Comparison of Experienced and Novice BIM Coordinators in Performing Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing (MEP) Coordination Tasks

Abstract

Decisions made and approaches taken in Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing (MEP) design coordination largely depend on knowledge and expertise of professionals from multiple disciplines. Furthermore, the use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) in MEP design coordination has greatly increased the amount and quality of available data. However, what information should be pulled from the model and what approaches should be taken to perform various coordination tasks still largely relies on expert knowledge. This study compares the behaviors of experienced BIM coordinators with at least three years of experience on model-based design coordination with novices who are tech-savvy but have limited project experience when performing certain coordination tasks. A scenario-based experiment which includes a series of clashes in MEP models was designed to examine the information used, actions taken and questions asked during the coordination activities by experts and novices, so as to compare the differences of these two groups. Results provide insights on what experts’ knowledge needs to be captured during MEP design coordination, and furthermore, how to improve novices’ performance by reusing captured knowledge from experts.