BIM ENABLED LEAN CONSTRUCTION FASTER, EASIER, BETTER, AND LESS EXPENSIVE PROJECT DELIVERY KAISER CAPITOL HILL MEDICAL OFFICE BUILDING

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1 BIM ENABLED LEAN CONSTRUCTION FASTER, EASIER, BETTER, AND LESS EXPENSIVE PROJECT DELIVERY EMILY FINAU YONG CHEOL LEE

2 Table of Contents Introduction Description of Project Project Organization Specific Challenges Schedule BIM and Interoperability Design Innovation and Construction 1. Dynamic animation for evaluating MRI package movement paths 2. Pharmacy area virtual mockup 3. MEP coordination 4. BIM + Lean construction 5. BIG room 3C s (Collaboration & Coordination & Communication) BIM Benefits Realized BIM Application s Return on Value Conclusion and Lessons Learned References

3 Introduction Kaiser Permanente is a not-for-profit health plan and care provider, which has built a medical office building on Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C., nd street. Kaiser Permanente Capitol Hill Medical Center was completed in January This Medical Office Building includes radiology/imaging suite and pharmacy, laboratory space, a conference space, and exam and procedure rooms, physician offices. This project involved the renovation of an existing office building for a hospital facility, using four of the eleven floors (lower, ground, 6th and 7th floors) in the building, approximately 189,000 square feet. MOB s have special requirements for mechanical, electrical, and plumbing, and have specialized spatial needs for large equipment, so the use of BIM was especially important in this project. Thus, the initial objective of BIM was how to effectively minimize Figure. 1 Building and Site problems in the renovation project from an office building to a hospital, how to efficiently design the MEP systems of hospital in low height stories and how to efficiently arrange the hospital equipment. Also, in this project, BIM was used by various ways like dynamic animation, virtual mockup, lean construction and BIG room. In addition, collaboration, coordination and communication were essential to the success of this project because there were several difficulties in the tight schedule: scheduling between DPR and another construction firm working in the same building, and coordinating among an architect, an engineer and a constructor. These were all issues of collaboration, coordination and communication that were solved by BIM application. 1

4 Description of Project Project Location Construction Size Cost Period Structure Owner/Client Architect Constructor Kaiser Capitol Hill Medical Office Building Capitol Hill Medical Center 700 Washington, D.C Tenant Fit-out of Core & Shell (Design-Bid-Build) 189,000 Square feet (4 of 11 Exsiting Floors : B1,1,6,7 F) $ 27 Million GMP (Completion cost $ 40 Million) 12 Months (Jan 2010 Jan 2011) Steel and Concrete structure Louise Dreyfus / Kaiser Permanente Hawley Peterson & Snyder Architects (HPS) DPR Construction Table. 1 Project Description Project Organization Figure. 2 Project Organization The construction type was unique in that two parties needed to be represented: Kaiser Permanente, a healthcare provider, as well as the building owner and developer, Louis Dreyfus Property Group and Fisher Brothers. DPR s contract was with the building owner but while still representing Kaiser. Representing the two parties proved to be difficult. Also, Jacobs Engineering and Louise Drefus played the role as the Construction Manager, for fee. 2

5 Specific Challenges 1. Tight schedule The schedule for completion called for 1 year, which is a short amount of time to design, collaborate, fabricate, and build. The time for BIM coordination, especially, was not quite enough for DPR. 2. Building structure Figure. 3 Schedule Timer in DPR office Low ceiling heights and height limits in Washington D.C. resulted in low height stories (1000ft). Since the building was previously an office building, there were low height stories already in place, and were therefore problematic for hospital equipment and all MEP systems. Additionally, the building had 11 floors total, with 4 of the floors being used for the hospital. 3. Coordination. There were many problems in coordination work. Firstly, it was hard to coordinate between DPR construction and another construction firm because both construction companies were going their works in Kaiser Capitol Hill Medical Office Building at the same time. Thus, DPR construction was difficult to set the schedule for avoiding overlapping with the other construction going on. architect and an engineer was another problem. Secondly, the collaboration with an That is because the architect was in California and the engineer was in Tennessee and DPR was in Washington. Thus, it was not easy to set the meetings for project. 4. Budget. The budget for the project was $27 million but ended up at $40 million. The main reason for this budget increase is the low quality of the architectural/mechanical designs. Therefore, during constructing the building, there were a number of design changes. Actually, there were 60 bulletin changes. 3

