Building Information Modeling Guidelines Research Articles

A phenomenological inquiry of Building Information Modelling macro-adoption in Uruguay

Building information modelling (BIM) application in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) sectors has received attention, particularly in most Global North countries. However, there is a dearth of literature on its application in the Global South context. This research explores insights into the uptake and use of BIM in the Uruguayan AEC sector and proposes recommendations for accelerating its adoption. This study adopted the phenomenological research design. Through interviews with experts, this study relies on phenomenological analysis of a purposely sampled group of (n = 7) experts in BIM in the Uruguayan AEC industry. The discoveries and findings confirm that BIM is still at an early stage of maturity, and many practitioners still need to be convinced of its benefits. Therefore, pilot projects and the development of BIM guidelines are essential to align industry procedures and demonstrate the benefits of implementing BIM to convince hesitant professionals and increase levels of adoption. Furthermore, organisations’ main implementation drivers are external forces such as client requirements or the need to acquire a competitive advantage. This study’s findings imply that BIM diffusion dynamics in Uruguay are more aligned with a top-down approach, thus highlighting a design for ‘push’ by authorities such as the government. Overall, this study fills a research gap in the Uruguayan AEC industry and provides an academic reference background for policymakers for future actions. The paper is of value, as it contributes to the current state-of-the-art BIM research by drawing insights from the AEC industry in a typical developing country context.

Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Job Performance: An Empirical Analysis in Public Sector Project Management

The construction sector often faces various problems especially related to time, rising costs, project delays, waste and errors that can hinder the economic development. In order to overcome the problems, application of Building Information Modeling (BIM) in construction project is actively implemented in improving work efficiency and performance among industry practitioners especially in developed countries. Nonetheless, the ability of BIM towards highlighting its productivity and performance cannot be seen in the construction industry in Malaysia and faces several challenges that affected the job performance. Therefore, this study examines the relationship between various critical success factors and job performance among professionals who have used BIM applications in construction of project management. The stratified sampling method with the population of 345 professionals who practice the use of BIM applications in construction project management are applied in the study. The total population was collected from a preliminary study of the number of pre-contract stages in PWDs that had implemented BIM. Two models were constructed to be analyzed for multiple regression analysis. Findings revealed that four factors (collaborative synergy, ICT utilization, commitment and knowledge, culture orientation) have a significant positive relationship with job performance. While, external factor (collaborative synergy) has the most significant influence on job performance among those involved with the use of BIM applications. The findings of the study also have highlighted two major weaknesses that limit the effectiveness of the use of BIM applications are related to digital skills among staff and lack of support from management. These elements of weaknesses are seen to have affected the work performance in Malaysian construction sector. In the future research, to get more comprehensive view it is suggested several other factors especially external factors such as government policy and legislation, BIM guidelines and standards are to be considered in the study.

Structuring a BIM Service Scoping, Tendering, Executing, and Wrapping-Up (STEW) Guide for Public Owners

Building Information Modeling (BIM) has been one of the most dominant trends in the construction industry worldwide. In Korea, since 2012, public construction projects worth more than USD 40 million have been subject to the application of BIM. However, many public owners have hesitated to adopt BIM for their projects; they generally view BIM as being very complex to manage and difficult to understand. In 2021, the Korean governmental entity in charge of developing the public policies to furnish quality infrastructure requested a variety of individual public owners to prepare BIM guidelines fit to the infrastructures they manage. While there are diverse BIM guides available for them to refer to in preparing the BIM guidelines, these involve certain deficiencies in meeting the public owners’ preferences, such as being tailored for the public procurement process. The main objectives of this study were to investigate the desirable nature of an owner-oriented BIM guide, suggest the structure of the guide, and identify the major advisory contents to be included in the guide. To achieve these research objectives, a number of domestic and international BIM guides were analyzed, and workshops were operated twice with 12 BIM experts from the Korean construction industry. As a result of the study, a four-stage guide structure was developed consisting of the BIM service Scoping, Tendering, Executing, and Wrapping-up (STEW) guides.

