1,676 research outputs found

    BIM and its impact upon project success outcomes from a Facilities Management perspective

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    The uptake of Building Information Modelling (BIM) has been increasing, but some of its promoted potential benefits have been slow to materialise. In particular, claims that BIM will revolutionise facilities management (FM) creating efficiencies in the whole-life of building operations have yet to be achieved on a wide scale, certainly in comparison to tangible progress made for the prior design and construction phases. To attempt to unravel the factors at play in the adoption of BIM during the operational phase, and in particular, understand if adoption by facilities managers (FMs) is lagging behind other disciplines, this study aims to understand if current BIM processes can ease the challenges in this area faced by facilities management project stakeholders. To do this, success from a facilities management viewpoint is considered and barriers to facilities management success are explored, with focused BIM use proposed as a solution to these barriers. Qualitative research was undertaken, using semi structured interviews to collect data from a non-probability sample of 7 project- and facilities- management practitioners. Key results from this study show that the main barrier to BIM adoption by facilities managers is software interoperability, with reports that facilities management systems are unable to easily import BIM data produced during the design and construction stages. Additionally, facilities managers were not treated as salient stakeholders by Project Managers, further negatively affecting facilities management project success outcomes. A µresistance to change was identified as another barrier, as facilities managers were sceptical of the ability of current BIMenabled systems promoted as being FM compatible to be able to replicate their existing Computer Aided Facility Management (CAFM) legacy software and its user required capabilities. The results of this study highlight that more work is needed to ensure that BIM benefits the end user, as there was no reported use of BIM data for dedicated facilities management purposes. Further investigation into the challenges of interoperability could add significant value to this developing research area.The uptake of Building Information Modelling (BIM) has been increasing, but some of its promoted potential benefits have been slow to materialise. In particular, claims that BIM will revolutionise facilities management (FM) creating efficiencies in the whole-life of building operations have yet to be achieved on a wide scale, certainly in comparison to tangible progress made for the prior design and construction phases. To attempt to unravel the factors at play in the adoption of BIM during the operational phase, and in particular, understand if adoption by facilities managers (FMs) is lagging behind other disciplines, this study aims to understand if current BIM processes can ease the challenges in this area faced by facilities management project stakeholders. To do this, success from a facilities management viewpoint is considered and barriers to facilities management success are explored, with focused BIM use proposed as a solution to these barriers. Qualitative research was undertaken, using semi structured interviews to collect data from a non-probability sample of 7 project- and facilities- management practitioners. Key results from this study show that the main barrier to BIM adoption by facilities managers is software interoperability, with reports that facilities management systems are unable to easily import BIM data produced during the design and construction stages. Additionally, facilities managers were not treated as salient stakeholders by Project Managers, further negatively affecting facilities management project success outcomes. A µresistance to change was identified as another barrier, as facilities managers were sceptical of the ability of current BIMenabled systems promoted as being FM compatible to be able to replicate their existing Computer Aided Facility Management (CAFM) legacy software and its user required capabilities. The results of this study highlight that more work is needed to ensure that BIM benefits the end user, as there was no reported use of BIM data for dedicated facilities management purposes. Further investigation into the challenges of interoperability could add significant value to this developing research area

    Towards a semantic Construction Digital Twin: directions for future research

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    As the Architecture, Engineering and Construction sector is embracing the digital age, the processes involved in the design, construction and operation of built assets are more and more influenced by technologies dealing with value-added monitoring of data from sensor networks, management of this data in secure and resilient storage systems underpinned by semantic models, as well as the simulation and optimisation of engineering systems. Aside from enhancing the efficiency of the value chain, such information-intensive models and associated technologies play a decisive role in minimising the lifecycle impacts of our buildings. While Building Information Modelling provides procedures, technologies and data schemas enabling a standardised semantic representation of building components and systems, the concept of a Digital Twin conveys a more holistic socio-technical and process-oriented characterisation of the complex artefacts involved by leveraging the synchronicity of the cyber-physical bi-directional data flows. Moreover, BIM lacks semantic completeness in areas such as control systems, including sensor networks, social systems, and urban artefacts beyond the scope of buildings, thus requiring a holistic, scalable semantic approach that factors in dynamic data at different levels. The paper reviews the multi-faceted applications of BIM during the construction stage and highlights limits and requirements, paving the way to the concept of a Construction Digital Twin. A definition of such a concept is then given, described in terms of underpinning research themes, while elaborating on areas for future research

