So now we've covered the use of BIM during the design phase from a CM perspective, but during the design-management phase. What is it to track cost? What do I need to do in order to integrate the model of the specifications? What do I need to integrate the model with the cost estimating database and produce quantities out of it? Most importantly, what do I need to do in order to check all of the information in my model to check that this is accurate? Now moving on from that design stage. Now we put an end to that design stage and we're starting that construction stage. What happens during the construction stage? Why do we need to implement BIM during the construction stage? So one very obvious reason is to do that model validation again for clash detection and coordination to check the comparison between the model and the shop drawings, to make sure that the model has reached another level of detail. To make sure that it includes all these shop drawing details. These job drawings are not produced during design, they are produced during the construction phase. So to make sure we're doing clash detection and coordination, but the most important part is, we're not doing clash detection and coordination according to the design models anymore. We're using the trade models here. So we're using the models that were prepared by each subcontractor, not each design team. Not each discipline in the design team. More often than not, the staff that's working during that phase has different skill sets that are required like I mentioned earlier. These trade models, more often than not, are producing different software than the design authoring tool. So they need to be proficient in that type of software. And we do different type of model validation and conditioning so instead of checking for the design set, I'm checking according to these shop drawings. During trade coordination, there are definitely lessons learned. A lot of companies have perfected that process because they've been doing it for a while and it's extremely useful in saving them cost and reworking the field that they have perfected doing that process and saving their projects money and time. So first, there has to be a BIM kickoff meeting. People working on the project have to understand very early on that BIM is required. If it's introduced during the bidding phase, that is super important for it to happen because during the bidding phase, that's when the contractor's figuring out how much am I going to spend on this project? They have to account for some costs for BIM staff on their teams. We have to account for the selection of their subs. If we're talking about GCs, then they have to select the subs that work well in that environment. Or be prepared to teach them. Be prepared to mentor them throughout the whole process. So that kickoff meeting is essential. The majority of traits have to be involved. You cannot possibly have a BIM environment and do clash detection and coordination in that BIM environment, if you're going to have the mechanical contractor not really involved in the BIM process. That's just not possible because that's a major element. If that contractor decides to say well, I've never used BIM before but I'm prepared to use it on this project, we always encourage that, because then we can mentor them through the process, introduce them to the BIM process. And that's good for us on this project, future projects, and for that contractor working with others in the future. The specification for what it really means to do coordination in a BIM environment has to be clear. I've been on projects where the specifications for coordination are both in a 2D environment and in the 3D environment. That is not really effective. We have to pick one method that works for the team and we cannot say, well I need both a 2D deliverable and the 3D deliverable, and I need you to do it both methodologies. If you follow a BIM methodology, then the best thing to do is to follow it all the way through. So that people don't really get discouraged from the change and revert back to how they used to do it before and not through the environment. We cannot possibly have a coordination effort that only relies on the sub-contractors and the trade contractors. The general contractor has to be involved, has to be leading that coordination effort. Even though they may not be producing these trade models themself, but they have to lead the coordination effort. They have to have someone on staff that works on that coordination efforts. Project participants must have access to the model, why is that? Imagine, I'm a field superintendent or an inspector. There was a change that was made as a result of yesterday's coordination meeting. And I'm on-site right now and someone is building according to that change. But I can't see it, I don't have access to the model. What will I check against? What will I make sure that the contractor's doing their job? And I'm inspecting that work. How do I make sure that they're doing their job according to what? Do I look at drawings? Do I look at pictures? What am I looking at? Well they have to have access to the model. Whether it's, in some cases, you have a screen put up in a trailer. People walk in, it's a touchscreen, they can walk around the model. Like I mentioned earlier with virtual reality, you can have a model that's in a virtual reality environment, that people walk around using the joystick or a keyboard or a mouse. Something simple that anyone can use, not necessarily with a lot of training. And now with mobile applications, you can also do that with the model being in real time available on their tablets. Whatever kind of tablet they have, there are tools that suit that. Now it's also an effort to make sure that's maintained, and they have right model, and they're working off of the right version. But that, I think, is vital. That they have to have access to the model. If they don't, they can't work off of something that's an illusion, and they cannot worked off of something that they have