Barriers to the Implementation of Building Information Modeling among Jordanian AEC Companies

Building Information Modeling (BIM) offers significant opportunities for construction management as it provides an effective method for design and documentation, supports communication and collaboration, and enhances the most important factors of a project (time, cost, and quality). The aim of this study is to investigate the barriers to BIM implementation at AEC (architecture, management, construction, and quantity survey) companies in Jordan, and to look at the similarities and differences in perceptions on the significance of these barriers between respondents from different AEC companies. To accomplish these objectives, a questionnaire survey was created to gather feedback on the 20 major barriers to BIM implementation identified through a comprehensive literature review. The top significant barriers were identified using the Relative Importance Index (RII) and Mean value; and to assess variances between respondents in the four AEC firms, a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used. From this, it was concluded that the “cost of training”, “cost of BIM software”, “insufficient BIM technical knowledge and awareness”, “lack of adequate BIM guidelines”, and “huge BIM up frontal investment” are the key barriers affecting the BIM implementation in Jordanian AEC companies. Considering this, this study provides an important step towards better understanding the implementation of BIM in Jordan.

BIM Adoption in Managing Construction Risks Amongst Malaysian Quantity Surveyors: Current Practice and Challenges

Building Information Modelling (BIM) is a technology that has received an impetus within theconstruction industry worldwide. It has also triggered a new approach of working in quantity surveying practice,replacing the conventional methods. In term of managing risks, BIM potentially detects conflicts during visualization process at the design phase, subsequently reduces possible costs risk at the pre-construction phase.However, there are few issues to be dealt with by the construction players in integrating BIM to manage risks in construction projects such as lack of experience and skilled individuals in an organization, lack of awarenessamongst project stakeholders and the fragmented nature of the construction industry. These issues somewhathinder the technology to be implemented effectively and contribute towards the slow development of BIM in theconstruction industry in Malaysia. Therefore, this study aims to explore the adoption of BIM technology in managing construction risks amongst Malaysian Quantity Surveyors by investigating the current practice andidentifying its challenges. Data were collected using a questionnaire survey and the survey results were analyzed adopting descriptive analysis and Average Index by using SPSS. It was found that the current adoption of BIMtechnology in managing construction risks amongst Malaysian Quantity Surveyors is still at the low level of implementation, despite having high level of awareness on BIM usage in the construction industry. The findingsconfirmed that the challenges to adopt BIM are related to the upgrade of hardware to match with new technology,lack of clear and specific BIM guidelines, provision of BIM training for employees and high cost for newtechnology. The results should direct to the Malaysian Quantity Surveyors to be BIM-ready in improving thenumber of Quantity Surveyors of becoming experts in BIM technology to manage risks in construction projects.

A comparative analysis of BIM standards and guidelines between UK and USA

Architectural projects, carried out by the public sector in Iraq using traditional methods suffer from lots of problems such as the inaccurate estimation of time and cost, and the poor cooperation among project team members. To tackle these problems, it is important to benefit from the experiences of the pioneering countries in this field such as the UK and USA. These countries kept pace with digital development and established new systems in construction, namely Building Information Modelling (BIM). This paper investigates the similarities and differences between the BIM standards and guidelines in the UK and USA. The findings of this comparative analysis can build a knowledge base for establishing BIM standards in Iraq. The paper identified the similar aspects to be adopted in the Iraqi standard of BIM, such as the design techniques, the designers’ roles and responsibilities, and some aspects in the information management. In addition, their differences are distinguished, which indicate the specificity of BIM application in each country. For the different aspects, the Iraqi BIM standard can either adopt the descriptions of the UK or USA such as the method of structuring design data, or reflect the Iraqi specificity such as the national library of BIM.

