BIM is good, but it’s not enough

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is one of the key concepts required for successful information management throughout the project. BIM works as the center of the design phase and is a must for any construction design practitioner. Besides of being important for the design disciplines, it’s an enabler for quick creation and uniformity of data for the rest of the construction project.

Some enthusiastics claim that the centralized data storage in the BIM model will solve the problems for the whole industry. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

BIM model can be used effectively where there is a need for visual-centric data, ie. during the design, at site for viewing the design and reporting progress, visual management reporting etc. The list is long and very impressive.

In addition to BIM, there are needs for number-centric data as well. And that data needs to be refined for various purposes. There is a fairly recent concept called Quantity Information Management (QIM), that uses BIM models to extract design data intelligently and then turn it into construction (production) quantities. The quantity system enables further use of quantities for costing, scheduling, procurement and logistics.

The data produced by QIM system is just not available from BIM. Thus, QIM complements BIM perfectly.

As a conclusion, there is a need for both BIM and QIM in a construction project. The simplified rule of thumb is “BIM for pictures, QIM for numbers”.

(And yes, you need much more than that)