NBS National BIM survey shows support for Government’s approach
The Government continues to drive the industry’s adoption of building information modelling (BIM), according to this year’s NBS National BIM survey. This is the fifth year of the survey, which tracks attitudes to and adoption of BIM.
More than 80% of respondents to this year’s survey believe that BIM in some form will be compulsory on public-sector projects, and 70% feel that the Government will mandate BIM in the way specified in the construction strategy document — namely 3D collaborative BIM, also known as Level 2.
Encouragingly for the Government and its UK BIM task group, the majority believe that it is ’on the right track’ with BIM. However, only a quarter believe that the UK is a world leader, with a further 45% ambivalent.
Most of those surveyed believe that BIM will help reduce costs and time, while 41% see it as a tool to help reduce carbon emissions.
David Philp, head of BIM for the UK BIM task group, commented, ‘A digitised and integrated built environment is the future of our industry, and increasing numbers of people are recognising this. We must continue to make it clear that BIM, and associated technologies that enable and support collaborative working, are of benefit to everyone, not just to central Government.
‘Cost and lack of expertise and training remain major barriers to BIM adoption. As the economy improves and workloads pick up, around half of those surveyed cite a lack of time to get up to speed.
‘Perhaps most surprisingly, 63% of participants said that lack of client demand is the main reason for not adopting BIM. This raises the question of how something that is mandated by central Government and is likely to spread quickly throughout the public sector can penetrate the consciousness of private-sector clients.’
David Philp also remarked on the 43% of respondents which claim that the projects they work on are too small, ‘suggesting a continuing belief that BIM is for large-scale projects’.
In response he refers to the 59% of respondents to the survey who have seen cost efficiencies, 56% an improvement in client outcomes, 51% an increase in speed of deliver and 48% an increase in profitability.
