Optimizing BIM Workflows: People, Process and Technology

Are you at year five or year ten of implementing BIM? If you’re thinking, “We can do better; we can improve on this,” it’s time to work on optimizing results. Almost everyone who employs a BIM process feels they can get more value out of it.

During the February 2022 on-demand webinar featuring Lance Kirby, Applied Software Director of AETG Services, and Kris Dell, Territory Account Manager, a poll of attendees indicated the top reasons their companies use BIM are:

1. It helps produce better work.
2. It’s going to get them more work.
3. Project collaborators are using it.

The BIM process involves deliverables, analyses and simulations. It encompasses new skillsets. There are new roles and responsibilities. During the webinar Kirby talked about making the effort to improve the way you’re using BIM now. The big picture involves people, process, and technology.

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Learn from world-renowned Revit specialist Lance Kirby about how to avoid wasting time and money on BIM. Download the free eBook: Avoiding the 7 Deadly Wastes in Your BIM Process.”

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TECHNOLOGY

As Kirby puts it, “you can’t just stumble” into BIM. In addition to Revit or BIM 360 software, the BIM process encompasses an initiative. There’s a reason why BIM is the direction the industry is going.

BIM implementations range from the voluntary early adopters who struggled with it to the companies that are still being dragged into it.

PROCESS

When you implement BIM-based workflows, it takes time to see and reap the benefits. Perhaps you’ve been using BIM for a while, but you still don’t feel like you are efficient or effective at it. You may be concerned about what you are doing more than how you are doing it. You may also want to extend the capabilities of your staff. When you look at the marketplace, maybe you see missed opportunities and determine there is more you can do. See the blog article “3 Major Benefits from Optimizing Your BIM Workflows,” for more BIM wisdom.

Better BIM isn’t the destination, it’s the journey – the delivery mechanism –for better efficiencies and project outcomes. A BIM process enables your staff to be more competent and your company to offer a greater variety of revenue-producing services.

To make your BIM optimization successful, take these steps:

• Defining success – There are many uses for the BIM process. You can create or modify workflows with the industry’s standards on those uses. If you have a couple uses, maybe you should add a few more. State your goals. Decide what you’re trying to achieve. You have to be intentional to make things better.
• Measuring success – Know what the signs of winning or losing are – what you consider success to look like. Then measure the difference between that goal and your current benchmark. If you miss a target, make adjustments.
• Controlling outcomes – Follow through on intentional goals. Make additional investments to bridge the gap between your goal and your current level of achievement. Use key performance indicators (KPIs) and act on them. KPIs are precursors of future success.

PEOPLE

Give your team immediate feedback on the progress they and the company are making. Kirby stresses that people need to know if they’re winning or losing on a day-to-day basis. Improvements need to be maintained and built upon, so your achievements are permanent, and the company achieves continual improvement. Make your successes repeatable.

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