No abstract

In the last decade, construction industry has witnessed a huge transformation in term of the use of digital technologies, and particularly Building Information Modeling (BIM). BIM is a revolutionary digital technology and process that is reshaping the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry. Though, internationally, BIM has gained a great reputation for boosting productivity in AEC industry, but it holds undeveloped possibilities for providing and supporting AEC industry in Jordan. This study aims at exploring the adoption of BIM within the Jordanian construction industry. To achieve this objective, the research commenced by carrying out an intensive literature reviews on the implementation of BIM world-wide and in Middle East, which was utilized to identify the benefits and challenges of BIM in construction industry. An exploratory study was then conducted using an on-line survey to identify the current level of BIM experience, and to define the perceived benefits and challenges facing BIM implementation. Findings reveal that the adoption of BIM in Jordan is still in a very primitive phase and it faces numbers of critical barriers such as, but not limited to, the absence of government incentives, the lack of BIM standards, lack of BIM awareness, lack of BIM need, cost and resistance to change. Similarly, the study identified the main perceived potential benefits of BIM that were: "clash detection", "minimizing conflicts and changes" and "reducing rework". This research represents a first step towards understanding the current situation of BIM implementation in Jordan. It can help AEC practitioners in Jordan recognize potential areas in which BIM can be useful in AEC practice. However, it provides a benchmark for future studies that should tackle several other avenues further.

Journal of Architectural Engineering Technology AbstractIn the last decade, construction industry has witnessed a huge transformation in term of the use of digital technologies, and particularly Building Information Modelling (BIM). BIM is a revolutionary digital technology and process that is reshaping the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry. Though, internationally, BIM has gained a great reputation for boosting productivity in AEC industry, but it holds undeveloped possibilities for providing and supporting AEC industry in Jordan. This study aims at assessing adoption of BIM within the construction industry in Jordan.To achieve this objective, the research commenced by carrying out an intensive literature reviews on the implementation of BIM world-wide, which was utilised to identify the benefits, and challenges of BIM in construction industry. An exploratory study was then conducted using an on-line survey to identify the current level of BIM experience, and to define the perceived value, benefits and challenges facing BIM implementation. Findings reveal that the adoption and implementation of BIM in Jordan is still in a very primitive phase and it faces number of critical barriers such as, but not restricted to, the absence of government incentives, the lack of BIM standards, lack of BIM awareness, lack of BIM training, cost and resistance to change. It concludes recommendations for how the industry shall adopt BIM and integrate it within construction industry's all processes. Highlighting the synergy between the two, this paper can help AEC practitioners in Jordan recognize potential areas in which BIM can be useful in AEC practise.

Despite the fact that the value of extending Building Information Modeling (BIM) implementation through the operations and maintenance phase is simply to reduce the operations and maintenance costs associated with inadequate interoperability, facilities management information flow is neither automated nor seamless. Facility managers do not normally use BIM models data, since they claim that BIM models either do not include their information requirements, or contain a huge amount of superfluous data which makes the data exchange process tedious and overwhelming. Construction Operations Building information exchange (COBie) is developed to improve the facility data handover and to support facilities management systems. However, COBie add-in existing applications have their inherent limitation to generate all facilities management required data, particularly spare, resource and job data sheets, in which a manual data entry is still required. Through a series of interviews with industry practitioners, this paper analyses current data exchange practices as well as proposed a conceptual interoperability framework for seamless data exchange between BIM models and facilities management systems. A proposed database information system that automatically generates a rich COBie spreadsheet by linking BIM data models via the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) model to facilities management information provided by various sources. The proposed framework supplements the existing body of knowledge in facilities management domain by providing a system that facilitates seamless data transfer between BIM and facilities management systems. Facilities management organisations and owners can use this approach to decrease the redundant activity of manual data entry and focus their efforts on productive maintenance activities.

Purpose This paper aims to identify a generic set of information requirements for facilities management (FM) systems, which should be included in BIM as-built models for efficient information exchange between BIM and FM systems, and to propose a process to identify, verify and collect the required information for use in FM systems during the project’s lifecycle. Design/methodology/approach Both qualitative and quantitative approaches were applied at different stages of the study’s sequential design. The collection and analysis of qualitative data was based on an extensive literature review of similar studies, standards, best practices and case study documentation. This was followed by a questionnaire survey of 191 FM practitioners in the UK. This formed the background of the third stage, which was the development of the information management process to streamline information exchange between building information models and FM systems. Findings The study identifies a generic list of information requirements of building information models to support FM systems. In addition, the study presents an information management process that generates a specific database for FM systems using an open data format. Originality/value The existing literature focuses on specific building types (educational buildings) or specific information requirements related to particular systems (mechanical systems). The existing standards, guidelines and best practices focus on the information requirements to support the operations and maintenance (O&M) phase in general. This study is different from previous studies because it develops a set of specific information requirements for building information models to support FM systems. FM organisations and owners can use the proposed list of information requirements as a base to generate specific data output for their FM systems’ input, to decrease the redundant activity of manual data entry and focus their efforts on key activities.