Operational BIM

The 30-50 years operation phase of the building lifecycle is responsible for 85-90% of all building lifecycle costs. Digitization in this field has a high payoff and impact both qualitatively and economically. The goal of operational BIM is to rationalize the use of BIM in long-term building operation and extend its use to support the productive activity of the particular facility. It has to be easy and fast surveyed, producing the floor plan and also the asset inventory with all required additional data – including photos. It is key important that keeping these building and asset data up-to-date must be also easy, preferably processed by the normal operational crew without a significant time needed from them at the place of operation/maintenance – so it can become part of their regular work. Another key requirement defining the success of BIM in operation is integration. Operational BIM must be embeddable in any software applications, workflows, and processes demanding building or asset data on-site or in the office. So if a maintenance person needs to find a piece of equipment, then the floor plan or 3D model for navigating there must be available on-site, but for a decision maker to see a rental report colorized must be accessible in a simple web browser from anywhere. All this data should be accessible and modifiable on-site by several users at the same time. As the Operational BIM is meant to follow up on all the changes of a building or an asset in it, it also should preserve the “building history” in log files. By fulfilling all these requirements, the use of Operational BIM results in significant cost savings in everyday operations while increasing the productive performance of the involved facilities.