A GLOBAL ANALYSIS OF BIM STANDARDS ACROSS THE GLOBE: A CRITICAL REVIEW

Building Information Modelling (BIM) represents a paradigm shift in the Architectural, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry as companies reposition themselves from a people, technology and process perspective to improve efficiency and quality. The aim of this paper is to identify and compare BIM standards, guidelines and templates from around the globe in order to provide an indicative central resource for BIM documentation and gaps in BIM standards. To achieve this aim, a qualitative research methodological approach was utilised, underpinned by document analysis of BIM standards developed in different countries across six continents. These findings are presented in tabular format along with illustrations to highlight documentation gaps, which form the basis of discussion. This research evaluates 13 countries’ BIM standards, guidelines and templates; the correlation of which presents relationships and synergy, including recommendations for the development of standards based on the gaps presented. Research findings provide a pivotal appreciation of the different levels of maturity – the discourse of which can act as a signpost for each countries reflection, viz: government, industry bodies or academic institution to help develop BIM standards to fill the gaps in contract, Employers Information Requirement (EIR), BIM Execution Plan (BEP) and design documentation.

Competencies Expected from an Information Manager Working in BIM Based Projects

ABSTRACT An Information Manager (IM) has an exclusive and unique role to play in a project. Yet, the competencies expected of an IM have not been adequately defined. The other professionals in the construction industry define this role in their own way ignoring the industry needs. Thus, this study aimed to define the competencies expected of an IM. To achieve this, the tasks expected of an IM were first determined through a desk study using BIM guidelines. Secondly, an informal public opinion study was carried out using online data sources. The collected data were then analyzed using NVIVO software to outline the competencies required of an IM for each task. Finally, an expert interview survey was carried out to validate the outcomes of the study. The findings revealed that an IM must be a construction professional well-versed in construction technology and contract administration and that the IM must be competent in using Building Information Modeling (BIM) workflows/software. The study contributes to knowledge by identifying the gap that currently exists between industry needs and the performance of professionals working as IMs, which would be invaluable when designing a curriculum for a course on information management within a BIM environment.

Assessing building information modeling implementation readiness in building projects in Singapore

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify critical non-value adding (NVA) building information modeling (BIM) implementation activities in current building project delivery process, develop a BIM implementation readiness (BIMIR) evaluation model, and assess BIMIR statuses in building projects in Singapore. Design/methodology/approach A questionnaire survey and four post-survey interviews were conducted in Singapore. A fuzzy synthetic evaluation approach was adopted in the model development. Findings In total, 38 out of 44 NVA BIM implementation activities were deemed critical and used in the proposed model, among which “lack of involvement by contractors to contribute site knowledge” in the design development phase was ranked top. This model was validated in five projects. It was found that most of 73 surveyed building projects were in a low BIMIR status and the assessment results were consistent with current industry practices of BIM implementation in Singapore. Research limitations/implications There may be geographical limitation on the identification of the critical NVA BIM implementation activities. However, because BIM mandate spreads globally, the findings can help overseas project teams customize their own NVA activities and evaluation models. Practical implications As BIM implementation is mandated in Singapore, BIMIR evaluation helps local project teams identify weak areas of their BIM implementation activities and prioritize resources to enhance those areas. Originality/value No tool has been developed for evaluating BIMIR at the project level in the construction industry in Singapore or at large in Asia. Four BIMIR statuses are defined, which are consistent with Singapore’s BIM guidelines and standards.

Level of detail, information and accuracy in building information modelling of existing and heritage buildings

PurposeOver the past decade, national and international organisations concerned with regulating the architecture, engineering, construction and operations industry have been working to create guidelines for the integration of building information modelling (BIM) through the establishment of benchmarks to measure the quality and quantity of information in a given model. Until recently, these benchmarks – and BIM guidelines in general – have been developed for the design and construction of new projects, providing very little guidance for using BIM in the context of conservation and rehabilitation. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new benchmark specific to existing and heritage buildings developed by Carleton Immersive Media Studio (CIMS).Design/methodology/approachTo create the new benchmark, CIMS conducted a critical evaluation of established and emerging BIM guidelines including: Level of Development Specification 2016 (BIMFORUM), architecture, engineering and construction (Can) BIM Protocol (CanBIM), PAS 1102-2: Specification for Information Management for the Capital Delivery Phase of Construction Projects Using BIM (British Standards Institution) and Level of Accuracy Specification Guide (US Institute of Building Documentation).FindingsUsing the authors’ on-going work at the Parliament Hill National Historic Site in Ottawa, Canada, the CIMS created and applied a three-category system that evaluated the level of detail, information and accuracy within the building information model independently.Originality/valueIn this paper, the authors discuss the CIMS’ work to date and propose next steps.

