MMI in design process Findings and improvement opportunities from a case study

Abstract

Norwegian contractors are more involved in design management than before due to an increased number of design build contracts, and they continuously improve their design management processes. In 2018, the Norwegian Consulting Engineers’ Association launched the Model Maturity Index (MMI) for BIM to support planning and control of design management. This study assesses how MMI, project sectioning, delivery lists, scheduling and follow-up procedures can improve design management processes.After an initial literature review, qualitative data from a case was collected by semi-structured interviews with the design manager and six designers. Observations in sixteen design meetings and a document study were used to supplement the data from the interviews. The case study revealed that MMI was used to control achieved maturity for each discipline BIM model rather than for design planning. Geographical zones and discipline models – not technical systems – were used to create an overview of necessary design tasks, and the zones gave a structure for design meetings. It was neither created delivery lists for the individual disciplines, nor schedules with delivery milestones – despite recommendations in literature. As a result, the case project strived with planning the maturity level for the involved disciplines’ BIM and follow-up on the design process. Recommendations on how the MMI-framework should be used in future projects are identified. For example, some improvements of coordination between MMI300 and MMI350 are suggested. Future projects should explicitly consider both geographical zones, technical systems and discipline models when creating MMI plans. Future projects should also support MMI plans with delivery lists containing tasks and milestones for each maturity level for each discipline model. Finally, the design manager should re-plan MMI-related tasks and milestones not reached in a Plan-Do-Check-Act related manner during design.