to depend on someone else to go access that information. They can't depend on me all the time or a BIM specialist that's working on their project all the time to access that information. There has to be some memorialization of that coordination effort. I cannot possible coordinate then start building, and then I didn't make a record of what did I coordinate. So there has to be that record of the coordination. And I call it the coordination sign off. So you say okay, this zone of the building, I'm done, it's coordinated. This is what I'm building against. You have to make a record of that. Document it, save that model, give it a version name, lock these elements that have been coordinated to prevent any future issues. It's very easy to move an object in a BIM environment. It's very easy to move it in a computer world. But in the field, if that's already been installed, it costs time and money to change it. We must start the process early. I mentioned that earlier with the BIM kickoff, that also with defining the standards. What are the standards of implementing BIM for coordination? What is the owner looking for? Am I modeling conduit smaller than three inches? Am I modeling conduit smaller than one inch? Maybe if I have multiple conduit runs that are very close to each other, I'm modeling those. Am I modeling hangers for duct work and for pipes? Am I modeling to the level of detail of 300 or is it 400? What am I modeling again? What are my requirements? Those have to be defined very early on. So this is essentially your rendering of the 3D model. Now this is extremely high quality and this not what you work with on site every day. But this is done from a proposal standpoint and from a do it once standpoint rather than updated every month. And I'll show you other quality that is updated every month. So this is very high quality rendering of a bridge restoration project. What happens is that you have a Revit model that was developed again for design purposes and then you're going to reuse that for rendering. So you can see here that you've got cars, you've got cranes, you've got a barge. You've got that information and you've got the schedule information right here. Now if I only showed you the schedule information separately, you will really struggle to try to understand what's really happening on that bridge. But if I start showing you that schedule, together with the image and then the timeline moves. Notice here that this blue line moves as the timeline moves on. And then that image changes. What the project looks like changes. Now I'm separating, I'm dividing these areas. I'm creating a diversion on the road and I'm dividing these areas. And I keep moving on from a bridge restoration project. I keep moving on and I keep making changes. So then you can see that what does the bridge looks like at each stage, and you can take snapshots of that. So this is of tremendous value because if I showed you only the bar chart, it's very hard to visualize what is really happening, how am I closing off these areas? So I'm going through it again just to show you that. Sequence in it. All right. So, that's a high quality model. What happens everyday on site? Do I see something that's that high quality? No, managing expectation is extremely important. I don't update such a model, a very high resolution of having beautiful images, water, cars, beautiful, realistic colors. We don't do that every day on sight. What we do is something similar to what you You see right now. So this is in a different environment that's mostly linked directly with the schedule, whether it's coming from P6 or Microsoft Project. Once I link that information, I can see, you see in green or in orange what's really happening. So here you have a legend of the activities that are happening. So in green you see that there's placing and finishing metal panels. In orange, you can see depths. This is in green construction of steel also in this area. So you can see that and for the environment because it's linked to the time. So you can see the sequence of construction. Now, you get a much better understanding of the sequence of construction for this project. From showing you a video similar to this or from a bar chart and pages and pages of activities. So for example, project like this may have about 2,000 activities in a piece of schedule. Am I gonna go through all these activities? Not really, now, I can see what is the sequence of construction and then I can drill down in the schedule at a later date, at a later time so, this is of tremendous value. From a 4D standpoint, from a scheduler standpoint, to analyze the schedule. From the project team's standpoint, project managers, staff. Field staff, contractors, to communicate with each other what is the sequence of work. Rather than start looking through pages and pages of pie charts and CPM activities and trying to figure out what are the links between activities. This really gives you a very good idea about the sequence of work. You can also use this to produce look aheads. So you can produce look ahead similar to this. What will the project look like in a month? What will the project look like in 60 days? What will the project look like in 90 days? What will the project look like, what did the project look like in the past? You can get all this information from the bit model. Compare it to photographs, compare it to visiting the sites. And figure out what is the plan versus the actual where were I supposed to be and what is behind? What is really causing a delay in the project? You can also compare the contractor's updates. So as a CN you're receiving an update from the contractor every month about how the schedule is doing. You're receiving that update but as a CN do you trust that update completely? Well if that schedule has like I mentioned 2,000 sometimes 10,000, 20,000 activities am I going through each and every activity and figure out is it on time or not or is what the contractor is saying accurate or not? Or can I go ahead. And because it's already