BIM Investment, Returns, and Risks in China’s AEC Industries

Building information modeling (BIM), the emerging digital technology, is undergoing increasing application in developing countries including China. Both the governmental policy and industry motivation have indicated that BIM is becoming the mainstream innovation in China’s construction industry. Nevertheless, one major concern lies in the uncertainty of BIM investment for architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) firms. Specifically, AEC firms should have the knowledge of areas BIM investment could focus on (such as BIM software); the expected returns from BIM investment; methods to enhance the returns from BIM usage; and the risks in implementing BIM. This study adopted a questionnaire survey–based approach to address these concerns related to BIM application and risk in China. BIM practitioners from multiple AEC fields and different experience levels were recruited as the survey sample. It was found from the questionnaire survey that both internal and external collaborations should be the BIM investment priority, together with the interoperability among multiple BIM software tools. Improved multiparty communication and understanding was the highest recognized return from BIM investment. Survey participants had a high expectation of BIM application in green building projects. Subgroup analysis conveyed the information that gaining BIM practical experience would provide professionals with more confidence on returns from BIM adoption in enhancing communication and understanding. Compared to survey participants from other professions, architects tended to have more conservative views on BIM’s effect on marketing their work, project planning, and recruiting/retaining employees. The findings from this empirical study provide an overview of BIM investment, return, and implementation-related risks for AEC professionals at different stages or levels of BIM practice, as well as suggestions for relevant public authorities when developing BIM guidelines (e.g., BIM applications in prefabrication construction). As an extension of existing BIM implementation studies in developed countries, this study provides insights of BIM practical experience and associated risks in China by adopting a holistic approach and summarizing the perceptions from AEC professionals across disciplines and experience levels. The knowledge gained from this study could be further applied in other developing countries where the application of information technology is growing in AEC projects.

Influences of building information modeling (BIM) on oil, gas, and petrochemical firms

The construction industry in comparison to other industries has achieved less productivity and effectivity during the last few decades. Lean construction philosophy, integrated project delivery method and recently building information modeling technologies helped raising the productivity and effectivity of the construction industry by introducing new and improved processes. Adopting and implementing building information modeling provides accurate digital information to undertake efficient and effective planning and execution of the complex construction projects. Today, use of building information modeling in architecture, engineering, and construction industries has been institutionalized insofar as some developed countries developed their building information modeling guidelines and instructions. It is believed that building information modeling as a mighty conceptual strategy could be implemented in the lifecycle of nonbuilding projects, too. To steer the researchers and practitioners’ in that direction, the current article aims to explain capabilities of building information modeling when used for nonbuilding projects especially in the process plants and the oil, gas, and petrochemical projects. To achieve the mentioned goals, a widespread literature survey on adopting and implementing building information modeling in the architecture, engineering, and construction industry lifecycle including the benefits, barriers, and challenges, as well as expert interviews with oil, gas, and petrochemical industry firms were conducted. Finally, challenges and prerequisites that should be addressed before getting the full benefits of building information modeling in the oil, gas, and petrochemical industry are highlighted.

BIM EXECUTION PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES FOR BUILDING PROJECTS

Building Information Modeling (BIM) has been an emerging concept in architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry with a vast amount of promising benefits to construction projects. Implementation of BIM, however, requires comprehensive research and strategic planning. Industry-wide and organizational implementation guidelines and standards have been published around the world either to encourage organizations to adopt BIM or to present the minimum requirements to be followed where BIM implementation is a statutory obligation. In contrast, governments or organizations in several countries such as Turkey have not mandated BIM implementation and provide no guidance. Organizations in these countries which plan to adopt BIM processes are forced to develop their own implementation plans. The purpose of this study is to provide guidance in BIM implementation for construction companies in countries where BIM implementation has not been mandated particularly during the construction phase of the building projects. 23 BIM standards and guidelines covering the BIM execution process have been reviewed. Topics that need to be addressed by BIM implementation plans have been identified and categorized under four headings. A case study of BIM implementation at a large construction company that focuses on conducting quantity takeoff and cost estimation is presented, and unique challenges of BIM implementation in Turkish AEC industry are discussed.

