The latest innovation emerging in large development projects is the concept of collaborative building lifecycle management (BLM). Through BLM, the project team – site planners, designers, engineers, construction personnel, and managers – comes together with many other professionals such as financiers, insurance brokers, regulatory bodies, suppliers, and manufacturers – to form a dynamic team that works together more efficiently and effectively.

Building lifecycle management represents the next stage in digital surveying, engineering, and design where all players in the lifecycle of a development project create, manage, and share information about built assets – from site planning and design concept to reuse or demolition.


Modern Modeling
Leading professionals in land development, building design, and engineering are leveraging the power of design models to work more effectively in their own disciplines. Dynamic modeling technologies, such as AutoCAD Civil 3D, provide real-world objects that maintain relationships with other objects within the model when changes occur. The corollary in building design, structural engineering, and mechanical, electrical, plumbing (MEP) is building information modeling, or BIM.

The next stage beyond working more effectively in your own discipline is to work together across disciplines in a seamless working environment that benefits all players, including those beyond the drawings.


Lifecycle Management Benefits
BLM delivers the big picture via an online project workspace. Everybody on the team, from developers to building owners, has instant electronic access to all the documents. With the entire team brought together earlier, decisions are made by sharing information, which in turn creates a synergy that pushes team members to think ahead, moving the project forward faster when changes have the largest impact on the bottom line. Using design and collaboration technologies strategically gives unprecedented flexibility, control, and speed – before, during, and after the building cycle.


Benefits of BLM to Engineering
From the first boundary survey to the ongoing management of engineering and construction, relational database-driven software is being leveraged to produce a shared high-value project information model that accrues in value over the project lifecycle.

Allen Nobles and Associates, Inc., a Florida-based survey and civil engineering firm, understands the benefits of using information modeling. Their staff of 60-plus provides a full range of surveying services to meet the needs of their civil engineering clients. They start their site surveys using a Leica Geosystems ScanStation (laser scanning) and find that the combination of working with the point cloud data output and Civil 3D makes their work more efficient and more valuable to clients.

“We could use reflectors and rods and total stations to get field data and still generate an information model in Civil 3D,” says Michael J. Zoltek, Licensed Surveyor and Vice President of the company. “It’s just that with both ends being more efficient, we get a much bigger jumpstart, and we can hand off a complete information model to our clients who find that product much more valuable than just lines and contours in a standard CAD drawing.”

At Miller Legg, another multi-disciplinary design firm based in Florida, the benefits of adopting dynamic modeling are becoming clear.

“Gaining the ability to view complex 3D relationships between roadways, elevations, piping, and other systems allows engineers to instantly visualize and circumvent problems that simply were not evident in just two dimensions,” said Todd Nochomson, CAD Systems Manager, Miller Legg. “Redesign costs drop significantly and projects stay on schedule.”

Using multi-dimensional models allows different engineering fields to view drawings without requiring the native application knowledge, and overlay other discipline information (ex. civil and structural views) at an earlier stage where design changes are less costly. With this approach engineers are now able to detect potential project problems in the model, prior to any construction starts or material orders. All components of the designs from each discipline (traditionally drawings) are now able to be reviewed against each other to review potential interferences, design or trade conflicts prior to any construction, which saves time and money in the field.

According to Scott Latta, Engineering Technician at the City of Coppell in Texas, his team enjoys time savings that give them an increased willingness to explore design changes based on feedback from construction firms.

“Better communication between our engineers and the general contractor performing the work means fewer problems crop up,” Latta says. Checking potential interferences right in the drawing minimizes costly field errors and improves planning and collaboration.
Architects

Producing better documentation and drawings reduces the risk of error and omission, but BLM offers many other benefits to architects. With BIM and BLM, architects can offer additional services such as solar studies and facilities management. Tasks such as energy use plans, space efficiency reporting, help with employee moves, and change and asset management over the lifetime of the building allows a better reflection of the current conditions of the structure and its accompanying assets. In addition, as-builts and record drawings are incorporated into the model as construction proceeds,  these do not need to be specifically generated later in the post-construction process.

