How BIM mandates impact manufacturers

This blog post is a quick summary of our guide that covers BIM mandates across the world. Want the full piece? Get your hands on the global guide to BIM mandates now.

What is a BIM mandate?

A BIM mandate is a set of implemented government or agency policies dictating that BIM is a necessity for centrally procured projects. The enforcement of a BIM mandate is normally the final step of a country's BIM strategy and plan.

Some countries (such as Italy, Spain, and Malaysia) adopt gradual plans and base the mandate on monetary value, while others enforce it almost over night. Regardless of tactics, countries with an active or pending mandate will only award government construction contracts to BIM-fluent firms.

Why are public entities requiring BIM?

Governments carry a lot of weight on their shoulders. Not only must they secure safe and sufficient infrastructure for all inhabitants, but they also need to do it without splurging on taxpayer money and harming the environment.

Yet, the construction industry has a long history of low productivity, and to this day, 98% of megaprojects suffer from 30+ percent cost overruns and are delivered 40+ percent late. Turning that ship around might feel like something out of Mission Impossible, right?

It's not.

BIM gives governments a way to build responsibly by getting maximum social, economical, and ecological value out of scarce funds. So, does it really come as a surprise that it’s becoming a central aspect of public procurements around the world?

How BIM mandates impact manufacturers

Mandates tend to influence and accelerate adoption. But what will all of this mean for manufacturers around the world? Well, a lot. And it all begins with a simple story of demand driving up supply:

When Governments mandate BIM for public projects, designers, contractors, and building owners need to adapt. Furthermore, they need to select building components that meet the project’s budget, timeline, and environmental considerations.

This makes architects, interior designers, and engineers heavily reliant on manufacturers supplying BIM objects (digital and information-rich twins of real-life products) in order to populate the model and calculate its impact on the surrounding environment.

Not quite sure who's involved in BIM projects? Get the crash course today >

BIM can make or break your specification rate

The public sector is a large purchasing body that can bring in a lot of green. Considering that 80% of specifications are based on the design (DBEI.org), we need to get selected and included in the early design stage. So...

With more and more nations creating BIM frameworks, specifiers will limit their selection process to manufacturers who offer BIM objects: information-rich digital replicas of physical products. Need BIM objects? We have an entire team dedicated to creating a-list BIM content.

How to meet the BIM requirements

BIM mandates are popping up all over the globe, influencing the very fabric of the construction business. But how can you make sure that you're ahead of the curve?

1. Acknowledge digitization

BIM mandates and adoption are a part of a wider digitization process. During 2020 and the "that-which-must-not-be-named" pandemic, BIM moved from a luxury to a necessity. Trade shows are still important for our industry, but digital alternatives are dwarfing the hype. According to a recent survey with 2,568 architects, engineers, contractors, and owners/operators, we found that:

• Specifiers don't attend trade shows to find new products. They primarily go for networking.
• 50% of specifiers might skip them in the years to come. In this webinar, Ann Forsmann Sachs, Senior Consultant at Ramboll, even says that she'd hesitate to approve it for others.
• 59% of specifiers find products online. Less than 10% find them at trade shows.

2. Digitize your building products

Once you embrace a digital working mode, you need to digitize your products. Ensuring that your products can be specified as components of a BIM project is critical for keeping your business in the purchase cycle.

Why? Because specifiers will (or will soon) limit their product selection to manufacturers who can support them in – and throughout – BIM projects. Sufficient product data is the alpha and omega to make it happen.

3. Make your BIM objects digitally available

The last big step is to go all out, Oprah Winfrey, and give away your files to specifiers. Finding a good marketplace with direct access to a vast pool of architects and engineers is key to winning deals in a world with an uptick in mandates.

Not to toot our own horn (but we will), USP research states that the BIMobject global marketplace is considered the architect’s choice for specific BIM information. Awareness surged by 73% between Q4 2019 and Q2 2021, which indicates a maturing market and an increasing need for manufacturer-specific BIM objects in public and private projects.

Learn in which countries BIM is mandatory

Steps 1, 2, and 3 are swell, but there's a step before action: knowledge. You need to guzzle up on the mandates before you make the internal wheels spin. This blog provides a good base, but you need to go deeper. Want to master the mandates?

Download the global guide to BIM mandates and initiatives today!

Sarah Chase

Global Content Marketer