The number of young people entering the construction industry is generally low, and industry buzzwords such as information technology (IT) are becoming increasingly attractive to emerging talent.
This is due to the persistent misconception that construction is still a manual labor or low-tech industry, and this can discourage young professionals from pursuing a career in this field.
Despite such a stereotype, the construction industry is developing rapidly, and the need for digital tools and information management is becoming more and more important here. The young generation in the civil engineering sector can significantly contribute to this digital transformation.
Helsinki, Finland. “KG Constructions” performs façade works for project “Redin Majakka, Tower 2”
BIM (building information modeling) information modeling of a building, as a technological solution in the engineering industry, is gaining popularity today. However, as with any new technology, this field requires a skilled workforce that can work with it. It is natural that many young construction discipline students around the world are interested in where it would be promising to build their career as an engineer. What are the long-term prospects of such a person in a large organization and in the construction industry.
Attention to people’s well-being
Julius Zykus, head of the BIM department of “KG Constructions”, says that now more than ever before, special attention is paid to creating and ensuring the well-being of employees when designing and constructing buildings. In order to create that prosperity, buildings must meet more and more requirements. If they meet more requirements, then they should be more complex, more modern, in which they should use more different materials, non-standard solutions.
Not surprisingly, sustainability also plays an important role in today’s construction industry. All building developers, architects, contractors, subcontractors and other chain representatives aim to reduce the total energy consumption, thus focusing on the development of sustainable construction and ensuring people’s well-being. When designing even the most complex buildings, the goal is one – as much naturalness as possible, plenty of sunlight, ensuring ergonomics, using sustainable, long-lasting materials and other solutions.
On the one hand, attention to ensuring human well-being is increasing, but on the other hand, time for assessing human needs is decreasing.
As a result, the ability to read drawings decreases. It is becoming more and more difficult for a specialist to concentrate and look at the drawings for a long time, because there are a lot of details in them.
For this reason, we use 3D modeling – BIM in our team. This way we can predict and scan much more detailed information and share it.
For example, not only us facade specialists participate in the project, but also other subcontractors, we all have a common goal, but the tasks are different.
In order to achieve complexity, we have to coordinate everything with each other, and communication via drawings is not timely.
“Just after making a drawing, it immediately becomes obsolete. It needs to be constantly updated, and BIM appears as a platform where we can exchange real-time information that visually represents the building, its detail, check intersection points with automated programs, not manually, not by intuition, but with a real vision.
Then the BIM coordinator from the customer’s side can assess the full and detailed picture and make corrections. In this way, we eliminate errors and inaccuracies and can ensure the smooth progress of the project for the client” – observes Julius Zykus.
Julius Zykus “KG Constructions” Head of BIM department
Adoption of BIM in a large organization
In the “KG Constructions organization”, the BIM department is a separate design unit and its specialists design and develop the project based on this methodology. Each implemented project is assigned a BIM specialist who accompanies the project throughout its development and creation cycle.
Generally speaking, construction is a very inefficient process. This area lags behind in the sense of digitalization, efficiency and other nuances, therefore we see and know how we can achieve the opposite – positive effect, and that is why we use BIM.
We create added value for both existing customers and those who choose to work with our experts. In the case of inaccuracies or misunderstandings between different chains, mistakes, it is not anyone else who suffers, but the client – the investor. We aim to educate and spread our knowledge, how we can prevent this – a specialist talks about the application of BIM in reality.
Let’s look at a practical example: “grey” areas appear at various stages of project development. You usually won’t see such a discrepancy, and no one can predict it even if you have a drawing up to date.
Unfortunately, the reality is different and when you come to the object under construction, you can see the opposite image, which is disturbing – you can see a hole in front of your eyes, for example.
Disagreements, even arguments and blame-seeking follow from this. ” We say it’s not a facade, others answer – it’s not a wall, and no one wants to take responsibility. The processes continue, and that hole remains untouched, until it reaches the stage when decisions have to be made in the object – here and now, because the holes are it can’t be – says J. Zykus.
According to him, the use of BIM in engineering helps to avoid this and many other mistakes. With a few clicks, software generates an image of the building project, where all discrepancies, possible problems and errors are clearly visible, and most importantly, the responsibilities of each subcontractor are clearly visible.
“They are basically colored in different colors in the program. Finally, the “gray” areas become truly gray and clearly visible.” – says Julius Zykus, head of the BIM department.
The specialist points out that without a BIM model, unfortunately, only drawings and contracts may not help to find the responsible party, and even more so, interested persons to solve the problems that arise.
“In summary, it can be said that the use of BIM helps to save money for all the chains working in the project, takes into account human resources, saves costs and makes project implementation more efficient.”
“It is not uncommon to create anecdotes about delayed construction, even when designing an apartment, you often encounter delays, errors, apparently, when it comes to buildings costing millions, everything is much more expensive and mistakes cost more. In such situations, the investor – the client – suffers the most”.
What can the field of BIM offer to a young specialist?
A perspective in a perspective industry. BIM integrates digital tools, real-time data access, and a collaborative platform to streamline construction processes, increase project efficiency, and stay abreast of the latest industry trends.
By encouraging young specialists to pursue a career in BIM and digital construction, we can use their ability to quickly navigate technological processes, and we also encourage them to boldly choose innovations and together create a more efficient, sustainable and future-oriented construction industry.
Article from: www.kgcgroup.com