Benefits and Barriers of Building Information Modelling (BIM)

N. H. Intazali1, S. A. Zakaria2, H. N. Abdul Halim3 
and M. Muhammad Rusli4

Faculty of Civil Engineering

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
81310 UTM Skudai, Malaysia

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 Abstract: Building Information Modelling (BIM) is an advanced technology which is currently being used
in the construction industries especially in other countries and has been highlighted as a powerful design
management’s tool by the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry. There are many
benefits of BIM and for each phase has their own advantages. There are 4 stages of phase of using BIM
which are design, build, operate and maintain. This paper are focus on three benefits of BIM such as
visualization, time reducing during operation phase and accessibility of information. However, there are
still some barriers to implement BIM in Malaysia. The main barrier are lack of education and training
(skills),   lack   of   National   Standard   (US   National   Standard   BIM)   and   protection   and   redundancy   of
information. 

1. Introduction

Nowadays, a number of advancement in technology has been achieved or will be achieved parallel with
the  advances in  the field of  computer science.  As  technologies are advancing day by day  and with the
constant advancement in technologies, we can say that human’s life is getting comfortable.This evolution’s
result  are   discussed   and   should  provide   more   information  to   us   to   achieve   our  objectives   easily  and
accurately.   This   technical   evolution   is   also   reflected   in  many   other   professional   fields   such   as   the
Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) Industry. In  last decades, design tools in the  industry
have been improved  greatly  from  a  2D modelling  design  to  a more visualize  3D modelling.  Even today,
companies such as Autodesk claim that they  output or result of their design are done with a  new design
software based on the concept of Building Information Modelling (BIM). This research aims to analyse the
benefits and  disadvantages  of Building Information Modelling in the  professionals  industry based on the
current   adoption   of   design   tools.   In   addition,   to   identify   the   barriers   in   the   adoption   of   BIM   and   to
encourage their use is also an important issue that needs to be analysed. Lastly, the future direction of BIM
will be forecasted according to the results of case study and questionnaire data. 

In order for this application to be implemented, to achieve the status of developed country, a lot of effort
have been done to make sure the industries are able to adopt and make use of the information technology as
said by Zahrizan, Ali, Haron, Marshall-Ponting, & Hamid (2013) in their research. According to Brandon et
al. (2008) cited in Hosseini, Chileshe, Zou, & Baroudi (2013), even in the construction industry, new
technologies starts to be implemented to improve the construction industry as it was left behind in term of
adopting new systems. However, according to an online blog - Thatcher Associates, Building Information
Modelling (BIM) have already making their way in construction industry (Chaffe, 2016). Most construction
industry agreed to the adoption of technology, but resist investing time and money to see a better result
(Gallagher, 2017). Although, some construction industries worldwide have started implementing BIM to
their use in their company. Therefore, this research is carried out to study the benefits and barriers of
implementing BIM.

2. Literature review

The conceptual idea of BIM was introduced way back before. In 1962, Douglas C. Engelbart explained
about his vision on the future of architecture in his paper “Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual
Framework” [1]. Then Building Description System was first documented in 1975. It is a working
prototype that is a closest concept of BIM. In 1986, the term “Building Modelling” was written in Robert
Aish’s paper which is a case study on illustrating arguments and concepts of BIM [1]. After that, Autodesk
released a white paper entitled “Building Information Modelling” which explains history to BIM, the
characteristics, and the benefits [2].

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2.1 Definition of BIM

BIM definition may vary from different experts or authors. According to [3], BIM seeks to integrate
processes throughout the entire lifecycle with Construction Lifecycle Management. Aside from that, BIM
involves the use of technologies for documentation management, and improve collaboration and
communication of construction players [4]. Meanwhile, National Building Information Modelling Standard
defines BIM as a representation of physical and functional characteristics of a facility in digital form which
serve to share knowledge resource and form a decision during its lifecycle [5]. BIM is defined as a virtual
building which extracts different views from a computerized construction building [6]. BIM is known as
using rational 3D virtual models for product delivery in different dimensions such as project inception,
design, evaluation, construction, operation and demolition [7]. In other words, BIM means a digital
integrated data representing all information of building in all phases through a project lifecycle [8].

While a variety of definitions of the term BIM have been suggested, the definition as a benchmark
when defining the philosophy of BIM - “BIM is a digital representation of the building process to facilitate
exchange and interoperability of information in digital format” [9]. Overall, in this study, BIM can be
defined as computing reality that simulates real life visualization in a construction building.

