BIM and the online cash register

Brian O’ Hanlon

21st February 2013

Collaboration Formats

The question came up several months ago on the RICS group, about how ought a Quantity Surveyor could

contribute their skill set in a modern day, BIM-featured working environment in construction? The following

focusses on a particular area in pre-Construction, where a Quantity Surveyor will add a lot more value, than any

other type of professional out there. I am going to share with you several words, on the topic of on-line

markets.

BIM Collaboration file format or BCF for short. Nick Nisbet at another BIM-related group explained for the

benefit of non-technical people:

"It is a package of three files - a snapshot image, a viewpoint definition file, and a issue and

comments file. Each of these could be held in ifcXML, or be redesigned to use the 'simplified'

ifcXML being proposed by buildignSMART to complement ifcXML".

Nick also added, that BCF isn't a recognised format as yet, but is getting some use between various software

vendors, to address certain needs. I wish to add a few more thoughts on this.

Clash Detectives

From a human psychology perspective, what BIM managers employed to be the 'man in the middle' doing the

clash detection, are finding is that their appointed status enables them to access all of the shared data and put

it together . . . but the difficulty can arise, where the BIM manager gets to draw something, to the attention of

the other major expert consultants. That is where it can break down.

Basically, the experts consultants sit on their hands and seal their lips, until they are absolutely forced to

address an issue. But that is delayed as long as possible on the promise that someone else might blink before

they have to. In other words, this game of chicken always went on between the different construction

disciplines on projects.

To use another example . . . think of it being like the market for commodities . . . pork bellies, orange juice,

wheat futures, blah, blah. 'Back in the day' human being traders could look at the market and figure out what

signal it was sending, and adjust their trading strategies accordingly. But increasingly what the experts who

look at the behaviour of markets have realized is that commodities which used to be a reliable indicator of

cause-and-effect economic trends, increasingly nowadays they don't follow any logic that one could analyse. In

other words, commodities markets are messed up.

Now, look at the game of chicken that I described that occurs between the different construction disciplines.

There was an order and a pattern to it, in the olden days. It was horse trading basically. Experienced people

went to the market and didn't get fleeced. Younger guys paid for the tuition in days they don't want to

remember. You had both winners and losers.

Sitting on the Fence

The 'fence sitting' that is experienced nowadays, by modern day clash detectives and BIM managers . . . is a

result of the traditional construction disciplines receiving a 'mixed message', different signals at once. You can

imagine, that when any component of a system, finds itself in this predicament, the strategy adopted often, is

to sit there and freeze. What BIM managers who run clash detection are finding, is that the screen shot of a

clash, placed in front of the face of the 'expert' will often unlock the system from this apparent freeze. It will

make the market move again, so to speak.

The sort of trading floor relationship that various construction disciplines have . . . was never designed to

incorporate a real 'market maker' in the centre . . . That trading floor is taking a while to adjust to the presence

of a new species. The viewpoint definition which Nick refers to, does not appear to be the important bit. But

the 3D model 'snap shot' IS the important bit that gets the guy off of their fences and resolving a clash. Why is

that?

The viewpoint definition is a verification element, which the 'man in the middle' needs as a record for their self

- but the 3D model 'snap shot' actually does the business. Think of it, like the crazy back and forth of papers

and verifications that may occur on any trading floor you will see in movies. What usually happens right now, is

that the 'man in the middle' prints on an A4 sheet the snapshot. The 'expert' doesn't actually need a BIM, or a

view point definition to know what the issue is. It is that low tech.

What is so critical about that piece of paper? Well, Quantity Surveyors should know.

Protein Folding and Other Problems

Frederick P. Brooks working at Chapel Hill in North Carolina back in the 80s, 90s discovered this first. He was

worked with protein folding visualisation technology, and the chemists that were working for the various drug

companies . . . they knew their protein molecule like they knew the back of their hand. Just like the engineers

and architects who produce BIM models for each of the disciplines nowadays know their creations.