CAD Manager Ken Fisher at firm Shive-Hattery says he doesn’t just provide drawings to clients: “We provide customers with a database of building information which they can then use to inform their facility lifecycle management processes including energy management, space allocation, and building maintenance. Some clients expect these benefits and actually require that project bidders use building information models.”


Structural Engineering
Lindemann Bentzon Bojack Engineering Company, Inc., (LBB) is a leader in structural engineering, permitting, inspection, and construction drawings primarily for the home building industry. With a staff of more than 60 employees, LBB is fast becoming the leading proponent and supplier of ”whole house” design – wherein design, structural engineering and material costing processes can occur simultaneously.

Hans Bentzon, Principal at Lindemann Bentzon Bojack, describes the benefits of using 3D models in design technology.

“Applying 3D models means our teams work simultaneously on a project so that it’s completed in 30 days vs. 90 days – a 66% time savings. This means customers who work with us get their projects up and realize return on their investment faster,” reports Bentzon.

The big benefit is that the traditional “design phase conversation” between the engineer and architect is taking place sooner and is being done inside an integrated digital model that removes duplication of efforts and provides better conflict resolution and reviews.

Another benefit is that the architect and the engineer can carry on their conversation to explore options together more readily than in the past. Structural engineers are not hamstrung by the long process of redrawing elements and updating entire sheet sets. Changes can now be quickly made in one place, while all related drawings are updated automatically.


Building Inspection
Submittals for approvals can be made more easily and quickly with up-to-date information models that accurately reflect the building. Inspectors with code-checking tools can receive and check drawings online and submit them to the project team directly with changes to ensure plans meet code requirements.

Building code professionals can then provide their approval/rejection, as well as accompanying notes for review and implementation of design changes, and all members of the team have access to the latest model.


Construction
Construction managers can get involved in project development far earlier with this new business model. By engaging in the design process earlier, they can make suggestions regarding materials and construction methods that reduce costs and implementation time while improving overall quality. Arguably the most significant benefit to construction managers is their improved ability to provide accurate cost projections prior to bidding.

3D models offer contractors and construction companies a unique opportunity to work with architects to increase profits for both designers and builders, and to deliver better quality projects to owners and clients. Construction managers can make use of models to create prefab walls and use them to generate 3D visualizations for workers so they can see what the end result of their work should look like.


Trades and Subcontractors
Scheduling trades and construction sequencing with BLM avoids conflicts and overlap, and enables just-in-time material delivery, which reduces the need for onsite storage and security. Trades and subcontractors gain access to accurate information at a far earlier stage than before. As a result, their ability to provide more accurate estimates increases so they won’t have to mark up their quotations to protect themselves from rework and changes in the field.


Owners
In the final analysis, development owners are the ultimate beneficiaries of a coordinated approach. The project knowledge base is useful for corporate real estate professionals who can use the information for facilities management purposes and strategic real estate planning. In addition to inheriting the massive knowledge base that an information model represents, they should experience more efficiency, reducing time to market, and a reduction in materials and labor costs while achieving excellence in land and building design.


Change is Inevitable
Plans and specifications are complex enough that mistakes on projects are expected and contracts are full of risk mitigation language. The lack of clear and coordinated documents is the top culprit contributing to construction delay and cost overruns. The entire building ecosystem of owners, architects, engineers, general contractors, and subcontractors can expect to benefit from adopting collaborative BLM.

All the necessary tools needed to create a collaborative working environment exist today. If there are impediments to change, they lie in the way that the industry has traditionally worked on building projects in a sequential manner, precluding collaboration.
This is changing.

The movement toward simultaneous tracks fosters new ways for members of a development project to work together more effectively and to provide leading edge service to their clients. Those who adopt technologies that enable information modeling and BLM will be able to offer better designs, reduce building costs, diminish construction completion timelines and perform long-term property management.

Payoffs such as increased efficiency and ultimate cost savings due to better insight at every stage of a project are well worth the effort of implementing a collaborative building lifecycle management solution for large projects. SLDT