6 Schedule The design of Kaiser Permanente began on May All design teams, including the architect used BIM tools to design their buildings and collaborated over several BIM meetings. BIM coordination work began just a month before beginning construction. Figure. 4 The Schedule By coordinating BIM models with the existing building, the architectural model, the MEP model and other subcontractors models, the construction started on October The owner required DPR to deliver the project in less than 48 weeks from the start of construction. construction concept, for meeting this schedule. DPR made every effort, including lean It was difficult for DPR to keep the schedule because another construction firm was working concurrently in the same building on the other floors that were also being renovated by other companies for other program besides Kaiser Permanente s health care facility. Scheduling played an important role in meeting the dead line. After setting the schedule deadlines, Figure. 5 Backward Calculation Method each of the subcontractors made efforts to meet that schedule. The detailed schedule was set by the backward calculation method. The schedule was shared and coordinated during group meetings and then evolved into the real time and detailed schedule for construction. In this project, the commitment to meet the deadline of each subcontractor played a key role in building completion. If they could not meet the time schedule, it could have an adverse effect to other subcontractors. Consequently, they took the greatest and utmost pains for making the fixed schedule. Total scheduling process Firstly, they formed a plan to complete BIM coordination before starting construction of the four out of eleven floors: the 7 th floor, 6 th floor, ground level, and lower level. The work 4

7 went from one floor to next after each BIM team finished the corresponding BIM coordination. However, they recognized that the coordination work took more time than expected and could have resulted in the delay of starting the construction. Figure. 6 Schedule Board Figure. 7 Initial BIM Execution Schedule Last Planner Scheduling For solving the problem, they decided to operate two BIM teams for BIM coordination. In addition, they divided the 4 specific sections for reducing time per each coordination works instead of work for each floor, which enabled them to enter the construction right after finishing the coordination for each section. complete construction quickly. The change in BIM coordination work helped to S #2 S #1 S #3 S #4 Figure. 8 Smaller Sections Figure. 9 Actual BIM Execution Schedule Last Planner Scheduling BIM and Interoperability 3D modeling used by DPR was crucial in the design process and in modeling the complex MEP design. The Kaiser Capitol Hill Medical Office Building proved that use of BIM applications was invaluable in completing the project. This renovation project required the as-built 3D Figure. 10 3D Rendering 5

8 model for applying the BIM approach to this building. For the 3D model of this existing building, DPR used 3D laser scanning. The laser scanner equipped with a 360-degree rotating camera as a total solution device that analyzed the existing building and created a figure from the existing building by making point clouds. After collecting the data from laser scanning, the data was exported for creating digital and three dimensional models for other formats like the IFC main library through 3D software, cyclone-ex. The BIM models made from all the contractors in this project including an architect, an engineer, and MEP contractors were based on the laser Figure. 11 Laser Scanning scanned model. Interoperability Architects used Revit Architecture As-built Model Laser Scan, Cyclone-ex and Engineers used AutoCAD for Architectural Model Autodesk Revit Architecture creating 3D model and contract drawings. DPR used Revit Engineers Model AutoCAD for 3D model Architecture, AutoCAD, Navisworks, Mechanic Model PipeDesigner Quickpen and Google Sketchup. Subcontractors Electric Model Autodesk Revit MEP used AutoCAD with plug-ins for the Plumbing Model AutoCAD & Plumbing library libraries they need. For example, Duct Model CADDuct ductwork contractor used CADDuct Construction Model Autodesk Navisworks and mechanical pipe contractor used Table 2 Design and Software PipeDesigner Quickpen. All issues of interoperability among all programs in the project were solved by the use of Autodesk products. Based on the existing model from the laser scanning, DPR coordinated all models through Navisworks. Therefore, Navisworks could compile data without any missing information. Therefore, in this project, interoperability was not a big issue because almost all contractors used the Autodesk sibling products, which has DWG or RVT file formats. Data exchanges between the two tools were carried out through direct links, proprietary file exchange formats, and public product data model exchange formats (IFC). Each model could be interoperated for visualization, clash detection and full documentation of the entire project. 6

