The Advisory Board finished 2022 with stronger influence and impact  

The Australasian BIM Advisory Board (ABAB) held its final meeting for 2022 on 18 October 2022 welcoming new members to the Board further strengthening ABAB’s influence to drive the consistent adoption of digital delivery across the Australian and New Zealand building and construction industry. New members include:

• Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Victoria
• Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia
• New Zealand Transport Agency
• Women in BIM

The draft Buying in Digital Engineering (DE) Services – Making it easier to do business with government guide (Guide) was tabled and endorsed for open consultation before being finalised. The purpose of this Guide is to drive national consistency in how governments request provision of Digital Engineering services and to ensure that governments are buying wisely.

ABAB’s other projects that align with governments’ economic policies include:

• Facility and Asset Management Digital Roadmap Generator

Its purpose is to enable asset owners and operators to realise value from Building Information Modelling (BIM) enabled asset information, techniques, analysis, and automation to increase the use of BIM within the Asset Management function.

• BIM Benefits Metrics

Applied across a range of different types and sizes of government projects to help government and industry deliver projects more effectively. The collation of national data and comparisons will demonstrate the value to government of investing in a client-led BIM framework and system.

“Adoption of BIM and DE enables governments’ to leverage their procurement spend to deliver a range of economic, environmental and social outcomes, as well as stimulating the economy and supporting fiscal repair” Andrew Curthoys, Chair and representative of the Australasian Procurement and Construction Council (APCC) said.

To drive harmonisation across training and education in digital delivery in the building and construction industry, ABAB confirmed its support for BuildingSMART’s Professional Certification (PCert) scheme for individuals and its work to accredit university level education in BIM and DE. BuildingSMART, a member of ABAB, is well placed to drive a high-quality consistent education standard across all jurisdictions to ensure a globally competitive industry. “Through ABAB’s support, Australia and New Zealand is taking a strategic approach to digital delivery education to prepare our workforce to meet local and global standards, whilst enhancing our ability to be globally competitive,” 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: Australasian BIM Advisory Board (abab.net.au).