http://onuma.com/BIM/FFC_BIM_Portals_Onuma.pdf
Integrated Facility Planning using BIM Web
Portals
Author: Kimon G. Onuma, AIA, Onuma, Inc.
Co-author: Dianne Davis, AEC Infosystems, Inc.
October 9, 2006 for The Federal Facilities Council of the
National Academies, Washington D.C.
Making BIM Simple
Making a meaningful Building Information Model (BIM) can be as
easy as making reservations for a plane ticket, hotel, rental car and
dinner on the Expedia.com web portal. On Expedia.com you don't have to
know XML or HTML programming. You don't have to know what software
programs are working together to optimize your search for a hotel and
restaurant near the convention center. With an "Expedia" type web
portal you can make a Building Information Model without even knowing
what "BIM" means. The complexity of integrating relevant information
happens in the background and the user is presented with a customized
decision making tool in a interface that is familiar to that particular
user's expertise.
Web portal technology has increased productivity and launched
efficient business processes in many industries. Similarly, advanced
BIM web portals offer the ability to significantly improve productivity
in building design, construction and management. Through involvement of
more people using powerful tools, many organizations have already
achieved significant improvements using BIM web portals. Federal
agencies, institutions, medical facility planners, building products
manufacturers and others have already improved performance quality on
many levels. For example, the United States Coast Guard has been able
to dramatically increase efficiency by a factor of 10 on facility
projects.
BIM is just one tool in the building design, construction and
management process. While many efforts are being made to make
information from all BIM applications interchangeable, some BIM web
portals make it possible to use information from many programs at one
time. Observing some of the rewards already achieved with BIM portals
can help people understand the types of process changes they can
support with the right tools.
An example of a web enabled BIM web portal is Onuma Systems
which is being used by government agencies, institutional and
commercial clients as well as building product manufacturers, designers
and others to gain full advantage of BIM technology. Onuma extends the
capabilities of stand-alone desktop BIMs to fully web-enabled data and
moves organizations in the direction of integrated decision making.
United States Coast Guard Case Study
The US Coast Guard is an early adopter of BIM technology and
has used Onuma? in conjunction with other tools to achieve dramatic
improvements to productivity. They knew processes and tools were needed
in order to meet goals and from the very beginning had strong support
from high levels to implement BIM. But first, they prepared a Shore
Facility Capital Asset Management ?Road Map? to define the overarching
goals and organizing principals. As with any change management
exercise, clear goals and leadership were required elements. Adopting
BIM and its supporting technologies were no different.
In another paper submitted to this conference, Commander James
J. Dempsey, PE,USCG, lists four keys to successful Facility Asset
Management (FAM). For our purposes, the keys can be summed up as:
1) Goals - clearly stated
2) Inventory - accurately listed
3) Outcome - linked to measurements
4) Performance - defined
In this approach to facilities, BIM only involves the word
"linked." In order to maximize the use of BIM, it is important to
realize its specific role in an entire building design, construction
and operation process. Expedia.com does not require information to
reside on one server. The value lies in its ability to link different
applications and servers. The US Coast Guard uses Onuma? to help link
goals with measurable performance delivery. After establishing its
"Road Map," the US Coast Guard was able to evaluate and implement new
processes and tools to achieve the results they sought.
Among the US Coast Guard accomplishments are:
- An integrated decision making process used to organize
mission objectives, which were input to Onuma to verify that processes
were analyzed and re-engineered properly.
- The US Coast Guard's entire 33 million square feet of
facility portfolio were created using Onuma to automate the creation of
low level of detail BIMs.
- 3 million square feet of facilities was rendered in high
detail using Archicad?. Ongoing, linked management of data to BIM for
these facilities is assisted by Onuma
- A "Rapid Space Calculator" was created to quickly understand
space needs for personnel and equipment based on existing US Coast
Guard facility management data to generate early planning documents.
- After a single day of training, planners guided 38 local
teams of up to 20 people in finalizing conception stage design for 38
new Sector Command Centers across the country in three months instead
of the 380 months of combined time it would have taken with traditional
processes. Planners were guided through the complexities and logistics
of this new space type and maintained critical established standards.
