NBS publishes its National BIM Report and survey

by Katie Daniel | April 28, 2015 8:55 am

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The National Building Specification (NBS) in the United Kingdom (U.K.) released its fifth building information modelling (BIM) report, including its national survey results that suggest BIM will become the norm in the construction industry on both sides of the Atlantic.

The National BIM Report tracks the attitudes toward BIM, as well as its adoption in England, Ireland, and Wales. The U.K. is driving the industry to adopt it in order to reduce costs, time, and carbon emissions.

The survey found respondents who were current BIM users were much more positive about what it could achieve than non-users. According to the results:
● 59 percent of users see cost efficiencies;
● 56 percent see an improvement in client outcomes;
● 51 percent see an increase in delivery speed;
● 48 percent see an increase in profitability: and
● those who have adopted BIM believe the market is growing, and clients and contractors will increasingly insist on it.

More than 80 percent of participants believe BIM will become compulsory on public sector projects, and the majority believes the government is on the right track with BIM and thinks it will help reduce costs and time. However, only 41 percent see it as a tool to help reduce carbon emissions.

Awareness of BIM is almost universal—95 percent envision using it within five years. However, these adoption barriers remain: cost, lack of expertise, and training. As the economy improves and workloads pick up, half of respondents said they lack the time to catch up.

The survey showed two-thirds of participants said lack of client demand was the main reason for not adopting BIM, which raises the question of how something mandated by central government and likely to spread quickly through the public sector can enter into the private sector. Further, 43 percent said projects they work on are too small—which suggests another barrier, the belief BIM only works on larger projects.

The survey suggests it will become the norm for the design and maintenance of buildings, and its widespread use is important to achieving the government’s construction strategy.

“There is more here than an adoption of a particular set of technologies, standards, and working practices to support an improved process for construction,” said Adrian Malleson, head of research, analysis, and forecasting at NBS. “Data collection, aggregation, and interrogation, through collaborative working, are driving fundamental changes in how people work across all sectors. It allows rapid learning and increasingly sophisticated ways to form, test, and act upon evidence-based hypotheses. The construction industry is no exception to this. Younger generations are attuned to this, and perhaps it is they who will see the BIM reach its full potential.”

Source URL: https://www.constructionspecifier.com/nbs-publishes-its-national-bim-report-and-survey/

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