At last month’s meeting PG leader Bob Weygant, CSI, CDT, SCIP presented his ideas about the emergence of a new type of practitioner that represented a migration for the traditional specifier into the use of BIM, what Weygant called a “knowledge manager.” Revisiting this concept and highlighting some of the key points he made in the March meeting Weygant said “the key is to put an individual in the center of all the processes (procurement, construction, asset management, design team). That individual should be someone with the experience and skills to:

·         develop specifications;

·         with base-line design experience to be able to modify information post-bid to show products actually put into the project;

·         and have a clear understanding of Standards and Formats and their relation to each other and the project;

·         and extensive understanding of building codes (state, federal, local).

 

This can be useful across the entire construction process by providing a single point of responsibility. The KM should have expertise in Products and Systems which could lead to a simplification of Content Sourcing – components are sourced from one location, giving uniformity of amount of information. Bob speculates that this could increases roles and responsibilities of the Specifier.

 

Man (or woman) vs. machine? Do we rely on automated systems to make the design process more efficient or on an individual to populate models with information and leverage the automation? Is it either or? At least with the automation we have now, a dominant role for the individual with the experience to operate what can be difficult software and to deal with many and conflicting requirements of codes, product performance and design intent.

 

Discussion on these concepts ensued with members of the Practice Group adding their thoughts.

 

To make knowledge management work, well organized information is essential. OmniClass is a comprehensive system for classifying and organizing building data and it is continually changing and expanding. Roger provided an update on the tables that the OmniClass Development Committee is reviewing for release. The following tables are currently undergoing review and/or revisions by Working Groups or Task Teams:

·         11           Entities by Function

·         13           Spaces by Function

·         21           Elements

·         22           Work Results

·         23           Products

·         49           Properties

·         31           Phases 

·         32           Services

·         36           Information

Deborah MacPherson, CSI, CCS member of the OmniClass Development Committee and the Properties Working Group provided an update on the work to expand and update that Table and move it from Draft to Release mode. The WG debated how best to structure the Properties table but feel that the approach they took to organize Properties by type vs. trying to delineate every instance of a property type is the best solution.  We plan to focus on revisions of other Tables in coming meetings. MacPherson felt that “this might help conceptualization of implementing tables into different phases of a project.”

 

Discussing uses of OmniClass tables led to our next topic which was an update on work to start to establish BIM Implementation Guidelines for Specification, Contract Administration, Product Representation and potentially Knowledge Management. PG member Greta Eckhardt, CSI, AIA is taking the lead on organizing a process to start to document these practice guidelines. “I started trying to work with the BIM Guidelines on the CSI Wiki and figuring out how to support our practices at my firm (Shepley Bullfinch Abbott and Richardson)” said Eckhardt “and I discovered others needed this also and shared my belief that consistent naming conventions would make the design world better.” Working with PG leader Weygant and liaison Grant, Eckhardt is modifying the outline posted on the CSI Wiki and will put it up for review and comment by others. The goal is to get other interested members of the PG to join in the process and help document common practices. Initial focus will be on shared practices and Specifications with other areas to follow. Watch for more updates in the future and keep an eye on the CSI Wiki under the topic CSI BIM Guidelines for postings. If you are interested in getting involved in this process send an email to rgrant@csinet.org and we will get you into the loop.

 

May meetings for the BIM PG will be the following events at CONSTRUCT and the CSI Show. We hope to see you there. We will resume regular online meetings on June 25^th.

BIM PG events at CONSTRUCT

o   BIM and Information                                      Tuesday May 11 2:00-5:00

o   BIM and Sustainability PG                            Thursday May 13 4:00-5:00

o   ARCAT Practice Groups Reception            Thursday May 13 5:00-6:30