2.2 Benefits of BIM

2.2.1 Visualization

BIM is a great visualization tool. It provides a three dimensional virtual representation of the building.
During the bidding phase of the project, the construction manager can provide renderings, walkthroughs, and
sequencing of the model to better communicate the BIM concept in 3D.

Visualization provides a better understanding of what the final product may look like. It takes away
thought process of bringing the different traditional 2D views together to come up with the 3D view of a
detail. Furthermore, virtual mock-ups such as laboratories or building envelope can be provided to the
designer and the owner. This would help to visualize, better understand, and make decisions on the aesthetics
and the functionality of the space.

Virtual mock ups can be used to review 3D shop drawing of the building envelope [10] and help to
communicate and collaborate among the project participants. It promotes planning, and sequencing the
curtain wall construction. Even though a virtual mock up is cost efficient in comparison to a physical mock-
up, a physical mock-up may still be required if a member such as 14 casework drawer or an assembly of the
building such as a curtain wall need to go through a series of physical tests. Hence, virtual mock-ups could
become a good standard to initiate the mock up process and an actual mock-up may be necessary after the
virtual mock up is approved.

2.2.2 Reduce Time during Operation Phase

BIM highlights its holistic nature, which includes not only software that allows the geometrical
modelling and the input of information but also project management (PM)-related tools and processes. As
such, taking a holistic perspective of BIM places it firmly in the construction PM domain. It has a potential
use for construction project managers in improving collaboration between stakeholders, reducing the time
needed for documentation of the project and, hence, producing beneficial project outcomes [11].

In the days before BIM, getting a truly global view of a project proved difficult with thousands of
unconnected documents in play, sometimes it took years for design teams to see the forest for the trees. By

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 pulling all of a projects documents into a single view, BIM enables teams to collaborate and communicate
effectively. Thus it will shorter the time during operation phase.

While the time savings influenced the overall project duration and had positive effects on the schedule's
critical path, time increases were often related to extra modelling time or converting drawings into a model.
This is a clear sign that the positive effects on time are much more important than the negative ones – in
terms of criticality. It also provides evidence that adopting BIM tools from the beginning of projects and by
all stakeholders has the potential to minimize the negative effects on time.

2.2.3 Accessibility of Information

BIM has a potential use at all stages of the project life-cycle: it can be used by the owner to understand
project needs, by the design team to analyze, design and develop the project, by the contractor to manage the
construction of the project and by the facility manager during operation and decommissioning phases [12].
Looking to the future leads to speculation that BIM will eventually lead to a virtual project design and
construction approach, with a project being completely simulated before being undertaken for real [13]. As
such BIM will provide potential beneficial project outcomes by enabling the rapid analysis of different
scenarios related to the performance of a building through its life cycle [14]. Steps towards this are already
taking place, with construction projects that utilise BIM typically being built virtually 30–40 times [15].

BIM has the potential to be the catalyst for Project Managers to reengineer their processes to better
integrate the different stakeholders involved in modern construction projects. This re-engineering has been
likened to the move towards applying lean principles. The forming seven pillars of a BIM implementation
strategy: eliminate waste, increase feedback, delay decisions to achieve consensus, deliver fast, build-in
integrity, empower the team and see the whole. By doing this PMs will achieve better project outputs and
outcomes. Furthermore, PMs are well placed to promote the use of BIM as they have an influence on the
resourcing of project teams. As such they can act as a catalyst and promoter of BIM, as well as a recipient.

Countering the potential benefits of BIM to project is the challenges that need to be overcome if
effective multi-disciplinary collaborative team working, supported by the optimal use of BIM, is to be
achieved. Not least the changing roles of key parties, such as clients, architects, contractors, sub-contractors
and suppliers, the new contractual relationships and the re-engineered collaborative processes [16]. One key
role likely to be affected by the introduction of BIM is that of the project manager. The impact of an
enhanced use of technology on the day-to-day activities of the project manager and the ultimate impact this
has on the outputs and outcome of the project are still not clear [17]. There is also the fragmented nature of
the construction industry to consider, which means that knowledge gained by a team during the undertaking
of a project is often not retained and used on future projects. It is not clear whether BIM is able to overcome
this structural problem [18].

2.3 Barriers of BIM

2.3.1 Lack of national standard

The development of a national strategy for BIM implementation would set out national priorities and
provide guidance across the whole industry. It is necessary to provide the standardize BIM process and
publish the guidelines for its practice [19]. Some building guidelines have been developed however there is no
formal standard exists to organize industry practice. The lack of national standard for sharing data between all
stakeholders in the implementation process is seen as a barricade [20].

