BESA backs a digital strategy

UK: The Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) believes a wider use of digital systems is crucial to government aims to create a more efficient and productive construction industry.

In an announcement following the government’s newly-published Construction Strategy covering the period to 2020, the BESA’s legal and commercial director Rob Driscoll said: “BIM provides an opportunity to join up the supply chain, improve productivity and deliver significant cost savings. It is also a gateway to greater use of offsite fabrication and other modern methods of construction.”

The overall thrust of the updated Construction Strategy turns greater focus on collaborative working to reduce wasteful activity in construction procurement and delivery.

BESA believes that building information modelling (BIM), which becomes mandatory on public sector projects next month, should be the “technical cornerstone” of the government’s strategy as it believes it can dramatically speed up the design process and make it more accurate.

Wider digitisation of the sector would also improve payment and other business practices, according to Mr Driscoll.

“An integrated payment system that is digitally transparent, more efficient and allows everyone to work in an environment of greater trust and certainty is absolutely in line with the government’s plans,” he said.

“A centralised online procurement portal to enable public sector clients to manage the supply chain at project and strategic level through analysis of ‘big data’ would also support the strategy.”

The Specialist Engineering Contractors’ (SEC) Group chief executive Professor Rudi Klein said he was extremely pleased that the Infrastructure and Projects Authority – the new custodians of the strategy – would continue to pursue the roll-out of BIM across public sector procurement, as well as piloting model procurement options aimed at early involvement of the supply chain in the design and planning processes.

He added that greater emphasis should now be placed on implementation to ensure that BIM is “truly collaborative, with data being shared by all members of the team on a common platform”.

Professor Klein went on to call for a doubling in the use of project bank accounts “to ensure regular and to secure cash flow for firms in construction supply chains”, and he confirmed that the SEC Group would work with the Infrastructure and Projects Authority to achieve these aims.