More customers are set to benefit from BIM on their projects after Willmott Dixon became the first contractor to achieve company-wide BRE Global BIM Level 2 Certification for use across its entire construction, residential and interiors activities.

As more public and private sector clients seek to use BIM (Building Information Modelling) to enhance efficiency on their capital projects, Willmott Dixon has made a significant investment to equip it with experts based in every office that are certified to provide BIM Level 2.

The HS2 college in Birmingham is using BIM

The company is using BIM on an increasing number of projects, including delivering £100 million of projects for Birmingham City University, the National Space Technology Centre in Oxford and three secondary schools in Liverpool creating nearly 5,000 places. It is currently using BIM to build a new home for the Met Office’s supercomputer in Exeter as well as national colleges for High Speed Rail in Birmingham and Doncaster.

This will expand with a network of BIM experts in every Willmott Dixon office who can advise and guide clients who are keen to embrace the visualisation technology at an early stage in the project cycle.

Garry Fannon, Head of BIM for Willmott Dixon’s construction business, said:

“BIM provides huge benefits that enable all teams to work better throughout the construction process to achieve the high quality finish we expect. Being a recognised provider of BIM Level 2 means we are also well positioned to meet the Government mandate for BIM use on public funded projects.”

The National Space Technology Centre in Oxford used BIM

Dedicated managers

It means each customer now has access to a dedicated BIM manager for a ‘soft take-off’ on projects as they opt to use a technology that delivers reduced risk on their project as well as more cost certainty and better multi-team collaboration during construction of their asset.

To embed the process further in the supply chain, the company is also about to roll out a national supply chain BIM initiative that will enable hundreds of SME to be conversant with the technology.

Archbishop Blanch in Liverpool was the third secondary school in Liverpool we built using BIM

Garry continues, “

While we don’t mandate BIM level 2 as it requires total buy in and input from our customer and their team, we do advocate it as a better way of achieving certainty of outcome.”

BIM is part of the Government’s strategy to improve efficiency in the construction industry by designing, creating and managing projects through virtual modelling of product and asset data. Willmott Dixon worked closely with BRE to ensure all processes and procedures align with PAS119-2 as well as ensuring each business quality management system did the same.

Garry adds, “This is the most comprehensive BIM compliance in the industry and is part of our goal to offer expertise in every office rather than calling on a central team.”

One Central Square in Cardiff was built using BIM

Richard Kelsey, who heads up BIM at Willmott Partnership Homes continues, “It’s a huge milestone to be the first residential construction company to achieve Level 2. BIM level 2 allows us to offer robust design, control risk and offer the client the information they require to make further savings in managing the FM process.”

Amador Caballero, BIM manager at Willmott Dixon Interiors adds, “Implementing BIM on fit-out projects is now a viable objective for clients and with our skill-set at Interiors, the challenge is no longer as great as it used to be.”