The Impact of Implementing Bim On Aec Organisational Workflows
The Impact of Implementing Bim On Aec Organisational Workflows
The Impact of Implementing Bim On Aec Organisational Workflows
Abstract
The seemingly elusive pursuit of completing projects predictably, within the constraints of
cost, time and quality requires the aggregation of information and integration of various
project team member work processes. BIM has been put forward as a possible approach for
achieving this aim, albeit with attendant challenges, prominent among these is the need for
streamlining intra-organisational workflows. This study therefore sought to develop and
understanding of how implementing BIM impacts organisational workflows with a view to
enabling professionals make more informed decisions about adoption and implementation
of BIM. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with three consultancy
companies in Johannesburg, South Africa. Data in form of transcriptions and notes were
descriptively coded in two cycles, and analysed thematically. This study found that
resistance to change and high set-up and training costs are key impediments to the
successful implementation of BIM. Furthermore, there were experiences of a loss of
productivity during training and the development of standards, disconnects between project
team members collaborating at lower of higher maturity compared to others, change in the
sequence of project team activities, and the creation of new roles, such as a BIM
coordinator/manager to facilitate the adoption and development of organisation specific
standards and documents. These challenges can lead to varying patterns of adoption and
implementation and consequently, a lack of interoperability of inter-organisational business
processes. The findings are instructive on the need for unified industry strategy to facilitate
the diffusion of BIM in the South African construction industry as in countries like the UK.
1 Introduction
The nature of the Architecture Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry is such that
constant interaction through communication and sharing of information between various
professionals is essential for successful delivery of projects (Crotty, 2012). Project delivery
involves complex processes that require extensive collaboration for efficient management,
amid global industry challenges to completing projects predictably, within the constraints of
cost, time, and quality (Crotty, 2012; Fang and Marle, 2013). Further, as a result of the
separation of design and construction functions, and the continued specialisation of
construction industry practices into more specific fields of operation, the industry has grappled
with its fragmented nature and project delivery processes (Nawi et al., 2013). This is coupled
with severe difficulties in aggregating construction information dispersed among project
stakeholders (Latham, 1994; Egan, 1998; Nawi et al., 2013). Consequences of these are sub-
optimal levels of project performance. In the United States, evidence show that these challenges
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contribute to about 15.8 billion dollars yearly losses through inefficiencies (Gallaher et al.,
2004).
As solutions to these challenges, the integration of multiple stakeholder work processes, and a
shift from traditional competitive delivery methods towards integrated design and construction
methodologies have long been advocated (Latham, 1994; Egan, 1998). Importantly, the use of
integrative and collaborative technologies have been argued, and shown to be capable of
providing the impetus for the required change (Howard et al. 1989). Building Information
Modelling (BIM) is one such technology. A process of developing digital representations of
construction components elements to simulate planning, design, construction, operation and
maintenance of structures, BIM when implemented enables the rendering of several views of
data about a structure in 2D (Simple CAD), 3D (Visualisation), 4D (Schedule), 5D (Cost), and
6D (Operations and Maintenance) in an aggregated model, and collaborative environment
(Deutsch, 2011). Notwithstanding that Building Information Modelling authoring tools have
been in existence since the late 20th century, clients and project teams have only recently
become conscious of its benefits in delivering projects (Linderoth, 2010). Implementing BIM
has been shown in practice to facilitate increased efficiency (Deutsch, 2011) increased
productivity of professional organisations (Crotty, 2012) while also improving communication
and collaboration (Wong et al, 2011). Without doubt, the associated benefits are the main
drivers of its adoption and implementation within the construction industry (Cao, 2015).
However, there are several barriers to successful implementation of BIM in the construction
industry (Migilinskas, 2013; Arayici et al., 2011). These include inter alia, the need for
changing procurement culture (Rowlinson et al., 2010), need for changing or adapting intra-
and inter-organisational work practices and workflows (Porwal and Hewage, 2013; Bryde et
al., 2013), lack of clarity of stakeholder roles and responsibilities on BIM projects and varying
degrees of experiential knowledge of BIM among project teams (Porwal and Hewage, 2013).
