Issues in BIM for Facility Management from Industry Practitioners' Perspectives

Abstract

As Building Information Modeling (BIM) becomes widely adopted by the construction industry, it holds undeveloped possibilities for supporting Facility Management (FM). Some FM information systems on the market claim to address the needs of FM managers. However, are the functionalities provided by the current BIM-based FM software companies those actually required by FM Professionals? What data is required by FM professionals in the operation and maintenance (OM) phases of facilities? The aim of this paper is to clarify the needs of FM professionals for maintenance purposes and to investigate potential areas that can use BIM technology to satisfy such data requirements. A survey was conducted to collect perspectives from industry practitioners for the data requirements for FM in the design and construction phases. The survey results indicated that maintainability considerations should be taken into consideration during the facility design phase. The results address the areas perceived by practitioners that need maintainability consideration in the design phase.