A System for Early Detection of Maintainability Issues Using BIM

Abstract

The terms maintainability and maintenance are interrelated and often perceived to be difficult to distinguish from each other. Maintainability refers to the measures and actions taken during the design phase of a product in order to assure that the equipment and the system to which it belongs, can be easily maintained at minimum downtime and cost. On the other hand, maintenance refers to the measures and action taken during the operation phase in order to keep the components at the desired operational condition. The variance between the designers’ and facility managers’ priorities concerning maintainability creates a gap between the design and operation phases. Maintainability is not often considered in design nor is it a priority for designers. Designers consider maintenance access to be one of the least important factors related to maintenance. However, design-related maintainability issues such as maintenance access problems make maintenance activities impractical if not impossible in building operation, and increase the life cycle costs of facilities. These issues can be detected in the design phase if an appropriate tool is available, and can prevent maintenance-related problems in the operation phase. This research proposes a system that can be used alongside BIM and that can bridge the gap between the design and post-construction phases if deployed in the design phase.