{"id":2212,"date":"2020-12-07T10:30:31","date_gmt":"2020-12-07T10:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thecadroom.com\/?p=2212"},"modified":"2023-03-10T14:08:47","modified_gmt":"2023-03-10T14:08:47","slug":"bim-is-a-process-not-a-tool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thecadroom.com\/blog\/bim-is-a-process-not-a-tool\/","title":{"rendered":"BIM is a process, not a tool"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in April 2016, the UK Government mandate for BIM Level 2 <\/a>landed, which meant that any government construction projects that were procured from that date on had to now be delivered in line with the Building Information Modelling standards.<\/p>\n

Reactions to the mandate were a little mixed, as at the time, many companies felt they were not BIM-ready<\/a> (and many still don\u2019t feel they are). The main reason for this seemed to be that construction companies felt that it would cost too much, and as it wasn\u2019t something they had asked for, why should they pay for it?<\/p>\n

The problem lies with the fact that there seems to be a common misconception about what BIM really is. The belief that it is the name given to the 3D visualisation of construction projects just emphasizes the fact that people don\u2019t understand BIM Level 2 at all.<\/p>\n

It is not surprising that people are confused by BIM, after all, there does not seem to be one universal definition of it! What we need to make clear though, is that BIM is a process, not a tool. It is a way of working.<\/p>\n

The common misconception<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you do a quick search for BIM Level 2 on the web, you will find lots of articles that talk about \u201cwe want to use BIM\u201d or \u201cwe used BIM in this project\u201d. This is fuelling the misconception that BIM is a tool. BIM cannot be \u2018used\u2019 as it is not a piece of software or a tool – it is not an object. Building Information Modelling i<\/a>s a collaborative way of working which is underpinned by the help of digital tools.<\/p>\n

What this lack of understanding means is that people have started to believe that once they adopt BIM in their business, it will be able to work with little or no input from them. This is not the case. For BIM to work correctly it needs to have continuous input and a steady flow of information from both workers and technology. Which is another reason why some businesses are hesitant to adopt it – they are reluctant to change their existing ways of working.<\/p>\n

How to approach the adoption process of BIM<\/strong><\/p>\n

When it comes to the adoption process<\/a> for BIM, it tends to have a negative reputation as it is believed to be complicated, long, and therefore costly. However, surely this is outweighed by the fact that once you have adopted BIM within your organisation, you will be able to access the long-term benefits of reducing errors and increasing efficiency, which will save you both time and money.<\/p>\n

So, how do you get started?<\/p>\n