In this blog, we’ll delve into how Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) are transforming the construction industry, enabling design teams to revolutionize their workflows.
We’ll explore how these tools can significantly impact your projects, enhance collaboration, and ultimately improve job outcomes. If you’re looking to understand why BIM matters and how it affects job performance, you’ve come to the right place.
How to Design a Production System Based on a Work Package
Let me start with a story to illustrate the power of BIM in the design process. Recently, Kate, the CEO of our company, read Built to Fail by Todd Sabel, and it sparked a profound conversation about how we approach project design. The core idea is simple yet revolutionary: rather than designing and then figuring out how to build, we should be designing with a production system in mind.
In a typical production system, you have tact wagons—the intersection of time and space where work happens. But what’s inside these wagons is even more critical: work packages.
These are the key elements that allow trade partners to execute tasks efficiently, moving from zone to zone in a flow. Designing these work packages from the start, with specific details like crew size, resources, materials, and timelines, can dramatically enhance the efficiency of any project.
By designing the work package first and then working backward to plan the overall project, BIM becomes an indispensable tool. It allows us to visualize the process, estimate resources accurately, and align all stakeholders on a single vision.
Why We Should Use Building Information Modeling More
Let me share another quick story. Recently, I was in Mexico with Kate and our Lean tech team. During a planning boot camp, they built a project using BIM to model logistics, simulate building processes, and plan production. They even used Google Earth to ensure accurate site logistics.
Kate was blown away, asking, “Do all of our clients do this?” The truth is, while BIM adoption is growing, it’s not as widespread as it should be. Todd Sabel emphasizes in his book that using BIM early in the process can maximize project success. This is why I believe it’s crucial to push the industry toward more consistent use of BIM.
How BIM Can Change the Construction Industry
BIM has the potential to become as standard as construction drawings and submittals. Imagine being able to see every element of your project before you break ground—avoiding potential conflicts, optimizing resources, and ensuring a seamless workflow.
By using BIM throughout the entire design, pre-construction, and planning phases, we can deliver better projects with fewer surprises.
Here are eight practical ways BIM can help revolutionize the way you work:
- Visualization: Most design teams already use BIM for exterior modeling, but you can go beyond that. With BIM, you can model complex details, structural components, and interior spaces, providing clarity to all stakeholders.
- Collaboration: Parametric modeling in BIM allows real-time updates across disciplines, helping architects, engineers, and trade partners work together more seamlessly. This reduces silos and ensures everyone is on the same page.
- Clash Detection: BIM’s clash detection features help catch design conflicts early, before construction even starts, saving time and money.
- Simulation & Performance Analysis: BIM allows for detailed simulations that test structural performance, energy efficiency, and even code compliance before a project begins.
- Cost Estimation & Quantity Takeoffs: From early design stages, BIM can automate quantity takeoffs and provide accurate cost estimates, reducing errors and helping projects stay on budget.
- Scheduling: By tying BIM models to schedules, teams can simulate the construction process, ensuring that everything fits together before any work begins.
- Documentation: With BIM, documentation becomes more accurate and up-to-date, reducing discrepancies between design and construction.
- Enhanced Decision Making: BIM enables better decision-making by providing detailed insights into every aspect of the project, from design through to completion.
Conclusion
BIM offers a remarkable way to rethink how we approach construction, from designing to the work package to visualizing the end product.
If you want to learn more we have:
-Takt Virtual Training: (Click here)
-Check out our Youtube channel for more info: (Click here)
-Listen to the Elevate Construction podcast: (Click here)
-Check out our training programs and certifications: (Click here)
-The Takt Book: (Click here)
Discover Jason’s Expertise:
Meet Jason Schroeder, the driving force behind Elevate Construction IST. As the company’s owner and principal consultant, he’s dedicated to taking construction to new heights. With a wealth of industry experience, he’s crafted the Field Engineer Boot Camp and Superintendent Boot Camp – intensive training programs engineered to cultivate top-tier leaders capable of steering their teams towards success. Jason’s vision? To expand his training initiatives across the nation, empowering construction firms to soar to unprecedented levels of excellence.
On we go!
