Building information modelling demystified: does it make business sense to adopt BIM?

TLDR

BIM must compete with entrenched methods in a fragmented, traditional construction industry, and this study departs from typical aspirational or marketing portrayals of BIM. The paper aims to inform project management practice by identifying immediate business drivers of BIM adoption to provoke debate among professionals and academics. The authors conducted a multiple case study of 47 BIM value propositions across public and private projects in Australia and Hong Kong, selecting only projects that shared BIM data among multiple stakeholders. The study identified and validated business drivers and challenges for BIM adoption, highlighting benefits for consultants, contractors, and fabricators across projects from small commercial to high‑rise.

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to inform project management practice on the business benefits of building information modelling (BIM) adoption. Design/methodology/approach BIM needs to compete against well‐ingrained methods to deliver projects in a fragmented and rather traditional industry. This paper investigates 47 value propositions for the adoption of BIM under a multiple case study investigation carried out in Australia and Hong Kong. The selected case study projects included a range of public (1) and private (4) sector building developments of small and large‐scale. Findings are coded, interpreted and synthesised in order to identify the challenges and business drivers, and the paper focuses mainly on challenges and benefits for architectural and engineering consultants, contractors and steel fabricators. As a condition for the selection criteria all case studies had to be collaborating by sharing BIM data between two or more consultants/stakeholders. As practices cannot afford to ignore BIM, this paper aims to identify those immediate business drivers as to provoke debate amongst the professional and academic community. Findings Shared understanding on business drivers to adopt BIM for managing the design and construction process of building projects raging from small commercial to high‐rise. Originality/value The originality of the research reported in this paper is that it breaks from a proliferating series of articles on BIM as industry “aspiration” and as a “marketing” statement. The elicited drivers for BIM underwent industry, academic and peer validation.