Construction Industry Trends
November 2006
Taking Advantage of IT to Improve Construction Processes
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Earlier this year, the International Code Council (ICC) launched an interoperability initiative with the goal of transforming its building codes to be able to support automated building reviews and approvals. The organization expects to roll out its first code in support of this initiative in November.
ICC’s interoperability initiative reflects a groundswell of interest throughout the construction industry in leveraging technology to increase design and engineering efficiencies. According to a report issued in 2004 by the U.S. Department of Commerce and sponsored by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the cost of inadequate inoperability is at least $15.8 billion a year for owners and operators of commercial, institutional, and industrial buildings in the United States. The study points to paper-based processes, a lack of standardization and limited technology adoption as some of the reasons for the excessive costs.
With interest in interoperability increasing in the industry, in 2004 the International Alliance for Interoperability launched the buildingSMART concept as a new and more approachable way to explain the benefits of improving construction data interoperability. Then, this past February, the National Institute of Building Sciences announced it had formed a committee to create a national building information model (BIM) standard.
BIM is a new technology that allows all members of a project—architects, engineers, cost estimators, and more—to collaborate digitally in a virtual environment. Doing so enables team members to easily share information and increases productivity, reduces errors, and cuts costs. It also can provide building owners with a digital model that can help them with operations and maintenance. Organizations such as the U.S. General Services Administration are furthering the impact of BIM technology on the industry by requiring all major projects receiving design funding starting in fiscal year 2007 to be submitted using BIM.
ICC Senior Advisor Dave Conover says that the work his organization is undertaking is in direct support of these types of industry-wide initiatives. “To build smart, one needs to look at the things that go on with respect to the building functions, whether its specifications writing, designing, contractors… There need to be table legs, or things that support buildingSMART. And making codes and building regulations easier to address and deal with during the design and construction phases is at the heart of what we’re doing.”
By enabling automated plan reviews, ICC hopes it can help construction professionals speed processes by allowing them to electronically compare construction plans against building codes. The organization plans on starting with its own codes; then, once it has established a foundation for automated plan reviews with its offerings, hopes to work with federal, state, and local agencies to help them develop similar functionality. That way, builders can institute automatic checks against codes that affect them depending on the area in which their projects are located.
Rick Weiland, COO of ICC, believes that initiatives such as these will not only help the industry save money, but also will help it deal with another pressing problem: a shortage of available, qualified civil engineers. “We’re hoping this initiative will provide designers, developers, builders, and regulators with more efficient integrated tools that will allow fewer professionals to produce a higher volume of quality work in the future,” says Weiland.
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