The benefits of BIM and Digital Twin in Public Acquisitions
At the end of 2024, two top experts from the Leviatan Group team were speakers at the National Conference on Public Acquisitions in Construction, an event dedicated to the challenges and opportunities in the public construction sector. The Technical University of Civil Engineering Bucharest, together with the National Agency for Public Procurement, the Federation of Employers’ Associations of Construction Companies, and Cluster TEC, organized the event.
Cătălin Podaru, CEO of Leviatan Group, and Maria Văsi, Operations and Transformation Director at Leviatan Group, spoke in the second session of the event, Strategic Public Procurement in the Construction Sector. On this occasion, they highlighted the benefits of BIM and Digital Twin in public procurement and, implicitly, for the beneficiaries of construction projects.
Benefits of BIM Requirements in Public Acquisitions
Introducing BIM requirements in public acquisitions ensures a more rigorous selection of bidders. It guarantees the implementation of standardized and verifiable processes. Through BIM requirements, authorities can assess companies’ capacity to deliver quality projects, creating a competitive environment based on competence and transparency. This can make public investments more efficient and significantly reduce execution and compliance risks.
“BIM methodology should not be perceived as a new requirement in public acquisitions. BIM is a capability that should be included in the evaluation process. This capability has different implementation levels and shows the bidder’s management and other skills. Creating a guide should start with concrete requirements. The specifications should not include BIM concepts but should ask for exemplification with working procedures from the bidder’s experience to show if one can realize what one claims. Including BIM methodology in the tender specifications is not an absurd requirement. Still, it is a construction management method with specific tools,” explained Cătălin Podaru, CEO of Leviatan Group.
BIM requirements in public acquisitions are certainly an essential tool for guaranteeing the quality and professionalism of bidders and facilitating the objective evaluation of their real capacity to deliver projects.
The advantages of BIM for public authorities
Through BIM, public authorities can track the work process of designers and builders and directly and effectively verify compliance with quality standards. Cătălin Podaru, CEO of Leviatan Group, further explains how this methodology provides a transparent and verifiable project management system that contributes to the efficiency and success of public investments.
“For authorities, BIM offers multiple advantages. First, BIM is a tangible construction quality management system in the digital environment. Then, the BIM work procedures are workflow quality procedures, and authorities can check at any time whether projects are realized according to those procedures. The transparency comes from the fact that the beneficiary, the supervisor, and their representatives can also access the workflow, and the documents issued can be visualized very quickly, including intermediate documents issued by the designers. However, in terms of transparency, the execution part is more valuable because the representatives of the authorities can see directly in the platform the physical status of the implementation of the projects, with pictures and data about the workers and quality documents, without having to make field visits,” said Cătălin Podaru, CEO Leviatan Group.
Therefore, the collaborative project management platform offers public authorities’ effective control over how public projects are implemented.
Digital Twin, a major role in Public Acquisitions
Digital Twin is revolutionizing the construction industry with an integrated approach that centralizes all the essential data of a project, from the design phase to execution and maintenance.
“Why is Digital Twin relevant to public procurement? Because it offers solutions for some of the biggest challenges in construction: optimizing resources, reducing waste, transparent and accountable project management, monitoring, and smart maintenance during building operations. The concept of a holistic Digital Twin is not just a replica of the construction we get from a scan at the end of the build but rather an integrated, complete, and comprehensive approach to all the processes, data, and technologies we process and procure, from design to commissioning of the construction,” explained Maria Văsi, Head of Operations & Development at Leviatan Group.
With Digital Twin, public construction management becomes predictive and proactive, reducing operating costs and improving project sustainability.
The advantages Digital Twin brings to beneficiaries of construction projects
Digital Twin provides construction project beneficiaries full transparency, quick access to essential data, and optimized construction operations, facilitating smart maintenance, cost reduction, and informed decision-making.
“There are many major benefits. Everything is in one place. All information and updates are in one place. The beneficiary has access to all the information, right from the concept, throughout the lifetime of the construction. Decisions are simpler. The beneficiary makes informed decisions based on technical information and specifications, making them much simpler and quicker to realize. Certainly, the savings are multiple: reduction of operating costs and optimization of electricity and thermal energy costs, more so as Digital Twin is a tool that allows for a transparent and responsible management of the built asset”, said Maria Văsi, Head of Operations & Development at Leviatan Group.
Through integrating IoT sensors and real-time monitoring, Digital Twin transforms buildings into intelligent systems capable of detecting and preventing problems before they become critical, thus optimizing maintenance and reducing operational costs. By automatically analyzing and adjusting energy consumption, Digital Twin also supports sustainability and energy efficiency, helping to reduce waste and achieve sustainability goals in the public building sector.
In addition, Digital Twin plays a central role in the adoption of circular economy principles in the construction sector. These principles involve maximizing the use of resources, reducing waste, and planning for the reuse of materials at the end of a building’s lifecycle. Specifically, Digital Twin records all the materials and equipment used in the construction process and their specifications and lifespan. The information can be accessed anytime, making planning for reuse or recycling easy.
BIM and Digital Twin fundamentally change how public construction projects are designed, built, and managed. BIM redefines standards of quality and transparency in procurement, transforming the criteria for selecting bidders from a formality into a rigorous process based on competence and efficiency. Digital Twin goes one step further, providing a digital replica of construction, essential for predictive and sustainable construction management, where data is not just archived but becomes an active tool for optimization and strategic decision-making. Together, these technologies create an ecosystem in which public investments are protected, risks minimized, and built infrastructure is delivered and responsibly managed for the long term.
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