The National BIM Survey is now in its 6th year has just been published by the NBS. The 2016 survey shows that the construction industry is BIM positive but not quite BIM ready. The BIM Survey was published before the government mandate required of all BIM at Level 2 on all of the centrally procured public sector projects on the 4th of April.

The 2016 NBS National BIM Survey shows the construction industry’s current adoption of BIM is up at 54%, which is a huge increase from 48% last year. Over four fifths of respondents are aware of the BIM expect to be using it by April next year and 97% within five years.

In a further boost to the Government BIM strategy out of those surveyed 73% agreed that the future of project information in construction was with BIM and 75% agreed that they details were clear that they would be needed to use BIM public-sector work. However on terms of being BIM ready over 40% said that they were not clear on thje details of what they would have to do to start complying with the BIM mandate.

Nearly 30% said they felt that lacked the skills and knowledge necessary to comply with the rules describing themselves as ‘not very’ or ‘not at all’ confident when it comes to BIM. There was a widespread agreement (over 60%) that BIM is not yet standardised or similar enough, with fewer people overall using the set standards that have been created than have actually adopted BIM.

64% of those surveyed agreed that adopting BIM had given them a significant competitive advantage. The survey has shown positive significant changes to the standard use and adoption of the government pushed scheme. The hopes are that the BIM system will be used by all within the next 5 years.