Today we kick off a series of posts on the benefits of BIM methodology for the pharmaceutical industry, a sector A3D has been working with for many years. In this first post we explain why BIM is so relevant for cleanroom projects, one of the most intriguing and challenging areas in the pharmaceutical industry.
Why does the pharmaceutical industry ask for BIM?
Let’s start at the beginning: What does BIM methodology bring to the pharmaceutical industry? Briefly, we might say that working with a BIM model brings accuracy and quality. These merits are greatly appreciated in the pharmaceutical sector, a value-added industry which is ideally suited to BIM which is a value-added tool.
What are the advantages of BIM methodology for cleanrooms?
Cleanrooms are areas designed and built to maintain specific cleanliness, temperature, humidity, pressure, air flow and lighting conditions. Below are the main cleanroom features where BIM methodology brings the most benefits:
Assembled construction
Cleanrooms are usually built with a system of panels assembled together similar to a Lego construction. The BIM methodology is ideally suited to this way of building as it allows the construction pre-design of each component to be fine-tuned down to the last detail.
Financial cost
Cleanrooms are very expensive to build due to their high performance and the complexity of their equipment and facilities. This makes BIM a powerful partner as it makes it possible to assemble a 3D model that helps to plan each cleanroom component in detail, thereby minimising unforeseen events and cost overruns on site.
Space requirements
Besides the needs of each object (walls, panels, doors, etc.), a cleanroom has very specific requirements such as renewal pressure, class or volume. These features can be built into the BIM model’s room-object to furnish extremely handy correlations between the requirements of the physical and virtual spaces.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, we might say that the big advantage of BIM methodology for the pharmaceutical industry is that it means all of a project’s information can be brought together in a single 3D model. This is a major shift compared to the conventional methodology using 2D plans where all the documentation is handled separately (plans, measurements, manufacturing, spec sheets, etc.).
Combining all this information in a BIM model streamlines workflows and significantly reduces the number of errors. And that’s not only in the design and construction of a cleanroom as it also makes it easier to maintain these areas over time.