- BIM Bombs TM were integrated with the tool and used to
determine the effect of blast threats on building design and siting and
to link operational planning requirements and missions to facilities.
- Design Development Documentation for the Sector Command
Center at Yerba Buena Island in San Francisco. This complex project
included developing a 1,200 SF Sector Command Center, renovating 6,000
SF of existing office space and converting 11,000 SF of barracks into
new office space. A process strategy was developed early on to
implement BIM and web based collaborations to expedite the design
process. Typically, a project of this scope could take ten months to
complete design development documents. The team finished in one month.
The team was able to communicate the final design solution to the
customer clearly and succinctly and received acceptance of the plans on
the first presentation.
- The design of shore facilities to support new security
cutters being launched in 2007 is being facilitated with the tool. Even
though the final cutter staffing and operational decisions have not
been made, Onuma is providing BIMs that help US Coast Guard stake
holders make decisions about the best and most cost effective ways to
staff the cutters. This ship type introduced a new concept for off crew
cycling that is being explored with a customized version of Onuma.
While there are other examples of how BIM web portals have
enhanced building design, construction and management processes, the US
Coast Guard?s overarching success and it willingness to share its
findings make it an excellent case study. See the related story at the
end of this paper.
BIM at Warp Speed
While Building Information Modeling (BIM) is getting the
attention it deserves, BIM alone is not relevant unless it is
integrated with other business processes. The Industry has already
accepted BIM. Now how do we move BIM into warp speed? The common
understanding of BIM focuses on it as a single model and application, a
more intelligent 3D CAD system to do construction documents. The ?I? in
BIM (Building Information Model) is the most important initial in the
acronym. Using information wisely through the life of a building is
what will allow our industry to experience increased productivity gains
and get the real payback of true integration.
Achieving a high level of integration requires a technological
process change or shift and the perfect vehicle for this is using a
medium that already exists. The Internet is the conduit and web
enabling BIM explodes the value of BIM beyond the island of the
desktop. Although storing stand alone BIM files on the Internet is
valuable, drilling down to component level of BIM data from multiple
files in real time requires accessing the data via the Internet and
presenting the user with a simple enough user interface to view and
interact with complex data. Web enabling BIM creates better decision
support for better decisions and eliminates the iterations caused by
miscommunication of need.
The Need for Standards
The Internet is built on open standards. The explosion of
linked information on the web happened at an astounding speed. Web
enabled applications and standards such as Simple Object Access
Protocol (SOAP) are built on open published protocols to exchange
information and data over standard HTTP. The Industry Foundation
Classes (IFC) have established standards and logic for exchanging
facility data. Without standards nothing will be possible. Proprietary
applications have been built on a business model of trapping data in
specific formats and making the cost of shifting to another format very
expensive and painful. Proprietary formats are not based on open
standards. The cost of managing proprietary formats exponentially
grows. Forward looking facility owners such as the US Coast Guard
state: "The US Coast Guard owns their data," said David Hammond, Chief,
SFCAM Division USCG. "The US Coast Guard will not accept proprietary
data or solutions," said Paul Herold, Director of LoGIC?
USCG. Establishing BIM standards, utilizing and supporting IFCs that
allow easier data sharing, defining deliverables for government
projects and other initiatives are well underway. The National BIM
Standards (NBIMS) is preparing to publish version 1 of BIM standards at
the end of 2006. While many think that initiatives need to be finalized
before major benefits can be derived from BIM, first adopters are
already using what is in place, gaining dramatic improvements in
productivity.
Features of BIM Web Portal
It is important to have a multi-featured BIM Web Portal. You
can find the following features in Onuma? and other BIM Web Portals.??-
Manages BIMs on interoperable standards and protocols that allows
queries into multiple or individual models.
- Web services are used to connect available data on multiple
servers and databases.
- Allows viewing models from the level of an entire campus or
base, to individual buildings, to specific rooms, down to furniture and
equipment inventory.
- In a multiple-user, real-time environment, users can combine
partial BIMs or export IFCs or GML of the queried results to desktop
BIM applications.
- It can be used in planning and design workflows which
include applications such as Archicad?, Revit?, Bentley Architecture?,
Google Earth?, Solibri?, and even Excel? or Google Spreadsheets TM.
