As is common knowledge now, in 2016 it will be mandatory to use BIM on all public sector projects. This has clearly spurned a lot of interest in BIM within the construction industry. However, the... Show More

As is common knowledge now, in 2016 it will be mandatory to use BIM on all public sector projects. This has clearly spurned a lot of interest in BIM within the construction industry. However, the industry appears to be struggling to find its feet as to what it needs to have in place before BIM based projects become a reality. Uses of BIM technology and associated processes have been categorized into 3 levels and the 2016 requirement is for Level 2 implementations only. This paper outlines the requirements of level 2 BIM implementation and assesses the status of the industry as a whole as to its readiness. There are various pre-requisites that need to be in place, mostly in relation to process protocols and standards. This paper gives an understanding of the roadmap that needs to be traversed in order to be ready for BIM. This paper presents an outline of the UK Government’s requirements for 2016 before discussing and assessing the UK construction industry’s readiness. Finally, the paper gives an outline of what needs to be in place for the government’s ambitions to be achieved as well as a summary of some of the challenges along the way and possible ways of addressing some of them.

The application of Building Information Modelling (BIM) has demonstrated enormous potential to deliver consistency in the construction collaboration process. BIM can define an explicit configuration... Show More

The application of Building Information Modelling (BIM) has demonstrated enormous potential to deliver consistency in the construction collaboration process. BIM can define an explicit configuration for digitized information exchange; however the technology to collaborate on models has not yet delivered the industry requirements for BIM collaboration. This research project is intended to provide a fresh review of industry requirements for BIM collaboration and will analyse how these requirements can be supported using a model server as a collaboration platform. This paper presents a review of existing collaboration platforms, with a particular focus to evaluate the research and development efforts on model servers as a collaboration platform. This paper also reports on the findings of three focus group sessions with industry practitioners to identify any problems in the available collaboration systems. The focus group findings identify a number of issues in current collaboration environments which help to understand the main domains of user requirements for BIM collaboration. These requirement domains will be further analysed to identify functional and technical specifications for a model server enabled collaboration platform.

This paper reviews BIM concepts, with a particular focus on its applicability and uptake within the business processes in the construction industry. An exploratory study is being carried out to... Show More

This paper reviews BIM concepts, with a particular focus on its applicability and uptake within the business processes in the construction industry. An exploratory study is being carried out to examine the current state of BIM practices using the instrument of survey questionnaire and literature review. The partial findings from an on-going survey show that, the inevitable need for organisations to reengineer existing processes in order to fully capitalise on BIM potentials is acknowledged by the industry participants. BIM implementation in the business processes reveal that organisations are attuned to the significance of Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) for BIM development in their practices. However, more efforts are still needed to educate people regarding culture change so that BPR is recognised as a platform for successful BIM implementation in the construction sector. The paper concludes with proposing a need of business information management through BIM adoption that will enable organisations to take advantage of BIM investments.

In Ireland the construction sector is at the initial stages of assessing and adapting Building Information Management (BIM) on pilot projects. At an initial summary review BIM could be seen as a fad... Show More

In Ireland the construction sector is at the initial stages of assessing and adapting Building Information Management (BIM) on pilot projects. At an initial summary review BIM could be seen as a fad that will burn out as quickly as it appeared. Many of the concepts associated with BIM are grounded in Co-ordinated Project Information (CPI), Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) and object modelling which have been developed over the last 20-30 years. This research presents the critical success factors (CSF) associated with knowledge management (KM) and investigates the correlation of these with the development and integration of BIM within the construction industry in Ireland. These CSF will be addressed in the context of assessing maturity levels prior to integrating KM or BIM. Determining the CSF will accelerate the implementation of BIM. Developing a BIM CSF Analysis Model will assist in assessing a company’s readiness to embark on BIM projects.

Building Information Modelling (BIM) is now being increasingly used as a technology tool to assist design professions in conceiving, designing, constructing, and operating the built environment in... Show More

Building Information Modelling (BIM) is now being increasingly used as a technology tool to assist design professions in conceiving, designing, constructing, and operating the built environment in many countries. The BIM model provides design professions with the framework to perform exercises in design, programming, cost and value management, and concept energy analysis, in order to achieve the most economical and sustainable building solution. The BIM model though sophisticated is not extensively used to provide estimation software with the data requirements for Life Cycle Costing (LCC), such as, escalation of future expenditure and/or present value costs, discount rates, and study periods. Without incorporating LCC functionality within the BIM model or in an external application with a BIM interface a complete picture of the Whole Life Cycle Costs (WLCC) cannot be generated from the outputs of the model. The authors demonstrate the potential ability to customise traditional estimating packages with BIM take-off and database management interfaces, in order to find the best solution to provide complete Whole Life Cycle Costs Analysis (WLCCA). A template was produced in consultation with one of the internationally established methodologies in Life Cycle Costing (LCC) and provides the user with the financial tools to select the most economical advantageous solution, possibly without investing in new estimating software.

Building Information Modeling (BIM) has made a considerable impact on the construction industry and the way in which building design information can be accessed and interrogated. This impact is now... Show More

Building Information Modeling (BIM) has made a considerable impact on the construction industry and the way in which building design information can be accessed and interrogated. This impact is now being seen in the Schools of Architecture in the UK. Academia is beginning to see the feasibility and benefits of converting to such a new technology; will this inevitably start to filter into teaching BIM to architecture students? The concern by many in academia is that design will become secondary to pedagogy of building design. This viewpoint is based on the impact of CAD, where the art of hand drawing was feared lost forever. The use of computers in schools of architecture has become the norm, and the creative moving of a pen across paper has been replaced, to a degree, by the cursor across the CAD screen. As academia moved to respond to this change, the need to teach CAD became increasingly important. Therefore, will the paradigm shift of BIM require the inevitable move to a new approach in the design and construction of buildings? There are many misconceptions of BIM and the dilemma is that those teaching within the schools need to understand how BIM can readily interface with the design process and allow interrogation of the design are far earlier stages of the concept. Will academia ensure that BIM is used to enhance the creative process not hinder it?