Forgetting my bad pun, the Nigerian property and construction sector is yet to be aware of what BIM stands for and the potential benefits of its adoption into the sector will do to revolutionize it. The construction and property industry in Nigeria is characterised by a story of under-achievement, low profits, investing little in research, capital and development training. This has resulted in high dissatisfaction by clients regarding overall performance. According to the Latham Report in 1994 of the UK construction industry which has even greater significance to the Nigerian construction industry, 2 major recommendations that will boost the property and construction industry are; ‘a review of the whole design process and a greater link between design and construction phases’ and; ‘the industry should aim for a 30% reduction in cost’. Also recommend by the Egan Report of 1998, there should be a reduction in cost and time by 10%; annual reduction of 20% in defects. From a Nigerian and Sub-Saharan perspective, the major concerns ranging from inadequate technical and managerial know-how to insufficient financial, material and equipment capital base. However, the industry is also full of inherent potentials, such as self-sufficiency in cement production.

From this BIM (Building Information Modelling) can be integrated into the Nigerian Sector to aid bringing projects to time, budget and performance expectations. What then is BIM? The basic function of the application of BIM in construction is to create collaboration of all stakeholders (architects, project managers, construction managers, quantity surveyors, facility managers, estate surveyors etc) at different phases of the life cycle of a facility to insert, extract, update or modify information in the BIM supporting and reflecting the roles of each stakeholder. It is expected that with proper collaboration and communication amongst stakeholders within a project team, BIM would facilitate the delivery of a project.

The best way to understand BIM is through an illustration prepared by Melvyn Richards and Mark Bew in 2008 which is commonly referred to as the BIM maturity levels which is illustrated below;

Level Definitions

1. Unmanaged CAD probably 2D, with paper as the most likely data exchange mechanism
2. Managed CAD in 2D or 3D format having a tool for collaboration providing common data environment, possibly some standard data structure and formats. Data managed by standalone finance and cost management packages with no intergration.
3. Managed 3D environment held in separate discipline ‘BIM’ tools with attached data. Commercial data managed by Enterprise Resource Planners. This approach may utilise 4D programme data and 5D cost elements as well as feed operational systems
4. Fully open process and data integration enabled by web services, managed by a collaborative model server. Could be regarded as iBIM or integrated BIM.

Written by Itua Omokhumion -Real Estate Analyst at 3Invest

2014-04-08