Toward a Roadmap for BIM Adoption and Implementation by Small-Sized Construction Companies

Abstract

Building Information Modeling (BIM) offers a variety of tools to help a wide range of stakeholders in the construction industry. There has been substantial research on the advantages and challenges of implementing BIM for large-scale construction projects; however, there is a dearth of research on the benefits and challenges faced by smaller construction firms when adopting BIM. Thus, this paper focuses on the cause-and-effects of BIM adoption in the construction industry. To achieve this objective, first, a literature review covering different aspects of BIM adoption was conducted. Second, large-sized construction firms who already have implemented BIM in several of their projects were interviewed through questionnaires. Based on the findings from the interviews, a set of survey questions was prepared and distributed among all types of construction firms to identify their innovativeness and level of BIM adoption. The survey contains company and demographics, innovativeness, and BIM-specific questions. Survey results show that small-sized construction companies are indeed far behind large-sized companies in respect to BIM adoption. This paper highlights the findings from the literature review and survey. Future research will take place to dive further into the survey data results and develop a roadmap that identifies a BIM function that can be adopted easily by small-sized construction companies.