General contractors (GCs) carry numerous responsibilities as the primary point of contact for all stakeholders and ensure the project’s successful execution. Their responsibilities extend far beyond coordinating subcontractors—they are accountable for aligning project activities with the agreed timelines, budgets, and quality standards mandated by regulations such as those from the Building and Construction Authority (BCA). Acting as both managers and facilitators, general contractors ensure that every phase of the project progresses smoothly and efficiently.
And with all these critical duties to uphold, it’s important they have effective tools to support them. One of these tools is Building Information Technology (BIM).
How is BIM Beneficial to General Contractors?
So, how do contractors use BIM?
BIM provides robust tools and streamlined workflows that empower general contractors across all project phases, leading to greater efficiency, stronger collaboration, and reduced risks. This aligns with the principles of Integrated Digital Delivery (IDD), which aims to ensure seamless information flow across the project lifecycle.
1. Pre-Construction Phase Advantages
Project Visualization (4D)
General contractors are responsible for understanding the construction sequence, communicating it effectively to stakeholders, and identifying potential scheduling conflicts early to avoid delays.
With BIM, they can create dynamic 4D simulations that visually map out the construction timeline, deepening their understanding and enabling clearer, step-by-step communication with clients. These simulations make temporal and spatial clashes readily visible, allowing general contractors to resolve potential scheduling conflicts proactively.
Additionally, BIM supports the compliance with the Singapore BCA’s Model Content Requirements (MCR), which mandates standardized project data for consistency and effective coordination.
Accurate Cost Estimation (5D)
General contractors often struggle with manually calculating material quantities and predicting costs accurately from 2D drawings, leading to potential bid inaccuracies and budget overruns. Fortunately, one of the benefits of building information modeling is resolving this by linking cost data (materials, labor, equipment, etc.) to 3D model components. This allows GCs to automatically extract precise material quantities and associate them with current pricing for realistic, MCR-compliant bids.
Furthermore, BIM provides a dynamic cost overview that updates with design changes, enabling effective budget management and minimizing the risk of cost overruns through continuous tracking and analysis.
2. Construction Phase Efficiencies
Contract and Subcontractor Management
During construction, GCs are responsible for managing and coordinating various subcontractors. To streamline this complex process, BIM offers a common data environment (CDE) where all project-related information, subcontractor schedules, and communication logs are stored and managed. This enables general contractors to easily access and share the most current project information with subcontractors, streamlining communication, clarifying responsibilities, and improving overall coordination. GCs can also track subcontractor progress against the 4D schedule within the BIM model.
Streamlined RFI Systems
In the RFI process, general contractors use BIM to clarify ambiguities visually within the 3D model, potentially avoiding formal RFIs altogether. When a question persists, general contractors can directly link the RFI query to the specific model elements causing the confusion, adding precise visual context. They then submit this visually referenced RFI through the BIM platform’s CDE. This ensures faster routing to the correct stakeholder, leading to quicker and more accurate responses.
Improved Change Order Management
General contractors assess the impact of design changes on the ongoing construction, including budget, schedule, and resource implications, and then negotiate and manage these changes with the owner and subcontractors. In this aspect, BIM can help GCs by generating variance reports that visually highlight all additions and removals within the model resulting from a proposed change.
By running simulations and analyses on the modified model, GCs gain a clearer understanding of how the change will affect material quantities, labor requirements, budget, and the project timeline. This enables more informed decision-making and facilitates clearer communication and negotiation with all stakeholders regarding the change order.
Optimized Labor Efficiency
GCs are constantly striving to maximize their on-site labor force’s productivity by ensuring they have the right information at the right time to perform their tasks efficiently and accurately, minimizing errors and rework. BIM directly supports this by integrating all project information, including the 3D model, detailed drawings, and construction schedules, into a CDE. This ensures that workers have the necessary visual and textual information at their fingertips, leading to a better understanding of their tasks and reduced on-site errors due to unclear or outdated information. Ultimately, labor productivity is optimized through improved coordination and clearer instructions.
3. Post-Construction Benefits
Facility Management (7D)
While the primary responsibility shifts to facility managers post-construction, general contractors ensure they provide the necessary documentation during the handover process. To facilitate this, BIM consolidates relevant data about building components, systems, and maintenance schedules in its CDE. Having a “digital twin” of the building means proactive maintenance can be scheduled, energy consumption can be monitored, and space utilization can be optimized, leading to significant long-term operational efficiencies.
Quality Verification and Close-out
The GC is responsible for verifying that the completed construction meets the specified quality standards and for compiling and delivering a comprehensive project record to the owner during the close-out phase. By maintaining a comprehensive record of the project’s evolution, including any deviations from the original design (as-built conditions) within the BIM model, the general contractor has a digital model that simplifies the final project verification and handover process.
General contractors can also use the BIM model for virtual walkthroughs and comparisons against the design model to ensure all quality standards are met before the final handover to the owner.
BIM’s Growing Importance for General Contractors
To highlight Singapore’s broader push towards Integrated Digital Delivery (IDD), a transformative approach that leverages digital technologies to integrate and optimize the entire building lifecycle, the BCA actively promotes BIM adoption through initiatives like the MCR. The MCR standardizes data and information deliverables for various project stages and building types with the goal of reaping the benefits of BIM in construction, such as enhanced interoperability, reduced information gaps, and improved collaboration for smoother project delivery and regulatory compliance.
To ensure your business stays compliant, partner with BIMAGE Consulting. Our professionals possess in-depth knowledge of the most effective BIM technologies. We can provide companies with tailored, BCA-compliant BIM solutions, including customized Autodesk cloud platform setups, expert BIM implementation with CDE configuration, and rigorous BIM model auditing. Our expertise extends to our comprehensive BIM training to help general contractors adopt cutting-edge BIM technologies while adhering to the BCA’s model content requirements. We are also a certified Autodesk cloud solution reseller, so you can have the digital tools you need to optimize your projects.
Reach out to us today to discover how we can help you unlock the benefits of BIM for your projects.
