BIM Quality Assurance

The importance of Quality Assurance for companies is the benefit of better understanding and maintaining the quality of products or services a company provides for its customers and clients. This includes ensuring that all processes are controlled and monitored but also documenting new and existing processes. Quality Assurance is not only focused on product or service quality but also on achieving it.

Quality Assurance commonly has four main components, quality planning, quality assurance, quality control and quality improvement. In this article, we’ll concentrate on construction Quality Assurance and how building information modelling offered by Solibri is essential.

Quality management in the construction process 

Lately, due to customer demand and high competition in the market, there is pressure on construction enterprises to improve the quality of their projects. The primary way to achieve this goal and achieve a competitive edge in the market is by adopting a sound quality management system which Solibri can be part of. Although quality management must be applied to all phases of the building process, from conceptual design to demolition, the main challenge of projects and construction managers is controlling the quality during the execution phase, which takes more resources and time. It has been found that failures ascribed to the execution phase are more common than errors in the other construction processes. On the other hand, structural elements are the most fundamental components of a building to be controlled for their quality since they are directly responsible for structural strength and safety. Any mistakes can cause serious accidents, additional costs, or delays. In many projects, structural elements have also proved to have flaws after execution. Still, they are directly related to the execution phase, such as incorrect positioning of the frame in relation to the foundation or insufficient length of the reinforcement bars.

The ISO standard as a part of Quality Assurance

Since there may be differences in the perception of the quality of an object, quality must be defined clearly. ISO standard defines quality as “the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics of an object fulfils requirements”. Quality in construction projects refers not only to the quality of products and equipment used in constructing a building or facility but also to the adopted management approach. Both the construction cost and time of delivery are also important quality characteristics. Construction project quality is managed through Quality Assurance (QA) and quality control (QC). We’ll take a closer look at the ISO standards later in this article.

Why is Quality Assurance needed in BIM projects?

The process of creating a 3D BIM model involves several steps. At each stage, there are more likely to appear inadvertent errors. These errors can impact the accuracy of the final model. It’s why we need to conduct the Quality Assurance process. This ensures that you get a high-quality BIM model. By undertaking the Quality Assurance process, one can

• Find and eliminate errors and clash issues in the process of modelling
• Assure to follow the standards while creating BIM models
• Make sure there are enough geometric elements, the correct position and functionality
• Ensure that a BIM model meets the requirements

Quality Assurance can be seen as a preventive tool or process, which consists of steps taken to increase the likelihood of obtaining a good-quality product and management processes. Quality Assurance aims to ensure that the project scope, cost, and time functions are fully integrated. Quality control as part of Quality Assurance is the part of the process which recognises human fallibility and takes steps to ensure that any variations from standards that do occur are eliminated. Quality control is the specific implementation of the Quality Assurance program and related activities. Effective quality control reduces the possibility of changes and mistakes, resulting in fewer conflicts and disputes, and reduced waste of project resources such as money and time.

Although the quality check procedure during the execution phase is consolidated and seems well organised, it does not work out properly in practice, for instance, due to intensive manual data collection entailing frequent transcription or data entry errors. However, the complexity of properly controlling the quality of execution of structural elements can be easily recognised by the number of processes and stakeholders involved in implementing the concrete structure. 

BIM as a tool for Quality Management

Information technology has gained much attention as a key driver of change in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. Developments in technology have provided many opportunities for the AEC industry, such as building information modelling (BIM). Building information model serves as a central data repository that can store information about a facility and is currently regarded as an essential tool in managing the lifecycle of a construction project from the initial design to its maintenance. BIM is not just a technology change but also a process change. The BIM approach allows the project team and the stakeholders to share information and to be constantly aware of and cooperate in real time around the project. BIM is a multi-dimensional digital representation of a project's physical and functional characteristics. Every time a specific type of information is added to the model, a different dimension is set. Three dimensions are generally sufficient for geometric purposes, but new descriptive modalities and quantities, such as time or costs, establish a different type of information.

Seven dimensions of BIM fundamental

According to BIM fundamentals, there are seven recognised “dimensions”. 3D (three-dimensional rendering of the artefact), 4D (time and duration analysis), 5D (cost), 6D (sustainability assessment), and 7D (management phase). The BIM methodology can manage all the quality control data and the complex relationships between them. This leads to improvements in the whole construction quality management. The Purpose of dimensionality is explained more in this Wikipedia article.

Global and national standards and regulations in BIM quality assurance

Quality management and constant quality improvement have long been essential factors in the construction industry. Not only to meet international and local laws and standards but also to ensure the health and well-being of construction industry employees and people using buildings and to make constructing buildings more cost-effective and sustainable.

