Mechanical, HVAC subcontractors enthusiastic but challenged adopters of BIM
Date Posted: February 26, 2020
Posted In: Ideas, Workforce,
From ConstructionDive: While mechanical contractors are sophisticated users of BIM software, their ability to fully leverage modeling technology is hampered by the need for training and skilled manpower among other issues, a new study has found.
“All of our BIM research over the last 12 years has consistently shown that mechanical and HVAC contractors have been very enthusiastic adopters of BIM and are very aggressive at increasing their implementation level once they get started with it,” said Steve Jones, senior director of industry insights at Dodge Data & Analytics, which led the study entitled “The Business Value of BIM for Mechanical and HVAC Construction.”
It found that 90% or more of the mechanical and HVAC contractors who work with BIM are providing a model of their work on at least some, if not all, of their projects on which BIM is being deployed, he told Construction Dive. And they have many reasons for doing so, including for spatial coordination and constructability evaluation.
“They can address issues before construction begins, which saves both time and money and can even help improve safety by avoiding rework,” Jones said.
Nevertheless, there are still challenges that prevent these contractors from fully leveraging the use of BIM, including training for employees and a lack of available manpower to create BIM models. In addition, contractors struggle to fully engage with BIM across the project team, with lack of support for BIM from other important trades, the issue of other stakeholders on their projects not using BIM, and poor quality BIM use by other stakeholders also presenting significant challenges.