#tbim2016 write-up: BIM in Yorkshire, a case study in collaboration

On 3^rd February we welcomed a full house to Old Broadcasting House in Leeds for the first event in our thinkBIM #tbim2016 spring series, a “BIM in Yorkshire” case study of the benefits of digital collaboration. For this seminar, we welcomed Henry Boot Construction and their collaborative team partners to present on their work on the Extra Care Housing Scheme in Yeadon, near Leeds and Bradford Airport.

It is always great to hear about teams recycling and reusing data and this project was no exception with our presenters, Henry Boot’s Kevin Dight and Philip Lambourne and their wider team from Watson Batty, Dudleys Consulting Engineers and Framedeck Consulting Ltd, giving examples of quantities checks, planning and clash detection and construction simulation on the project.

The event was chaired by Josie Rothera, Chartered Civil Engineer and Senior Lecturer at Leeds Beckett University who opened by saying how pleased she was to see how thinkBIM events have grown and evolved over the last few years now offering real case studies of BIM in practice. Thanks Josie!

Kevin Dight opened with a brief overview of Henry Boot’s BIM journey, which started with a direct from the MD to “look into this BIM thing”. Kevin became the BIM Champion, they purchased Revit and Navisworks and they started learning very quickly (his words). One of their first BIM projects in 2012 was at the Bifrangi plant in Italy. Sadly they were unable to use BIM throughout as the steelwork was given to an Italian subcontractor who didn’t use BIM, therefore the full benefits were not seen. Lesson learnt -> Lonely BIM is not as effective.

Kevin also had the following advice for implementing BIM; know your drivers – understand why are you implementing the technology and what you want to get out of it and make sure your strategy is built around this. Finally, break your implementation down into manageable steps, use on some example projects first and build up your experience.

Kevin then handed over to Phil, the new BIM Champion for Henry Boot to talk more about the Yeadon project. More info about the specifics of the project can be found in the presentations below and the accompanying storify below that.

The team concluded by talking about the benefits that using BIM had brought to their business which included greater client engagement, better cross team communication, reducing RFIs, better coordinated drawings and best of all… less email! It was great to see how much the team had also got out of the enriched learning experience and knowledge exchange that collaboration through BIM can achieve, something which is often not spoken about as a benefit of BIM but clearly a very tangible and positive outcome for Henry Boot’s team.

The next thinkBIM event will take place on the 9^th March and is entitled BIM, DfMA and the black art of MEP, details here. Due to Easter, our Spring #tbim2016 conference will follow a fortnight later on 23^rd so that’s a double dose of thinkBIM-ery in March. Don’t say we don’t ever spoil you!