BIM for Facilities Management: An Investigation into the Asset Information Delivery Process and the Associated Challenges (original) (raw)
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Developing owner information requirements for BIM-enabled project delivery and asset management
Automation in Construction, 2017
Building information modeling (BIM) is emerging as a potential solution for facility owners to address the challenges of poor information fidelity, interoperability, and usability in project delivery to support the lifecycle of their assets' information. Despite the many benefits offered by BIM, its use for facility operations remains significantly limited. The reality is that implementing BIM in large owner organisations is a complex challenge. In particular, a significant barrier to BIM adoption for owners is the challenge of identifying and formalizing the information requirements needed to support model-based project delivery and asset management. This paper presents the results of a longitudinal research project that investigated two large owner organisations in Canada to better understand the process of developing and formulating BIM requirements to support the lifecycle of their assets. Specifically, the objectives were to formalize an iterative approach to the identification and characterization of owner requirements and to develop a conceptual framework that would relate digital and physical products to owner requirements and organisational constructs, to underpin the formalization process. As part of this research an array of requirements documentation were analysed, interviews were performed with numerous facility management personnel, and BIMs from four projects were analysed. A methodology is introduced to support a rigorous and detailed analysis of BIM requirements. The investigation of the owner requirements helped to develop an understanding of the required information content, and its alignment with BIM. Finally the relationships between organisational constructs, owner requirements, and BIM were mapped. As the construction industry shifts towards model-based project delivery, this research will inform owners about how to think about handover of digital facility models, and what to require in models based on their specific needs.
Enhancing the value of facilities information management (FIM) through BIM integration
Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management
Purpose Building information modelling (BIM) provides a robust platform for information management in built environment facilities. However, one of the consequences of the limited application of BIM in facilities information management (FIM) is that the potential value gain through the integration of as-built information during the operations management process has had limited exploration in current practice. The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential impact of BIM to enhance the value of FIM. Design/methodology/approach A detailed literature review was undertaken to identify BIM application in a construction context, and to develop a framework to investigate the value of information. An interpretative approach was adopted for data collection and analysis. A total of 14 semi-structured interviews were conducted with construction industry professionals to identify how value of FIM can be enhanced through BIM integration. The interview data were analysed using open and sele...
BIM for facilities management: evaluating BIM standards in asset register creation and service life
Operation and Maintenance (O&M) costs in buildings represent a significant part of the total building life cycle cost. However, project delivery methods in the Architectural, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry are often focused on the capital delivery stage and associated costs ranging from planning, through design, to construction and handover. Open data standards such as the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) and specifications such as the Construction Operations Building information exchange (COBie) provide the capability to capture Facilities Management (FM) data requirements in a structured manner from the early stages of project development. We aim to investigate how and whether IFC and COBie can deliver the data and information about assets required by facility managers within a whole life cycle perspective. We focus on specific use cases including the creation of asset registers and service life planning. However, the methodology adopted can be generalised and applied to any other FM use case. The results show that IFC, COBie and the tested supporting tools exhibited some shortcomings in delivering some of the data entities, types and parameters required for the selected FM use cases. We discuss these shortcomings and propose them as areas for improvement to domain researchers, standardisation bodies and technology providers. Finally, we instigate domain researchers to adopt the proposed methodology and conduct further FM use cases.
Frontiers in Built Environment, 2023
The promise of Building Information Modeling (BIM) for Facilities Management (FM) is based upon building information models as reliable sources of information for decisions during a facility's life cycle, from the planning to end of life. However, the premise of BIM as an enabler for the delivery of reliable information for FM has numerous challenges. Previous studies have shown that the quality of information provided through current design practices with BIM is inadequate for FM. These information quality (IQ) issues are mostly related to incomplete, inaccurate, inconsistent, and unintelligible facility information that ultimately reduce the usefulness of BIM-based information for FM purposes. In order to support BIM-enabled delivery of useful asset information for FM, certain IQ criteria must be met. Based on three ethnographic case studies, including the analysis of more than two thousand documented BIM for FM-related compliance issues, this research identifies ten key IQ criteria in design BIMs that must be considered to reliably support BIM use for FM, correlates these IQ criteria with key IQ dimensions identified in the literature to reflect their frequency of occurrence, and identifies sources of IQ issues in BIM for FM within design practice. A mixedmethod approach for data collection from the case studies is adopted, including document analysis, semi-structured interviews, meeting observation, and a survey. The data collected are analyzed through an iterative coding process, in which the themes emerged are refined and tested as part of a grounded theory approach. This study contributes to the development of the theoretical concept of IQ in BIM for FM that is grounded in data from actual projects with stringent BIM requirements for FM and thorough compliance processes. As a practical contribution, the findings in this study should enable owners and designers to develop a more optimized asset information delivery process, increasing the value of the information in design BIMs for operations with minimal impact on current modeling practices.
