Victor Bankole is a Quantity Surveyor and a Managing Partner Design Gate. He spoke to our correspondent about the emerging process in the construction industry, the collaborative and interoperability created through BIM in the environment at the just concluded West Africa Digital Construction held in Lagos.
Tell us, what is Integrated Design – Costing Approach?
Integrated design – costing approach is a collaborative process that seeks to integrate the cost management part of the project delivery process into the design stage. So, we have a design process that does not only involve the designer at the preliminary design stage but one that is has a place for other building players like the Quantity Surveyor such that he can influence design decisions to better deliver value for clients and project owners. So, generally, the approach seeks to drive productivity, improve performance, keep project costs within budget, and it helps the Quantity surveyor to contribute his wealth of experience even at the preliminary level of design.
What is the crucial point for incorporating this approach in the life-span of a building project?
There is this chart called the ‘MacLeamy Curve’ and essentially what it does is to help industry practitioners to understand how changes in design affect cost. From the MacLeamy curve, we realize that changes in design have the least impact on cost at the preliminary stage, so when you have an integrated design – costing process or methodology deployed at that preliminary stage you are mitigating potential risks and cost triggers at the later stage of the project. So, this approach can happen at any time in the project’s life but the stage that it has the highest impact is at the preliminary stage. It is advised that the cost expert should be brought in at this initial stage as it helps to control whatever upsets that could happen in the project’s life and the design also can be kept within the cost budget of the client.
What would you say were the challenges identified that gave rise to the proffering of this approach?
This is another interesting question. I would like to take you way back – the UK has been a driver of technology and innovation. Bringing colonialism into the mix, somehow we tend to pick up anything that comes from the UK. So, with the UK, they noticed that there is this drop in performance in the construction industry when compared with the manufacturing industry. They noticed that the latter was doing much better than the construction industry which led to them sending out research teams to conduct extensive research to critically analyze why the manufacturing industry was doing way better. Their findings revealed that a primary problem was fragmentation with the construction industry whereas there was collaboration within the manufacturing industry. Take for instance an automobile industry like Toyota, you notice that the entire team is in-house and it is possible that even when you have a collaborative workforce, some unique challenges can arise. The interesting thing is that since it is a collaborative process the challenge is solved collaboratively. In the situation that a similar issue arises on say, another model design, it is faster and easier to deploy solutions because they have tackled a similar problem in the past together and they are all aware of the solution used to solve the issue, so they just implement. This allows for productivity in this space because time is not wasted trying to look for solutions afresh seeing that they work collaboratively and have similar experiences in that issue – there is a ‘lesson-learned documentation’ because everybody is together. In construction, on the other hand, the team is fragmented. Classical example is a project that is being done in Ikoyi, but the Architect comes in from another location, the Structural Engineer also comes in from a different location and we find that unique challenges also come up – very similar to manufacturing, but what happens is that, definitely they come together and find solutions but at the end of this project the team disperses and everybody goes back to their place. A similar project can come up but the team here would not exactly be the same as before, so when they face the same problem they once had they have to start from scratch – going through the learning curve, trying to understand the problem, trying to deploy a solution, and this has been a constant occurrence. So, we realize that the construction industry is not improving in terms of efficiency because it is a fragmented system with teams coming together and breaking – it is a circle where they cannot document ‘lessons learned’. This issue in the construction industry necessitated the need for BIM – a collaborative environment such that collaboration and interoperability are essential. BIM has the human part which is collaboration and the technological (interoperability) part which is the software. The technology part allows for various software to come together and interact – two parts, same ideology. With BIM, understanding that people are coming to work together and might all be using different software, they should be able to exchange ideas and solutions even with the different software.
BIM plays what role in this approach – is it the driver or the process by which the approach can be implemented?
How BIM helps in itself is the method – the whole idea. In the early stages of BIM introduction, there was this sharp argument whether or not BIM is a software or a process and all of that but the truth is that it comes with an understanding which is – we need to work together because that is why we are not growing. This understanding is what underpins it. Technology also helps us to be better in whatever we do and that is why it had to come in. BIM started with addressing the people problem which was the issue of everybody doing things their way, then on that premise technology came into fine-tuning the solution. For, me generally speaking, the need for BIM is to improve productivity and performance. I would always say, construction industry practitioners that are looking at getting a competitive edge need to employ BIM. I am currently on a project where this is a condition to pre-qualify consultants, so we are gradually seeing a paradigm shift – the era when traditional is going and it is opening up to BIM. The Contractors on this project also have to be BIM compliant – clients now, want more out of their facility which BIM helps us achieve. The true value for BIM is not even in design and construction, it is at facility management. What is obtainable now in the industry; from the conference, there is no documentation at the level of post-construction – no documentation. Statistics says that one spends more in managing the facility than actually building it, so the instance where there is no documentation to guide it creates a lot of difficulties – this is what BIM seeks to solve. For clients, they are beginning to see that it is not just something to keep the construction process optimized but something that helps to keep the life-cycle of the building optimized.