linked to that model, go out on site and mark up what's been completed. What I physically see on site probably using a tablet and be able to color code automatically. What was completed versus what was planned or versus what the contractor is really telling me and these are some examples of that. So right here you can see a model and you can see that this is a schedule of work. And this schedule is coming directly from P6 or it could be Microsoft Project and it's a live integration. It means that once I update the schedule in P6, updates directly here, the sequencing changes. So, this is an example of comparing your base line schedule to the latest update that you've got from the contractor. So you can see here again this is a small project you're seeing here first they're doing demo of these different labs, these different rooms. Demo here is a bit behind. Here they've already started construction. Here they're still starting, and you can see right here is the schedule. All the information in one platform on one screen. So you don't have to keep going back and forth, you don't have to print bar charts and figure out what does this correspond to. So in this platform you can see it all in the same environment. What you can also see as you can link this information not only to previous schedules or updates, but you can also link it to cash flow. So what you see here is if that schedule is cost loaded, then it not only becomes a 4D model, but it's also a 5D model. So you're adding that cost component in a cost loaded schedule. Now I understand not everyone always has a cost loaded schedule in their project. But sometimes it's really worth your while to develop that cost loaded schedule yourself as the construction manager. You already have the payment requisition, you already have the schedule, you can tie both together. And once that schedule is tied to the objects of the model, so you can not only play the sequence of work but you can also see where you are in spending money on that project. So you can see that cash flow based on your base line schedule. And you can see, in the future once the project starts, you can add another curve for what's the money that you've actually spent. And I'll talk about that in a couple minutes. The other thing that you can do is that analysis like I'm I mentioned. We mentioned earlier that you can track the work in place. I mentioned that you can have the base line cash flow. Now what you can also do is that earned value now that concept of earned values now Analysis. Which means that what is the work in place? So, here you can see in green and then red what's completed and red is what's not completed yet. Qualities of work in place can be produced similar to what I showed you earlier where you can update the model in a platform. Produce all types of quantities from that modeling environment. So right here you can equate it to percentage of work in place, and that can be either evaluated based on cost or based on the quantities, depending on where the baseline curve is based on. So the baseline curve is coming from the cost-loaded schedule, isolating the activities for that particular task. In this case, it's conduits. So you're isolating the cost of conduits and spreading that over time and figuring out based on the early dates of the schedule based on the late dates of the schedule. What is happening? Right, what is happening and when and what's my trend? So as long as I'm in this area right here, I will be on time. If I start exceeding which is happening right here. And delayed. And what happened here is that we realized right here, they were about to be delayed. And if you equate that to the manpower, the manpower has increased at this point. Because we realized that we are going to be delayed, we quickly caught up and increased our trend, and finally we met the project expectations by finishing on time. So this is the benefit of having been on your project and having that data produced automatically. Someone could say I could produce this data manually, why do I need BIM to do it? Yes but it would not be as accurate as you would not be tracking quantities of conduit without BIM models, you would be walking this site looking around and figuring out how much materials the contractors have buyed, walking around the site and giving around estimate of how much were places were completed but it's not as accurate as getting it from the BIM model, and that makes a huge difference specifically on large projects. This man power chart is also not done manually, but it's also imported from daily reports that are completed on iPads on site. So that's also another aspect that BIM is not always only about 3D, but it's about getting the information that you need. This information is coming in a way that I can reuse, rather than having them fill it out on hard copies. And filling them out on paper. And make sure that they're filling it out in a platform that we can utilize. So like I mentioned, you can do that for a trait, or you can do that for the whole project. This is for the whole project. And this right here, can be either cost or can be schedule or it can be percentage or it can be quantity. So you define what your y-axis is. You basically need a base line schedule you need to truck the working place so these two curves right here. Based on cost, base on quantities of work and place like I mentioned, based on duration. You define that methodology. And you can also plot out how much you've paid every month, so these are your invoices. I mentioned changes between different models earlier. You can also do that during construction. So let's say, that the change order was issued. What happens when that change order is issued? We're trying to figure out how much that change order costs and a lot of times estimators will meet with each other, negotiate, they talk about two things. They talk about quantity of change. What has changed? Do I need to buy more material? And the cost of the change. We're here trying to minimize the negotiation on the