Building Information Modeling (BIM) is the design method capable of generating a digital model that contains all the information on the project life cycle. In recent years it has transformed the way in which projects are designed and, in addition to the advantages we have mentioned in our article BIM: what it is and why to use it, it also has considerable potential in facility management, i.e. everything that concerns the management of buildings and in particular installations (electrical, mechanical and plumbing), greenery, cleaning, security, but also concierge services.

BIM and facility management as a method to manage and enhance real estate assets

The introduction of BIM and the consequent possibility to realise a dynamic management of real estate assets is one of the fields of facility management that can make a difference. Technological evolution has in fact made available advanced techniques for surveying and diagnostics that lend themselves to extremely precise modelling. 

The advent of BIM in the construction and management of real estate assets in Italy will have an enormous effect, greater than that brought by CAD. The use of BIM methodology therefore represents an opportunity to simplify property management and achieve enormous gains in terms of quality and quantity of sensitive information. 

BIM for interventions on existing buildings in Italy

In our country, the issue of existing heritage is particularly delicate because 65 per cent of the buildings on the territory were built before 1976, while 40 per cent were built between 1946 and 1971. Therefore, the need to improve the energy efficiency of existing buildings, to reduce their seismic risk and, more generally, to renovate them also for the purpose of technical and regulatory adaptation, make BIM the most suitable tool.

In addition, the use of Building Information Modeling can also be placed as a requirement in the context of design and contract tenders, externalising part of the burdens associated with the creation of technical records and allowing investments to be concentrated on the training of in-house personnel and the purchase of technologies.

BIM: from design to simulation 

BIM is, to date, the most powerful tool in terms of redesigning an existing construction project for its economic valorisation.

This methodology makes it possible to optimise the planning, realisation and construction management phases through software that creates a virtual model of a building containing information on its elements. In this way, the different actors that will use the three-dimensional model during the building's life cycle will be able to manipulate it and read the information by adding those related to their discipline and intervention. 

Thus, its possible applications are many: from architectural rendering to the estimation of intervention costs, from energy behaviour to the response to seismic stress, from fire safety to the operation of industrial plants.

Business Process Reengineering: the reorganisation of the technical office

The introduction of BIM, within production processes, with a view to facility management, can be perceived as a traumatic event and entail an increase in initial work investment that should not be underestimated. The reorganisation of processes, therefore, constitutes an aspect of fundamental importance to ensure the success of the operation.

The first factor to consider is to generate consensus around the introduction of the BIM methodology. The most widely practised solution consists in the creation of a BIM team transversal to the structure of the technical office, into which at least one new specialised resource is to be inserted. The promotion of team spirit can mainly rely on the definition of a shared working environment, in which new ways of collaboration can be consolidated through the exchange of information, which can optimise the performance of individual tasks and increase productivity and personal satisfaction.