Application of BIM Implementation Process in the Operation and Maintenance of Information Management System in Building Facilities

Abstract

The appalling state of building facilities in Nigeria, poses a great concern to stakeholders. This stems from lack of adequate information management in the operation and maintenance of building facilities. Therefore, the study is aimed at assessing the application of BIM implementation process in the operation and maintenance of information management system in building facilities. The study made use of a quantitative research approach, making the population for the study to encompass facility management practitioners (Onsite Facility Engineers, Onsite Facility Technicians, Facility Management Professionals [IFMA] and Facility Management Company owners) who are fully registered with International Facility Management Association (IFMA) in Abuja-Nigeria. The sample size for the study is 184 and the respondents were selected by a systematic random sampling method with a close ended questionnaire used for the data collection. The questionnaire is administered via Google forms; and questionnaires shared through the google form link were answered and the results were collected through google response tools, and 121 copies of the questionnaire were duly filled, returned and used for data analysis. The result shows that the implementation of BIM in operation and maintenance of facilities is very low as manual and stand-alone computer system are still predominant in most of the operations carried out by the practitioners and the stakeholders. The study further revealed that Improvement in asset information management that lead to increased efficiency of facility assets is significantly affect by the operational system. The result also shows that Facility managers are traditionally included late in the building lifecycle and posed a high challenge to most practitioners and this has made the application of BIM in operation and maintenance of information management in facility management very negligible, as such the paper suggest that BIM usage in the O&M of buildings should be encouraged and imbibed right from the planning and designing stages of building facilities. Facility managers/professional should also be included right from the inception of a building life cycle to the end of the building.