What role do Pre-construction and BIM play in the construction industry?
Building owners need high-performing building within the estimated budget. So it is difficult for the architects, engineers, and contractors to construct such buildings in cost-effective solutions.
Pre-construction serves as the initial phase of the construction projects that lay out the entire scope of work and schedule of carrying out the projects for the team and client. Before the actual construction, planning and coordination are completed in the initial phase of the project.
Pre-construction phase requires a lot of time in resolving issues and changes as it needs to be reviewed first and then approved by the stakeholders. All the plans and architectural designs need to check, which requires time to study the drawings.
We will now be discussing upon what technology can enable the pre-construction process in projects and what its benefits are.
Streamlining the pre-construction process through digital technologies and tools in the project
Contractors in the primitives days used to carry collective of drawings with them in order to carry out pre-construction processes such as quantity take-offs, collecting cost bids from subcontractors, checking vendor qualifications, communicating with the owner and clarify the design issues with the architect and engineers.
Many non-integrated software programs have come during the advent of the digital era but have not resolved these tasks but made it more cumbersome for the project teams to rebuild the database information into a separate management system.
Digital tools lessen the chances of mistakes during the pre-construction phase for which reducing risk during construction, communicating pricing, and scheduling in a way can be understood easily by the building owner. This way, it can improve the accuracy of cost estimation and deliver changes in the project with plans and specifications to all the construction traders.
Digital tools being used recently in the construction projects can leverage the benefit of delivering qualitative pre-construction stage. There is plenty of construction software available amongst which is the estimation software and bid management software that boosts cost and communication within the project team. Such digital tools or software can improve the iterative process efficiently and effectively. The purpose here is to remove the barriers that come during the pre-construction phase.
However, with the advent of BIM Services, it helps them to achieve such strenuous goals. 3D BIM Model developed for Architectural, Structural, and MEP discipline helps to manage and resolve all types of construction problems such as scheduling of tasks, material supply, etc. in a project. BIM is an efficient project delivery tool used in all stages of building construction such as planning stage, design stage, constructability, schedule management, and integration of the model by subcontractors.
BIM can effectively plan material requirement where it can aid in reducing every changed orders and cost issues related to material which can boost space planning and coordination in the model. BIM enables the project team to visualize the project by creating it in a virtual environment. BIM-based model can be useful in the planning stage to compute material usage and help in improving communication among all the disciplines of the project, such as design team, owners, etc.
Thus, BIM helps the project team to work upon pre-construction activities and construct the model as expected during the planning stage. Newbie Technologies such as 4D & 5D BIM helps in maintaining scheduling and cost estimation of the project effectively.
Benefits of BIM during the pre-construction stage of the project
BIM can help in the smooth operation of the process in all the stages of a project, including pre-construction planning, construction management and post-construction to encourage the practice of facilities management. This can make BIM increase its demand in the construction industry, which can help perform effective pre-construction tasks.
3D BIM Model has helped to resolve issues such as BIM Coordination Services and Constructability to avoid additional expenses or rework that result in a delay. It aids in building a strong communication channel between team members involved in the project.
BIM can initiate visualization and communication in the pre-construction phase of the project among different disciplines. BIM can help in improving cost estimation, scheduling of tasks performed, planning capabilities for optimizing designs, construction phase, smooth operation, and quality, which saves time and costs at each stage of the project.
BIM also helps to eliminate risks by specifying the risks for each stage of the construction project. It also figures out the strategies to manage it and communicates with construction traders in a precise manner. With the use of BIM technology in the pre-construction stage, we can get accurate material tracking and quantity take-offs. It also helps in achieving integrated shop drawings.
Conclusion
Technologies are becoming useful for the construction industry as it can enable challenges of any project that are a collaboration, communication, and coordination among trades. It can help in optimizing budget, waste, cost, and reduce efforts.
Pre-construction requires in-depth planning of how the design needs to be constructed, operate its function smoothing around all the stages of the construction projects. It brings collaboration amongst the phases of the project such as cost-estimation, scheduling, communication, quality of performed tasks, and saving cost and time throughout the project’s lifespan.
