The benefits of VDC if smartly applied not just for scrutinize estimates and minimize time through synthesizing successful design and fabrication coordination, but will also give cost certainty to optimize return on investment (ROI).

 

Harnessing the full power of VDC, exercising BIM, advanced BIM Uses, and interdisciplinary integration, a team can minimize the amount budgeted for a project by as much as 20 percent.

 

Here are the latest insights to increase these benefits for your next project.

 

Target Value Delivery. 

 

Two key requirements are involved to elevate the value of VDC: knowing what’s relevant to keep — prioritization of value — and conserving money on features that are not pretty much needed — excretion of waste.

 

The first half of the value equation clarifies the scope very early in a project and prioritizes all items on the “wish list.” It is then easy—or at least easier—to decide which items must be eliminated because of cost. The other half of the value equation is discovering what parts of the design are not providing a value that justifies their cost.

 

Contemplate a case scenario of target value design. A team is awarded a project and it might take anywhere from six to eight weeks just to get drawings from the owner that might be in the form of TIF files—CAD, hand drawings, etc. In the project’s second phase, there would be as many as 12-15 distinctive sites involved.

 

Although the team put in a request for the original drawings, to facilitate schedule and design work, they laser scanned each individual site. Included in their deliverable to the contractor, the team had a hybrid model of point cloud and BIM data and was competent to give a list of materials and 3D views for value-based decision making — not simply prioritizing valuable project components, but will also get rid of waste — as well as bidding.

 

What was the result? The project team had the ability to get tight, realistic bids and stay on track, or under design schedule for a very large program. Finally, VDC practices enabled the team to generate a better project.

 

Technology + Data.

 

BIM is a database in itself.  To capitalize on this data, BIM files frequently by discipline or building system makes possible real-time communication between designers and estimators.  Each party has access to an identical data source which allows real time decision-making as conferring in small increments or rendering assumptions on drawings on a real-time basis results in cost savings. BIM allows the design and preconstruction teams the capability to count instantly what is being designed and find missing components or flag design errors.

 

Highly certain project elements and pieces are able to be definitely acknowledged. When project team members can see components and their relationship to the overall design, highly informed decisions can be made in a holistic context. The model connects cost to data, enabling decision making to be made with associated cost implications. 

 

Time. 

 

An additional imperative optimization is time. An entire phase of a project is required for drawings from A&E to be produced by fabricators and contractors as the original drawings ordinarily are not detailed to function as shop drawings. This is why, refining the design for fabrication takes time — from a business perspective, it’s wasted time. What if  the shop-drawing level design happened earlier by having the skills in-house or bring the fabricators in earlier.

 

Today experienced A&E teams develop project design with concurrent input from the trades, for example mechanical, piping, and structural steel. Practically all of the time consumed by repeated handoffs has been ruled out. Time saved is money saved: up to 10 percent of the budget. By submitting the work faster, the team also saves money on overhead costs. When these savings are folded in with savings from optimizing the design, the cost savings can total 20 percent or more.

 

Optimizing VDC explains how much time and manpower is spent just in making a project construction ready. This is a cost that is hidden from owners and sometimes even from less experienced design teams.

 

Cost Certainty.

 

Owners and stakeholders want as much cost certainty as possible before moving forward with a project.  Unless taking advantage of the full capabilities of VDC, estimators can’t project charge until a design is well put together.  And, the owner may, as a matter of fact, have to wait even longer if a redesign is needed to bring a project back within budget. Utilizing VDC to the fullest extent, however, the estimator can begin preparing cost estimates while designers are still developing the project. 

 

Highly thorough modeling helps to decrease construction charges because the team has a perfect and detailed depiction of the components. Otherwise, poorly specified components are not accounted for, and this leads to guesswork that inevitably increases cost.

 

This has a variety of results.  Because uncertainness generates concern for risk mitigation, every project has a risk register. A project’s contingency fund to handle those risks may consume 5-10 percent of the total budget. Aside from its value as an insurance policy, contingency is essentially waste. Optimizing VDC allows the team to examine each item in the register and identify ways to remediate. By cutting down on uncertainty, the team reduces the need for contingency and allows these resources to be invested.  With the certainty made possible with VDC, owners are able to maximize ROI.

 

At present, project owners and stakeholders try to harness the full power of VDC to realize benefits for their project.  The great benefits of VDC, a proven technology if suitably implemented , scrutinizes estimates, reduces time through synthesizing powerful design and fabrication coordination, and renders cost certainty to maximize ROI.

 

This article is originally posted on tronserve.com