Haydn Read is Manager of Strategic Asset Planning at Wellington City Council. Formerly, he was Director of Operations at Whakatane District Council and Operations Manager at Bluescope Steel. Haydn is a big fan of building information modelling, or BIM, as a business tool to assist forward planning, investment decisions and integrated operations. He values the benefits that BIM can deliver as a next generation data management tool to manage the ‘whole of life’ of assets. Haydn’s interest in public assets has extended into a PhD which he is currently undertaking at Victoria University School of Government – looking at how local government makes decisions on large capital investments. He has recently addressed the Treasury, Ministry of Education and key decision makers in the Auckland construction market about BIM’s potential in the asset management space.
Haydn talks about how WCC is using BIM as a tool for asset management (AM) and facilities management (FM), electronically transferring “As-Built” data from BIM into AM and FM systems to optimise the operation of its large property portfolio.
My team and I support the stewardship of all the assets of Wellington City Council which have a collective value of around $6.5 billion. Using BIM we can plug the underground assets into the above ground assets (what some people refer to as horizontal and vertical infrastructure) to get a total picture to inform investment decisions. The interoperability between WCC’s asset classes is critical to determining which assets to develop, when and where, to ensure the best investment for the city’s communities. Within a tight budget it’s really important to be able to prioritise work and maximise value.
We’ve been using BIM for some time to help manage our three water networks –waste water, storm water and potable water. This year we’ve started using BIM to help manage WCC’s property portfolio which includes everything from large venues like the Michael Fowler Centre to bridges, sports arenas, community halls and social housing.
BIM can give you a clear line of sight on the condition of your built assets and their impact on your balance sheet at any point in time – now or in the future.
For instance, if we are refurbishing a social housing project we can use a BIM model to virtually fit out the existing superstructure and cost the job. We might increase or decrease the number of units within that, considering the whole of life costs of the asset. We can assess the structure and plan where the pipework goes so it can be easily accessed for maintenance. Put simply, short-term savings can create substantial financial commitments for future generations – something we must take more care of into the future. When we have captured the data on all of the components, we can feed that information into our asset management system. Once you’ve captured that date you’ve got it forever for future asset management so you can project when the carpets might need to be replaced and budget for that.
Once created, a BIM model travels with you through every stage of the life of an asset: design, build, retrofit, materials testing and even helps determine the end of its useful life. You can call on it to assist you at every intervention point. When you are dealing with large scale assets and a sizeable portfolio the benefits are massive. This value is multiplied when all of the construction sector embraces BIM and can share data in a collaborative manner.
For WCC using BIM presents two key considerations:
- the depth of capability in the business to use BIM well and the ability to transfer that capability from one part of the business to another
- the breadth of the benefits BIM can deliver in the built space.
At WCC we are seeing the benefits of BIM through a number of different lenses and developing proofs of concept to quantify them for both new buildings and renovations.
By making BIM part of our business as usual we are confident that we will have a very different and much more efficient operating environment.