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 The contrariety of data is the most significant data-related issue, and data compatibility for sharing or
exchange is the second most common [21]. The consent to share information among project stakeholders is
considered critical which is BIM should include the capability to transmit and reuse the information inserted
in the graphical mode and therefore a lack of information sharing could complement a barrier to BIM
implementation [22].

2.3.2 Lack of Education and Training about BIM

BIM implementation is not just a technical issue, and has effects on organizational structure and work
processes in various companies in the architecture, engineering and construction industry. This type of
change brings organizational issues. When BIM implementation is related to external parties beyond the
enterprise, such as suppliers, economic and legal issues will be involved. BIM software requires changes in
enterprise organization or workflow, raising organizational issues which directly leads to the lack of
professionals [23]. In order of lack of skilled personnel, so need to educate and training either hiring new
staff or retraining existing staff ad to establish and integrate BIM technology into the operation.

To meet the objectives of this study, primary data has to be collected from the design firms in Hong
Kong. Among the various data collection techniques, questionnaire survey was chosen. As commented by
the respondents, lack of qualified in-house staff and lack of BIM education and training were the most
critical barriers to BIM adoption. Almost 80% of the respondents wanted to have training provided by the
government and professional bodies. It is true that there is a wide range of BIM short courses offering in the
market. However, without clear BIM guidelines established by the government, the quality of these BIM
courses varies considerably. Even for the sub-degree and undergraduate degree programs offered by the local
universities, requiring BIM training in their curricula is neither standardized nor mandatory. This situation
explains why the respondents demand more “proper” education and training for BIM [24].

2.3.3 Protection and misinterpreted of Information

The protection of information in conversion and interoperability, against loss and misuse the
information. There are many international norms, standards and agreements available for use of data
management; however, in most cases the protection of information is attached to the contractual frameworks
which are country specific. What needed is an agreement on the standard of care and possible conflict
resolution on data management as an integral part of the contract.

Designers and engineers, even more than the clients, must adopt and invest in the new technology.
However, for many designers and engineers, BIM‟s immediate benefits are less apparent [25]. If properly
implemented, BIM should increase the efficiency by reducing duplicative and potentially inconsistent data
entry. Multiple-use of consistent data and the ability to quickly explore design alternatives also promote
efficiency and improved quality. In order to offer BIM based services, design and engineering firms must
adopt the new technology, install the advanced software, train their employees, and champion BIM use.
They need to restructure their workflows and reinvent the design processes. The asymmetrical rewards for
their investment are a limited share and the relatively short-time involvement of designers and engineers in
the building project, which makes it impossible to release the full benefits of BIM.

The difficulties involved in accessing and interpreting a package containing up to 5000 information
attributes. The interpretation of information redundancy that extent the availability of the data stored on PM
would cause significant problems if the system became unavailable, and the quality and availability of
backup systems are in no way clear.

3. Conclusion

The literature review surveyed each historical evolution of design technology in the AEC industry and
to discuss the benefits and barriers of BIM. Also, the future view of BIM is predicted from the series of

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 events in literature review. It is also stated that BIM could improve on the design phase and its visualization
in a project. For example, the architects should be able to make use of BIM to make any change at any time
without any difficulty, hard harmonization and manual checking work. BIM also shows its benefits in
construction and operation phase, such that it could reduce the construction time and cost on operation and
overhead cost. It can also improves the construction process, project documents and relationship between
the clients and architects.

Although BIM are quite beneficial, BIM has its flaws. The prospect of BIM is optimistic by the
architects. This research found that currently the industry is good enough with using AutoCAD and have
not implement BIM as BIM will only be beneficial if it involves big and complicated projects. However, the
industry will start to notices and implement BIM after they see benefits that BIM can offer. Furthermore,
the barriers of using BIM at the moment is its cost, lack of experts and training, and people resistant to
change. BIM need to be explore more especially to construction industry. Although few companies are
using BIM, most people are aware of them and show an interest in BIM. Some companies also claim that
they will adopt BIM within 3 years.

In the future, BIM will encompass more accurate data about the project. It will be easier to operate, will
be able to manage and integrate all the project documents, and will be able to adapt to the rapidly changing
built environment. More future research should be done and focus on construction to help benefit the
industry. Furthermore, maybe the industry can evaluate the differences of using BIM and traditional method
in construction project. The researchers can help to develop a framework for the implementation of BIM
that will be suitable for the local construction industry by referring to the successful implementation in
other countries.

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