The challenges of facility manager involvement at design stage using building information modeling

Facilities management is commonly known and plays an important role and function throughout the operation and maintenance of a building. Apart from that, facility managers should have the responsibility to ensure that facilities in a building are all well designed, constructed, operated and maintained. ‘Clash’ is a common problem in building installation which creates more problems in future maintenance and replacement. In order to resolve this problem, clash detection should be carried out during design stage with the aid of Building Information Modeling (BIM) tools to ensure the minimum requirement of building facilities maintenance during operation and maintenance stage is met. This project report highlights the roles of facility manager in the design stage, especially in clash detection. At the same time, integration of BIM tools is expected to help all parties involved including facility manager to visualise the buildability and constructability of the building facilities. The questionnaire survey was carried out to gain information on the level of awareness, challenges and barriers in the employment of facility managers. Impact of clash detection toward operation and maintenance stage and strategies to encourage the involvement of facility manager are focused in this study. Frequency analysis, measurement of central tendency and average index were utilized to analyse the result obtained. This study concluded that facility manager has a significant role in design stage which later benefits the development of a building project especially during operation and maintenance stage on the organizational, financial, governance, training, and regulatory aspects

The role of linked building data (LBD) in aligning augmented reality (AR) with sustainable construction

Over the years, the construction industry has been evolving to embrace the delicate balance between buildings and a sustainable environment by optimizing resource use to create greener and more energy efficient constructions. Sustainable building design and optimization is a highly iterative and complicated process. This is mainly attributed to the complex interaction between the different heterogenous but heuristic construction processes, building systems and workflows involved in achieving this goal. Augmented Reality (AR) has rapidly emerged as a revolutionary technology that could play a key role towards improving coordination of sustainable design processes. AR makes possible the real-time visualization of a three-dimensional (3D) building prototype with linked design information in a real-world environment based on a two-dimensional drawing. From past research, it is evident that this technology relies heavily on a common data environment (CDE) that syncs all construction processes with their related building information in one central model. However, due to the fragmented nature of the construction industry, different domain experts generate and exchange vast amounts of heterogenous information using different software tools outside a CDE. This paper therefore investigates the performance gap that exists within Malaysia’s construction industry towards using linked building data (LBD) with AR to improve the lifecycle sustainability of buildings. The results of this study clearly delineate how current construction practices in Malaysia do not favor the use of AR however, stakeholder perception is positive towards adoption of workflows that link heterogenous building data to streamline AR with sustainable building design and construction

Developing a Technology Implementation Framework from the Perspective of Sustainability

Consideration of sustainability elements during the decision-making process in a construction project requires knowledge and awareness on the issues affecting environmental, social and economic aspect. Malaysia’s construction agencies have highlighted the important of environmental sustainability in the Construction Industry Transformation Programme (CITP) as a guideline in achieving a more sustainable construction. Every year, gigantic amount of solid wastes are generated from construction industry which create multiple environmental issues and causing pressure to the disposal sites. Implementation of information technology such as building information modelling (BIM) is considered as one of the alternatives in resolving the construction issues. The capability of BIM in predicting potential waste generation, avoid increases in project’s cost and producing a better quality of end products indirectly contributing to the improvement of construction industry’s image. However, there is still lack of BIM implementation among construction players in Malaysia. As the first step in exploring technology implementation in the construction industry, the development of proper framework is needed to identify the potential numbers of companies having the capability to drive the implementation. In order to validate the proposed technology implementation framework, an analysis related to student’s sustainable dailylife activities was conducted. A total number of 155 students from a local university in Malaysia were involved in the survey. The results indicate that currently students are still requiring information to increase awareness on the daily-life activities that can contribute to sustainability. In academic institutions, practicing sustainable life would increase student’s awareness on the impact of simple dailylife activity towards the physical environment of the planet. This attitude should be maintained by each student and the sustainable life shall be practiced continuously particularly when the students are venturing into the real working environment. Thereby, young engineers will appreciate the nature further and develop a more sustainable development for future generations