Some international standards such as the ISO have specific quality requirements for building projects. They also have more and more updated and detailed criteria for BIM projects. The ISO 19650 standard is widely used in Europe, particularly in the UK, since the standard is based on the old UK standard BS 1192. The ISO 19650 standard has elements for all parts of a building project, from design to demolition. It also has a specific section on building information. Other BIM-related ISO standards are, for example, ISO 12006 (framework for classifications) and ISO 16739 (Industry Foundation Classes or, in short IFC for data sharing).

In reality, national laws and regulations are the guiding principles of building projects, but any company that wants to deliver high-quality projects follows more detailed standards or guidelines than the law requires.

Business benefits of BIM Quality Assurance

To a large extent from a building owner and main contractor's point of view, better quality means cutting costs. Savings start already on the table of an architect or a specialist designer. If a building project is designed with high-quality standards, it means the actual design or in BIM projects the BIM Model has fewer or in the best case not at all errors that can’t be easily fixed in the construction phase. The better the quality of a design the easier and more cost-effective it is to build according to the design.

From a financial perspective, substantial savings can be made in the design phase after a BIM model is enriched with enough specific non-geometric data such as volumes, heights, width and weights of objects. In BIM projects there is more and more data available when the BIM model is updated with more specific designs from different disciplines such as architecture, structural and MEP engineering. In BIM projects the data is first validated and if necessary then updated and after iterations when the Building information model has reliable data, it can be extracted as information takeoff (ITO) for quantity calculators and cost estimation specialists to calculate the expected amount of different materials and their costs. The most profitable BIM projects have a lot of communication and iterations between different stakeholders such as project owners, architects, engineers and project management offices inside main contractors to decide what is the final design and material selection before starting planning the actual construction phase.

To be able to anticipate costs during the construction phase BIM models are used to calculate how many different kinds of materials are needed and how much of them. Purchase planning is done based on the data extracted from the model. This way purchase departments can follow raw material prices and make purchasing decisions well in advance and not when the construction is already starting and when the price for different materials might be higher than anticipated in the planning phase.

Environmental benefits of BIM Quality Assurance management?

The construction industry as a whole is responsible for at least 40% of global carbon emissions. No wonder why sustainability and green building as led by organisations such as the World Green Building Council are getting more and more critical. Urbanisation is a major global megatrend that affects this development and the traditionally conservative construction industry is evolving fast to be more innovative to be able to keep up with the impact of this trend and to build faster with fewer raw materials and still with acceptable quality. Better quality means less waste and more use of recyclable materials.

How to do BIM Quality Assurance management?

The process of BIM Quality Assurance and quality control consists of checking the various levels of BIM for them to be consistent and to comply with the BIM standards used in a project. QA is run upon completion of every system in the project design and is destined to eliminate errors.

General Check

• Visual check of the model
• Placement of origin point
• Naming of Project, Site, and Building
• Naming of storeys of the building
• Mapping of IFC class for all objects in the model
• Tagging all objects, and correct use of LOD parameter
• Naming of rooms in the model

Space Check

• Checking the area of space within the error range
• Checking each floor space area
• The space program’s space number and name are being verified
• Checking of space number unique identifier in BIM data

Design Check

• Match architectural property lines with civil property lines
• Match architectural building dimensions with structural
• Definition of the specific types and required properties like the object’s material

MEP (mechanical electrical plumbing) Check

• MEP plan matches the architectural and structural plan
• All equipment shown on the plans
• All equipment shown on the schedules
• MEP clash coordination

Construction Check

• Clash coordination between different building objects like beams and columns
• Clash coordination between the same kind of building objects

Model Revision

• Eliminate errors and clash issues
• Assure that all standards are followed
• Ensure enough geometric elements, the correct position, and functionality
• Confirm if the client’s requirements are met
• Delete unnecessary views and plans
• Delete unnecessary groups
• Verify work sets
• Purge file
• Audit file

How to ensure BIM model quality using Solibri software?

Solibri software has a robust built-in algorithm that can validate BIM model data, report when data is missing or incorrect, check for clashes between different design disciplines and look for potential problems that should be checked and solved before using the model on a construction site. Solibri also allows exporting quantities and data from the model as information take-off.

Introduction to Solibri is shown in this 5 min video:

Note that Solibri supports only files that are in IFC format! Learn more about IFC from this Building Smart International website.

How to use Solibri software in Quality Assurance?

To use Solibri software in BIM Quality Assurance, first, download the software and import your IFC files. If you have IFC files for different disciplines, you can federate the models in Solibri to make one combined model, but that can be done only in the paid versions of Solibri and in the free 30-day trial of Solibri Office that you can have by registering here.

