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ACE meets the BIM challenge

Free seminars for ACE members are being held in June to bring people up to speed on BIM.

Bentley Acute 3D

Meeting the challenges of BIM engagement will be high on the agenda in June when ACE's BIM Engagement Group will present free seminars to ACE members in London and Manchester in conjunction with ACE's SME Forum. 

With the looming 2016 requirement for centrally procured Government projects to be Level 2 BIM compliant, ACE has assembled a panel of experts that will focus on the major challenges and concerns for those firms wishing to succeed on BIM compliant projects.

This includes effective organisational and technological engagement as well as understanding and managing the new legal and insurance issues arising from a collaborative BIM working environment. 

Many consultants have a valid worry that BIM working may expose them to disproportionate risk levels due to the reliance that may be placed on the 3D models and the expectation that the models themselves will be a project deliverable.

As ACE’s legal and compliance director, Dwight Patten, explained, “ACE’s view is that, whilst these (and others) are valid concerns, it does appear that BIM in some form is likely to be here to stay.  Successful BIM working offers the promise of substantial benefits to our projects in the form of performance and efficiency gains achieved during both the delivery and operational phases of the asset. 

“However, these successes will ultimately depend on a commitment to real collaboration throughout the supply chain.  Consequently, consultants will increasingly need to adjust their approach to contractual risk management in order to obtain work on BIM compliant projects.  The best way to address the potential BIM-related risks is through proper early engagement in defining employer’s information requirements, combined with appropriately drafted contractual protocols.” 

ACE’s panel chair and Mott MacDonald BIM champion Richard Shennan said, " collaborative working around a well-organised common data set, using technology to reduce re-work and inefficiency, handing over information to asset owners that will help consultants optimise performance through-life - if you strip away the ‘BIM’ label it all makes perfect sense. In terms of SME adaptability to more effective ways of working, it won’t be ‘the big eating the small, it will be the fast eating the slow’ (after the book by Jason Jennings and Laurence Haughton) ".

The panel will be looking at these issues and others at the June seminars.

The events will be held on 9 June in London and 17 June in Manchester.  Go here for more details

If you would like to contact Jackie Whitelaw about this, or any other story, please email jackie.whitelaw@infrastructure-intelligence.com.