RICS members trailing architects on BIM adoption, says survey

A survey of RICS quantity surveying and construction-related practices has found that only 49% are currently using BIM in the day-to-day aspects of their work, although 73% of the firms questioned see the non-adoption of BIM as something that could seriously hinder the success of the UK’s construction industry within the next year.

The RICS survey had responses from 77 QS and building surveying and firms of varying sizes across the UK, including SMEs and larger firms. The survey did not explore the types of projects or clients the firms worked with.

However, a majority (55%) of those members interviewed said that they were currently working with architects’ practices that were using BIM.

In addition, half of these respondents said that the architects they had collaborated with had been encouraging them to adopt BIM within their own organisation.

Of those firms not currently using BIM within their organisation, 68% said that they did not think there was enough information available for small companies to aid them with adoption.

In addition, 31% claimed that there was not a need to use BIM in their organisation, while over 26% said that they didn’t feel their firm had the technical skills in place to implement the technology.     

Alan Muse, global director of built environment professional groups at RICS, said: “BIM is the future, not just of the surveying industry, but the entire construction sector. It has the power to unlock cost and time efficiencies which will enable the UK industry to become more efficient and competitive on a global scale. With this in mind, surveyors – particularly quantity surveyors – need to lead the charge when it comes to BIM and ensure that they have the right skills in place to implement it across their organisation.

“What’s more, we need to ensure that the surveying profession is one of the first to be consulted when BIM models are being developed on projects – thus helping to maximise cost and resource efficiencies on all projects.”

He also argued that more needed to be done to help smaller surveying firms get up to speed with the technology, saying that the RICS’s Certificate in BIM Project Management would help with this.

We need to ensure that the surveying profession is one of the first to be consulted when BIM models are being developed on projects – thus helping to maximise cost and resource efficiencies on all projects.
– Alan Muse, RICS