The NBS Toolkit is a software tool to assist users in drafting the contents of the Employer’s Information Requirements and the various documents – BIM Execution Plan (BEP) and Master Information Delivery Plan (MIDP) – that map the stages of production of BIM for a project. It is one of the last pieces in the jigsaw of products in the government BIM strategy to assist the industry in achieving standardisation of the process we now refer to as BIM Level 2.
Included in the toolkit are digital plans of work that can be linked to the seven RIBA stages of a project and definitions of level of detail and level of information that can be used to specify the content of the BIM information (deliverables) required at each stage. The intention is to provide a standard “who does what when” plan that applies to all BIM participants.
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The toolkit has just completed its beta evaluation stage. Its output is a set of documents in electronic or hard copy form that define the tasks to be performed and the information and/or deliverables required at each stage.
Users can add (or delete) tasks to the standard menus and allocate responsibility to a participant at each stage. Deliverables are the model/information deliverables and can be searched for against the Uniclass database. For each deliverable the “level of detail”, which specifies geometry, and “level of information”, which specifies other information, must be selected.
Who will use the toolkit?
The toolkit is part of the larger suite of online solutions that the RIBA has developed and it is anticipated that users will refer to the NBS BIM library for BIM objects and possibly drag and drop an object of the required level of detail and level of information into their model.
Potential users of the toolkit are anyone who has responsibility for defining or providing what is required in terms of BIM. That means the whole supply chain, from the client defining its requirements to the supply chain participants responding in detail with what they will provide.
It is an ambitious aim. One of the main concerns is that the multiple users make for a more complex solution than might be needed – and one in which participants may struggle to understand how the toolkit applies specifically to them.
Contractual responsibility
By using the standard plans of work for the participant roles (including design) it is clear that what is being dealt with is not simply tasks that relate to the provision or management of BIM or deliverables but also the core roles of the participants. Design delivery and information delivery are both addressed and it will be for the user to separate those roles if desired.
The toolkit is not just documenting the roles and responsibilities of the project’s participants. It also refers to stage completion dates and contract price and other contract information.
But it includes little guidance on how its output will be included in contracts or how to tailor the obligations to different contractual routes. Crucially, it does not define the contractual status or liabilities that flow from the information it is creating.
Lawyers and other professionals will still need to carry out that task, working closely alongside those using the toolkit or reviewing its output. The toolkit does allow participants to be added and adding your lawyer may be a sensible decision.
By Tim Willis, a consultant in Trowers & Hamlins’ dispute resolution and litigation department
