Top 5 Reasons Why BIM is Great for Subcontractors

As a subcontractor, you are responsible for only a small part of a construction project. For example, a mechanical contractor will only be needed to design, supply and deploy the HVAC system of a building, or thereby. For this reason, you need to coordinate with the other subcontractors and the client obviously in a very efficient manner. This is where BIM comes in.

Ever since BIM has become the AEC tool for the present generation, modules of the construction team have been able to work more closely together than ever. BIM provide a kind of "central brain" to deal with most types of construction projects ? especially the big ones.

And now that many large construction partners have integrated BIM into their business process, they are looking for "excellence" partners who are able to follow the BIM-driven workflow and coordinate with the whole project, not just their own small part. Indeed, when you design and drive something using BIM, that kind of pushes you to make other people use it too.

Therefore, it is easy to see that BIM is the future for anybody connected to the construction process, especially for the larger projects. Let's look at why it is great for subcontractors too.

1. Marketable Services

By 2027, it's estimated that the market for BIM will skyrocket to $15 billion, conservatively. It will pull in more general contractors, clients, leaders, consultants and more. The subcontractors who upgrade to BIM will, naturally, be able to swim in the big pool, with more clients and with bigger fishes. The ones that remain traditional will be facing an increasing lack of new-generation tech-savvy clients.

2. Context Realization

As a centralized source of all design and development related data and 3D models, BIM helps us immensely in understanding every little detail. If you are a part of a BIM collaboration team, you have the unique opportunity to understand exactly what is the role of your part in the project. You will be able to see the exact positioning of your services, know their effects on the whole project, and realize their importance.

Furthermore, being in a BIM-driven workflow enables you to provide feedback to the other contractors working with and around you. If something needs be changed or adjusted around your part, it becomes child's play to collaborate with other construction modules and figure out solutions to mutual problems.

3. Risk Assessment

With all the information in one place in visual form, you get a pretty much god's eye view of the project flow. This lets you analyze and anticipate the design and structure's effect on your tasks. That, in turn, enables you to raise red flags in time before things get messy.

It is quite common in a life of subcontractor to get penalized or suffer losses because of someone else's mistakes overlapping with their work. Because traditionally subcontractors act like just vendors providing services, this was unavoidable before. But when you got BIM for subcontractors, you need not worry about such issues anymore ? you can see such overlaps coming a long way off and can take actions to head it off.

4. Optimized Resource Allocation

With mishaps out of the way, your only remaining worry as a subcontractor is change orders. While large organizations may have turnkey contracts protecting their interests, smaller subcontractors may not have that luxury. Often these orders come when you have no more time to handle them, or have already invested a lot in the original plan.

This is where the utilization of BIM for subcontractors truly shines itself. Since BIM provides a common platform to share data among all the moving parts of the construction collaboration, you will get updates in real-time as they get decided and integrated into the design. This will help you allocate your resources much more efficiently. Also, if you run into any issues the whole team gets to know about it. The unparalleled transparency and timely intervention help subcontractors with BIM leap over change order pitfalls.

5. Strategic Insights

Doesn't matter if you are a small subcontractor ? you get to play with the big fishes in BIM team and see their work too. Learning about the workflow and busines process of the other players in a large project is truly a boon for a subcontractor with long-term benefits.

Why should you bother? The bird's eye perspective is extremely important for those who want to gain an edge over their competition. Armed with the knowledge of what supplementary and complimentary services you can provide, you can give your client what others can't - the icing on the cake.