by Dana K. Smith, AIA

The maxim ‘don’t fix what ain’t broke’ simply doesn’t apply when it comes to facility management. There’s a new plan down the road that facility managers can become involved with – called BIM – that will enhance interoperability and save time and trouble.

That solution is called building information modeling (BIM), which could become an important component of the facility management toolbox. The need is nothing new.  T hree years ago, the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) found that facilities lose $15.8B annually because information is not passed along the lifecycle in the early years of a project. However, now there is a solution on the horizon.

BIM provides a wealth of useful information to make the facility manager’s job much easier – information that has already been collected and lost during the design and construction of the facility.  BIM can locate every conduit, duct, and wire that is run in the facility.  It can provide model numbers, serial numbers, warranty information, and preventative maintenance requirements about every device in the place.  It contains the design intent for every energy-saving design so a facility manager knows the anticipated design loads and can make adjustments if they are out of sync. 

When designers and contractors create a building virtually, they analyze it and work out problems before starting construction. They typically fail to provide this information to facility managers for two reasons architects don’t offer it and facility managers don’t ask for it.  Architects don’t offer it because the information is rarely available in a usable form.  Th ey would need facility manager input about how to best format it. Facility managers rarely ask because they do not know it is available and are often unable to sustain and update the data long term. Often they simply failed to contract for that deliverable.

Many facilities use computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS) to track their buildings, but that approach requires that they collect all the necessary information in the first place, a costly process. In fact, that cost is an impediment to creating a CMMS, even when taking a lifecycle view of the facility.  This cost seems even more wasteful when you consider that all the information needed for the CMMS – and more – was available electronically during design and construction and was simply not shared.  buildingSMART® focuses on ameliorating this lack of information interoperability. 

Change a-foot

buildingSMART, brainchild of HOK CEO Patrick MacLeamy under the aegis of the International Alliance for Interoperability ( IAI), is a massive undertaking that has been largely technical in its efforts to this point.  After ten years of eff ort , the IAI has recognized the importance of cultural changes in the real property industry in order to allow information to be truly interoperable.  The IAI also recognize that they need to expand their scope to involve participants from all aspects of the facility lifecycle.  In the United States and Canada the coordinated effort is called the buildingSMART Alliance™. The groups involved include the Open Standard Consortium for Real Estate (OSCRE), Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), FIATECH, and American Institute of Architects (AIA).         

Trade group support is not enough. Facility managers must become involved in order to realize the usefulness of such data – and to start requesting it. The Alliance must understand facility managers’ needs in order to respond appropriately. For more information, visit the Alliance’s website at www.iai-na.org/bsmart/

When it happens

Joining the effort will involve some responsibilities and culture changing activities. When the model arrives, it is probably accurate, but facility managers will need to validate it during the commissioning process. In other words, when air flows and power loads need to be tested and validated, facility managers must ascertain that the equipment installed matches the specifications and that the product literature provided is for the correct model equipment.  While most do this already, it will be easier if the information is presented in a way that supports the process. 

The real key to BIM is what happens after the building is turned over and the first preventative maintenance is performed, the first wall is moved, or new door is installed.  BIM will not work if facility managers maintain the database as a separate after-the-fact step.  It is most effective if performing the work order actually maintains the database.   T he facility manager must reach into the model and extract the area being worked on and make the changes as part of the effort.  Next the facility manager must put the changed or updated information back into the model before the work order can be closed.  This will sustain the model and keep the database accurate.  Hand-held devices, bar codes, and RFID chips help with this process and should all be incorporated into the solution. 

Facility managers need to continue building awareness of BIM and prepare to use models by actively defining requirements.  The Alliance is in the early stages of this effort and hopes to encourage software vendors to provide enhanced offerings to meet these requirements and support open standards-based products.    

Currently, the National BIM Standard (NBIMS) is being written.  The document outlines the role of facility managers and the responsibilities that designer and contractors have in getting information to them.  The current document is Version 1, Part 1, Overview, Principles and Methodology and is advanced to identify just where the industry is today.  It sets a vision for some significant opportunities to improve facility sustainability, support energy reduction goals and improve the environment. It is out for industry review until May 21st and will be issued as a final document before the end of June.  It is the result of more than 30 authors and volunteer efforts from some of the most notable people in this field. 

Technology is advancing rapidly and can help facility managers meet their many challenges. However, we must harness that technology and make it work for us in ways that we could not have dreamt of ten years ago. The best way to get started is to get involved with organizations such as IFMA and BOMA.

Dana K. “Deke” Smith AIA is Executive Director of the  buildingSMART Alliance, a program of the National Institute for Building Science, www.iai-na.org/bsmart/ an organization chartered by the U.S. Congress to build a bridge between the public and private  sectors in order to advance building construction in the United States.