Wednesday 1 November 2017

Don't Just Copy/Paste UK BIM Level 2 Standards

In the last decade or so, many nations have adopted BIM policies and standards at the national level and there are currently many nations in the planning stage of national level policies. This is hugely encouraging for the 'digital natives' and global industry in general as the construction industry is lagging way behind in the technology adoption and productivity improvements. I am sure you would have come across many research papers and graphs proving this point.

Image Credit: BICP Global BIM Study - Lessons For Ireland's Programme
Finland, Denmark, Netherlands, Hong Kong and Singapore have been some of the early adopters (and trend setters) of national level standards and / or mandates. UK, Scotland, Qatar etc followed the path and developed their own national standards / guidelines / mandates.

One thing is very common in the countries I mentioned above. They all have their own unique national level standard / guideline / mandate. And rightly so. Each country has its own procurement models, contracts, culture and in general...way of doing things. So simple 'copy and paste' will definitely fail.

Being in India for the last six months, I am noticing that there are many consultants promoting UK BIM Level 2 standards in this market and advising clients to simply copy/paste UK BIM Level 2 standards. I can understand why, because there is no national guideline or standards in place here. However, simple copy/paste will NOT work unless you are working on a project in the UK and supporting them from India. For projects in India, simple copy/paste will be a BIG disaster. Take my word for it.

To all clients, consultants, contractors, sub-contractors, public authorities, government bodies in India and my blog readers who are working in India, please consider the above point very seriously if you genuinely want to promote 'BIM way of doing things' in India.

UK BIM Level 2 standards are a great starting point as a reference, but I strongly believe that India must develop it's own BIM standards / guidelines / mandates that is suitable for the Indian construction conditions, procurement models, contracts, culture and 'way of dong things'. This is the only way to influence social, environmental and economical outcomes in a positive way enabled by digital technologies in the construction industry in India.

For those of you who are not familiar with the UK BIM Level 2 standards, you can visit http://bim-level2.org/en/standards/

I copy list of standards here for your ready reference too. All PAS 1192 series standards are not formal standards, they are Publicly Available Specification or PAS  that closely resembles a formal standard in structure and forma. 




The following BS standards are formal standards and to be honest they are my favorite ones in the BIM world except one (you know which one I am talking about!).



If you have any queries on any of the above UK BIM PASs or BSs please feel free to contact me and I would be happy to help as much s I can.

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