Understanding facility life-cycle costs is a core component of any BIM strategy for Owners, AE’s, Contractors, Subs, Business Product Manufacturers, Oversight Groups, Building Users, … or any stakeholder.
There are many components of life-cycle costs:
- First Costs – Planning, Selection, Acquisition, Construction
- Maintenance, Repair – Routine, Preventive, Unscheduled (typically expenditures of $10,000 per job or less)
- Capital Renewal (major system/subsystem cyclical replacement)
- Renovation, Adaptation (altering, updating spaces based upon functional needs)
- Operations (utilization, utilities, security, safety, sustainability, waste, cleaning, grounds management )
- Deconstruction, Transition, Disposition
BIM is just now beginning to lay the foundation for new processes and supporting technologies to enable more efficient life-cycle management of the built environment. An important challenge is the establishment of common terms, definitions, metrics, and ‘best-practices’. Some off these will be new, however, many/most will likely be existing… the latter simply better shared, communicated, and consistently applied.