BIM Implementation and a Manager's Role

You are a manager in a professional organization in the Construction Industry...
You are investigating the latest trends to maintain your organization's competitiveness in the market...
You have attended some BIM seminars and conferences and you are fully convinced that BIM is the right way to go...

You and your team scrutinised the software market and selected the tools you believe best match your BIM delivery needs and made the purchase...
WHAT HAPPENS NOW?

So far, the story is a common case in the transition of organizations to BIM. However the success of the implementation, highly depends on the Management's attitude starting from this point.

The managers should be aware of the "resistance" against change from the team. You can see this as an opportunity to develop your team and organization but most of them will perceive this as a disturbance. They have been using the same software and process for ages and they are comfortable with it. They feel like it's part of their body. But now you "dare" to change it, you dare to push them out of their comfort zone. So be ready for this!

What is the solution? Have a "serious" meeting with your team prior to the start of BIM Implementation and give them the following messages:

• BIM is the future for our organization
• There is no going back to traditional system
• If you succeed in building the future of our organization, you will be the star of the company

I witnessed team members studying the software and developing the process even during their free time and every implementation started with such a meeting has a very high probability to suceed. At the end of the day, it is "people" who creates the success not "software".

OK! You had a successful meeting with the team and they are highly motivated. Is this enough? Of course NO!

Now, your team is adopting to new tools and new process. They feel like they are fresh graduates. They are very stressed and this might lead them to failure.

What is the solution?
Get professional help. Find a company who can provide you with resident implementation specialists to train your team and assist them during the project. I would recommend you to start with a 1-month contract and extend if needed.

Here, working with a company who can provide BIM Services as well as BIM implementation can be a life-saver because your team will not be very productive in the first weeks of implementation. This might causes delays in your projects. It would be wise to have a back up and keep the option of getting the model done by professionals while your team is developing their skills. This is a costly solution but our clients prefers it if the project quite complex and has tight schedule.


Strengthening your team with experienced users will also make the transition period tough finding a good engineer with BIM experience is as difficult as finding diamonds. So good luck with it:)

If you add some "patience" flavour to the recipe above, you can have a very successful BIM Implementation.


Diyane Koseoglu
www.bimes.com