The future of building planning

Together with the Fraunhofer Institute, E/D/E held a training day on “Building Information Modeling” in September 2023. The 21 participants took advantage of the offer to prepare themselves for the ongoing digitalization in the construction industry. In addition to the theoretical basics, they were also given guidelines for action.

“BIM will play an important role in the construction industry in the future,” predicts Christian Zenk, Team Leader of the building components specialist area at E/D/E. To prepare its members for this development, the buying association organized a training day together with the Fraunhofer Institute on 20 September 2023. At the NYX Hotel in Mannheim, 21 participants from the E/D/E specialist group PRO.ELEMENT learned the basics of Building Information Modeling (BIM).

Thomas Kirmayr, Managing Director of the Fraunhofer Building Innovation Alliance and Head of the SME 4.0 Competence Center for Planning and Construction, was responsible for conducting the training. “BIM is the clever application of various methods to optimize processes in the construction industry and to identify and avoid risks, such as cost and time overruns, at an early stage,” the expert began his presentation. “Networking between all shareholdings in the construction project plays a key role.”

BIM basics The main content of the training was the standards and guidelines associated with BIM. Among other things, the participants learned that the so-called client information requirements must be written down at the start of every project. This is where the initiator of the construction project formulates its objectives and records the planned use cases. Various BIM tools were also part of the agenda. At this point, it quickly became clear that there is a wide range of software solutions with different strengths and weaknesses. Which of these is most suitable, however, must be decided by those responsible on a case-by-case basis. At a later point, Kirmayr also introduced the keyword “model checking” – a BIM model must be checked and updated regularly so that it retains its information value.

Guidelines for action

At the end of the event, the participants were given guidelines for action. If they want to integrate BIM into their day-to-day work, they need to ask themselves the following questions, among others: Who am I already exchanging digital information with? Who would I like to receive them from in the future? What IT tools do I already have in use? Which new tools should I buy?

Further training days planned

The workshop was accompanied by Benjamin Gebhard and Markus Maur from the building components specialist area at E/D/E. Christian Zenk and his team are satisfied with how the day went and the feedback from participants was overwhelmingly positive. “Further training days are therefore being planned. Together with the Fraunhofer Institute, E/D/E would like to further promote the topic of BIM and support members in positioning themselves for the future.”