We sometimes forget that. BIM is a composite of human and silicon performance, an intelligence

augmentation and an artificial intelligence, in various measures. Frederick P. Brooks found that the 'point and

click' routine he had incorporated into the tool for protein folding problem solving was of no use. The

researchers had spent major parts of their careers working on the same molecule, and they knew it so well,

they could just type in the number of an atom, and get to where they wanted to go in the model without a

seconds delay. Why bother then with point and click?

In the construction industry, we have not spoken to people who work in other industries about lessons they

may have learned about how to use visualisation. At the moment BIM managers are spending a lot of effort

trying to re-learn basic stuff about software and interaction, that came up in other industries decades ago.

Another problem is, BIM managers believe, that they are 'finding clashes'. I.e. Going from the unknown to the

known. But that is not what is going on either.

What is going on, is much closer to the process which I described above, whereby the cross disciplinary group is

engaging in a market based process. The experts all know their own models back ways and front ways, and

every other ways. They know where the clashes exist too. That is evidenced by the fact that they don't need

'point and click' (the viewpoint definition component of BCF), or the BIM. They just need a definite 'signal' from

a printed piece of paper from the BIM manager. That provides the authorization needed to take action from on

their end as virtual builders.

Quantity Surveyors will pick up on this quicker than almost any other professional. They understand a thing or

two about negotiation, about transactions and about trading.What we have created with BIM, is a new kind of

'market place'. But the signals are all garbled up. Guys end up, sitting on fences in the absence of proper

authorized instructions.

Fixing the Market

We need to make this virtual market work as well as the one further down the line. The traditional market

place (which itself is also getting modernized), where the bits of paper are flying around called RFIs, variations,

change orders, progress payments and final accounts.Virtual builders need compensation and cash flow, just

like real builders do.

Think of the A4 piece of paper with the 3D model 'snap shot' being like a currency. Or think of it like a

document that an architect would issue to a Contractor. From the Contractor's point of view, it is the

equivalent of legal tender. It is money in the bank. Without the paper work there is no cash flow. The Quantity

Surveyor is all about moving around paper work, in order to maintain cash flow.

A Contractor or Sub-Contractor will sit on their hands, until the piece of paper lands on their lap, which

authorizes them, to either build a wall, knock a wall, or do whatever is required. Sure it is cheaper to move

virtual walls. But it still costs money. And the payment system does not currently exist to deliver virtual builders

a much needed cash flow. It is just as easy to go broke in virtual construction, as it is in real building.

The key thing to understand about VDC, is the payment process is turned backwards. The Consultant will not

do anything, until they are issued with the piece of paper. In virtual construction, the Consultant adopts a role

similar to that of a Contractor in the real world. The rules are still the same. A Quantity Surveyor is required for

record keeping and to do paper work, in order to maintain cash flow, on this new virtual trading floor.

With the BIM manager species introduced into the environment, the BIM manager becomes like a virtual

building consultant, and the Consultant becomes like a virtual Contractor or Sub-contractor. I know this will

have legal people rolling over in their beds at night. There are problems with it, as an arrangement.

e-Commerce, the earlier days

It is worth recalling the early days of e-Commerce though. Those early e-Store builders understood how to add

everything, except the cash register! You could browse around the early e-Stores all you wanted, but you

couldn't pay for anything. Developments like iTunes and other well known internet market places, tried to

retrofit the on-line store, with a cash register that worked.

What we do have in construction is a cash register between the Consultant and the Contractor . . . but not

between the BIM manager 'man in the middle' and the Virtual Contractors (The Consultants). What we are

looking for is a kind of e-Currrency, by which to pay virtual contractors . . . and that is what is important about

the 3D model 'snap shot' that Nick describes in the BIM collaboration format. Until now, there was never was a

'payment mechanism', by which to do this sort of trading, in virtual construction.

That is what we need the Quantity Surveying professional to design in the modern era.