BIM help for Product Manufacturers and Suppliers
As the uptake of BIM progresses, demand is increasing for objects or ‘Content’ to be provided by construction product manufacturers and suppliers; in much the same way as they already supply 2D Content for inclusion in production drawings pre construction.
There is however much more to Content for Building Information Models than simply a 3D graphic representation of the product or material that used to be supplied in 2D. The essence of BIM is the sharing of information across the industry from construction professionals, contractors and sub-contractors to client groups and end users (facilities managers and the like) all the way through maintenance, refurbishment, demolition and ultimately recycling (cradle to grave). 3D content needs to be a ‘virtual product’ (replacing expensive hard copy literature or CD’s), which is data rich and can inform individuals, and the myriad of software products that they use, throughout the lifecycle of a building. But, there is much more. Carefully structured data and back of house processes can utilise the data and information contained within BIM’s to achieve advantage and efficiencies across the host business both client facing, manufacture and e-procurement.
As well as producing high quality data rich content, we can help you evaluate your existing data systems and if necessary, modify them or produce web based product configurators to enable specifiers to get the best from your products (and come back as repeat customers), and enable you to adopt, or make the most of, what structured data has to offer.
No one size fits all when it comes to creating Content. What’s good for one product manufacturer may be completely inappropriate for another. Parameters need to be custom designed to suit specific needs and information outputs for the product in question. And, all this information needs to be kept current of course. As standards and legislation change, and products need updating, we can, quite possibly give product manufacturers the ability to update their data without the need necessarily to update Content (and the expense that goes with it); and without the need for the end user to exchange Content but to simply update their model.