The Owner Imperative: Accelerating Digital Transformation to Realize Lifecycle Benefits
When managing assets in today’s environment, a building owner’s greatest strengths are likely two-fold: resilience and agility.
An underlying foundation to both is the ever-growing importance of data—most of which is derived during the design and delivery stages of an asset. Technology advancements are enabling the creation of workflows and processes that not only provide great amounts of data, but also elevate the value of data created in the early years of a structure.
Yet, many owners are not equipped to make the best of this information. Proper planning and execution during design and construction help set the stage for a structure to provide long-term value through efficient and cost-effective operation. Now more than ever, it’s important that owners initiate a comprehensive digitalization strategy that supports data-driven decision-making, analysis, and insights.
Many Moving Parts
Arguably, that same percentage of data to support those operations is developed in various ways during design and construction. However, there’s a lot of data to be sifted through during this development phase.
A typical construction project involves coordination between multiple teams working through different phases of the lifecycle. Owners, architects, general contractors, and subcontractors often use separate systems to manage their work, which can hinder integration and communication if not properly linked.
These solutions include project management software, building information modeling, estimating/cost management, scheduling/time tracking, and, more recently, VR/AR tools.
Disconnects between these solutions limit the sharing of important project information across stakeholders and can introduce inefficiencies if the various applications and teams are not well-integrated.
Communication within and between construction project teams can also take various forms. Many in the global industry still rely heavily on traditional paper-based processes for exchanging information according to data.
Streamlining data usage and communication through interoperable technology solutions and digital project delivery can help address this challenge. Effective digital communication and data sharing are important for navigating the inherent complexities that arise from an activity with many moving parts.
The BIM Effect
Bringing all this disparate data together is where building information modeling (BIM) or model-based design comes into play. BIM connects teams, workflows, and data across the entire project lifecycle. When it comes to digital transformation for owners, BIM is at the core. It is a process that enables seamless collaboration between all stakeholders and generates insights that empower decision making and accelerate better project outcomes.
Digital project delivery is a powerful way to conceive, plan, design, build, and operate in an interactive digital space. The methodology encompasses design collaboration, design management and construction management. Within a design team, it allows content creators to work together through a managed process centered around a common digital model.
Accurate data capture from the start provides a solid foundation for your project. Technologies like sequenced 3D reality capture provides real world coordination with design data throughout construction. This clarity helps owners avoid delays and cost overruns, leading to more predictable outcomes. Comprehensive data from the outset ensures smoother operations and maintenance, enhancing the overall value of your assets and boosting ROI.
For an owner, that common digital model becomes the foundation for a digital twin, a dynamic (ideally) replica of a physical asset that brings together design, construction, and operational data. The digital twin might have behavioral and predictive characteristics to anticipate better, monitor, and control the performance of built assets. It will likely leverage new technologies like the Internet of Things and AI and the power of the cloud to enable on-demand understanding of real time of your physical asset using the digital twin.
The Business Advantage
Building owners and their project delivery partners are turning to digitized project delivery tools as a way to control costs.
During the handover between the design and construction of a building, a multitude of cost considerations contribute to increased risk for an owner. A study published by Autodesk’s North American Executive Council summarized that nearly 50% of the costs of a capital project are allocated to managing risk and project predictability.
“On average, a minimal increase of 2% in upfront costs to optimize a design lead to life-cycle savings of 20% on total costs. “
Here’s another common statistic: On average, a minimal increase of 2% in upfront costs to optimize a design lead to life-cycle savings of 20% on total costs. As BIM adoption continues to rise, the owner stands to benefit most from implementing BIM as a tool to maximize a building’s value throughout its lifecycle.
Standardized and Centralized
Think of BIM and the associated design standards as the digital blueprint and rulebook that guide every aspect of your project. The models and standards that shape them ensure that every detail is captured with precision and consistency. The old quote What you put into things is what you get out of them is highly applicable to BIM. The upfront conversations about what final hand-off data is included reduce unexpected issues and better streamline a project across its lifecycle. These standards will also simplify ongoing facility management, enhancing ROI by making maintenance more efficient and effective. To make the most of BIM, ensure design standards, the technologies to be used, and construction validation workflow are in place from the beginning of the bid process.
A centralized source of truth acts as a single, authoritative repository for all project data.
Everyone involved in the project owners, architects, contractors—accesses and updates the same information in a single platform, eliminating confusion and errors caused by outdated or conflicting data. Owners gain clearer oversight, which facilitates better decision-making and reduces costly rework and delays. Additionally, this will ultimately streamline facility management, lowering operational costs and improving asset performance.
BIM potentially facilitates better-informed owner decision-making, design-intent communication, project coordination across various phases, enhanced project delivery, schedule and budget management, post-construction asset and facility management, integrating building automation and control, and many other benefits, including increased property resale values of the building, occupancy rates and other metrics.
Need help or have more questions? U.S. CAD, An ARKANCE Company, leverages their industry knowledge to customize bid requirements and BIM execution documentation for owners to ensure the data hand-off includes what is necessary.
Speak to our sales team to get more information and schedule a consultation.
