Better by design

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PIECHOWIAK: I identified the members of my team that were most willing to work with the new technology and give it a shot.

Another reason for why AFC did not purchase the software is that it would require an extensive overhaul of its existing infrastructure. Piechowiak discovered this when he first trialled the design software on a previous project during the construction of Dubai Festival City.

"I did a little exercise just to look at what the software could do. We upgraded some of our machines - fundamentally, video cards and processing power was what we had to do to the machines. That's purely just to view the model, not to work with it - if we actually bought into the technology, then we'd have to have a new breed of computers to be able to handle that. This was very much blue-sky, never-been trialled software, so it was a case of trialling it on a job that was relatively low risk for us," he elaborates.

Early tests of the Autodesk software on the project showed that the software was able to identify flaws produced by designers working for AFC. But when it came to the Motor City project, Piechowiak says that the software could still benefit from a little human touch.

"The problem with the software is that it purely looks at elements and clashes, which in the real world might not be a problem - or might be a bigger one. You actually have to have someone who understands construction and design and can look at the model and see if something's right or wrong," he says.

"When the first model that the company did for us was given to me, the first thing I did was turn it upside down. I discovered that they had modelled exactly what was in the design drawings but they had missed the point that one of the ramps going into the building didn't have a foundation. Nobody identified that. The software couldn't tell you that, because that's not a clash - that's just something fundamental that's missing," continues Piechowiak.

One of the most crucial elements towards ensuring the success of any new implementation is ensuring people understand and want to use it. In AFC, this was an uphill task, as most of the construction professionals were comfortable with designing using paper. To facilitate the software uptake, Piechowiak sent two of the team to Chennai in India to work with the outsourcing team and build up expertise in using the software.

But even though they have returned to share their expertise with the rest of the organisation, the acceptance rate of the BIM software is still relatively low - just 15% of the team use it.

Piechowiak admits that the number is not high, but explains the circumstances: "At one stage, we had no other options, because we had a limited time scale and a limited staff. In some ways, there was no other option. What I did was identify in my team people who were most likely to buy into the technology, or at least have a go."

Now that the implementation is complete, he says that the software has provided valuable lessons about how to manage AFC's team more effectively: "Having seen the technology, there is definitely scope to train people and reduce the size of the teams and make them much more focused on what they should be doing. Very often, we get stuck in trying to deal with problems that are fairly insignificant. Whereas, if people have more time to actually look at the whole building, then issues will become easier to solve."

Piechowiak concludes by stating that Autodesk's software deserves a wider uptake from the market - but that it will only happen if people understand its usage: "Part of the process is that we try to make technology do what we always have done. What we should be doing is saying: ‘Here's what the technology people can do and this is the way we should be doing it.' What very often happens is that we try to map what we're doing just now with the technology - which is the wrong thing to be doing."

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READERS' COMMENTS

BIM
Posted by David Wilkinson, Hingham, United States on Monday 13 April 2009 at 21:19 UAE time

We learned this valuable lesson early. Process is more critical than software. In the 300 plus 5D models we have completed we have established a rigid step by step process for placing elements into a model, documenting all issues, real or potential, at the time of placement, red flagging critical issues for specialists to review, and generating detailed documentation - this cannot wait until the model is completed and run through a collision software program - it must occur as you model.

Finally, we designed the Model Progression specification (MPS) that details exactly how the model will be built, who is responsible, level of detail required, output required (only 3D - 4D - 5D etc.)

DW

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