9 The interesting point in the above chart was a plumbing model made by AutoCAD and plumbing library. They could not use Revit MEP because the machine making real ducts only read AutoCAD files. This was perhaps the most problematic interoperability issue; BIM did not apply to the fabrication component because of the fabricator s software. This is commonly a current problem of applying BIM to the real work, and there is still much to be done to improve the architectural environment. Design Innovation and Construction Kaiser Permanente was a hospital renovation from an office building with a core and shell, or with an existing structure and curtain wall. The work scope included concrete, mechanical, electrical, and plumbing; an entire renovation and interior construction project of 4 of the floors of the building. DPR had utilized BIM models to identify the design concept and the project scope of work. BIM was also utilized for visualization and enhancing the design. All of contractors use Autodesk products like Revit and Revit MEP for 3D modeling, production scheduling, HVAC design, optimization of various mechanical systems, energy analysis, performance monitoring, quantity extraction, and estimating. 1. Dynamic animation for evaluating MRI package movement paths DESIGN DILEMMA: Hospital equipment needs - MRI, CT big equipment results in difficulties in creating an entrance and circulation pathways that result in ease of movement and flow. DESIGN SOLUTION: Dynamic Animation Generally, in the case of a hospital new construction project, a pathway and an entrance are set for large equipment like MRI or CT. However, because the Kaiser project was a renovation project from an office to a hospital, it was difficult to plan the equipment s pathways. Dynamic animation in this project was used in that there was a movement point that moved throughout the model to find how many clash detections occurred. The path with the fewest clashes was found and once clash detection was performed and adjustments made, the walls were then constructed after first moving the equipment or they were built by using precast concrete method. This method was really effective to show the pathways and to find the best one among several alternative pathways. 7

10 Clash Detection Clash Detection Figure. 12 MRI Dynamic Animation for MRI Package Path 2. Pharmacy area virtual mockup DESIGN DILEMMA: Nurses wanted to confirm that the pharmacy facility and movement through the facility would assist the ease in flow throughout their workdays. DESIGN SOLUTION: Virtual Mockup Figure. 13 Pharmacy area virtual mockup 8

11 A virtual mockup was completed by students in a nearby university, allowing for students to obtain valuable work experience. High quality and 3D mockups were not needed, and therefore were able to be done by local students. The virtual mockup showed the cabinet placement, the flow of movement, the height of worktables, etc. Through the 3D virtual mockup, DPR and the nurses of the Kaiser hospital could study proposed construction details, facilities, and working environments. Above all, the virtual mockup method gave the owner and nurses satisfaction in analyzing design figures, minimizing problems, and saving time. 3. MEP coordination DESIGN DILEMMA: How to coordinate the MEP process, the model design and coordination with the ceiling model and the 3D model overlaid with the as-built model. DESIGN SOLUTION: Navisworks Coordination - Clash Detection The design team developed 3D models to rationalize specific hospital spaces and MEP systems. The design model was shared with project team members. As previously mentioned, the BIM coordination process by Navisworks was used for this coordination. This was an especially important element in this project - the ceiling heights were lower in the building due to the rehabilitation from office spaces to hospital spaces, and since hospital equipment is large and required higher ceiling heights, clash detection was crucial to verify that MEP systems were not going to conflict in the low ceiling spaces. Figure. 14 Clash Detection 9

12 Figure. 15 MEP Coordination & Real Construction Figure. 16 MEP Coordination 4. BIM + Lean construction DESIGN DILEMMA: Meeting the construction schedule with less waste and less time. DESIGN SOLUTION: Lean Construction Production Management Using LEAN construction techniques are used to maximize overall production value, reduce waste, and maintain the highest quality. For the LEAN construction management, the project team members including the owner, architect, DPR and subcontractors, worked together to plan the Figure. 17 Lean Construction Meeting 10

