SMEs and Level 2 BIM, the Way Forward

The UK construction industry comprises a very high proportion of SMEs that is companies employing up to 250. A Department for Business, Innovation and Skills research paper, found that SMEs had a 71.2% share of work in the construction industry. Micro and small firms (i.e. those employing up to 50) had a share of 46.7% of work (Ive and Murray 2013). The Government has high ambitions for UK construction. Having been found by successive government commissioned studies to be inefficient and highly fragmented, ambitious targets have been set for the industry to achieve 33% reduction in costs and 50% faster delivery by 2025. As a significant construction client, the Government has mandated the use of Level 2 BIM from 2016 on publicly funded projects over £5 million. The adoption of BIM plays a key role in the 2025 vision but a lack of clarity persists in the industry over BIM and significant barriers are perceived to its implementation, particularly amongst SMEs. However, industry wide transformation will be challenging without serious consideration of the capabilities of this large majority. Many larger firms, having implemented Level 2 BIM are now working towards Level 3 BIM while many of the smaller firms in the industry have not even heard of BIM. It would seem that fears of a ‘two tier’ industry are perhaps being realised. This paper builds on an earlier one (Mellon & Kouider 2014) and investigates, through field work, the level of Level 2 BIM implementation amongst SMEs compared to a large organisation. Challenges and innovative solutions identified through collected data are fully discussed and compared. It is suggested that where the SME perceives barriers towards adoption of the technologies which underpin BIM, they may consider collaborative methods of working as an interim step in order to work towards realising the efficiencies and benefits that these methods can yield. While the barriers to adoption of BIM are significant, it is suggested that they are not insurmountable for the SME and some recommendations for possible solutions are made.

Building from building waste: The development of an instrument to determine the circularity of materials from the existing building stock in order to maximise high quality reuse

On a global level the population growth and increase of the middle class lead to a growing demand on material resources. The built environment has an enormous impact on this scarcity. In addition, a surplus of construction and demolition waste is a common problem. The construction industry claims to recycle 95% of this waste but this is in fact mainly downcycling. Towards the circular economy, the quality of reuse becomes of increasing importance. Buildings are material warehouses that can contribute to this high quality reuse. However, several aspects to achieve this are unknown and a need for more insight into the potential for high quality reuse of building materials exists. Therefore an instrument has been developed that determines the circularity of construction waste in order to maximise high quality reuse. The instrument is based on three principles: ‘product and material flows in the end of life phase’, ‘future value of secondary materials and products’ and ‘the success of repetition in a new life cycle’. These principles are further divided into a number of criteria to which values and weighting factors are assigned. A degree of circularity can then be determined as a percentage. A case study for a typical 70s building is carried out. For concrete, the circularity is increased from 25% to 50% by mapping out the potential for high quality reuse. During the development of the instrument it was clarified that some criteria are difficult to measure. Accurate and reliable data are limited and assumptions had to be made. To increase the reliability of the instrument, experts have reviewed the instrument several times. In the long-term, the instrument can be used as a tool for quantitative research to reduce the amount of construction and demolition waste and contribute to the reduction of raw material scarcity.

Estatutos aprobados por el poder ejecutivo de la república de Guatemala en su acuerdo del 8 de octubre de 1886.

Mode of access: Internet.

1992 census of manufactures.

Mode of access: Internet.

Building regulatory practices and the courts /

Mode of access: Internet.

Inspection manual for PM-10 emissions from paved/unpaved roads and storage piles : final report.

Mode of access: Internet.

Jobs and community improvements : working manual for enhanced work projects /

Mode of access: Internet.

Southwest contractor and manufacturer.

Mode of access: Internet.

Urochnyi a polozhenii a na vsi e voobshche raboty, proizvodi a shchii a si a pri kri e posti a kh, grazhdanskikh zdanii a kh i gidrotekhnicheskikh sooruzhenii a kh.

Mode of access: Internet.

Southwest builder and contractor.

Many errors in vol. numbering.

Fifteenth census of the United States: 1930 ... : [Reports].

At head of title: U.S. Department of commerce ... Bureau of the census ...

Building along America's coasts : 20 years of building permits, 1970-1989 /

"August 1992."

The influences of federal, state, and local legislation on residential building in the Flint metropolitan area.

Mode of access: Internet.

Housing statistics /

Description based on: Vol. 2, no. 11 (Nov. 1949); title from cover.

Registry of minority contractors and housing professionals.

MiU has vols. 2-4.