135 research outputs found
A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study into the impact of BIM on the Social Dynamics of the AEC professional in the workplace.
A review of the literature published surrounding new digital design and construction technologies and associated processes described within the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) community as Building Information Modelling (BIM) or Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) reveals a gap in the theoretical understanding of the impact these technologies are having on professionals who work in this industry. The central aim of this research is to discover if there has been a shift in social dynamics as a result of the adoption of BIM in the workplace and, if there has been, to discuss the meaning of this for the industry and the community who educate these professionals. This study is important as it seeks to develop an understanding of the impact of BIM from the perspective of those AEC professionals affected. The study of human beings is referred to as Anthropology. It is a social science and is characterised as the study of human societies, cultures, and development often affected by social or technical intervention. BIM is an example of a technological intervention that has been introduced into the complex design and construction industry. This multidisciplinary industry has relied on representation in the form of paper-based communication documents for 500 years. However, with the introduction of new technologies, the AEC industry is experiencing a digital transformation, characterised by a move from representation to simulation. The author has conducted a study examining the lived experience of AEC professionals who have come into contact with the subject phenomenon in their workplace. The workplace is the locus for this research. It is defined as the place where the AEC professionals conduct their day to day business. The subjects of this research study are a purposeful selection of industry professionals who have experienced the phenomenon and have told the Author their stories. These lived experiences have been analysed and interpreted using a suitable methodology to address the research question; in this case, Hermeneutic Phenomenology. The data analysis has identified four themes: Identity, Empowerment, Disarrangement and Collaborative Practice. The emergence of these themes and the discussion around them will add new knowledge into the subject area. The study concludes by discussing the implications of this research for the design and construction industry and educational institutions
Emerging risk from the application of building information modelling through the life cycle of projects
Over the last decade, the use of BIM methodology, both in terms of technology and process,
has experienced a rapid growth in the construction industry, there is a worldwide increase
trend on the use and investment in this new technologies. Although, the benefits associated
with the use of BIM in the construction industry, the literature has been demonstrated that
BIM as a digital collaborative environment between construction stakeholders is here to stay.
However, some aspects of the technology are still unfamiliar within the industry, several
problems associated with BIM application and adaptation has been surfaced. Unsurprisingly
when new technologies are used, such of these problems will appear, this is because BIM
approaches represent new concepts and untested in construction industry. Therefore the
challenge to overcome problems facing a using BIM, and identify the key risk factors
becomes tangible more than any time before.
From this perspective, the aim of this study is to identify the emerging risk that influence
BIM use in the projects, investigate these risks based on the perception of academics and
professionals from the Western world. In this research was to identify 128 of the risk factors
based on a review of previous literature, these factors have been categorized into five key
clusters (contractual, legal, technical, managerial, application and security). The study
employs an online survey, which was sent to 426 respondents. The respondents were drawn
from websites and professional networks. The statistical techniques of descriptive statistics,
reliability analysis, ANOVA analysis, and analysis of variance were used for data analysis.
The analysis findings show that four contractual risks were assessed to be important: LC2
"Trades on site may not be working from the model", LC1"Unclear how to deal with BIM
documentsâ precedence", and LC5 âMisplaced assumptions that the design team, with a
âpush of a buttonâ is able to produce a perfectly coordinated series of documents through
BIMâ. In the legal risk cluster, the respondents agreed on the importance of L.IPR1 "Lack of
