#POINT OF VIEW: Eleonora Lucchese, BIM Manager Cimolai

Eleonora Lucchese is a civil structural engineer trained at the Politecnico di Milano. During her studies, she had the opportunity to gain experience in the United States, where she took undergraduate courses and developed her thesis. After graduation, she worked as a researcher for the CTB-UH (Council for Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat), a Chicago-based research organization that deals with tall buildings, addressing structural, architectural and sustainability aspects. Since 2014, she has worked at Cimolai, where she currently holds the position of BIM Manager.

BIM manager profession: by accident or by choice?

Eleonora Lucchese: "Since I joined Cimolai's technical department, I have held coordination roles, accumulating significant experience in managing data exchange and the use of three-dimensional models, especially for orders related to the American market. In these projects, dialogue with other players was mainly through the exchange of traditional models, from which perhaps my first interest in BIM was born. As a project engineer, I gradually assumed roles of greater responsibility, eventually becoming Design Manager for the coordination of the entire order. The decisive turning point toward BIM management came in 2022, when I was offered the opportunity to take a further step of professional growth."

BIM: What do you think are the most revolutionary aspects of this methodology?

Eleonora Lucchese: "Regardless of the form or level of implementation, BIM methodology offers superior data management. The most relevant aspect, from my point of view, is undoubtedly quality. I have personally experienced situations where the lack of efficient methodologies has compromised both timeliness and data quality. The adoption of BIM is therefore crucial to elevate the project to a higher level."

You work with Cimolai, one of the largest Italian companies in the world of construction: what is the company's approach with respect to Building Information Modeling?

Eleonora Lucchese: "Cimolai has developed an advanced approach to digitization, which is particularly innovative in the construction sector, traditionally less sensitive to innovation issues. Being a large company, it had the opportunity to explore methodologies and tools before other competitors. In recent years, there has been a significant acceleration, driven by the need to optimize data management, a process that began many years ago with the move to 3D and was later refined with the integration of different software. When it was recognized that existing tools posed limitations, Cimolai chose to develop a CDE (Common Data Environment) in collaboration with 4Days, marking an important step forward for the company."

What do you think is the impact of an evolved CDE in managing complex projects?

Eleonora Lucchese: "The platform is critical to day-to-day management because of its ability to allow access to data and related information at any time and from anywhere in the world. It also provides strategic support to management by enabling historical tracking of data. This means that attributes can be associated with a document or model that, in the future, will be useful in reconstructing the evolution of that information. In complex projects that evolve over time and require a review of certain topics or activities after years, the model and documents will be able to be of great help."

In which Cimolai project did the platform bring an effectiveness that is difficult to achieve otherwise?

Eleonora Lucchese: "Of all the projects, I would particularly mention the ELT order, the telescope we are building in Chile. Testing the platform on a project of such complexity was a significant challenge. In this context, two aspects proved particularly interesting, in addition to traditional document and model management. The first is the possibility of extremely efficient management of site requests, such as nonconformities, requests for specific tables, or the need to produce new components. The 'Issue' tool has proven to be crucial both for keeping track of communication between the parties involved (construction site, technical management and engineering department) and for responding quickly to the day-to-day needs of the construction site. The second aspect concerns the management of storage areas. Thanks to the platform, packages arriving at the construction site are registered and associated with their respective destination areas. In this way, the assembly team, when preparing to install a new section of the structure, can easily locate the necessary parts by consulting the platform. In addition, the model consultation directly from the erection crews on the construction site is significant. This is just one example of how the use of the platform has improved the efficiency of site operations."

Has there been any difficulty in the adoption of the platform by different teams?

Eleonora Lucchese: "Resistance to change is natural, so it is understandable that there was some initial reticence in adopting the new tool. However, thanks to the phased introduction, users have had time to gradually become familiar with the new solution."

What are the features of Truspace that you find particularly effective and that you could no longer do without in your work as a BIM manager?

Eleonora Lucchese: "As anticipated, the 'Issue' tool has become extremely useful in daily operations, precisely because of the many forms of use and application, from facilitating communication between dislocated teams to tracking information over time, or the ability to associate 'Issues' with elements within the 3D model. These capabilities have a significant impact on many key activities, such as having a global status of the manufacturability of parts on the shop floor, i.e., knowing which objects can be machined because they lack missing information and which ones, on the other hand, will undergo changes or additions."

What do you hope the areas of development might be instead?

Eleonora Lucchese: "A major project that we would like to start soon is the integration of the platform with our cost management tools, so that we can monitor the progress of the job order not only from a documentation perspective. This step would further expand the already advanced view offered by CDE, making it even more powerful and comprehensive."