Download Managing Uncertainty-Expectations in Building Design-Construction McGraw-Hill Report

Perfection is a baseline expectation when you purchase a product. But as experienced owners of building projects know, design and construction is an imperfect process with a variety of inherent uncertainties.

Given that reality, what can project teams do to identify, anticipate and mitigate the conditions and factors that drive uncertainty,and how can owners adjust their expectations of project team performance to align with reasonable, achievable metrics that truly benefit the project?

These are the core questions that are reviewed in this 60-page Managing Uncertainty and Expectations in Building Design and Construction SmartMarket Report, produced by McGraw-Hill Construction in partnership with the AIA Large Firm Roundtable.

2014 AIA Large Firm Roundtable Members

This report provides graphs, charts, interviews and the popular business case studies from real project outcomes.

Excerpts:

…the use of BIM by entire project team (50%) outranks the use of BIM by single firm (32%), further emphasizing the greater value of collaborative efforts.

BIM and Managing Uncertainty (Page 49)

More time for design firms to participate in coordination garners high votes from two thirds (66%) of all respondents. It is particularly supported by architects (80%), and also by the large contractors (74%), reinforcing the value of tighter designer/builder collaboration as an effective risk reduction strategy.

The findings cite that BIM is effective in mitigating uncertainty through virtual coordination and digital fabrication. All firms should embrace the best technologies for their area of the industry. For more information on BIM, including the Level of Development standard, see the BIMForum link in the Resources section on Page 61.

— Mayo Clinic BIM Manager | Project Model Development Specification \ LOD —

The technology-themed version of better communication calls for more extensive and smarter use of building information modeling (BIM) and digital design tools. These
are preferred because they allow all parties working on a building—owners, architects, contractors, specialty trades, fabricators and others—to access and interact with
design information that is up-to-date, accurate and trackable.

— Skanska Revit-MEP Prefabrication | Assembly-Line Productivity —

Construction Coordination Issues (53/100) often cause expensive rework. The use of BIM is making a major contribution to reducing both the incidence and severity of coordination problems. For more information on the use of BIM to manage uncertainty, see Page 49.

“By the intent of the process, BIM is collaborative,” he says. “In the traditional design-bid-build delivery model, you can have islands of self-interest. When you go down a BIM road, you’re in a collaborative environment, and that starts to connect those islands.”

It appears that BIM plays a role, because more (93%) of the owners who employ BIM on their projects report this high satisfaction with quality, compared with those who do not (84%). Only 2% say they are always disappointed in the quality they receive from their project teams.

Download:

Managing Uncertainty & Expectations in Building Design & Construction Report

Download McGraw-Hill SmartMarket BIM Reports: