaEngil0#t1l

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C$ncl%si$n

#n c$ncl%si$n, # see ' as a h%ge $(($rt%nity )$r the c$nstr%cti$n sect$r. *$% sh$%l n$t +$rry ab$%t the

am$%nt $) investment inv$lve beca%se i) y$% $ it in a c$nscienti$%s +ay, y$% +$nt regret it an y$%ll see

the ret%rn $) the investment right in the )irst year $) im(lementati$n. se the mantra $) $nt reinvent the

+heel./ ae avantage $) the n$+lege gathere by e(erts that have em(irically s%))ere/ all the ty(ical

(i$neer im(lementati$n (ains. his +ay, y$%ll im(lement everything )aster an +ith less ris. he )aster y$%

im(lement it, the %icer y$% bec$me m$re c$m(etitive an m$re e))icient. # have seen the res%lts an they

s(ea )$r themselves.

Ab$%t the A%th$rAnt$ni$ % iv$ 'eireles is the #nn$vati$n 'anager $) '$ta-Engil. 5e

has a egree in Civil Engineering 620078, a '&A in C$r($rate

'anagement 620098, an is c%rrently (%rs%ing a :h.". in

C$nstr%cti$n 'anagement. 5e is )$c%se $n the im(r$vement $) the

c$nstr%cti$n in%stry thr$%gh the evel$(ment $) n$+lege as +ell

as e))icient an inn$vati$n-riven (r$cesses. #nn$vCenter, '$ta-

Engils #nn$vati$n :lat)$rm, is $ne $) his m$st s%ccess)%l initiatives

an +as $ne $) ten reci(ients a+are the ;ielsen ;$rman