Building Information Modeling (BIM) in the Design Process

Transcription

1 Abstract Summary of the Master Thesis Master s Degree International Project Management (Building, Real Estate and Infrastructure) Building Information Modeling (BIM) in the Design Process Changes and challenges in the design process resulting from the Implementation of Building Information Modeling Submitted by B.Sc. Sary Sleewa Majeed Student Matriculation No Tutor Prof. Christine Kappei University of Applied Sciences Stuttgart-Germany Dipl.-Ing. Paul Boireau BIM Solutions Center Stuttgart-Germany

2 - 2 - ABSTRACT 1. Introduction The main purpose of this research is to provide a better understanding about Building Information Modeling (BIM), and the changes it makes in the design process leading to improvements and new challenges for all the participants in the design process (i.e. clients, project managers, architects and engineers). Nowadays, everyone is talking about Building Information Modeling (BIM), a lot of papers can be found speaking about advantages of BIM and how it can make the design process easier even how it is used afterwards during the construction and facility management. However, the statistics in Western Europe, especially in Germany, shows that only less than 40% of designers and engineers are using Building Information Modeling in the design process, and this percentage is different among the different design teams (architects, structural engineers and MEP engineers). Moreover, having all these advantages and improvements that Building Information Modeling can provide, it is important to investigate the reasons why it is not being used by all designers and engineers, and how it would affect the design process especially in terms of managing it Objectives and Research Question 1) To study the Building Information Modeling process, and the advantages and tools that BIM can provide for the participants in the design process. 2) To study design management theories and the way that Building Information Modeling affects these theories. 3) To investigate the problems and challenges resulting from the use of Building Information Modeling in the design process. 4) To analyze the use of Building Information Modeling in the design market, and investigate the reasons driving the companies/firms not to widely use Building Information Modeling, especially in Germany. 5) To discover the problems and challenges resulting from having Building Information Modeling users and non-users together in the design process.

3 - 3 - All the above-mentioned objectives will the author through the research to achieve the purpose of the research and answer the main question of the research: What are the effects and challenges of Building Information Modeling (BIM) on the management of the design process? 2. Literature Review The literature provides a wide understanding of Building Information Modeling; it shows BIM workflow and the way it is being used by the design companies/firms. Furthermore, the literature illustrates the methods and theories of design management, to provide an understanding on how they could be affected by the use of Building Information Modeling. Moreover, on one hand side, the literature review shows many challenges that are being faced in the design process, such as lack of communication and coordination among the participants in the design process, checking and analyzing the design, errors and mistakes related to the quality of the outputs, etc. and on the other hand, the literature illustrates many improvements that Building Information Modeling can provide for the participants in the design process, such as, better communication and coordination, higher quality outputs to reduce the errors, etc. All these benefits can be realized by using BIM tools, and following its process. However, there are many challenges that are faced to implement Building Information Modeling, even after its implementation it brings new challenges to the design process as illustrated in the literature. Moreover, these challenges and some other barriers that are shown in the literature review, such as the workflow changes, cost of the hardware and software, lack of regulations for the use of BIM, etc. explains the reasons behind the large variety of BIM implementation around the world, and among the different participants in the design process. 3. Methodology The Interpretivism philosophy and the inductive approached that were followed to carry out the research, helped the author to investigate and understand the different points of view of the different participants in the design process (Clients, Project Managers, Architects and Engineers), about the use of Building Information Modeling in the design process.

4 - 4 - Moreover, the selected research philosophy and approach, led the author to collect qualitative data through semi-structured interviews with all the participants in the design process (Clients, Project Managers, Architects and Engineers), those who are already using BIM, and the teams who haven t started using BIM yet, but they have knowledge about it. 4. Findings The results of the semi-structured interviews showed that there is a large variety of BIM understanding, among the different participants in the design process. The way BIM is used by one participant is different to another participant in the design process; therefore, the advantages of Building Information Modeling and the challenges it brings to the design process are different from one team to another. Furthermore, the semi-structured interviews showed that it is easier for the big-sized companies to implement BIM than the small-sized companies, which explains the reason behind the low adoption of BIM in Germany, as the majority of the design companies/firms in Germany are small-sized companies/firms. Besides that the HOAI, AHO and VOB, which are the German regulations and structures for the AEC industry, do not introduce Building Information Modeling. 5. Discussion The analysis of the primary data resulted from the semi-structured interviews, and the secondary data from the literature review showed that the participants in the design process agree at some points regarding the advantages (quality of the outputs, coordination, efficiency and documentation), challenges (defining the responsibilities, workflow changes and having BIM-users and non-users in the same project), barriers (regulations and company size) and key drivers (market demand) of BIM, as well as the challenges faced in the design process (coordination and communication). However they did not agree on some other points such as the type and the size of the projects in which BIM is used, as the literature and some participants agreed that BIM can be more useful only when used with the big-sized and complicated projects, rather than small projects, where its usage increases the cost of the project, however, other participants disagreed with this, explaining that BIM is a process or a way of working, once it is implemented it is efficient to be used in any type of projects.

5 Conclusion The effects of Building Information Modeling on the design process could be summarized as the improvements that Building Information Modeling brings to the design process (positive effects) and on the other side the new challenges that results from the adoption of Building Information Modeling (negative effects): 6.1. Improvements of Building Information Modeling in the design process Building information modeling provides different tools to avoid the problems and challenges that were faced in the design process following the traditional way of working, and all the teams participating in the design process are affected by these advantages. Building Information Modeling is not just a tool or software that could be used by architects or engineers, but it is a process and a way of working that could be adopted by all the participants in the design process, helping them to better manage the design process and provide better results even in the early stages by changing the workflow and the effort in the design process, so that they can provide more accurate outputs earlier to help the owners to make better decisions regarding the project Challenges Resulting from Adoption of Building Information Modeling Even though Building Information Modeling provides many improvements to the design process, still it leads to facing new challenges, as Building Information Modeling is a revolutionary process that requires changes in workflow, distribution of time and effort, new hardware and software needed, and the training necessary to get familiar with all these changes. However, to define the roles and responsibilities of the different teams of the design process, is more difficult and challenging with Building Information Modeling, compared to the traditional workflow, as the regulations about Building Information Modeling are not so developed and it is hard to find who is responsible for the failures that might occur in the project resulting from the design process.