- It links BIM data to Geospatial (GIS) programs. In the Open
Geospatial Consortium (OGC) project, the web feature of Onuma? as WFS
serves 3D multi building city models and data as CityGML?
files and link BIM with the world around us using GIS.
- Through a system of templates and shared projects, users can
reclaim past work effort and maintain a level of consistency for
projects.
- A simple user interface developed with the user in mind.
Anyone with Internet navigating skills, and spreadsheet capabilities,
can make BIM part of their integrated practice. Onuma can automate and
accelerate BIM creation and management. The team can expeditiously
analyze design alternatives before undergoing detailed modeling
efforts, greatly enriching the process.
- Simplicity does not imply shallow information. The depth and
integration with other relevant data is maintained and presented to the
user only as needed. Therefore, the learning curve is very low.
- Generating automated reports (including 1391 Reports),
creating schematic 3D drawings, designing development drawings,
constructing document sets and completing other critical tasks.
- Building on open standards including the internet, IFC's,
and web services using SOAP. Published schema for using web services.
Eliminates the need to install and maintain desktop applications to
interact with BIM data. With these and other features, a BIM web portal
can be used to maximize the power of BIM today.
In this way making coherent, interdisciplinary, fact-based
decisions and rapidly evaluating alternatives while linking operational
requirements to missions are possible. A common operational picture is
formed which increases corporate knowledge over time in a
self-documenting process. A focus on automating the design process
supports the capture of established space standards for an
organization. This in turn provides design direction towards feasible
solutions which are in alignment with the approved standards. This may
contribute to the design of a classroom, school wing, entire school,
campus or any type of facility.
BIM Productivity
It is possible to gain BIM productivity now just as you can
gain productivity with the Internet even though not every company in
the world has a web site yet. And just as you didn't wait for every
company in the world to have a web site before you started using the
web, no one has to wait one more day before they start exploring the
productivity gains enabled by BIM. BIM can be a critical part of any
facility design, construction and management operation. The issue is
not the technology, the key is understanding the new goals possible so
you can define the performance levels you want to measure up to. Don't
wait to raise your standards or your standards may be obsolete.
The sources of information will come from various databases.
It will not all reside in one BIM or one database but in system of
interconnected servers that allow for users to maintain the data that
they are "stewards" of. The Internet is integral to business processes
and BIM is a tool to manage complex data. Web enabled systems are the
foundation of being able to link the complex logic together and the
standards and interoperability are the glue that will hold it all
together. The vision is to constantly expand the linking of data and to
constantly increase the value as we as an industry help to reduce the
inefficiencies in the facility life cycle process.
Effectively Applying BIM
As more options in BIM applications become available, it is
difficult to determine which product is the right solution for a
company or organization. An organization needs to balance issues such
as the team's skill sets as well as the variations that occur among
different projects. Effectively applying BIM as a tool is not always
straightforward. Often times the key question is determining what
should and what should not be included "in the BIM". The key is to
avoid modeling in such detail that the model does not correspond to the
level of data the organization wishes to ultimately leverage. In fact,
this could lead to a cumbersome model with extraneous information that
is burdensome to manage over the lifecycle of the building.
The short delivery time frame for the renovation for the US
Coast Guard?s Sector Command Center at Yerba Buena Island in San
Francisco made it important to determine how best to use BIM to fulfill
the project's objective. The key was to not get trapped in
over-detailing and to focus on identifying the critical parts of the
project. The team set goals to produce a BIM that described the "big
picture" of this multi-faceted project. A concise construction package
was created which was sufficient for bidding, with the understanding
that all the final details and specifications would have to be resolved
during construction. This "Performance Specification" concept of
construction documents was used as an avenue for streamlining the
current Planning/ Design/ Construction Documentation/ Bidding/
Construction process and the BIM reflected the appropriate level of
information.
The month long process of developing this project presented
another interesting challenge. Civil Engineering Unit Oakland
architects and engineers were coordinating the ongoing design
development with BIM consultants in Los Angeles. An online
collaboration website was created so that the latest versions of the
model were available for the entire team to review. This underscores
the importance of developing a protocol that enables version control
and easy access to the latest BIM if it is to be adopted an an
enterprise-wide tool.
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