    Digital Construction and BIM Research in Ireland 2016-2020

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    As the construction industry opens up post pandemic, new and significant challenges will demand considerable expertise, not least in financial viability, solving the housing crisis and facing the very significant climate change pressures to make the industry less wasteful and less carbon intensive. This presents an excellent opportunity to further inculcate aspects of lean construction, particularly BIM into many aspects of construction not traditionally associated with digital construction, provided the necessary expertise is available and known to exist. Following a well-received recent conference paper summarising BIM-related research published by academics in Ireland’s higher education institutions in 2020, this paper will review and identify noteworthy publications in digital technologies, including BIM, by academics of this island’s third level institutions in the last five years. Areas of expertise of individuals will be identified to act as a useful directory for both industry and fellow researchers as well as providing a valuable national resource to identify research gaps which need funding if the ambitions of the national plan for the digitisation of the industry are to be realised. Using an already proven methodology, a survey of the 16 academic institutions in Ireland will be conducted through identified representatives in each institution, seeking all conference and journal papers published in the 2016-2020 period. The assembled database will be categorised, sorted and analysed to identify academic individuals in the workforce with extant research strengths in the various themes to establish the available expertise and areas for growth in the next five years

    Waste elimination based on lean construction and building information modelling: a systematic literature review

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    Construction waste (CW) is an abstract, high-level concept and difficult to measure systematically. The conventional management methods have failed to translate the reality in the construction industry context. The integrated Lean Construction (LC) and Building Information Modelling (BIM) streamline several proactive and collaborative solutions to address CW at its source across the whole asset lifecycle. This paper adopts the systematic literature review method to (i) understand ‘waste’ and ‘waste elimination’ concepts through LC perspectives and (ii) to review factors of LC-BIM for waste elimination. Based on thematic analysis applied to 54 relevant documents in the Scopus and IGLC databases, some literature was approached. According to thematic analysis applied to the existing LC-BIM approaches, despite the potential of LC-BIM for CW elimination, the current literature lacks the concept of waste elimination in the number and content of publications. The paper highlights some generic recommendations for future theoretical and empirical developments.FCT -Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia(2021.04751

    Outlining a new collaborative business model as a result of the green Building Information Modelling impact in the AEC supply chain

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    BIM (Building Information Modelling) technological push has enabled to integrate the design/construction outcomes of 3D-CAD along the product/service AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) SC (supply chain) through an intelligent DMS (Data Management System) based on standard and interoperable data formats. The proposed end-to-end approach overcomes a typical AEC gap, enables the operationalisation of the sustainable/green building LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) and puts together new collaborative relationships with the owner, among SC stakeholders and with new forms of BIM procurement. The outlined collaborative business model is based on the Quality Control and Assurance framework and provides conceptual consistency to the reintroduction of the owner concerns/satisfaction in the SC, as well as enables consistent and accountable relationships between (smart)materials procurement and building specification. An expert’s focus group carried out a preliminary check of the model’s interest/applicability, resulting in recommendations for its further detailing and for propositions development into a systematic enquiring process.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

    From Construction to Production: Enablers, Barriers and Opportunities for the Highways Supply Chain