clarity of the ownership of the BIM objects"; LD4 "Lack of knowledge of the missing data"
and likewise, LP1 âModelling participant does not meet the standard of care requiredâ risk
factors. The research findings also indicate that four technical risks will have an influence on
BIM usage: TC1 âComplexity of transferring modelling data between programs from one
program to another", TI2 "Lack of understanding of BIM for the different software
platforms", TI3 "Interoperability shortcomings", TQ9 "Failure to discover errors in the
model", and TI1 "Risks of different software platformsâ. The results appear to show that the
respondents thought ten managerial risk factors are of relevance: MX5 "Lack of understanding of the expectations from BIM modelling"; MX4 "Lack of experience and
skilled personnelâ; MC4 "Lack of clarity on integration BIM with the current business
practice"; MS1 "Conflict due to dissimilar expectations from BIM"; MS4 "Lack of
collaborative work processes and standards"; MX7 "Lack of understanding of BIM
processes"; MX6 "Lack of understanding of modelling behaviors"; MX8 "Lack of expertise
within the project team"; MX9 "Lack of expertise within the organizations"; and MS3 "Lack
of criteria for BIM project implementation". Only three application risks were deemed
important: PS6 "Implications of amendments are unclear or not defined"; PT10 "Lack of
updating the designed model to incorporate the BIM changes made during construction"; and
PT11 "Model not updated along with progress reviews" risk factors. The results showed that
the respondents strongly agreed that eight out of ten BIM security risks are relevant in BIM
application and are very likely to emerge: S9 "Disclosure of confidential information that
need to integrate with BIM programs"; S6 "Lack of understanding or ignoring security
policies"; S3 "Disclosure of BIM data"; S10 "Unauthorised access and remote access"; S5
"Weakness in technical controls"; S4 "Weakness in security procedures"; S8 "Corporate
surveillance"; and S7 "Opening non-trusted e-mail" risk factors. The ANOVA analysis results
revealed a variety of interrelationships between the identified risks based on respondentsâ
profiles, affect in adapting with application and the use of BIM, this requires to be considered
by BIM stakeholders, and developing an international standard for BIM risk management,
finding optimal solutions for such these identified factors, in addition to further studies and
researches in this field.
This thesis investigates the emerging risks from BIM application and delivers an original
contribution to knowledge in the form of identifying and classifying BIM application risks,
which will enhance the level of stakeholder awareness and avoid any risks associated with
usage of BIM in the future projects and assist in the maturity of BIM usage
An investigation of building information modelling implementation in KSA
A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of
Wolverhampton for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD).Building Information Modelling (BIM) has been well recognised all around the world
as a technology driven approach that can bring radical improvements in construction
productivity. There is considerable demand for using BIM in the KSA due to the large
scale of its construction industry that needs to improve its productivity to overcome the
persistent problems, such as project delays, planning inefficiencies, and waste of
resources. The aim of this study is to investigate how the KSA construction
organisations are implementing BIM for competitive advantage. Qualitative research
approach was adopted to collect and analyse data from 46 BIM professionals. As part of
the analysis of the interviews, content analysis was employed. The unit of analysis
adopted for this study is the âconstruction industryâ and the embedded unit is âindividual
employeeâ.
The KSA construction industry is heading in the right direction for implementing BIM,
however it is lacking BIM knowledge and does not understand BIM as a set of
requirements. Therefore, an industry wide awareness-raising programme on the concept
of BIM needs to be developed and deployed. The existing education and training
programmes need some reorientation. Furthermore, the KSA construction organisations
would not survive if they choose not to use BIM. BIM is widely used during planning
and design stage. The four most important drivers for BIM implementation are: client
pressure, competitive pressure, to improve collaboration, and government pressure.
Eleven challenges were also revealed in this study of which organisational culture for
change is the key challenge for adoption of BIM in the KSA construction organisations.
Leaders of a change process need to realise that most changes within an organisation
will usually cause and expect some change in its existing culture and sub-cultures.