BIM for Facilities Management: Potential Legal Issues and Opportunities
ASCE Journal of Legal Affairs and Dispute Resolution, 2021
There is growing awareness and use of building information modeling (BIM) for construction project delivery and operation of facilities. Evidence of successful project delivery with BIM abounds, and large facility owners are increasingly adopting BIM project delivery. BIM has shown increased efficiency in integrating the people, processes, and technology involved in facilities management. Concurrently, owners are turning toward leveraging the sophisticated technology and processes afforded by BIM to derive more value from their facilities. This involves navigating complex organizational and technical issues, leading to a shift from traditional practices. However, there are still uncertainties regarding the legal aspects of applying BIM to facilities management, because the domain is still in an incipient stage of maturity both in academic research and practice. This paper provides an overview of the potential legal issues and opportunities associated with the use of BIM for facilities management. Using a combination of a literature review and a case study of a large capital improvement project, legal issues arising from uncertainty and lack of definite contract instruments are presented and discussed. The paper discusses issues relating to liability/risk sharing and management, ownership of data and model, compensation, information exchange, interoperability, right to rely on model data, and insurance. Recommendations are made with regard to how owners can use American Institute of Architects (AIA) digital practice documents and ConsensusDocs 301 to facilitate the use of BIM for facilities management (FM). Further suggestions are made for amendment of such digital contract addenda to support BIM for FM.
Issues in BIM for Facility Management from Industry Practitioner's Perspectives
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.
BIM implementation in facilities management: An analysis of implementation processes
2018
The potential of Building Information Modeling (BIM) to add value to Facilities Management (FM) has long been recognized. The usefulness of BIM in asset management, including operations and maintenance has been described by numerous authors. Crucial to its implementation is the integration of information, which increases efficiency and productivity on the job and, in turn, positively impacts the primary organization’s mission and goals. In view of the potential of BIM to add value to FM wh ich in turn can boost the mission of organizations, there is a potential to study the experiences of early adopters, map out patterns and differences and to record lessons learned. This research aims to investigate how BIM is implemented in operations, how value can be derived and what the critical success factors are. What are the areas of process waste and consequent loss of value within the lifecycle phases of facilities? To this effect, the case study of a large tertiary educational institutio...
BIM for Facility Management: Challenges and Research Gaps
This writing presents research gaps in the area of Building Information Modelling (BIM) in Facility Management (FM) industry, and identifies practical challenges that facility management professionals are facing in utilizing BIM. Although this issue, BIM for Facility Management, has gained attention both in literature and practice, and it is highly demanded in FM industry, still it is far away from effective implementation. It is not clear for facility manager whether BIM is helpful to accelerate the process or it is a cost effective solution, and what skills are required for them. The key for effective BIM implementation in FM industry is to enhance collaboration among different parties in project lifecycle. However, still there is a doubt about the importance of FM in Construction industry. In other words, construction does not understand FM. Furthermore, there are issues over interoperability and data exchange. Thus, to assist BIM implementation, it is required to prove the correctness of benefits, uses, and challenges identified in the literature. This paper uses an intensive literature review and highlights the potential research issues in terms of BIM for FM to assist effective implementation of BIM in facility management phase of projects.
BIM-based facilities information: streamlining the information exchange process
Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology
Purpose The purpose of this study is to address challenges in the current information exchange process between building information modelling (BIM) and facilities management (FM) systems and to propose a workable solution. This study’s objective is to identify the information exchange requirements and to develop methods for seamless information flow between building information models and FM systems. Design/methodology/approach Data collection and analysis was based on an extensive literature review of similar studies followed by a questionnaire survey with a total of 112 participants and 2 focus groups with a total of 12 participants to validate the conceptual framework. The outputs of the survey analysis formed the background of the proposed framework to streamline information exchange process between building information models and FM systems. Findings The study findings form a foundation for enabling the integration of various data sources including building information models. ...
Towards facilities information management through BIM
2016
Information plays a significant role in managing built environment facilities. These information are generated at different lifecycle stages, by different parties, which also provide different values to a variety of stakeholders. The acquisition of appropriate information efficiently and effectively is two of highly important considerations in facilities management because of the nature of information flows, number of information providers and users. Building Information Modelling (BIM) is one of the popular mechanisms, which has adopted in construction sector to manage its information. This preliminary paper investigates how construction information is valued in facilities management. This is an initial step of understanding the possibilities and hindrance of using BIM as an effective vehicle to manage information during the facilities management stage. To achieve this aim, data were collected through literature review and 13 semi-structured interviews among construction profession...