Developing an MCDM Model for the Benefits, Opportunities, Costs and Risks of BIM Adoption

Abstract

Building information modeling (BIM) offers various deterministic and uncertain benefits and costs. Although there are similarities between such costs and benefits in developed and developing countries, these factors should be analyzed carefully for each region/country due to differences in economic and technical status as well as available policies and regulations. Numerous studies have demonstrated the benefits and shortcomings of BIM adoption around the globe; however, there is scarce comprehensive research focusing on Iran with unique financial circumstances. The aim of this research is to investigate the benefits, opportunities, costs and risks (BOCRs) offered by BIM implementation in Iran as a developing country with high potential in but less adoption of BIM in construction projects. After identifying the BOCRs of BIM adoption from the literature, the Interval-Valued Fuzzy Delphi Method was used to identify the BOCRs while a novel multi-criteria decision-making approach (i.e., fuzzy parsimonious analytic hierarchy process) was employed to analyze BOCRs, respectively. The results showed that 4 out of 46 BOCRs gathered from the literature were not significant for Iran and should be omitted from further analysis, while one cost factor was added to the list. Also, it was revealed that “Facilitates project communication among stakeholders”, “Integrating life-cycle assessment dimensions to the decision-making process”, “Cost/efforts required to personnel training” and “Lack of national standard, procedures and guidelines” were the most significant BOCRs, respectively. These findings contributed to filling the research gap in BIM adoption in Iran using a novel methodology that provides deep insights into BIM adoption for practitioners and can be used as a basis for developing theoretical and conceptual research frameworks. The findings of this study are built upon the opinions of experts within the context of Iran and should be considered as a snapshot of the BOCRs of the adoption of BIM in Iranian construction projects while these are not futureproofed.

Quantifying BIM investment value: a systematic review

“…As part of the CBA, all costs and benefits associated with BIM are identified and quantified, including those that are hard to quantify financially, such as improved safety, reduced rework and enhanced collaboration (Love et al, 2013;Zakeri et al, 2023). After comparing the benefits and costs, it is determined whether the investment is economically feasible (S anchez et al, 2022).…”

“…A typical construction project will involve numerous requests for information (RFIs) that can be time-consuming and expensive (Morales et al, 2022). However, with the use of BIM, the number of RFIs can be greatly reduced (Toan et al, 2022;Zakeri et al, 2023). To prevent errors and omissions that would typically result in RFIs during construction, BIM allows construction professionals to collaborate and identify potential issues before construction begins (Tu et al, 2023).…”

“…BIM serves a multifaceted role encompassing visualization, cost estimation, scheduling, clash detection and collaborative data coordination, driven by its parametric capabilities (Khanzode et al, 2008;Krystallis et al, 2019;Love et al, 2013). As a solution to address fragmentation, complexity and high-risk challenges within the construction supply chain, researchers advocate for BIM adoption (S anchez et al, 2022;Zakeri et al, 2023). Given the intricate nature of construction projects involving numerous stakeholders, uninterrupted material flow, concurrent activities at shared locations and extensive interdisciplinary coordination, 'BIM's significance is paramount (Kim et al, 2020;Qian, 2012).…”

“…Another limitation of previous BIM investment evaluation studies is that it is difficult to propose a comprehensive BIM assessment methodology that considers all possible effects (Barlish and Sullivan, 2012;Tu et al, 2023). In construction projects, BIM creates a variety of effects, and an integrated BIM evaluation should take all possible effects into consideration (Zakeri et al, 2023). To determine the investment worth of BIM, effects must be converted into costs (Toan et al, 2022).…”

Intelligent Modeling of Edge Components of Prefabricated Shear Wall Structures Based on BIM

“…Wang Wenjing proposed a BIM-based prefabricated building component automation system and concluded that the design results of this system were scientific, effective, and sustainable [8]. Zakeri et al investigated the benefits, opportunities, costs, and risks (BOCR) associated with the implementation of BIM in a developing country while using a new multi-criteria decision-making approach (i.e., fuzzy reduced analytic Hierarchy Process) to analyze BOCR separately, providing practitioners with insights into the adoption of BIM [9]. Ren Xingchen introduced a technical route for the application of prefabricated BIM technology in the whole life cycle stage and concluded that the integrated application of the existing BIM software and self-developed BIM software could optimize the design scheme and construction and facilitate the later operation and maintenance [10].…”