The five-dimensional visualization of any project that includes budgetary and cost considerations is known as 5D BIM. While 3D deals with a three-dimensional representation of geometrical and design parameters, 5D BIM enables stakeholders to understand, analyze, discover, and record the impact of changes on project costs.
Today, we’ll look at 5D BIM implementation and how AEC professionals can use it to improve their cost estimation and budget analysis efforts.
Implementation of 5D BIM
When you start investing your time and energy into 5D BIM implementation, you gain several benefits that you were previously unaware of. 5D BIM allows real-time linking of the 3D model to budgetary and costing heads, which simplifies budgeting, speeds up decision-making, and improves the accuracy of your BIM model. Here are some of the advantages of using 5D BIM:
More Rapid Decision Making
When cost estimation and budgeting are quick, architects and other key decision-makers can make better, more informed decisions more quickly. Every decision, whether made by a contractor, subcontractor, or owner, is transparent, which speeds up project development and completion.
Improved Stakeholder Collaboration
BIM is a cutting-edge technology that enables all stakeholders to collaborate on a single model from multiple locations and devices. This means that all stakeholders can collaborate and make changes at the same time to improve the collaboration process. When everything is reviewed and changed in real-time, the possibilities for collaboration expand, and everyone on the team is aware of the changes made to the central BIM model.
Cost Estimation and Forecasting
Contractors can create accurate cost estimates with 5D BIM implementation because the quantities of building components are accurately identified from 3D models. This assists project stakeholders in developing a reliable cost estimate for the entire project from the start. When cost estimates are accurate, the chances of risks and losses due to mismanagement and miscommunications are reduced.
Quick Material Procurement Assistance
Because 5D BIM streamlines the process of budgeting and financial information incorporation based on the BIM model, material procurement decision-making becomes easier. Contractors, for example, can access quantity takeoffs and bills of quantities to obtain updated material lists and speed up the material procurement process.
5D BIM Implementation Difficulties
Despite several benefits of 5D BIM implementation, adoption is slow due to several unique challenges and barriers. These impediments make the process of adopting 5D BIM for a real-world project difficult.
Lack of a unified software solution for 5D BIM implementation
At the moment, no single piece of software has the features and capabilities to effectively implement BIM in a single project. In general, a team must rely on several software and tools used during 3D clash detection and 4D simulation to effectively embed 5D BIM capabilities in a project.
High Implementation Costs
Contributions from key personnel on a project, including all stakeholders, are required for 5D BIM. This takes a long time at first because everyone needs to be brought on board. The longer it takes to start a project, the higher the cost. In addition, 5D adds another step during initial planning, expanding the time window yet again. When project managers see an increase in time and cost, they are opposed to adopting 5D BIM.
Management of Change
The most difficult challenge is preparing teams for a new workflow and convincing them to accept the change. In general, any human is resistant to change. Incorporating 5D BIM via new software tools necessitates existing team members learning new skills and working on an entirely new domain, making them wary of future implications.
At the same time, most software tools with 5D BIM implementation options are difficult to master for real-world implementation. This necessitates teams learning new skills and being trained from the ground up, making the 5D BIM implementation process more difficult.
Increased Exposure to Risk
The use of 5D BIM models increases the risk for all stakeholders. There is a heated debate about legal issues such as who owns BIM models, who have access to information in BIM models, and who controls the information. Furthermore, in a collaborative environment like 5D BIM, a stakeholder’s accountability in the event of an error is diluted. This increases a stakeholder’s risk of damage, if it occurs, and discourages businesses from using 5D BIM.
5D BIM implementation can bring unprecedented efficiencies to the project lifecycle while also resolving costing and budgeting issues later on. Despite the challenges of 5D implementation, the process can be extremely beneficial to the future of a project. At United-BIM, we believe in utilizing cutting-edge methodologies such as 5D BIM to improve your project development journey and construction process.
