Over the past decade BIM has become more and more common in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry worldwide. However, even in countries where BIM is more common, we still hear about barriers for BIM adoption. Here are the 5 most common complaints about implementing BIM:

Challenge 1: Time

“I don’t have time to do something new”

On a construction site there is no time for trial and error: the schedules are tight and mistakes are costly and even dangerous. The most experienced people on site are often also the busiest people, and it is very hard to find time to master new ways of doing things while keeping up with the workload.

Challenge 2: Experience

“Our staff aren’t sufficiently trained”

BIM software is complex and requires a lot of knowledge and practice to use correctly. Ensuring that employees are fluent enough in BIM software is one of the first and largest hurdles for any company looking to work with BIM. On the other hand, new recruits who studied BIM at university need to acclimate to their new jobs and aren’t in the position to change their employer’s way of working.

Challenge 3: Cost

“BIM software is so expensive!”

BIM software is expensive, and training or hiring BIM-literate employees is also costly. For smaller- or mid-size companies, the financial cost of implementation can be significant. It is easy for BIM implementation to become a buzzword that doesn’t come to fruition.

Challenge 4: Integration

“There’s no point in investing in software only to find that our business partners use something else”

While one of the benefits of BIM is centralizing data, the large amount of BIM software available means that different organizations may use different software from different providers, and these may be incompatible. How do you choose which software to use?

Challenge 5: Industry progress

“But ultimately I still have to use 2D plans on site”

Despite many industries digitizing their whole workflow, the AEC industry still heavily relies on paper hard copies. Hard copy contracts will be referenced for specifications, and 2D plans are still most common construction sites. This creates a chicken and egg situation with BIM: on the one hand, BIM is needed to support the move to digital; on the other, while paper is still dominant, BIM is harder to introduce.

Solutions

To address these problems, BIM software and a BIM-based workflow needs to be:

1. Intuitive and easy-to-use, so that it doesn’t take time to learn and people with no previous experience with BIM can still benefit.
2. Inexpensive, so that it is a realistic expense even for smaller businesses or those that cannot commit to a full overhaul
3. Compatible and flexible, so that it can be integrated with existing software and useful even if some stakeholders don’t yet use BIM. 

 

BIMSearch is one of these solutions, and is the easiest way to make the most of the data in a BIM model. If your project has a BIM model saved on Autodesk’s BIM 360 or ACC platforms, you can start using BIMSearch today, even with no experience using BIM!