1) Has BIM actually made your work faster/take fewer hours to complete when compared to, say, CAD?
2) If 1) is yes, have you been 'passing the savings on' so to speak in terms of reduced hours as your basis for the fee, or are you using some kind of equivalent 'pre-BIM' hourly calculation as the basis but doing something else with the extra money (higher salaries, reinvestment into profit/keeping the firm afloat, etc.)
Having worked with BIM in school but CAD in the field, this stuff seems great in terms of time savings for pre-CA work once you get over the learning curve and set up all the appropriate firm-wide databases. However, whenever you have an efficiency improvement, your employees are theoretically worth more per hour, which should be a good reason to raise the hourly basis for fees (as the total amount of hours declines).
Given the recession and all, and the downward pressure on fees, it seems like raising the hourly basis for a fee (despite efficiency improvements possibly reducing the total fees charged) would actually be a hard thing.
There are exceptions to every rule. The standard formula however is for the owner to put more money in their pocket. This is backed up by Elinor's post quoting Harper's that American worker productivity is up 114% while wages are down 6%. Sorry if this is off tangent. It has been on my mind for awhile though that technology really only benefits you if your name is on the sign otherwise it threatens to make your job redundant.
Apr 23, 11 4:51 pm ·
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BIM and fees
For the project manager types out there,
1) Has BIM actually made your work faster/take fewer hours to complete when compared to, say, CAD?
2) If 1) is yes, have you been 'passing the savings on' so to speak in terms of reduced hours as your basis for the fee, or are you using some kind of equivalent 'pre-BIM' hourly calculation as the basis but doing something else with the extra money (higher salaries, reinvestment into profit/keeping the firm afloat, etc.)
Having worked with BIM in school but CAD in the field, this stuff seems great in terms of time savings for pre-CA work once you get over the learning curve and set up all the appropriate firm-wide databases. However, whenever you have an efficiency improvement, your employees are theoretically worth more per hour, which should be a good reason to raise the hourly basis for fees (as the total amount of hours declines).
Given the recession and all, and the downward pressure on fees, it seems like raising the hourly basis for a fee (despite efficiency improvements possibly reducing the total fees charged) would actually be a hard thing.
Thoughts?
There are exceptions to every rule. The standard formula however is for the owner to put more money in their pocket. This is backed up by Elinor's post quoting Harper's that American worker productivity is up 114% while wages are down 6%. Sorry if this is off tangent. It has been on my mind for awhile though that technology really only benefits you if your name is on the sign otherwise it threatens to make your job redundant.
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