Streamlining Digital Modeling and Building Information Modelling (BIM) Uses for the Oil and Gas Projects

The oil and gas industry is a technology-driven industry. Over the last two decades, it has heavily made use of digital modeling and associated technologies (DMAT) to enhance its commercial capability. Meanwhile, the Building Information Modelling (BIM) has grown at an exponential rate in the built environment sector. It is not only a digital representation of physical and functional characteristics of a facility, but it has also made an impact on the management processes of building project lifecycle. It is apparent that there are many similarities between BIM and DMAT usability in the aspect of physical modeling and functionality. The aim of this study is to streamline the usage of both DMAT and BIM whilst discovering valuable practices for performance improvement in the oil and gas projects. To achieve this, 28 BIM guidelines, 83 DMAT academic publications and 101 DMAT vendor case studies were selected for review. The findings uncover (a) 38 BIM uses; (b) 32 DMAT uses and; (c) 36 both DMAT and BIM uses. The synergy between DMAT and BIM uses would render insightful references into managing efficient oil and gas’s projects. It also helps project stakeholders to recognise future investment or potential development areas of BIM and DMAT uses in their projects.

An Analytical Appraisal of Building Information Modelling (BIM) Guidelines to Identify Variations in the Procedures

The usage of Building Information Modelling (BIM) in building projects has enabled improvement in project planning, implementation and collaboration process amongst various stakeholders within architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry. However, variations exist in the current practices of BIM implementation and coordination process in the industry. These variations result in inconsistent degree of BIM use across the construction industry. This inconsistency gives rise to several managerial and technological challenges such as data interoperability issues and purposeful integration and exchange of information within the BIM components. In order to tackle the issue, it is essential to analyse the different BIM approaches employed by the industry practitioners. BIM guidelines serve as a critical link between the BIM model, and its subsequent execution. They therefore provide the best reflection of BIM application and processes. This research paper aims to address the variations existing in BIM practices across the construction industry. It includes an extensive study of 21 existing, publicly available BIM-based guidelines in order to establish an understanding of the present state of practice and deduce issues and concerns related to them. All guidelines analysed in this paper are first categorised based on authorship and the release date for efficient comparison. The points of similarity and difference between them are thereby realized and outlined. In addition, the transition of project implementation process from traditional methods to BIM technology is also explained. The existence of inconsistencies in the BIM guidelines reviewed in this paper reflects the need of a BIM ‘Code Compliance Check’. The Code Compliance Check will serve as a regulatory project guideline that will further improve the potential of BIM by incorporating a consistent BIM modelling methodology for the entire construction industry.

Towards increased BIM usage for existing building interventions

Purpose – Building information modeling (BIM) is most often used for the construction of new buildings. By using BIM in such projects, collaboration among stakeholders in an architecture, engineering and construction project is improved. To even further improve collaboration, there is a move toward the production and usage of BIM standards in various countries. These are typically national documents, including guides, protocols, and mandatory regulations, that introduce guidelines about what information should be exchanged at what time between which partners and in what formats. If a nation or a construction team agrees on these guidelines, improved collaboration can come about on top of the collaboration benefits induced by the mere usage of BIM. This scenario might also be targeted for interventions in existing buildings. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – In this paper, the authors investigate the general content and usage of existing BIM standards for new constructions, describing specifications about BIM deliverable documents, modeling, and collaboration procedures. The authors suggest to what extent the content in the BIM standards can also be used for interventions in existing buildings. These suggestions rely heavily on literature study, supported by on-site use case experiences. Findings – From this research, the authors can conclude that the existing standards give a solid basis for BIM collaboration in existing building interventions, but that they need to be extended in order to be of better use in any intervention project in an existing building. This extension should happen at: data modeling level: other kinds of data formats need to be considered, coming from terrestrial laser scanning and automatic digital photogrammetry tools; at data exchange level: exchange requirements should take explicit statements about modeling tolerances and levels of (un)certainty; and at process modeling level: business process models should include information exchange processes from the very start of the building survey (BIM→facility management→BIM or regular audit). Originality/value – BIM environments are not often used to document existing buildings or interventions in existing buildings. The authors propose to improve the situation by using BIM standards and/or guidelines, and the authors give an initial overview of components that should be included in such a standard and/or guideline.