13 delivery process in conjunction with the facility. The architect, Pritzker award winner Kevin Roche, used Revit but the architect was located in California and the engineer, Jonghoon Kim with DPR, was located in Tennessee, making it difficult to coordinate meetings. However, because of the Big Room Concept (discussed below), coordination and model updates became possible to promote a more fluid transition and more reliable work flows between the various trades involved. Every step of the construction delivery process was broken down. Potential time and space conflicts and sequencing issues cold be more easily understood through this collaboration process. It was the pairing of the virtual building technology (3D and 4D models and computer-aided design drawings) along with a LEAN approach that produced the most efficient installation of MEP systems. 5. BIG room DESIGN DILEMMA: Coordination among designers, contractors, subcontractors, construction, fabricators, etc. DESIGN SOLUTION: Big room concept Smart board After clash detection was performed, the Big Room Concept was implemented. This is where all parties were able to conference into the meeting held in an I-Room (Information Room) in which a SMART Board was used to automatically show updates in the model and then everyone on the team is able to update all the drawings accordingly. An I-Room is a room large enough to house the entire team and all the necessary computers and display screens for everyone to follow the process in detail. The point of getting everyone together in one place is important. This makes the designer actually a collaborative team, which is under the conducting of the architect. Figure. 18 BIG Room Coordination 11

14 3C s (Collaboration & Coordination & Communication) Figure. 19 Coordination Process The initial BIM staffs were the DPR coordinator, ductwork modeler, plumbing/hvac piping modeler, electrical modeler, and sprinkler piping modeler. DPR coordinated all models based on the as-built laser model. This compiled 3D model was used in the field after clash detection. As mentioned above, the 3D model also could be used more effectively by using BIG room concept. The BIG room played an important role not only in coordination among designers, engineers, constructors and subcontractors, but also in collaboration between DPR and another construction company that was working in the Kaiser building at the same time. All BIM engineers of DPR and the other firm had many meetings in the BIG room for scheduling. Through the BIG room meetings, DPR could save time for coordinating and enhancing communication among project team members. In addition, there was another problem in the coordination between an architect in California, an engineer in Tennessee and a DPR engineer in Washington. On the construction site, an architect, an engineer and a constructor met periodically with the BIM model in the BIG room, which helped save much time in explaining and describing processes. Furthermore, an architect and an engineer worked on site every two weeks. They worked in two-week shifts. Moreover, they often had conference call meetings. 12

15 BIM Benefits Realized The BIM tools and the coordinated 3D model played a pivotal role in this MOB project. Firstly, the use of BIM in pre-design phase was a great help in the designing and coordination of the hospital s mechanical, electric systems and plumbing in low height stories of the office building. That is, BIM enabled the project team members to identify the possible problems and Figure. 20 BIM & Real Work understand the whole project easily, which resulted in successful completion of the project. Secondly, the use of the same 3D model provided modelers and designers on site with the opportunities for collaboration and coordination. After MEP coordination, DPR performed the clash detection, as previously mentioned, with Navisworks, a coordination program created by Autodesk. The changes made from each subcontractor were updated throughout those databases so that the changes of each contractor were coordinated quickly. That is, BIM approach enabled workers to explore and modify changes of the building at any time without re-coordination of the tasks. Thus, MEP coordination enabled DPR to minimize coordination time and facilitate manual checking. Also, sharing the Revit model allowed project members to work together with one model through all phases of the project. Therefore, the construction on site could go on quickly. The 3D BIM model was a bridge among all project members (including the other construction firm working at the same time) for collaboration, coordination and communication. Thirdly, the BIM tool supports other tools application like the dynamic animation, the virtual mockup, the BIG room concept and the Lean construction. BIM model has the multi-functions, which allows the project members to see and estimate the project from various angles through various methods related to BIM model. Also, these functions make a great contribution in improving the project quality, saving cost, reducing the schedule and satisfying an owner. Fourthly, the BIM approach improved the documentation process and was helpful throughout all administration phases. The 3D database also provided feedback for use in cost estimating and information was exported to excel and costs were applied to generate cost estimate. Lastly, DPR could provide easily and quickly the owner with site utilization and renovation process, which lead to communicate better with owner and represent the intent of the owner. BIM in this project enabled workers to deliver better work faster. Visualizations and mockup test through BIM model requires less time and effort by workers, 13

