Top 10 “Evil BIM” List

BIM is essential for improving our industry’s efficiency however when BIM is not implemented correctly we can experience some severe BIM challenges.

We refer to these BIM challenges as “Evil BIM” 😊

Here are the Top 10 BIM Challenges we see:

1. Owners Just Requesting “BIM”

When an Owner requests “BIM” without understanding what they’re asking for – solely because a technology vendor has promoted never ending BIM benefits.

2. Not Enough BIM

When not enough BIM is authored and the project’s agreed BIM Uses can not be completed thoroughly (for example: proactive coordination, accurate quantity takeoff or the perfect 4D schedule).

3. Too Much BIM

When teams produce more BIM than can be used by the customer/end users – doing anything that’s not needed is wasteful (and evil 😉).

4. Unclear Model Element Authors

When project teams are unclear about what BIM they should be modeling and sometimes incorrectly model each other’s scope (who’s supposed to model the lights – Architect? Interiors? Electrical Engineer? Contractor?).

5. Unnecessary Clashes

When all BIM’ing of MEP starts at the same time – one, two three, “BIM!” – then teams unknowingly model clashes rather than model using a prioritized clash avoidance workflow.

6. Evil Scope Agreements

When a team intentionally agrees on a precise but incorrect BIM scope knowing that they will issue Change Orders later (this is doing the wrong thing, but really really well!). This is an evil BIM challenge.

7. Poor Quality Modeling

When teams create and share poor quality models that will ultimately increase rework and drive costs up! This is usually a training BIM challenge.

8. BIM Spreadsheet Contracts

When teams use a spreadsheet with numbers to contract to confusing and poorly defined levels of BIM risk. 😉

9. “LOD 500 + COBie”

When a design team feels under pressured to say “ok” – accepting an owner’s request for LOD 500 plus COBie deliverables for the entire project instead of the right people accepting what’s important. As described in this blog.