Watch this short video to learn how to import IFC files and combine them into an SMC file to have a federated BIM model. Note that combining IFC models can be done only in the paid versions of Solibri Site and Solibri Office.

Watch this short video on how to get started.

To learn more about how to use Solibri, there is a lot of information in Solibri Help Center.

BIM Quality Assurance in residential BIM projects

Bonava AB is one of the largest construction companies in the Nordics. Watch the video to learn how Bonava does Quality Assurance and how it is utilised in residential BIM projects.

Modelical Spain is an innovative consulting agency working with digital transformation in the construction industry. Watch this video to learn how they are addressing Quality Assurance in residential BIM projects.

BIM Quality Assurance in business premises BIM projects

Marc Bancera, Head of BIM development and Constanze Hopf, BIM manager at Itten+Brechbühl
AG have been working on the Flexible Office Building (FOB) project. The FOB project is a 4-storey office building with an underground technical central constructed for the Roche Pharma AG in Grenzach-Wyhlen, Germany. Itten+Brechbühl AG is in charge of the BIM coordination and defining the BIM processes in the project. Watch this short video to hear why Quality Assurance is much more than clash detection.

A.Yoshii Brazil is specialised in high multi-storey residential projects. In this video, Adriano Balduino and Daniel Petrin tell what kind of challenges A.Yoshii faced working with Open BIM in Brazil and how they have managed to conquer them with Solibri.

BIM Quality Assurance in hospital BIM projects

Bridge Hospital is the largest building project conducted by the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa (HUS), the most significant healthcare provider in Finland. In this webinar, Janne Kivelä shares his experiences on BIM coordination and Quality Assurance in this multimillion hospital project.

The Stavanger Hospital in Norway is an exciting hospital BIM project. In this video, Eirik Soland Thu goes through the basic principles of how COWI uses Solibri to perform clash detection and other checks. In the second part of this video, Morten Lekven talks about Autorun, and is usage to ensure that all project members are working on updated files and updated checking results. In the third part, Henrik Thingbø discusses the use using Live connector. He will present us with the method of developing the BCF Live Connector with Solibri, which enables a highly efficient workflow for communication in BIM projects.

BIM Quality Assurance in airport BIM projects

Auckland Airport's BIM Manager, Karl Fitzpatrick shares some insight into how the use of openBIM and Solibri helps streamline the quality control and coordination of large-scale Building Information Models from a client's perspective.

Copenhagen Airport has around 100 projects every year toannuallyte the needs of an increasing number of passengers. Michael Ørsted, the Head Department Technical Knowledge at Copenhagen Airport, shares how the quality of the projects has improved with the help of BIM and Solibri,in addition to achieving generous cost savings.

BIM Quality Assurance in infrastructure BIM projects

The Tideway project is a major infrastructure project that won the BIM project of the year 2019 award in the UK. In this case study, Simon Gilbert from Solibri UK shows examples of how the project used Solibri in data validation/checking with the help of Solibri classifications and how project information was delivered by using the Cobie add-on developed by Solibri.

Nigel Davies, director of Evolve Consultancy, shares their experiences on two projects: one a £60m research establishment, the other a multi-billion infrastructure project and demonstrates that regardless of size or scope, assuring the quality of data is simple with Solibri.

BIM Quality Assurance in data centre BIM projects

Franco Rebecchi and Francesca Facchini from BimO Open innovation architecture company in Italy show a project on transforming an old factory into a modern data centre. They share how the old building was modelled with the help of modern technology, such as laser scanning, and how the efforts on quality control and clash detection helped to find problems in the project.

What is the difference between Solibri Anywhere, Site and Office?

The Solibri product family has three different versions of Solibri software.

Solibri Anywhere is free software that can be used for model viewing and navigation. It also allows you to comment on issues found in the model, do mark-ups and communicate using BCF live Connector and you can also create and share reports. You can download it for free from the Solibri website.

Solibri Site is a paid software version that allows you to combine models and export quantities from the model by using information take-off. Solibri Site is usually used when planning for purchasing building materials and on construction sites.

Solibri Office is the full version of Solibri software. Office allows you to check the model with Solibri’s built-in algorithm. It is important to understand that model data and quality should always be checked and approved before extracting data from the model for quantity calculations and cost analysis.

How to try or buy Solibri Office or Site software?

There is a free 30-day trial program for the full version of Solibri Office. You can start the trial by registering for it here.

Solibri Office and Site pricing are available here on Solibri website. Solibri Office and Site are subscription products that can be shared with many users, but the price is per one concurrent user. For smaller companies that are happy with just one individual named user, there is also the Solibri Office Lite that can be purchased for monthly or yearly use from the Solibri webstore.

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