CA Group leads roofing and cladding industry with BIM integration

One of the UK’s leading building envelope suppliers, northeast based CA Group Ltd, is transforming its roofing and cladding services with the integration of BIM (Building Information Modelling) across the company to offer technically advanced project management.

Further extending its digital capabilities, the company has become one of the first of its type to adopt the intelligent 3D model-based process as an internal service and is now poised to assist clients with end-to-end development — aiding with planning, design, construction, management of buildings and infrastructure as well as bespoke BIM training.

Prominently used in public sector construction, driven in part by the government mandate, April 2016, BIM equips professionals with valuable insight and tools, enabling architects, engineers, building contractors, and suppliers to work within a single digital environment and to deliver to a much tighter specification — driving construction efficiencies by improving technical input and increasing cross-team collaboration.

Stuart Brown, Development Director at CA Group, commented, “We commenced our BIM journey several years ago, recognising the benefits BIM brings and the importance of digital transformation in the construction industry. It has taken some time to fully leverage, but the gains are clear for contractors and for us.Working within a shared digital environment allows us to talk the same language with other building disciplines and so communications are improved; there’s less chance of specification substitutes, less re-work, improved safety; we can more accurately establish the shortest construction process to complete the build — and provide an audit trail.It helps to reduce costs and to ensure faster delivery.”

Following significant investment in software, hardware, trials and training, CA Group has advanced its practices, standards and service delivery to facilitate the supply of bespoke, detailed project BIM files as well as a comprehensive BIM library of details and specifications — all developed in line with BS 8541-1:2012, -3:2012 & -4:2012. Extensive training in the use of Autodesk Revit and an expanded in-house design team has enabled the company to work more closely with architects and subcontractors, providing project specific details and families, ongoing project modifications, the provision of COBie parameters to aid with BIM Level 2 compliance — and complementary training, where required.

Maurice Dalton, Head of Project Management for Prologis UK, said: “BIM is an integral part of our project delivery process.As a property company with a long-term interest in the buildings we develop, the implementation of BIM helps us create an information-rich environment, which benefits all our stakeholders and enables us to collect valuable data about our buildings and deliver a positive customer experience.”

Adam Beadle, Senior Technical Engineer, said, “It’s been a steep learning curve as we’ve worked to implement BIM across the Group. However, we are now at a stage whereby we, and our clients, can reap the benefits. We can help build a model that will give a more immersive building illustration with far greater detail than ever before. Projects are better visualised and managed, the design intent is less likely to change, specifications are established, and suitable products identified upfront. It’s a big step forward for us in being able to improve the design-to-development process and a valuable and complementary addition to our in-house services, including thermal, structural and rainwater calculations.”

For information on CA Group’s BIM offering email technical@cagroup.co.uk