The AEC industry today has widely adopted 3D technologies and “building information models” to improve communication and coordination during the designing and building of projects. The models are used before construction starts and early on in the project to extract more accurate cost estimates, resolve major trade conflicts and eliminate rework. This is supposed to help the industry optimize resources, reduce waste and gain efficiency.
The reality is that the coordination process is complicated, requires a seemingly endless number of coordination meetings “to run clash detections” and monopolizes important resources as the many participants work to produce weekly coordination materials. What usually happens is that trade contractors literally have to stop focusing on detailing their scope and respond to a list of models with specific information and certain formats requested by the GC for coordination meetings.