Exploring the journey of BIM in the Indian AECO industry (2008–2022) an excelize perspective

Abstract

The journey of Building Information Modeling (BIM) in India has been from skepticism to acceptance to leveraging the higher potentials of BIM. Excelize Software, serving the global Architecture, Engineering, Construction and Operations industry from their headquarters in Aurangabad, has been a witness to and participant in this transformational journey for nearly last two decades. This paper is aimed at exploring their journey of offering BIM services to a wide variety of projects that were undertaken in the construction industry of India during this period. The construction sector has historically grappled with the challenges of managing productivity with respect to completion of projects on time, management of labor and materials and maintenance of built assets. BIM made its foray into the Indian construction industry towards the end of the first decade in this millennium. Typical of any technology adoption curve, BIM was met with a fair share of skepticism across stakeholders. Yet, awareness about its potential benefits, scope of application in design and management of various aspects of the project and subsequent adoption has grown slowly yet steadily in the past decade. Data published by Invest India (Source: https://www.investindia.gov.in/sector/construction) states that the construction Industry in India is expected to reach $1.4 Tn by 2025. Urban population is said to contribute 75% of GDP (63% present), and 68 cities will have a population of more than 1 million; up from 42 today. The construction industry market in India works across 250 sub-sectors with linkages across sectors. Given these projections, India is likely to go through massive urbanization and economic growth. All construction activities that result from this growth will need proper planning, scheduling, design and information management. Meeting these needs will require a strong framework for implementation, a sophisticated level of design communication, project co-ordination and documentation as well as robust technology tools. BIM is well-designed to be the first building block of such a framework that can radically support and enhance the massive needs of the construction sector in India. Through the various projects executed by Excelize and a set of parameters that reveal the BIM adoption metrics for the said period, this paper will navigate the journey of BIM from ‘We are not interested’ to ‘Nice to have tool’ to ‘Must have technology aid’ to ‘Exploring BIM for greater possibilities.’