BIM guidance for specialist engineering contractors
The Specialist Engineering Contractors’ (SEC) Group has published a guide to BIM (Building Information Modelling) competence for specialist contractors. It has been prepared in collaboration with the BIM academy at the University of Northumbria. It also has input from the National Specialist Contractors’ Council and is endorsed by the Cabinet office.
The Guide seeks to help specialist contracting firms become conversant with BIM. Its adoption is at a crucial stage where specialist contractors will have a bigger part to play in system design and integration. Public-sector procurers and private-sector clients will be demanding more BIM-enabled projects to deliver efficiency savings through the elimination of waste. This guide has been updated to reflect the changes in the application of BIM in the UK since the inception of the original document.
David Frise, chairman SEC Group/NSCC BIM working group, says in the guide’s introduction, ‘The tangible benefits associated with BIM — especially reducing design risk and facilitating faster delivery — can only be fully realised when procurement and contractual mindsets change. For example, early supply-chain involvement is an essential but, at present, such involvement is rare.
‘BIM is a manifestation of the digital revolution, just like the smartphone — as they say better to take part in a revolution than have one ”done” to you.’