quantity. If we're both dealing with one source of information, we're both dealing with the model, and producing quantities from the model. That means there's no, how did you really calculate your quantities? What assumptions did you do on the length of the pile? What assumptions do you have in every location? You don't have that discussion anymore. Quantities are clear. It's not only mathematical. It's not only in a list of quantity, but it's also visual. So there's no debate about the quantity that change. There's only discussion about how much are you pricing that change. What is the cost of that additional material? And that really facilitates that construction change order in negotiation. So this is an example where you tie the quantities to cost per square foot or per unit and evaluate what is really the cost of that change on the project At the end of the construction phase, you would need to capture those as both conditions. Right? What has happened with the ask book conditions? How can I capture that? How can I make sure that my model is updated? That could happen at the end of construction most often, or like I mentioned, very early on at the beginning of the project with capturing existing conditions if it's a renovation environment. Or during construction, and I'll explain the case that happened in this case. So we've got a building. The foundations contractor is separate from the buildings contractor and we need to make sure that the foundations are coordinated with the building. So what happens in this case? We can order or ask for a consultant to produce a laser. We can ask for a consultant to go out and survey the environment. We can ask for someone to go out and survey the environment but, all these takes coordination and takes time. What if I really needed information very fast and I'm on site? So, what happens is that using your very regular mobile phone camera. You can go out on site and produce a video just like what I'm about to show you, and that will add tremendous value. Let's go through that right here. So that is produced based on taking 250 images of this site from different angles and during the course of a one hour walk through, probably even less. Using a typical mobile phone camera. So we walked around the site, took multiple images and as you can see, we can reproduce from these images, we can reproduce point clouds. So these are all a series of points that are extremely close to each other, that make you feel that you're looking at a 3D object, but it's really a series of points. As you get closer, you get to see that. So you can zoom in, you can zoom out. You can overlay that with your model because it's in a 3D environment. You can start taking different measurements. You can start color coding it based on elevations. You can start measuring whether all these great beams, all these pile caps are in the correct location or not. So here I'm color coding it based on different elevations. So you can see red, green and yellow. You can also start overlaying it with your model to make sure that every object is in an accurate location. You can also check specific stub-ups. So these are all electrical stub-ups that match with the coordinated model of the building before building it. To make sure that everything will fit. So this is tremendous value, it'll save you money. It saves you time for capturing existing conditions. It works both exterior, so that's in an exterior space, clearly. It also works in interior. But it always needs lighting, so it does not work in the dark. And that's one of the advantages of laser scanning over this methodology. But this methodology is very widely used today. A lot of people will use it just to capture existing conditions for small areas, large areas. Or utilizing drones, like I mentioned earlier, to get from the aerial photography or to go around the building and get the exterior of the building and model. Give you, I won't say model it, but give you a point cloud and a 3D environment that you can utilize to build upon and create a 3D model for your space. Laser scanning gives you a similar product, like you can see here. But most cases, it's much more accurate. It's a faster method. It works in dark and tight areas, and it does not need a camera. It needs a specific type of equipment. So it's got expensive hardware, but it's well worth your money if you need that product, if you need that result. Now, all these technologies can be utilized to produce better reports on the project. Now, for some reason, reporting is a huge deal on all the different projects. Everything that I've worked on, reporting is a huge issue. Why? You've got different stakeholders, different types of users, different types of people who need to know how the project is going. And what that means is that you have the same data, but you're producing it in ten different ways, just to report on the progress of the project. And that is a waste of time for some people, because they have to sit there and reproduce the same data. They can be doing much better jobs doing something different when we can automate that process. So we make sure that all this data that's produced from the BIM model is hosted somewhere that is common. And then we can produce all these different reports in a user-friendly environment, rather than the typical of having, for example, a monthly report of a project be 100 pages. You can reduce that just by showing you, for example, this curve right here, I gave you an idea. You can very easily tell this project is going very well, and its actually ahead of schedule, just by looking at it. Rather than giving you 17 pages of a PDF that has board shorts that you have to go through to figure out, am I on time or not, and to trust it, to trust that that information is accurate. So we utilize all this different technology in order to produce better reports for the project theme. That could be visual, so you can add all these visuals that are coming from the BIM model. But more often, people want to look at the data itself.
