The Advisory Board looks to influence digital adoption in construction projects through the various government stimulus packages

At it’s 4 September 2020 Meeting, the Australasian BIM Advisory Board (ABAB) agreed to utilise it’s leadership role in the adoption of consistent BIM practices to encourage all governments to optimise the value of every cent that is allocated to the various construction stimulus packages through consistent use of digital enablers, such as Building Information Modelling (BIM). “Construction activity as the lever to economic recovery is underpinned by productivity enablers such as BIM”, said Andrew Curthoys, Chair and representative of the Australiasian Procurement and Construction Council. “Governments are committed to an infrastructure led recovery process following a year of emergencies, and this is the time to maximise project outcomes through technologies such as BIM”, said Andrew.

ABAB is developing tools to help governments and business deliver projects more effectively. It has set the BIM Benefits Metrics as a priority task to collate national data and comparisons, which can demonstrate the value to government of investing in a generic, client-led BIM framework and system. To enable the value of BIM to be measured, meaningful comparison between BIM and non-BIM projects is essential. “While all projects have some level of BIM, we need to establish baseline comparison areas and group projects in similar categories, such as budget, duration delivery system and requirements, physical construction type and location”, Andrew said.

Another invaluable tool, the Asset Management BIM Roadmap Generator, will empower asset owners and operators to realise value at any maturity level from BIM-enabled asset information, techniques, analysis and automation by targeting capabilities needed for each case. It will align with the Institute of Asset Management’s (IAM) Asset Performance Competencies.

The third important piece of work is the Digital Twins Report to provide ABAB members and other stakeholders with sufficient information on the subject of Digital Twins to inform decision-making. The Report provides a brief overview of concepts, benefits and issues, and distinguishes the difference between Digital Twin and related concepts such as BIM, Digital Engineering and Smart cities. “Understanding how BIM is a building block to larger concepts such as Digital Twins and Smart Cities is critical to ensuring the digital construction eco-system works smoothly and delivers on expected outcomes”, said Andrew.

The BIM Advisory Board established by the Australasian Procurement and Construction Council (APCC) and the Australian Construction Industry Forum (ACIF), together with the key standard-setting bodies, NATSPEC, buildingSMART and Standards Australia, promotes best practice and consistent approaches to BIM practices, standards and requirements. ABAB guidance materials are available at: www.ABAB.net.au