The outlook of building information modeling for sustainable development

As human needs evolve, information technologies and natural environments require a wider perspective of sustainable development, especially when examining the built environment that impacts the central of social-ecological systems. The objectives of the paper are (a) to review the status and development of building information modeling (BIM) in regards to the sustainable development in the built environment, and (b) to develop a future outlook framework that promotes BIM in sustainable development. Seven areas of sustainability were classified to analyze forty-four BIM guidelines and standards. This review examines the use of BIM in sustainable development, focusing primarily on certain areas of sustainability, such as project development, design, and construction. The developed framework describes the need for collaboration with the multiple disciplines for the future adoption and use of BIM for the sustainable development. It also considers the integration between “BIM and green assessment criteria”; and “BIM and renewable energy” to address the shortcomings of the standards and guidelines.

An Innovative Approach to e-public Tendering Based on Model Checking

Abstract The public construction sector has recently started to put more effort into cost savings and improvement of efficiency. Therefore, public clients have started to promote new strategies, embracing innovative approaches such as Building Information Modelling (BIM) and e-Procurement. Tendering plays a key role for the success of the overall process; however, the selection of the best contractor is still a difficult task. The paper investigates how tendering can be integrated with Model Checking in order to control the compliance between the client's requirements and bidders’ offers within a digital environment. The research shows that, although the BIM is still not widely adopted in tendering procedures, Model Checking tools are already available to support the jury, as well as bidders. Moreover, even though BIM can be implemented in several procurement procedures, it is more effective if a collaborative and integrated behaviour is promoted. Results can help increase public clients’ awareness of the limits and potentials of an innovative approach and to set BIM requirements and guidelines.

토목분야 BIM 적용 사례 분석을 통한 발주자 관점에서의 BIM 발전 전략

Owing to the increase in large and complex construction projects, the design paradigm of architecture and civil engineering projects has changed from 2D CAD to 3D CAD. For this reason, to meet the strong requirements of project contractors, various efforts have been made to adopt a Building Information Modeling (BIM) technology for effective construction management. On the other hand, compared to architectural projects, only a few civil engineering project cases have been conducted in the perspective of public contractors. This is because the characteristics of civil project contractors and the negative pursuit of adopting BIM technology due to the lack of a current BIM system and technologies. Recently, positive changes in adopting BIM technology for public projects were anticipated by public owners, such as the Public Procurement Service and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. In this regard, this study analyzed the current BIM technology status of public owners in Korea to adopt the BIM policies and guidelines of the Korean government. Strategies for adopting BIM technologies for Korean public owners are also discussed based on an analysis of civil engineering BIM project cases.

설계 프로세스를 반영한 BIM 작성 기준(LOD)에 대한 연구

BIM(Building Information Modeling) ordering manuals and guidelines are diffused with the recent BIM activation. However, it is causing drawbacks such as an increase of work at each design stage and a decline of BIM application level that the standard of making up and managing BIM is vague and it includes comprehensive meaning. Therefore, this study aims to secure BIM work standard by establishing BIM making-out standard based on LOD(Level of Detail) classification considering domestic design process. It compared each definition of LOD by analyzing domestic and foreign BIM guideline examples, and figured out insufficiency of existing domestic and foreign design process and BIM guidelines. Moreover, it drew architects' work articles for promoting the progression of the efficient design process, and analyzed BIM requirements on design process, dividing BIM application scale by field. Through this analyzing process, it finally established BIM making-out standard classified by design process. The effects of establishing BIM making-out standard would include improving a division of labor and cooperation environment by creating integrated BIM model on design stages, advancing work efficiency by preventing a repetition and an increase of work, and upgrading project completeness and design quality. Besides, it can secure BIM work standard by clarifying responsibility for working steps. BIM making-out standard established by this study will contribute to developing the future BIM work standard document and BIM guideline as a data base.