What is the role of the client in the grand scheme of things?
The truth is that the client is the most important person in the construction industry. They are the determinants – money makes the world move. I would say that one of the major setbacks with the adoption of BIM; home and abroad, is because there is no client-push. A lot of people are excited about the adoption of BIM even in the UK because the government legislated it but the reality is that even in the UK where BIM is only being pushed primarily by the government; the larger part of the industry also is the private sector, you find that BIM is not really hitting the scale at which it should. The clients are the major drivers for BIM and until clients are convinced of the benefits, we can show them raw facts, and help them see how BIM is improving the process, we can hammer on it from now till tomorrow and train ourselves, it is not going to fly and we will not do so much. Of course, there would be some progress but that rapid shift for the adoption and growth of BIM might not be achieved. Interestingly, people are working on propagating this awareness for clients – I am one of them.
Who are the key players involved in the integrated design – costing approach?
BIM does not change the construction process or the industry practitioners that make up the team for a construction process. The key players involved are still the same as ever, all BIM is saying is that the team needs to step-up and get acquainted with new practices, embrace a collaborative working environment, and be performance and efficiency – conscious because we have an industry where cost – overrun is a norm, like I mentioned in my presentation, and we are not so bothered. Keeping a project within the cost is seen as nearly impossible. BIM does not change the team, I believe that the only new profession that is introduced as a result of the innovation is the ‘BIM Manager’. In the traditional process, we have the project manager, with BIM now, of course, there needs to be someone who understands and knows how to integrate BIM’s methodologies, standards, protocols, agreements, and the likes, with the existing team. So that is the only new profession or professional that is introduced, everything else in the core team stays the same.
What are the expectations and aims of this integrated design – costing approach?
The aim is to improve efficiency, performance, and productivity. Efficiency from cost management stand-point is to try as much as possible to keep a project’s cost within budget. Efficiency from project management stand-point is to keep the project’s duration within the schedule such that if you are saying we are going to do a project for 18 months the least we can do is to keep it at that. Efficiency from a design standpoint is to keep our designs optimal. Same goes for mechanical, electrical, and plumbing, they need to be optimal and energy-efficient.
Currently, what are some of the challenges that arise in the implementation and planning process of building and construction projects?
I think that the major challenge is the human challenge – resistance to change. Many of us are comfortable with the traditional way we do things and some of us view technology as a threat. Some professionals have a shallow understanding and therefore do not see technology as an enabler or something to make one better at what they do, instead, they see it as something that wants to take away their ends-meet. So, I think that this human resistance is one of the major challenges that we have. Also, the cost of implementing poses some challenges because traditionally we really do not need more than office supplies such as printers and some paper at the planning stage but with BIM now one needs to acquire software licenses, equipment which cost a lot of money and it is a challenge for some particularly young firms and companies. Another challenge is legislation – soft legislation, as there has been this argument that legislation might not be the best approach in certain parts of the world, a case-study being Nigeria. Some grass-root regulators who go round to assess and mark buildings might take advantage of people in the name of enforcing the BIM policy. Nevertheless, the government can create an enabling environment, awareness, and by some means incentivize being BIM compliant. Finally, there is the challenge of a skill-gap, we do not have a lot of professionals that are BIM compliant because it requires new levels of learning. These are the four critical challenges we have.
From your perspective, what is the future of the industry, where do you see it in a few years?
Every traditional practice was at one time an innovative solution. Classical example being AUTOCAD. There was a time that it was the greatest innovation that ever happened to the construction industry before this, designs were done manually and drafted. AUTOCAD came and disrupted this method, now AUTOCAD is becoming archaic and we are opening up to model-based environment like REVIT. The same applies – today’s innovative solution BIM will become tomorrow’s traditional and innovation will take-over. I am looking forward to that future anyway but we cannot run away from it, BIM is going to be the standard and it is rapidly catching-on to us. It is now a transition and not necessarily a future as it is gradually already with us but it is still a future in the sense that we have not fully exhausted the possibilities BIM offers because there is a dimension in BIM that is called the ‘nD’ which opens to newer dimensions, so even within BIM there is an understanding that we might have not captured everything. This nD dimension is created for any surprise that can come up in the future. BIM is both the future and our present – it is an adaptive process that is always growing.
