Higgins Case Study

Our Client

Success in community construction requires the ability to balance vision with not just technical expertise and experience, but the personal talent to deliver the very best solutions. This is why our people are so important.

– Richard Higgins, Chairman

With over 60 years in the industry, Higgins have been a community lead construction business leading the industry with their values. Higgins Partnership is award-winning and continually developing and pushing what it means to build for a community.

Their values, of community, pride and partnership are inspirational, and mean that Higgins deliver truly outstanding work on every project they are a part of. Not only do Higgins Partnerships work to build buildings, but they build and develop relationships with people, forging success through partnerships and collaboration.

This approach to construction comes from over 60 years of experience in creating solutions that overcome any financing or development obstacle, in any economy, on time and to budget. Their goal is to help creating thriving communities in which people can live, work, learn and play, and which they are proud to be part of. Of course it goes without saying that as a result of their dedication, Higgins have built an outstanding portfolio.

As a result of Higgins’ outstanding reputation, it was with great anticipation that DDC Solutions started to work with Higgins back in 2019 to take the company forward on their BIM journey.

Overview

Initially, Higgins had ambitions to gain a BIM level 2 accreditation with the Lloyd’s Register, but they didn’t know where to start. The task of managing and processing the accreditation was daunting, and Higgins were concerned that they would be unable to meet the requirements without support, thus wasting valuable money and time. To bid for larger projects, Higgins found that accreditation was mandatory, and therefore achieving a BIM accreditation became a priority. The pressure was also building to have an accreditation as the industry in general requires partners to demonstrate their BIM effectiveness. With greater BIM adoption, Higgins wanted to stand out from their competitors.

Finally, Higgins recently won a BIM project. It was seen that this was a great opportunity to combine the project into a path to BIM accreditation, so Higgins approached DDC for our support.

We developed technical and process resources around a BIM Level 2 project, with a path to BIM Accreditation, including:

CDE Solutions
CDE Process
Revit resources coordinated with Vectorworks collaboration
Navisworks resources for clash management and reporting
COBie data output from Revit
Risk Register output from Revit
HR, training and career training standards and processes
Role specific training material
EIR, BEP and Responsibility Matrix documentation and processes coordinated with the technical resources and outputs
Full suite of ISO 19650 required documents for process and collaboration
Project bid resources and framework information resources and standards

APPROACH

PROJECT RESOURCES & FRAMEWORK – Ensuring Higgins could deliver their original project on time and to the best of their capabilities.

OUTSTANDING TRAINING – Providing and delivering bespoke learning plans to empower the whole team in accreditation and BIM.

REVIT RESOURCES coordinated with Vectorworks collaboration, plus CDE Solutions and processes.

FULL SUITE OF ISO 19650 DOCUMENTS – everything Higgins needed for process and collaboration

OUTSTANDING ACCREDITATION RESULTS – Higgins not only became accredited in BIM but did exceptionally well, making them a leader in BIM.

Projects DDC have successfully delivered

years working relationship

Successful BIM accreditations

Conclusion

During the development and implementation period, DDC Solutions also provided the relevant BIM management and Information Management support that Higgins required to develop and deliver their original BIM project.

It was that successful, we went on to provide support and management for an additional four projects Higgins subsequently won. In each project, DDC’s specifically developed BIM standards and resources were able to be applied consistently. In addition to the project support, DDC were able to deliver a path to BIM Accreditation, which Higgins went on to achieve in 2020.

Higgins have benefitted hugely from their accreditation already: seeing increased efficiency and productivity, while also paving the way to new exiting innovative solutions to further improve on project delivery through BIM.

Higgins are proud to share their BIM Assessment Score below, providing a matrix for their BIM success. The image shows the DDC Solutions Accreditation Implementation results and our baseline standard.

Advancing practical application of technology and BIM through research, innovation, imagination and hands-on development is the core of DDC Solutions, and we have been so proud to work on this project with such a reputable partner.

The below image shows Higgins’ Full BIM Assessment Score, where the red line indicates the passing mark. This image shows the outstanding success of Higgin’s accreditation, as they achieved one of the highest grades available.