16 so the project could proceed ahead faster. Moreover, DPR use BIM model for quantification of the building and value engineering. This model would be reused for similar project later in estimating and planning. Also, the BIM model allowed design teams and constructors to get more work done with fewer people. BIM resulted in less miscommunication and errors. These benefits resulted in reducing the cost of changes and coordination in administration process. Furthermore, BIM was used for budgeting and cost estimating. The cost information and changes could be updated easier. Figure. 21 BIM Coordination Model The BIM application s return on value achieved for the project DPR was interested in knowing what the return would be on the value achieved for the project divided by value expended in effort. However, JongHoon Kim, the senior BIM engineer at DPR, said that it is difficult to evaluate the quantitative analysis. He thought the benefits of using BIM application were that project participants and owner were entirely favorable to how BIM improved the quality. The owner was so pleased with the outcome that Kaiser decided after completion of this project to give their next two projects to DPR. In addition, KIM could identify other BIM benefits by calculating the real construction time and cost for coordination comparing them to the conventional method. Also, he could estimate the BIM advantages through estimating the reduction of RFI s by using BIM and how much RFI response time was reduced during sharing BIM model. However, he said that the results could not be absolutely evaluated. Lastly, the cost reduction is subjective judgment, so it is difficult to calculate the accurate 14

17 value. Although it is better to have a coordination work effort as quickly as possible, the quality of design can be low. Another reason that BIM cannot be a part of the process any earlier is that early coordination can cause the delay of subcontractor selection. Conclusion and Lessons Learned The use of BIM software in the Kaiser Permanente Capitol Hill Medical Center project was central to the designing, planning, coordinating, organizing, and constructing processes. It allowed for important procedures such as clash detection, which is essential for all mechanical systems but especially important when planning for large hospital equipment. Additionally, the coordination and collaboration between members of the design and construction team was made possible through the BIM application and the use of same BIM model. In the Kaiser project, there were few problems with BIM interoperability because the project members used tools having similar file format. We thought that it is necessary to plan which BIM applications and which file formats would be interoperable before laying out the project in the beginning. This case study did prove several problems when applying BIM to real work. Firstly, although it is better to have a coordination work as quickly as possible, BIM design and coordination takes a lot of time. The designs can be of low quality because BIM engineers may not have enough time to work. The results in many design changes and consequently increase costs and the delays. Secondly, there were problems that the plumbing contractor could not prevent while using AutoCAD instead of using 3D Revit because of fabricator s software requirements. Another problem was that the architect and other subcontractors still had low-quality designs, which resulted in a number of design changes and cost increases. In light of the current situation, we thought that it is necessary to improve the construction environment and invest in the equipment for BIM application to make an easier transition in to the use of BIM. In this project, DPR performed all the metal stud framing, the drywall and acoustic ceilings, the doors, the frams, and the hardware. DPR reported that next time they would like to use BIM for drywall framing design, fabrication, quantity take-off, and continue with coordination of MEP systems. In addition, JongHoon Kim who is a senior BIM engineer at DPR said, If we did not use BIM in this project, the project could not been completed on time. Rather, without BIM, we might not even imagine the execution of project that is a renovation from an office building to a hospital. If the project can be executed without BIM, the construction cost would be increased significantly. BIM allowed DPR to make the impossible possible. 15

18 References Eastman, CM, Teicholz, P, Sacks, R and Liston, K:2008, BIM Handbook: A Guide to Building Information Modeling for Owners, Managers, Designers, Engineers and Contractors, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New Jersey Kaiser Permanente, Opens New Medical Center on Capitol Hill, Jan. 2011, DPR, Kaiser Permanente Station Place 3 Medical Office Building, Digital Building Lab at Georgia Tech, DPR Contact : Jonghoon Kim PhD DPR Construction, Inc. Mobile: efax: