What is BIM (Building Information Modeling)?
BIM is an acronym for Building Information Modeling. There is a lot of talks lately about BIM in the construction industry, both locally and internationally.
BIM is not something that has appeared recently. The birth of the BIM concept is several decades old, but in order to implement it in practice, an evolution of IT tools and connectivity systems is needed. For some years, this evolution has taken place. That is why BIM was born a long time ago, but it is growing now.
Oftentimes, BIM is considered simply software, or just a digital 3D model of the building, or just a tool that allows us to manage the building as a database. BIM is usually labeled as a new computing tool, which comes to replace the old one.
That is why it is important to try to define a more global panorama, to get out of a partial vision to avoid that the tree preventing us from seeing the forest.
BIM is a work methodology that allows all the actors involved in the process of ideation, project, construction, operation, and maintenance of the building, to have access to the same information extracted from a single file, which contains the complete digital version of the future building. real.
This access is given through a platform that integrates various software, processes, and tools, in a collaborative environment, where all actors can work simultaneously.
Impact on Construction Industry
While everything that we have already discussed clearly affects the construction industry, we are going to leave the conceptual orbit a bit, and focus a little more on the practical and operational aspects.
The construction sector, at a global level, has survived to this day without having managed to integrate technological, innovation, and management advances efficiently. Its levels of productivity and competitiveness have not allowed it to keep pace with the other branches of the industry. That is why BIM or represents a change, but above all, an opportunity.
The need to revitalize the construction industry, to adapt it to current sustainability demands, and to value its economic and social role, make it necessary to make a qualitative leap to a global digital environment, which covers the entire life cycle of the project, and that allows the integration and collaboration of all the agents involved in the process.
The traditional methodology of development and management of the construction process makes it difficult to incorporate effective tools to reduce the degree of uncertainty of the promoter initiative or increase the reliability and precision in meeting the objectives in terms of time, costs, and quality.
BIM promotes the industrialization of the construction sector, incorporating methodologies and technologies that have proven to be solvent in other industrial areas.
There are some that we find interesting to highlight:
- The uses that are most closely linked to what has to do with executive project and operation (Planning and Control of work, and As-Built Modeling).
- Those referred to the modeling of disciplines (Design of specialties).
- Also, those related to virtual coordination and construction sequence simulation (Work Planning and Construction Systems Design).
- Last, but also very important, the area of regulatory validation.
These are some of the BIM uses in which our company is specialized and has extensive experience, both locally and internationally. All these topics and their related areas are key to achieving the main goal of our work: maximizing productivity, quality, and efficiency in the industry. That is our way.
For all that, we have exposed, and for many more reasons, we can say that BIM is only the beginning of the construction digitization processes. It seems that the conditions are in place to achieve this long-awaited qualitative leap in the construction industry, and it promises to be the best for everyone.
