Imagine going to the kitchen, opening the fridge and taking what’s there to make a three-course dinner meal. Many would struggle, outcomes would be poor, and you would be misrable during the process.

Now, imagine you plan ahead. You find recipes online, make a shopping list, buy all the ingredients, and organize them in the fridge. You pre-chop some ingredients, plan the timing of each dish, plan your counter and stove space, coordinate with your partner, and make sure the dishwasher is empty. – You even pin the recipes on the wall for easy reference.

How do you think the meal would turn out now? Would you feel less stressed while cooking?

In the first scenario few people would put a quality product on the table. Maybe a pro-home cook, my mom, or a chef would be able to manage this through years of experience of doing the second scenario. Building Information Modelling (BIM) is the second scenario for the building industry in digital form.

That digital piece is important as it opens all the efficiencies that come with using information technologies such as the sharing of information in a seamless efficient manner. It also enables companies to build experiences on top of that building project data to create value for a diversity of jobs in building industry. Open(BIM) standards are the best option to facilitate that sharing. The open data approach enables you to create a file in one piece of software and review it in another without distortion or corruption.

As I’ve been learning more about BIM these two following steps can help people get started. Take a look at the following.

1. On technology: Planners, designers and operators that are already using IT solutions can review whether what they are using can use open standards (look for .IFC file, or open standards API). And those people that don’t use digital solutions can review what options are available to them to do their job. If nothing is available, to speak out so new tools can be developed. Technology enables ease of access to the required information, and technology enables ease of recording and sharing of new information.
2. On information requirements: Look closely at the jobs you regularly do and review what kind of information is needed, and information deficiencies that you often encounter. These can be (should be) separately listed on the contract as requirements. Lastly, is to make a list of information that could be recorded during the job and ask whether this information has value beyond the completed job. If that information is recorded during the job in digital form, it can be sold at the end of the job as an additional aspect to the job.

All this is part of planning for a digital wave that is coming to the construction sector. You either plan, or plan to fail. Embracing this digital revolution leads to higher productivity and higher quality product. But it has to align with the people doing the work day-in day-out.