Do you work for a company that manufactures construction products? Are you hearing conflicting advice about BIM and what you need to do to be ‘BIM ready’?

Talk and awareness surrounding BIM has picked up recently in the construction industry – not surprisingly as the government strategy deadline gets even closer. As part of an initiative to reduce building costs, this strategy outlines that all government-funded construction projects “require collaborative 3D BIM (with all project and asset information, documentation and data being electronic) by 2016”.

While BIM is the current hot topic, what we are seeing is mixed opinions about what this means for product manufacturers – do manufacturers need to create 3D BIM objects? Are Product Data Templates enough?

To support and represent the needs of building product manufacturers in gaining the right information as the industry moves towards BIM adoption, a new community has been created: “BIM for Manufacturers and Manufacturing” – or BIM4M2 for short. The group supports the Government BIM Task Group and provides a forum for those involved in the design, manufacture and supply of products to share their knowledge, learning and experience.

We want to hear your views

Last week the BIM4M2 Promotions Working Group launched a survey to hear about product manufacturers’ experiences of BIM. This is the first survey of its kind and the feedback will really help us to identify any barriers to adopting BIM, or gaps in knowledge, so we can support the manufacturing community to ensure they are benefiting from the opportunities BIM provides.

We’re asking all product manufacturers, whether this is the first time you’ve heard about BIM, or are a BIM expert, to take a few minutes to complete the survey and have your voice heard in the industry.

Take the BIM4M2 survey here.

For further information about BIM4M2, visit www.bim4m2.co.uk, or you can follow @BIM4M2 on twitter or join the LinkedIn group.