McBains Cooper received their BRE Global BIM Business Systems Certification earlier this year and Guy Hammersley, BIM Director at BRE caught up with Director Mark Leeson and BIM Manager Montana Yeomans to find out how this has been reinforcing their existing way of working.
How long have you been using BIM in your projects and what have been the main challenges so far?
At McBains Cooper, we have embraced the opportunity for accurate, accessible and consistent digital information sharing that BIM brings to workflows and as such have been using it for several years. As the UK government now requires all centrally procured government contracts to be Level 2 compliant, both clients and our lead suppliers and associated task teams now know we are certified for the delivery of projects using BIM. As our ‘interdisciplinary’ way of working already followed similar principles to the BIM level 2 methodology we had less of a drastic jump that many other companies would have faced.
BIM Level 2 is government-driven, but are you embracing BIM as a business opportunity?
Yes, we see the BIM level 2 way of working as the standard to follow on all project types, be it privately or government funded. Other companies in this, as yet small, elite of Level 2 certification may have a design focus with architectural, engineering and master planning divisions, but they don’t specialise in project management. Having Project Managers and Quantity Surveyor’s in-house give us the advantage of supplying a more collaborative ‘interdisciplinary’ way of working, with both clients and contractors.
Why have you sought BIM certification?
We want to stand out from the crowd of and actually prove to the wider industry our capabilities. The Level 2 certification on the way in which we manage information on the capital and delivery phases of projects, means that we can utilise the performance benefits this brings across all of our disciplines.
In what way was the process especially valuable, for example, what did you learn from it?
The process reinforced our existing way of working, we strongly believe auditing is the key to maintaining and improving a company’s standards, methods and procedures. Early stage planning and communication underpin the entire process and allow for the cost and emission targets to come to fruition.
What other benefits do you see from being certified?
As the process allows for an independently accredited body to conduct in-depth reviews of your company, this gives our clients and wider supply chain peace of mind we can deliver what we say we can.