BIM is essentially becoming a mandatory process within the Architectural, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry. A recent market survey estimates that BIM market is expected to reach USD 10.36 billion by 2022, prominently due to the improvement in visualization, enhanced productivity and significant reductions in cost through the implementation of this revolutionary workflow.

With this rapid growth in the adoption of BIM by the industry, there is a growing need for building product manufacturers and suppliers to become BIM-ready. Leading construction companies and EPC firms often demand quality BIM content from their suppliers. However, research shows that manufacturers are slow in adopting this change, which is indirectly leading them to lose business many times.

But with the new collaborative workflow brought by BIM, it is essential for product manufacturers to provide BIM objects in order to ensure better product sales. This is precisely because the construction sector is rapidly moving towards intelligent decision-making through the power of information. For any construction project, BIM enables the project stakeholders to extract information at any stage, be it the design, construction or facility management. This is where manufacturers need to understand the need to provide accurate information about their products so that they can be used in their BIM-ready models.

Data is essentially at the heart of the BIM, and to make the data more meaningful, manufacturers remain the only credible source of information. While this is something that most product manufacturers are already aware of, the challenge lies with the development of BIM content. Especially with BIM standards and issues related to interoperability, manufacturers even if they develop a quality BIM object library may face challenges when the designers make use of their product across different modeling platforms.

This task often leads manufacturers to refrain from developing BIM content for their products. But, again, there are benefits associated with this change that no one can deny. Designers are more likely to use the products of a manufacturer whose data is readily available with 3D models. This naturally increases the chances of maximizing sales, while also allows structuring and specifying the products for the manufacturer.

Developing BIM content, however, is certainly not the core task of a product manufacturer, but is still essential and cannot be avoided. This is where a partnership with a firm specializing in BIM content development can solve the purpose. Shedding this non-core activity will not only help manufacturers in focusing on the tasks that are more important to their business, but it will also provide additional benefits that will help in building quality BIM content without any additional investment in resource management.

BIM service providers for product manufacturers can help in developing content as per the standards such as IFC, Revit, BIMObject or specific to the tools that may be used by the designers. In addition, product manufacturers can avoid the headache of developing content specific to the user requirements. Service providers can develop BIM content with different levels (LOD100 to LOD500) that can be used by the architects and GC at different levels of the building construction project.

Having a BIM object library for products also provides manufacturers with a competitive edge against their competitors. It invariably helps in maximizing sales in a market that is continuously progressing towards the adoption of BIM.

BIM for Product Manufacturers is certainly the need of an hour. While manufacturers may find it a mammoth task to convert all their design data into the structured BIM-ready format with the addition of information, a partnership with a BIM content development service provider can be of a great help. Given the current scenario within the AEC market, manufacturers should soon make their move towards building BIM objects for their products if they do not wish to be left behind.