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    The report presents the initial findings of a project part of the Lean Collaborative Research at Highways England with academia that aims at understanding enablers, barriers and opportunities to transform the current highways construction supply chain into a more manufacturing-like environment, where the benefits of production thinking can be achieved. The focus of the project is mostly on the adoption of off-site/modular (O/M) construction systems and advanced technologies, under a greater vision called “manufacturisation” of the highways supply chain

    Bridge Design and Construction Management from the Perspective of Sustainable Development

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    As urbanization accelerates and transportation networks continue to evolve, bridges, as integral components of urban infrastructure, face increasingly formidable challenges in their design and construction management. This research explores the integration of environmentally friendly, economically efficient, and socially acceptable design principles and construction management methods in bridge engineering from the perspective of sustainable development. Through case analyses and data statistics, this paper presents optimized bridge design solutions under diverse environmental conditions and investigates strategies to minimize resource waste and enhance construction efficiency, thus achieving the sustainable development goals of bridge engineering

    Technology and skills in the construction industry

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    A Building Information Modeling (BIM)-centric Digital Ecosystem for Smart Airport Life Cycle Management

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    An increasing number of new airport infrastructure construction and improvement projects are being delivered in today\u27s modern world. However, value creation is a recurring issue due to inefficiencies in managing capital expenditures (CapEx) and operating expenses (OpEx), while trying to optimize project constraints of scope, time, cost, quality, and resources. In this new era of smart infrastructure, digitalization transforms the way projects are planned and delivered. Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a key digital process technique that has become an imperative for today\u27s Architecture, Engineering, Construction and Operations (AECO) sector. This research suggests a BIM-centric digital ecosystem by detailing technical and strategic aspects of Airport BIM implementation and digital technology integration from a life cycle perspective. This research provides a novel approach for consistent and continuous use of digital information between business and functional levels of an airport by developing a digital platform solution that will enable seamless flow of information across functions. Accordingly, this study targets to achieve three objectives: 1- To provide a scalable know-how of BIM-enabled digital transformation; 2- To guide airport owners and major stakeholders towards converging information siloes for airport life cycle data management by an Airport BIM Framework; 3- To develop a BIM-based digital platform architecture towards realization of an airport digital twin for airport infrastructure life cycle management. Airport infrastructures can be considered as a System of Systems (SoS). As such, Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) with Systems Modeling Language (SysML) is selected as the key methodology towards designing a digital ecosystem. Applying MBSE principles leads to forming an integrating framework for managing the digital ecosystem. Furthermore, this research adopts convergent parallel mixed methods to collect and analyze multiple forms of data. Data collection tools include extensive literature and industry review; an online questionnaire; semi-structured interviews with airport owner parties; focus group discussions; first-hand observations; and document reviews. Data analysis stage includes multiple explanatory case study analyses, thematic analysis, project mapping, percent coverage analysis for coded themes to achieve Objective 1; thematic analysis, cluster analysis, framework analysis, and non-parametric statistical analysis for Objective 2; and qualitative content analysis, non-parametric statistical analysis to accomplish Objective 3. This research presents a novel roadmap toward facilitation of smart airports with alignment and integration of disruptive technologies with business and operational aspects of airports. Multiple comprehensive case study analyses on international large-hub airports and triangulation of organization-level and project-level results systematically generate scalable technical and strategic guidelines for BIM implementation. The proposed platform architecture will incentivize major stakeholders for value-creation, data sharing, and control throughout a project life cycle. Introducing scalability and minimizing complexity for end-users through a digital platform approach will lead to a more connected environment. Consequently, a digital ecosystem enables sophisticated interaction between people, places, and assets. Model-driven approach provides an effective strategy for enhanced decision-making that helps optimization of project resources and allows fast adaptation to emerging business and operational demands. Accordingly, airport sustainability measures -economic vitality, operational efficiency, natural resources, and social responsibility- will improve due to higher levels of efficiency in CapEx and OpEx. Changes in business models for large capital investments and introducing sustainability to supply chains are among the anticipated broader impacts of this study
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