ASSA ABLOY: How BIM can save time and hassle for architects and building planners

Paul Thompson, ASSA ABLOY BIM Manager for the UK and Ireland, talks about the practical benefits of the Building Information Modelling (BIM) process in this Q&A…

Q: For anyone unfamiliar with BIM, can you briefly explain it?

Every building project needs coordination of vast amounts of information. BIM is basically the digitisation of this. It’s not just software, and not only a model, but the process itself.

To maximize BIM’s usefulness, all project products and materials should be included, with comprehensive, reliable data. Every stakeholder can then access this resource — ‘the model’ — which helps minimise design and engineering errors.

This is the ‘golden thread’ that UK government policy increasingly focuses on. To quote from their recent guidance: “The golden thread is both the information about a building that allows someone to… keep it safe and information management to ensure the information is accurate, easily understandable, can be accessed by those who need it and is up to date.”

This neatly sums up the benefits of implementing BIM from the outset and maintaining it over a building’s life-cycle.

Q: What sort of difficulties with security planning do architects and building specifiers often encounter?

Security and access control solutions can be technical. These details can be crucial to fully realising the overall ‘vision’ for a building, delivering usability and user-friendliness.

Furthermore, small specification details can have a big impact on the final outcome. Something as simple as a door opening on a different axis can affect light, accessibility compliance, security and more. 

BIM and specification consultants, including expert teams at ASSA ABLOY all over Europe, make sure the full implications of changes are understood. They service they provide takes care of time-consuming details, leaving architects to focus on the ‘big picture’.

There is also some evidence from the USA that effective BIM reduces project costs.

Q: What kinds of specific support does ASSA ABLOY have to offer to architects and building planners?

When BIM consultants are involved, specification becomes integrated and efficient, rather than a ‘bolt-on’ after creative work is complete. With comprehensive data, architects can introduce security solutions into their designs early, so building aesthetics are not disrupted at the last minute.

ASSA ABLOY consultants also bring specific, independent security and safety expertise relevant to their geographical market. They help coordinate knowledge transfer between stakeholders through the full planning and construction life-cycle.

Available tools include a comprehensive BIM library with specifications and objects formatted for architectural design software. Each object in the library has detailed geometry to populate a design. 

Our Openings Studio™ software can deliver detailed solution specifications directly to popular packages such as Revit® and ARCHICAD®. It also streamlines the handover process between construction and facilities management.

Q: For obvious and tragic reasons, fire door expertise is especially in the spotlight. What can ASSA ABLOY’s BIM consultants contribute?

Companies which supply life-critical building equipment must be confident in its performance. For this reason, we can share evidence from testing and all external product certifications. Choosing the right door closer can be vital.

Our BIM teams in the UK and across the EMEIA have detailed regulatory knowledge to help building design. Ongoing performance is supported with regular fire inspections and the ASSA ABLOY mobile app which directly accesses door data during the installation process, ensuring full validity of the finished product prior to project completion.  The app also provides a user-friendly ‘check-box’ system to carry out and capture detailed inspections based on the specific details of each door included in the schedule.

By partnering with a specification expert — and with the full spectrum of product information available via an intact ‘Golden Thread’ — architects have the trusted data they need to design, specify and equip buildings safely.

ASSA ABLOY BIM consultants have experience supporting projects from a single door up to 15,000. To learn more, visit Building specification services | ASSA ABLOY.

Contact ASSA ABLOY Opening Solutions EMEA Digital and Access Solutions

Dukes Court/Dukes Street
Woking
GU21 5BH
United Kingdom

Web:  About us | ASSA ABLOY
Email: Thomas.schulz@assaabloy.com
Phone: 0049 30 8106 2970

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