As we mentioned in our previous post, one of the biggest plus points of using BIM in the pharmaceutical industry is better coordination of a building’s facilities. This is a key aspect considering the significance and high cost of facilities in this industry.
For example, in a pharmaceutical building the space between the slab and the facilities may be the equivalent of a floor with extremely complex layouts. This is much higher than in an office building (50 cm) or a housing unit (30 cm). BIM methodology enables you to visualise this space before constructing it and anticipate potential operating errors.
Benefits of BIM for pharma facilities
The great advantage of BIM for a building is that it means you can build a virtual 3D model in which you can identify all its components in great detail: facilities, structure, equipment, etc. If you look at the facilities, the main benefits of using BIM methodology in a pharma building are as follows:
Establishing hierarchies in the facilities
A pharmaceutical building’s facilities are defined by their importance: the priority facilities (clean utilities) and the secondary facilities (black utilities). Only by using BIM can you preview and classify them properly and set up hierarchies between them.
Precise design of the facilities
Each facility in a pharma building has specific requirements which you can meet and verify through BIM. For example, steam pipes need a specific slope that you can include in your BIM model, checking that this slope is continuous and does not encroach on any other pipes.
Verify accessibility
In a pharma building it is crucial to ensure accessibility to specific facility components. BIM for the facilities allows you to pre-design these components, such as the safety walkways, which are essential for building maintenance.
Facility validation
BIM for the facilities of a pharma building not only allows you to preview them in 3D. You can also validate them using Navisworks or other clash control packages. These tools map all the facilities and ensure that there are no clashes between the main components and the frame or other parts of the facilities.
Conclusions
As we have seen, BIM offers many advantages when it comes to designing a pharmaceutical building’s facilities. However, expertise in BIM tools alone will not be enough to ensure good facility coordination.
A pharmaceutical building’s facilities operate in a similar way to the blood supply in our body. So it is essential to be aware of and understand what the main facilities’ highways are, from which the rest of the piping runs. This is the only way to ensure that all components are properly coordinated.
