Accelerating the Implementation of BIM by Integrating the Developments Made in Knowledge Management: An Irish Construction Industry Perspective

Accelerating the Implementation of BIM by Integrating the Developments Made in Knowledge Management: An Irish Construction Industry Perspective

Rita Scully (School of the Built Environment, Limerick Institute of Technology, Limerick, Ireland), Jason Underwood (School of the Built Environment, University of Salford, Salford, UK) and Farzad Khosrowshahi (Faculty of Arts, Environment & Technology, School of the Built Environment & Engineering, Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK)
Copyright: © 2012 |Pages: 11
DOI: 10.4018/ij3dim.2012100104

Abstract

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.
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Growth Of Bim Internationally And In Ireland

The research conducted by Bernstein et al. (2010) in assessing the proliferation of BIM application to construction projects in North America and Western Europe (UK, Germany, and France) highlighted the disparity of development of BIM in these two regions with 49% in North America compared to 36% in Western Europe. Within these headline figures a number of interesting underling results were apparent. 34% of Western Europe BIM users have in excess of 5 years’ experience of working with BIM in comparison to 18% of North American users. The strongest uptake for BIM in North America is currently among contractors at 50% whereas in Western Europe this figure is at 24% with France at 26% uptake among contractors. The research further analysed the results between UK, Germany, and France. Here it is evident that the usage is consistent across all three with between 35-38%. The aspects of BIM considered most valuable are consistent:

  • 1.

    Reduced conflicts during construction;

  • 2.

    Improved collective understanding of design intent;

  • 3.

    Reduced changes during construction;

  • 4.

    Improved overall project quality.

The future expected adaption of BIM on projects is shown as a growth area both in North America and Western Europe.

For example, in the UK in 2012 the National Building Standards (Waterhouse, 2012) presented their findings on their survey of the construction industry's attitudes towards BIM. Their findings are consistent with research (Bernstein et al., 2010) showing continued growth in awareness of BIM and in the application of BIM on projects. There was also consistency in the aspects seen as most valuable from BIM:

  • 1.

    Improves visualisation;

  • 2.

    Increases of coordination of construction documentation.

Redmond et al. (2012) identified the main features of BIM as its ability to share synchronised information from multiple users on a single project.

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