Therefore, having a better understanding of the effects change has on the sub-cultures of
an organisation, group or team, will in turn help leaders of a change process better
understand the resistance towards the change itself, and provide a more realistic
approach on how to manage it. A BIM implementation framework is developed for the
benefit of KSA construction organisations. It is recommended that KSA construction
stakeholders including the government and professional regulatory bodies should work
together in ensuring that the enablers of BIM adoption such as the provision of
regulations and industry standards guiding the implementation are provided and
strengthened to make the industry ready enough for BIM adoption
Enabling the Development and Implementation of Digital Twins : Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Construction Applications of Virtual Reality
Welcome to the 20th International Conference on Construction Applications of Virtual Reality (CONVR 2020). This year we are meeting on-line due to the current Coronavirus pandemic. The overarching theme for CONVR2020 is "Enabling the development and implementation of Digital Twins". CONVR is one of the world-leading conferences in the areas of virtual reality, augmented reality and building information modelling. Each year, more than 100 participants from all around the globe meet to discuss and exchange the latest developments and applications of virtual technologies in the architectural, engineering, construction and operation industry (AECO). The conference is also known for having a unique blend of participants from both academia and industry. This year, with all the difficulties of replicating a real face to face meetings, we are carefully planning the conference to ensure that all participants have a perfect experience. We have a group of leading keynote speakers from industry and academia who are covering up to date hot topics and are enthusiastic and keen to share their knowledge with you. CONVR participants are very loyal to the conference and have attended most of the editions over the last eighteen editions. This year we are welcoming numerous first timers and we aim to help them make the most of the conference by introducing them to other participants
Development of interactive and distributed virtual environments for immersive communication in the furniture, fixture and equipment sector
Despite the significance of the furniture fixture and equipment (FFE) sector to the UKâs economy and the construction industry, this sector faces challenges that impede its productivity and performance, including an inability to meet end-user expectations in the delivery of its services. Lack of adoption of digitalisation and poor design communication between the stakeholders have been identified as one of the issues leading to challenges in the FFE Sector. In this context, visual representation offered by virtual reality (VR) can play a critical role in communicating the designs with the stakeholders effectively. However, evidence suggests that the current state of the VR application in the FFE sector lacks three critical advancements namely BIM-data interaction (interaction with the meta-data associated with the FFE elements), human-building interaction (interaction of stakeholders with FFE elements in the virtual environment) and human-human interactions (multi-user interaction). Therefore, the aim of this study was to bridge this gap through the development and testing of novel virtual environments for immersive communication between FFE and its construction project stakeholders. Furthermore, pre-conditions for the successful implementation of the developed VR applications were evaluated in this study through experimentation.A sequential, exploratory, mixed-method research design was adopted for this study in three phases. In phase one, an extensive literature investigation was carried out to acquire deeper knowledge of existing literature to understand the state-of-the-art developments of immersive technologies in the construction industry with a specific focus on the current challenges and benefits of implementing immersive technology. Phase two of the study involved the development and testing of immersive, distributed and interactive VR applications for various scenarios of the FFE communications for construction. Each application was developed by applying rapid application development methodologies and combining BIM, game engine and low latency cloud server development paradigm. The developments were tested through quasi-experiments and evaluation by stakeholders to ascertain usefulness and utility in the FFE sector context. The first development focused on interactive VR for FFE and was tested among (n = 12) stakeholders using a quasi-experiment in a single-group, pre-test-post-test design. The second development focused on distributed immersion for FFE design communication and was tested among construction stakeholders involved in FFE design decision-making (n = 26). The distributed VR application was further tested further among (n = 9) stakeholders in the context of FFE retail and showcasing of FFE products. The experimental approaches in the second phase adopted combined quantitative and qualitative evaluations to ascertain system usability which fed into further development and finetuning of applications. Finally, in the third phase of the study, the interactive and distributed VR applications were validated among wider group of construction stakeholders (n = 117) using a survey to ascertain industry-wide utility and usefulness as well as establish factors that influence their wider adoption in the sector. A combination of descriptive and inferential statistics was applied to establish findings including Kruskal-Wallis and ANOVA to measure variations in views across different segments of the population of respondents.Findings indicated that the interactive distributed immersive virtual FFE environment can enhance the productivity of the design team through a collaborative virtual workspace offering a synchronised networked design testing and review platform. Furthermore, it can reduce the time required for the stakeholders (Client/end-user, architect, FFE designer/contractor, FFE manufacturer) to comprehend and test the design options. In addition, the developed VR applications can enhance the design communication and quality of the design and encourage a collaborative culture in the industry and improve the design satisfaction of the stakeholders. It was also identified that the VR applications developed for this study can reduce the time required for design decision-making significantly when compared with traditional methods. In the retail and product showcasing context, the system was found to be a highly efficient and viable tool, which can deliver a compelling and richer experience similar to an FFE in-store experience. The testing also revealed that the proposed system not only improves the sense of presence but also brings in a new dimension of a sense of being together, which has a positive impact on decision making. Cumulative findings of this study revealed that distributed and interactive VR has become essential to digitalising the FFE sectorâs design communication, with improved design communication being regarded as the most important benefit of its use. Conversely, the most critical challenge that inhibits the implementation of these two VR applications in the FFE sector is the perceived cost. This research proposes a step change in the way furniture design is communicated and coordinated through an immersive virtual experience, thus allowing informed decisions making and creating shared understanding before the commencement of the construction activity
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