An Egan lesson I'm applying to BIM

So I have said in my previous blogs that we don’t need BIM managers and that it’s easier not to call it BIM. So where am I going with this?

I was lucky enough, over a decade ago to design a range of facilities for what was BAA plc. This was in the time of Task Force and Rethinking Construction, heady days. I was also lucky enough to work with Sir John Egan on a number of projects, and he explained to me, “the purpose is for you to make money from satisfying customers.”

I needed to determine exactly what my customers or clients required from their business perspective and deliver it repeatedly on demand, in a manner that allowed me to make profit

Well that seemed simple enough and it didn’t just apply to me and my industry, it could be applied across the board. I worked out that to do this, I needed to determine exactly what my customers or clients required from their business perspective and deliver it repeatedly on demand, in a manner that allowed me to make profit. In order to achieve this I needed to be more economic, efficient and most importantly effective.

• Economic: Everything I procure must be the right thing at the right price at the right time.
• Efficient: Everything I do must be structured and coordinated and managed.
• Effective: Everything I deliver must be required, and add value and inform.

Simple yes, but any business must be balanced and an over focus on any one of these facets will unbalance the others. We must ensure we maintain this balance, and therefore we must only generate and process the information that matches our purpose.

Now this is starting to sound a bit bit like BIM, or at least the solution might. More in my next blog…

Frank McLeod is UK head of project technology for WSP