Arsentiy Sidorov: “BIM provides investors with a tool enabling transparency.”
31.08.2015
Today all Etalon Group sites are constructed using BIM technologies. Arsentiy Sidorov, CEO of LLC "NTC "Etalon" (part of Etalon Group), told our newspaper about the advantages of their use.
– What benefits does the BIM technology provide?
– This technology can be useful in almost all aspects of a construction and investment project. Today BIM is mostly considered and evaluated at the first phase of a project – the design stage. Engineering companies confirm higher quality of design solutions and higher efficiency of their designers' work due to automation of some operations, which used to be done manually. This is enabled by quicker amendments in design solutions as well as reuse of accumulated libraries.
But this is not the finish line of the technology. Usage of 3D project models helps estimators to significantly speed up design documentation processing when evaluating scope of work and materials. In our company, the BIM technology is used for comprehensive construction control and operating decision-making in management of time, resources and project quality.
BIM provides investors with a tool enabling transparency. It helps to achieve all-around and, where necessary, remote control of investments, project implementation process, accuracy and timeliness of communication at all levels. I suppose, BIM can also be useful for banks and investment companies.
– Does your company use information modeling? Is this technology wide spread among Russian developers?
– There is an established pool of developers in Russia who use BIM technologies, but I am only able to explain how they are implemented in Etalon Group. We have been using BIM for almost 4 years now. We use BIM starting from the conceptual phase – creation of first drawings, then in the process of engineering documents design and preparation, resource planning, scheduling and control of construction and erection works (encompassing deadlines, quality, occupational health and industrial safety). Today all Etalon Group sites are constructed using BIM technologies.
Now we have also started to use the BIM model at the stage of facility usage. Therefore, in our group of companies BIM technologies are implemented at most of site's life cycle stages.
– What factors, in your opinion, slow down development of BIM in Russia?
– It is, first of all, high costs on implementation of a new technology. These costs account not only for purchasing of new software and upgrading PCs, but also for staff training, work procedures adaptation and habituation of employees to the new requirements and business processes.
It is a common problem for Russian companies that BIM, being a foreign technology, needs to be adapted to Russian standards. Today we see the lack of such professionals in Russia.
– Do you think Russian software can compete with its western analogues?
– Unfortunately, it can't so far. But I have to state that we have already passed the stage of habituation to BIM. The fact that this technology is approved on the government level is a great challenge for further development and expansion of BIM.
