Navigating the Challenges in BIM Management and the Role of Plannerly
Feb 07, 2025
Category: Software & Tools
Admin

BIM (Building Information Modeling) managers play a vital role in AEC projects. Their job is multifaceted, as they have to continuously juggle tasks such as defining BIM standards, managing execution plans, and detecting clashes.
Seasoned professionals work smart and leverage a multitude of tools to mitigate inefficiencies and delays in the process. Plannerly is a cutting-edge software that streamlines the BIM management workflow. This writing piece aims to highlight the features and capabilities of this application.
The Challenges for BIM Managers
Substantial Amount of Data
The BIM process generates a large amount of data as different procedures are involved. Various software, design disciplines, and companies produce a variety of data, and managing it is one of the biggest challenges for BIM managers.
In some cases, the models may be updated weekly or daily. Hence, managing this data through manual workflows and processes is not ideal. Professionals managing a BIM project can harness Plannerly’s qualities to simplify the BIM management process.
Guiding Designers with the Modeling
The construction sector has provided designers with complex BIM guidelines and requirements to overcome the challenge of data consistency. However, it is difficult for BIM managers to work efficiently while following all the BIM requirements, as designers can find it frustrating to follow guidelines and requirements consisting of numerous pages manually.
Additionally, all the designers interpret the requirements in different ways and all of them create various types of data while striving to meet the standards. Hence, BIM managers can face trouble while checking and providing feedback to the designers due to the unclarity of data and complex requirements. This way, managers may not be able to get the model data corrected even after providing multiple feedback.
Training Workforce
Another major challenge for a person supervising a BIM project is to convince a company’s higher management to implement BIM and train the employees to use BIM data. A variety of roles can become easy with the use of this data.
If the data is inconsistence, then it is essential to have BIM expertise and also requires case-by-case handling. However, not all people specialize in BIM and some of them do not even want to, hence convincing them for training is a tricky task.
Management of BIM Software
BIM managers are at the helm for selecting the right BIM and data management applications. Often, they search for such software that solves all the BIM-related issues for them. However, many popular construction or BIM management systems are inflexible and their update cycles are not fast. Thus, it is tough to connect BIM data with other systems.
Many software require the firms to focus most of their operations on their tools to maximize the benefits. It is a high-risk approach. Hence, incorporating multiple software in the process brings various challenges such as licensing, maintenance, managing multiple integrations, training, etc.
Workload Management of the Team
Effective management of the team’s workload is a complex task for the BIM managers. In most cases, BIM teams have to work on tasks case-by-case. These tasks are labor intensive, difficult to manage and scale, and tough to predict.
The workforce spends time checking several models for different projects and has to offer manual feedback to the designers. Maintaining a variety of BIM tools and adjusting their usage on a case-by-case basis is also their responsibility. Additionally, they have to research and present data on an ad hoc basis.
Benefits of Plannerly for BIM Management
Complete Document Management
Plannerly works as a single repository for the BIM managers to keep all the project documents. This top-notch software supports different document formats, such as Excel, PDF, and Word, etc. Hence, the managers can collate all their documents in a single location.
This platform reinforces the BIM process by providing templates for common BIM documents, such as BIM Execution Plans. Hence, starting from scratch is not necessary.
It is easy to customize these templates to include the sections and data relevant to the project. Furthermore, this system automatically populates data from the project leveraging SmartFields. It reduces manual data entry.
Efficient Task Scoping and Management
One of the critical parts of BIM management is scoping tasks and managing their progress. Plannerly provides a dedicated scope module to streamline this process. This module allows the managers to create groups, folders, and tasks to assign responsibilities and define project requirements.
Managers can utilize this system for two reasons:
⦁ To create templates considering the task categories or activity types.
⦁ To import existing task lists from tools such as CSV/Excel files.
Simplifying the task scoping process and customizing the project requirements is done through this flexibility. Moreover, rearranging tasks and updating their statuses is facilitated by this system as it supports drag-and-drop functionality.
Better Communication and Collaboration
Plannerly users can monitor all the changes and project progress as it has an activity feed that updates in real-time. Additionally, an innovative feature allows the users to have threaded conversations about tasks.
It ensures all discussions revolve around a specific topic or updates occur within the context. Following this process eliminates the requirement for having different communication tools and promotes collaboration and communication.
Integration for Model Review and Verification
BIM managers can use Plannerly for reviewing and verifying models as it can integrate with Autodesk Construction Cloud. Hence, an individual can review the model without switching between various platforms.
It is a one-stop solution for submitting models for review, assigning tasks to the workforce, and offering feedback. This paves the way for connecting model verifications to the original task requirements. It amplifies ease in ensuring compliance and tracking progress.
Automated Documentation and Reporting
Plannerly saves valuable time for professionals by making report generation and documentation process easy. Users can select particular data and sections to create customized reports. These PDF reports are compatible with different systems and devices.
Furthermore, this software provides real-time updates to the stakeholders regarding project progress as it automates the exporting process.
Final Thoughts
Getting introduced to the core features and benefits of Plannerly can inspire BIM managers to utilize it for their BIM processes. This leading-edge system fosters efficiency in the workflows, boosts collaboration, and more.
It is a unified platform that helps users to overcome issues related to BIM management. Thousands of professionals are maximizing the benefits this software offers in document management or creation, model verification, or reporting and task scoping.