Building Information Modelling (BIM) for Facilities Management (FM)

Abstract

Facilities Management (FM) as the total management of all services supports the core businesses of an organisation in a building. However, today’s buildings are increasingly sophisticated and the need for information to operate and maintain them is vital. Facility Managers have to acquire, integrate, edit, and update diverse facility information ranging from building elements, fabric data, operational costs, contract types, room allocation, logistics, maintenance, etc. However, FM professionals face challenges resulting in cost and time related productivity, efficiency and effectiveness losses. Building Information Modelling (BIM), that seeks to integrate the building lifecycle, can provide improvements and help to overcome those challenges. Thus, the paper explores how BIM can contribute to and improve the FM profession. It uses the MediaCityUK project as a case study, which is a regeneration project aiming to attract media institutions locally and worldwide and establish itself as an international centre for excellence. For this purpose, the key FM tasks are identified and a BIM model for the new university building in MediaCityUK is developed and experimented with the FM tasks by a group of FM experts. As a result, the paper explains how BIM can support FM tasks in an itemised manner.

The potentials of and barriers to the utilization of advanced computer systems in remote construction projects: case of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

“…These systems have the ability to minimize the travel times of supervisors and may increase the frequency of progress, quality and safety inspections by providing project supervisors with systems that are easily applicable (Golparvar-Fard et al 2011, Jaselskis et al 2011. The utilization of Building Information Modeling (BIM) by the project team would provide a more streamlined business process, associated project and site management methodologies including complete facilitation of construction knowledge during the full lifecycle of a building project (Arayici and Aouad 2010). Arayici et al (2012) argued that BIM implementation serves as a useful alternative to addressing key construction sector issues, and offer solutions to these in order to increase productivity, efficiency, quality; reduce costs, lead times and duplications, via effective collaboration and communication of stakeholders in remote construction projects.…”

“…These management problems can be sorted out by the use of ACMS such as mobile, Web-based Project Management Systems (WPMS), augmented reality and BIM (Alshawi and Ingirige 2003and Stewart and Mohamed 2004, Nitithamyong and Skibniewski 2004, 2006, Charoenngam et al 2004, Arayici and Aouad 2010, Arayici et al 2012. These systems use wireless, satellite, Internet-based, or mobile tools and networks and it helps -to a certain degree -construction industry firms manage the increasing complexity of normal construction projects.…”

Modern information management throughout a construction project life cycle – selected issues concerning digitization in construction and a case study

“…BIM involves intensive collaboration between stakeholders, which is a basis for an effective exchange of information and data flow. This cooperation can contribute to a better integration of the previously dispersed construction sector and participants of construction projects, thus improving the economic efficiency [14]. Redmond et al indicate that the letter "I" in the acronym "BIM" concerns synchronization of information across the construction project life cycle, the aim of which is to increase the speed and efficiency of work processes and facilitate management decisionmaking based on well-organized and adequate solutions [15].…”

A Review of Application Building Information Modeling (BIM) During Pre-Construction Stage: Retrospective and Future Directions

“…3D scanning to modelling can be an impressive tool for facilities that are facing difficulties dealing with old and traditional systems like paper-based document in post-construction phase. Furthermore, particular technologies, such as the use of cloud computing [19], and 3D scanning [20] have facilitated adoption and added value to BIM. The integration of BIM through the model provided via 3D scanning ensure higher functionality [21], waste reduction, higher productivity and profit [22].…”