BIM Consultancy
The BIM Experts
Plowman Craven’s BIM Consulting Services are backed by a wealth of in-house experience, as leading innovators across every aspect of the Digital Construction industry.
We utilise our real-world experiences to provide practical and strategic BIM support for our clients throughout the entirety of the project lifecycle.
Providing support to the whole project team; ensuring the production of an Asset Information Model that can be understood and integrated into client’s everyday facility management tool, as well as aligning to BIM Level 2. One of the barriers to industry BIM adoption is the use of technical terminology or ‘BIM jargon’. We try to deliver our BIM Consulting services in a way that make sense to you and your workforce.
Plowman Craven has a wealth of experience as BIM Consultants, providing ‘security-minded’ support on landmark projects like the Palace of Westminster and Eton College, through to digitising the construction process on infrastructure projects.
> Frequently Asked Questions on Building Information Modelling.
Frequently Asked Questions
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What is BIM?
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What difference will it make to me?
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Is BIM expensive?
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What is my next step? How do I implement BIM?
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What does the BIM implementation journey with Plowman Craven look like?
What is BIM?
- Many people within the industry believe Building Information Modelling, also known as BIM, to be a tool or a software used in design. Although BIM leverages these aspects during a project, BIM goes far beyond this and should instead be seen as a series or combination of processes for creating, exchanging and managing information throughout a project lifecycle.
- Adopting a BIM approach enhances collaboration within the project team and stakeholders, accelerates early stage design and coordination and therefore reduces risk. Through founding this approach on an information rich BIM model, further benefits can be gained – not only through the extraction of information from this “single source of truth” to strengthen standard design and construction processes, but also by using the BIM model as a visual platform to de-risk the construction programme. Upon completion of construction, this information rich as-built model can be handed over to the facilities management team to utilise and drive benefit throughout the operational phase of the assets life.
What difference will it make to me?
- Whether you represent the client, the asset owner, the designer or another interested party, BIM has the opportunity and breadth to provide value to you. When facilitated correctly, BIM provides an enhanced design, better quality, a clearer view of project programme and an opportunity to see a greater return on your investment.
- Many pain points exist within a standard design, construct and operate lifecycle. When facilitated correctly, BIM can reduce some of these pain points and convert them into strengths.
- ‘Safe by design’ is something all project teams must feel responsible for. When facilitated correctly, BIM can provide better visibility of safety risks (design, construction, operation) but also provide the digital record for use during the operational phase of the asset.
Is BIM expensive?
The MacLeamy curve provides a visual illustration of how BIM looks to bring the design effort forward in a project programme to a more preferable position, where the ability to influence or impact the design is greater and the resultant costs associated are less. By ‘shifting the curve’, design maturity is reached at an earlier stage and through this better visibility of the previously unforeseen can be managed more effectively. As a result, cost and programme creep can be mitigated against.
Realising this can take many different forms whether this be encouraging coordinated visualisation of early stage design in the 3D environment, collaborating more effectively through the likes of a common data environment or perhaps simulating the construction process virtually to visually de-risk. All of the above must first be founded on a versatile, standard approach, committed to from the start and leveraging industry best practice of the BS EN ISO 19650 series.
What is my next step? How do I implement BIM?
- Irrespective of where you sit on your own BIM journey, we believe there are some key steps to implementing BIM in a way that will drive value for you and your project teams. The strength and diversity of value opportunity within BIM means that there is a need to focus on specific BIM goals as opposed to trying to achieve ‘blanket benefit’ in all areas. The former should naturally align to business interest and service provision with an initial effort to construct a foundation to build on.
- Our BIM Consulting Services can help you kick-start your BIM journey, supporting the thinking and design of how to implement BIM within your business. We will harness our industry experience to advise on the optimal approach for you and your business.
What does the BIM implementation journey with Plowman Craven look like?
- Assess – Getting to know your business to understand your current capabilities. Provide initial recommendations of how to progress.
- Align – Aligning the BS EN ISO 19650 BIM standards to your current business approach.
- Adopt – Ensuring your newly-aligned BIM process is adopted in practice on all projects.
- Adapt – Reviewing your adopted BIM process and adapting the approach where required.
BIM & Digital Consultancy Services
Behind the Curve?
Do you feel like you’re behind the curve in BIM adoption?
Can't Deliver?
Have you committed to deliver BIM but don’t know how to implement it?
Need Support?
Do you need support in information management or BIM Coordination?
Helping to address the problem
If you can answer yes to any of the above questions, we can help.
The Government’s BIM Level 2 mandate deadline might have already passed, but there is clearly still an industry-wide difficulty in adopting BIM. This apprehension could be down to incomplete knowledge, bad experiences or simply a lack of understanding of what BIM entails.
Complete commitment and dedication is required to realise and harness the true benefits of BIM.
That’s where we come in. Plowman Craven supports the client, design and build teams - collaborating with them to help achieve Level 2 compliance. In real terms, that means supplying them with knowledge that empowers them to build their own BIM implementation strategies and successfully integrate them into current design and build processes.
Security is our Priority
The security of your information is of paramount importance to us. As one of only a handful of UK companies to have obtained the BSi ISO 27001 Information Security Management accreditation our clients and partners can be assured of the integrity and resilience of our service.
Plowman Craven not only supported us in the writing of our Employers Requirements document but gave us a greater understanding and confidence in what BIM is and how we can see benefit from it on our projects and the management of our assets going forward.
We were pleased with their professionalism and solid understanding of BIM and would recommend their BIM consultancy services to others.
Sarah Wallwork, Programme Manager - The Tavistock and Portman Foundation Trust
How Can We Help?
Let’s discuss your requirements and see how our expertise in BIM Consultancy can help on your next project.
Plowman Craven has 60 years’ experience providing integrated measurement and consultancy services to the property and infrastructure markets.
