Interview: The BIM Engineers

This interview was first published on may 2022, in the 5th issue of the Zigurat’s Mosaic Maganize. Click here to download the full issue for free.

Who is The BIM engineers and what is its mission?

The BIM Engineers is a company founded in the Netherlands in 2015. Its headquarters is located in Kampen, The Netherlands, and it has two offices in India, in Gurgaon and Chennai.  The BIM Engineers has business development directors all around the world, in Europe, USA, and New Zealand, for instance. Together we are working with 350-400 people at The BIM Engineers. Our workforce for modeling is in India and the coordination is done by our local office.  Our mission is to lead the world of BIM. We strive to add value every day, to strengthen capacity and to organize innovation and everything we can do for our clients around BIM models and all that comes with that. I am very proud of our global team that works to meet the requirements of our clients. The BIM Engineers director

What are the projects that you have been working on over the last few years? Do you think that COVID has affected the sector?

We worked on all kinds of projects, from railroad stations in Germany to a nuclear power plant in the UK and an airport in Singapore. We have also worked on smaller projects for contractors and producers. So we work on a big range of projects, organizing their BIM models and their production drawings. Of course, COVID has affected our sector by driving prices up and by making it more difficult to deliver materials on schedule, causing a lot of time delays in projects. It has also impacted the regulation of the labor market. In my view, the positive side is that we learned a lot by working remotely: now it’s easier to work with a team one kilometer away or with colleagues 2000 kilometers away. The distance does not make any difference anymore. This new way of working has improved our workflow.  

How do you see the future of the AEC industry? Do you think BIM will still play an important role in the next ten years?

Yes, BIM will play a big role in the next ten years. In Europe, for instance, not every company works with it. So, we are in a big market where there is plenty of room to grow. On one hand, we will have more companies working with BIM. On the other hand, we will see the improvement or the innovation we can get with the BIM models in the future. In that sense, we want to organize BIM models around the full scope of the process, from designing till the end of the maintenance phase. What's more, I think that data will play a more significant role: this means that once you've got your BIM model, you can use all kinds of data around it by using new software and new ways of working and innovating. So, the use of BIM will increase, and together with it, the innovation of BIM, BIM models and BIM data will be boosted. To give you an example: using BIM data allows a contractor of complex projects to control, monitor, and check benchmarks. It also allows the possibility to explore different solutions and to decide what kind of projects or solutions are best. A contractor can make a dashboard of the projects and see how they perform. The construction industry will be data-driven in the future. That’s why I think that BIM has a solid position in the future of the AEC sector. The BIM Engineers

The BIM Engineers and Zigurat signed a partnership agreement some time ago. What are the plans for the near future?

Thanks to the partnership, Edneé, BIM coordinator at TBE, will start the Master's in Global BIM Management at Zigurat. This represents a great opportunity for her to improve her skills: it will allow her to boost her knowledge, enhance her professional network, and learn from people who work in the same sector.  At The BIM Engineers we believe that you can grow not only within the company, but also by having an open mind, learning new things and being at the forefront of innovation.  We encourage learning. That’s why we think this partnership is a good opportunity for the teams, and we talked about promoting this initiative in The Netherlands. Moreover, we must keep in mind that talent will be scarce soon: research by Financial Times shows that the workforce in the European Market will be smaller in the future. That means that we have to do the job with less people and probably work more.  

The BIM Engineers is a company that empowers its people. Actually, we are happy that we have a future student with us in this interview, Edneé, who is BIM Coordinator in TBE. How do you feel, Edneé? And how do you see yourself after finishing the Master's in Global BIM Management?

I'm from Mexico and moved to the Netherlands three years ago. I started working at The BIM Engineers, coordinating the Indian team. For me this was a big step, but I felt I needed to take another step forward and improve my knowledge to be more precise in doing my job. That's why I decided to study at Zigurat. Studying at Zigurat represents a big challenge, but at the same time it is a great opportunity to grow and improve my skills which will be useful to my daily work, to manage a team that will increase and organize work more efficiently.  At the same time, as was said before, the Master will give me the competitive advantage of being more prepared for the new technologies in the future, of being innovative. In this process, I must admit that the company has been of great support and encouraged me to take this step forward. Edneé from The BIM Engineers This interview was originally published on may 2022, in the 5th issue of the Mosaic Maganize. Fill in the form below to get access to the full issue for free. >--> > -->