Product suppliers need to create the libraries of information that are needed for the final BIM model

It’s great to see Building keeping the profile of BIM front of mind on a regular basis, but I do feel you’ve missed a key point by not including the perspective of the product supplier.

Cursory awareness of BIM is probably reaching most manufacturers by now, but many have not considered what they need to do, or if they have, they haven’t convinced their directors of both the opportunities and threats BIM presents. The CPA and the team at Constructing Excellence will tell you that more needs to be done to bring product suppliers into the BIM fold. After all, it is we who need to create the product-specific libraries with the requisite information that are an essential ingredient in the final model handed over to the client.

The opportunities for product suppliers lie both in improved specification and greater process automation. The conundrums include BIM model data capacity and how to avoid having to create a separate solution for each of the main design softwares.

Chris Witte, head of marketing, Kingspan