Customer Story: Uniting Stakeholders, Saving Time Using BIM in Sustainable Construction

Over the past decades, there has been a shift in the concerns of decision makers worldwide about construction and sustainability. Sustainability efforts are requiring a shift in social, business and economic paradigms. Today, there is a more holistic approach to construction, focusing on integrating activities, interactions and similarities among the industry’s systems.

Building information modeling (BIM) has emerged as a key process in this shift. It enables companies to use a holistic approach to construction by creating a virtual space and a virtual model in which resources and specifications may be integrated alongside interactions taking place during the entire lifecycle of a building.

In Romania, Leviatan Design worked with Graitec Romania, an Autodesk Platinum Solution Provider, to find a tool that would unite all the stakeholders around its projects.

Because the Leviatan clients wanted energy-efficient buildings with a minimum carbon footprint, reduced maintenance costs and a high level of well-being for tenants, the Autodesk Construction Cloud platform with its Common Data Environment (CDE) turned out to be the right tool. In an Autodesk Customer Story, Leviatan explained that a CDE enables the company to keep its processes, data, paperwork, roles, and project versions all stored digitally in a joint workspace that, consequently, becomes the sole reference source of the project.

The Autodesk Construction Cloud platform gives Leviatan what it considers to be the best toolkit to design a BIM model. The model then can be enhanced for the rules and requirements around each project, for instance energy efficiency, carbon footprint, and implementation conditions that need to be observed during building operations.

Even without having a technical background or specialized training, Leviatan found that its customers and other stakeholders are able to use the model immersively to see the future project, with all specifications integrated into the landscape and existing built areas. Having a CDE also ensures that all objectives and specifications will be followed, with traceability and accountability in real time.

In the customer story, Leviatan noted the tools on Autodesk Construction Cloud and the Autodesk AEC Collection have enabled its teams to take a holistic approach during a project’s design and execution phases, as well as commissioning and handover. Decisions can be integrated regardless of location and specific interests. As an extra benefit, Leviatan also found that BIM is a viable solution to the shortage of specialists.

The company estimated that it was able to improve project quality and increase resources efficiency using BIM models in a CDE, with a 50% reduction in time spent on many design-specific processes. During execution, Leviatan reported a 30% reduction of time allocated to the quality and safety checks and communication with onsite teams.

Involving Leviatan suppliers and providers in the CDE unites workflows and makes it easier to monitor implementation, while staying compliant with quality and environmental protection rules. Consultants can access the BIM model and can add their own workflows, while easily producing documents for transparency and permanent records.

Leviatan has also found a use for digital twins, which the company considers more than just a digital replica of the construction – referring to a digital twin as the “actual history of the construction.” By scanning the building at different execution phases and integrating that information into the CDE alongside the issue management, the evolution of the building can be traced clearly. Stakeholders can have a full as-built view into commissioning and handover workflows that can be implemented in order to certify the quality of the work and reach the project objectives.

The full 3D BIM model – with information from design through execution – has proven to Leviatan to be highly valuable during the operations phase of a project. The principle of sustainability can be applied all along the lifecycle of a built structure, so advanced facility management solutions can be applied, while collecting information that can be relevant to data analyses.

Using BIM in a common data environment, stakeholders have been unified, costs have been reduced, and new profitability models have been revealed.

Leviatan makes use of Autodesk Construction Cloud, Autodesk AEC Collection, BIM 360, and Docs. If you would like to learn more about how your company can unite stakeholders and save time by using BIM, contact Graitec Group today.