State of Practice of Building Information Modeling in the Electrical Construction Industry

Abstract

For decades, the North American construction industry has seen a decline in productivity due to many underlying reasons. Moreover, the construction industry in general and electrical construction companies in particular struggled with coordination and productivity. Within the last decade, building information modeling (BIM) has become the means for a real solution to these problems. This paper attempts to highlight the practices and state of BIM in the electrical construction industry. Through an extensive survey and interview process, this research has provided three main conclusions. First, electrical contractors have not yet advanced their implementation of BIM, with 59% of respondents having three years or less experience with BIM. Second, in order to maintain a positive outcome for the use of BIM on a project, contractors should maintain one to three staff members as BIM specialists, adding a cost of 2% or less from the total project cost to implement BIM. Third, BIM does indeed reduce field conflicts and improve coordination. Other than quantifying the current state of practice and impact of BIM on electrical contractors and approximating its future use in this industry, this study contributes to the body of knowledge about BIM by offering the electrical contractors recommendations that will assist them in allocating the proper resources and to understand the evolving use of BIM.