As an innovative method for project planning and design, Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) has transformed the way construction firms do business. VDC software can encompass everything from 3D model creation and clash detection to model-based quantity takeoffs and scheduling, and as a result, there’s likely a VDC solution for every company.
As many construction businesses have discovered, using Virtual Design and Construction comes with a number of far-reaching benefits for productivity and business performance. So why does the industry still lag behind in technology adoption? The answer may partly be a lack of awareness. Unless you’ve had the chance to apply it yourself, you may only have a vague idea of the benefits VDC software offers.
To convince company decision-makers to adopt VDC, you need a more concrete view of the business case. However, when you start using VDC at your construction business, you can expect a high return on investment.
Virtual Design and Construction Boosts Business Performance
If we had to choose one argument in favor of implementing VDC, this would be it — Virtual Design and Construction can help you boost business performance by allowing you to place more successful bids.
The traditional bidding process for a construction project can be time-consuming and resource-intensive. It requires you to coordinate plans with multiple parties and deliver designs, quotes and materials information to clients, all without a guarantee you will land the job. What’s more, a lack of integration between different files during this stage of the planning process can result in mistakes and inaccurate estimates, which can impact your reputation.
VDC software can make the bidding process easier by facilitating coordination and displaying a high level of competency to clients. When you use VDC to create building models, you’ll have the opportunity to incorporate input from multiple involved parties, including architects, engineers and more. This means everyone will be working on an up-to-date version of the plans. The result: accurate estimates, impressed clients and more projects earned.
Benefits of VDC for Construction Project Managers
In addition to earning more projects, VDC can come with other exciting benefits for construction project managers, including:
- Accurate costing estimates: You can use VDC to create detailed models and produce more accurate costing estimates. This helps ensure projects are profitable from the bidding stage onward.
- Streamlined collaboration: By integrating all subsystems into one design, models created using VDC can improve communication between teams and streamline collaboration on projects. Better communication means reduced need for costly rework.
- Part prefabrication possibilities: When you plan a construction project virtually, you can take advantage of part prefabrication. Prefabricating components for a structure ahead of construction can keep costs low and quality high.
- Features to keep projects on schedule: When you use VDC and related Building Information Modeling (BIM) software, it’s possible to integrate your scheduling with your designs and save time by fixing likely problems before breaking ground.
- Increased construction safety: Using Virtual Design and Construction to visualize and plan a project beforehand gives you the opportunity to find safety risks and communicate them to workers for a safer construction environment.
- More satisfied clients: Once a project is completed, you can hand over your VDC plans to the building owner or operator. They can then use these files to manage the building and simplify maintenance and repairs, leading to more satisfied clients in the long-term.
Using VDC Adds More Business Value
VDC can add value to a construction business throughout the lifecycle of a project, from the bidding stage to completion. If you have questions about implementing VDC at your workplace, please reach out to BuildingPoint Southeast. Our knowledgeable team would be happy to assist you.