Building Information Modeling: Helping the Air Force better design, construct, manage assets

  • Published
  • By Nicholas Lutton
  • AFCEE Public Affairs
LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  Being able to see what you are going to build before you build it is not a futuristic idea.

Since fiscal 2010, the Air Force Center for Engineering and the Environment has required Building Information Modeling be utilized for the design of all vertical military construction projects.

BIM is a three-dimensional, dynamic modeling approach aimed at increasing productivity in building design and construction. The National BIM Standard defines BIM as the "digital representation of the physical and functional characteristics of a facility. As such, it serves as a shared, collaborative information resource for a facility from inception onward."

Use of BIM can also assist the Air Force in "green" construction and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification by enabling daylight and energy modeling and analysis, according to Maj. Patrick Suermann, AFCEE Executive Officer and BIM advocate.

AFCEE is not the only agency to use BIM. Several other major owners like the General Services Administration, Army Corps of Engineers, Veterans Affairs and the states of Wisconsin and Texas also require BIM-based approaches.

"BIM can produce greater productivity and higher-quality work from facility planning through decommissioning," said Rick Sinkfield, AFCEE architect and architecture subject matter expert. "With full integration, BIM will increase speed of design, reduce the amount of design errors, reduce construction modifications and greatly enable facility management with more robust facility data."

The building industry is in the midst of a revolution that will change how the building process is handled, Mr. Sinkfield said, and BIM is the catalyst. All the benefits mentioned above will help improve the process, leading toward more accurate and robust designs, he added.

"BIM is applied in the earliest steps of building design, even if it a listing of how many rooms there will be," Mr. Sinkfield said. "From there, the more information that's gathered from the stakeholders and technical folks, the more it becomes a model. Then, the information is the key to everything that follows. When all the information becomes available, users and operators can draw from it to track building performance and manage its operations." 

Asset management integration will yield the largest benefit, Mr. Sinkfield said

"The best is yet to come. When full asset management integration occurs, we will see the greatest benefit," he said. "Building operations account for over 80 percent of a building's lifecycle cost, so there's where the biggest bang for the buck will happen."