Challenges of Building Information Modelling (BIM) from the Malaysian Architect’s Perspective

Malaysia is experiencing high economic growth which requires the construction industry to fulfill development demands. Building Information Modelling (BIM) had been widely publicized by the government in order to increase the industry’s productivity by instigating numerous initiatives aimed to spearhead its progression. In contrast with the aspiration, architects as key players of construction industry are still facing issues in adopting BIM into practice. Previous researches had broadly covered about BIM in construction industry, but few concentrations in specific to the local architect thus imposing gap of knowledge. In addressing the issues, the research aim to probe the current state of BIM implementation, primarily on the challenges that hinders its adoption. The BIM factors which covers people, process, policy and technology were derived and investigated through the use of 322 questionnaires distributed to architects at management and operational level. The study revealed the key barriers that contributes towards the problem is within the people factor, where majority highlighted the lacked of skilled and experienced BIM workforce which contributes towards steep learning environment as well as high cost of applying BIM. Consequently, several key strategic solutions had been indicated through both external and internal factors in addressing the challenge of BIM. Results suggested that there is a need of further support from the industry’s professional bodies, development of legal instruments, BIM enforcement, specific BIM education as well as BIM R&D programs

Barriers to implement building information modeling (BIM) in construction industry: a critical review

Construction is a complex industry. A system like Building Information Modeling (BIM) has benefited many construction players in order to expedite their works effectively and efficiently in terms of design, implementation, and management of a project. As the construction industry involves many players such as clients, designers, contractors, and manufacturers, the existence of BIM can speed up planning time, minimizing resources, and even saving project costs. However, in some countries, the acceptance of BIM technology in the construction industry is still very low. This paper aims to explore and review the barriers associating with adopting BIM as a digital information tool in the construction industry. A systematic review was conducted of 26 journal articles and conference papers published between 2013 to 2019. The identified barriers were then classified and analyzed. The results of the study revealed that from the 26 selected articles, 15 categories of barriers have been successfully extracted and discussed. 15 categories of barriers are cost, law, experts, interoperability, awareness, culture, processes, management, demand, project scale, technology, skills, training, contract, and standard. The study offers significant insights for future research to overcome the barriers to the implementation of BIM

Rate of Occurrence of Fatal Accidents in Malaysian Construction Industry after BIM Implementation

Construction industry impacts the health and safety of its workers tremendously. This study is aimed to determine the rate of occurrence of fatal accidents after BIM implementation in Malaysia. The data used for the research was obtained from the Department of Safety and Health (DOSH) website, and it was validated by the relevant professionals through interview. This descriptive analysis was grounded in 796 fatal accidents over the period of 2010-2018. Of those accidents, 38.16% were related to fall-related, 30.39% struck-by, 17.67% caught in-between, 9.89% drowning/asphyxiation and 3.89% others. The results indicate that the types of accidents identified are similar to that of most countries in the world. The findings also revealed that the accidents had occurred because one or combination of the following: management's failure, unsafe site conditions, workers behavior, and environmental factors. Future work will concentrate on the use of BIM-based tools for job hazard identification and safety training

Potential Improvement of Building Information Modeling (BIM) Implementation in Malaysian Construction Projects

Part 4: Building Information Modeling (BIM)International audienceApplication of building information modeling (BIM), such as preview design clashes and visualize project’s model increase effectiveness in managing construction projects. However, its implementation in Malaysian construction projects is slow in order to see and gain the benefits. Therefore, this paper aims to explore on potential improvement that could increase BIM implementation in construction projects. A literature review was conducted in the history of BIM and its effects on construction projects in Malaysia. This is further supported by semi-structured interviews with construction players, consist of client, architect, structural engineer, mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) engineers as well as contractor to discover potential improvement that could increase BIM implementation in construction projects. Encouragement from the government and top managerial level in an organization were found as a way to increase BIM implementation in construction projects. Highlighting the potential improvement is expected to increase BIM implementation in construction projects