BIM can cut FM costs by 30 percent

According to the AMCA, the vast majority of Australia’s major contractors, subcontractors and suppliers embrace BIM, which it says has the capacity to cut facilities management costs by 30 percent.

Speaking at the BIM-MEP^AUS Construction Innovation 2013 Forum, Sumit Oberoi, executive director of the Air Conditioning and Mechanical Contractors’ Association (AMCA), said, “While other countries also use building information modelling (BIM) processes within their construction industries, Australia is leading the way in terms of having the vast majority of major contractors, sub-contractors, equipment and materials suppliers already embrace the system.
“I like to think you build a building twice, both virtually and physically. The BIM-MEP^AUS system enables traditionally on-site issues to be dealt with more easily during the design phase and helps to eliminate confusion and conflict between contractors, subcontractors and consultants during the actual construction of the structure.”
BIM-MEP^AUS (Building Information Modeling – Mechanical Engineering Plumbing – Australia) is an industry initiative led by the AMCA that seeks to effectively address the issues currently impeding the transition to BIM-based integrated project delivery. It aims to achieve significant increases in productivity and a commercial framework for the implementation of BIM through industry adopted software platforms, standards and services. According to AMCA, it has the capacity to cut facilities management costs by 30 percent, significantly reducing the ongoing management and maintenance of some of Australia’s largest buildings and industrial facilities.
More than $5 billion of Australian construction projects commenced in the last year have adopted the BIM-MEP^Aus specifications, standards, models and workflows, including Barangaroo South, the North Royal Adelaide Hospital and the Adelaide Oval redevelopment project. Some of Australia’ largest construction companies have adopted the process, including Lend Lease. The Department of Defence has also started to consider ways of adopting the BIM-MEP^AUS process and is hoping other Commonwealth agencies will follow it’s lead.
Also speaking at the BIM-MEP^AUS Construction Innovation 2013 Forum, defence construction contracts director, Bob Baird said BIM had been credited in some markets with delivering savings of up to 10 percent during construction and 30 percent for facilities management. “When we look at the size of our [over a billion dollar] budget and I can get a 10 percent saving, that’s a significant saving for the taxpayer. So we bit the bullet and started to look at research on BIM,” Baird commented.