This implies that organisation and project team work practices need to be aligned to BIM
requirements to achieve success. Nonetheless, evidence from literature shows reluctance
towards shifting from traditional work methods to adopting innovative approaches to project
delivery among industry professionals (Arayici et al., 2012). This may be attributable to
deficient understanding of BIM adoption and implementation implications. A lack of
knowledge about how implementation enables, and on the other hand, constrains organisational
work practices may hinder wider adoption, and its successful implementation on projects. This
study therefore seeks to develop an understanding of how professional service providers in the
South African construction industry have implemented BIM within their organisations, and of
how the implementation enables or constrains organisational workflows. This will enable
implementers to make more informed decisions about how to implement BIM to realise the
benefits accruable from its implementation.
2 Literature Review
Succar (2009) however, describes BIM as a set of processes, technologies and policies that
work together to produce a methodology for digitally managing project information through
the whole life cycle. Furthermore, Sebastian (2011) argues that collaboration between project
stakeholders is the main premise on which BIM relies. Therefore, the key ideas that cut across
these definitions are information aggregation, integration and collaboration among project
stakeholders through the use of appropriate technology. This is at the core of the appeal of BIM
to the construction industry. Nevertheless, it is important to note that BIMs potential for
enabling more efficient project delivery processes is a major driving force behind the growth
in implementation, and indeed government demand, as in the United Kingdom (Cao, 2015). As
Barlish and Sullivan (2012) put it, clients are willing to utilise BIM once they understand its
capabilities and benefits. The benefits include improved efficiency, communication and
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collaboration, increase in productivity, reduced project cost, time and rework (Migilinskas,
2013; Wong et al., 2011; Cao, 2015). It is therefore evident that BIM implementation can
positively contribute to project success and overall industry performance.
However, implementing BIM does not lead to guaranteed project success. Its implementation
comes with attendant risks and challenges as is common with similar innovations. In fact, at
the initial stages of adoption and implementation within organisations, it is likely to cause
conflicts in the status quo, and temporarily reducing performance. The resolution of these
challenges brings about transformation into a new status quo. This is depicted in Satirs model
of change in Figure 1 below (Cameron and Green, 2012).
New status
Performance
quo
Old status Integration
quo and practice
Conflicts/Chaos
Time
Figure 1. Satir's model of change (adapted from Cameron and Green, 2012)
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Table 1. Challenges militating against successful implementation of BIM
Nonetheless, in order to facilitate the achievement of the UK governments mandate that BIM
be used at maturity level 2 for all public projects by 2016, the British Standards Institute (BSI)
has developed the PAS 1192:2013 specification. It describes the levels of collaborating with
BIM (BML) in generic terms as:
BML-0: Unmanaged CAD with the use of 2 dimensional (2D)
BML-1: Requires collaboration tool to provide a common data environment and
established standard data formats. Cost data to be managed by standalone packages
with no integration.
BML-2: Collaborative environment to be of 3D form, held in separate discipline BIM
authoring tools with attached data managed by Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
Approach may also utilise 4D and 5D capabilities.
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BML-3: Fully open processes and data integration enabled by web-services.
Compliance with relevant data exchange standards, managed by a collaborative model
server.
3 Research Methodology
3.1 Philosophical assumptions
This research is informed by subjectivist philosophical assumptions, where social phenomena
are seen as being created from the perceptions of social actors and with a focus on individual
meanings (Saunders, 2012; Creswell, 2013). The focus of this study is on developing an
understanding of the experiences of professional service providers in implementing BIM within
their organisations. A subjectivist ontological position is well suited to achieving this in that it
emphasises conduction of research among people rather than about objects (Saunders, 2012).
In consonance with this philosophical leaning, and with literature on studies with similar foci
with this study, an interpretivist epistemology, albeit with a largely deductive approach to
reasoning, is appropriate as is supports methods of knowledge gathering in participants natural
settings (Saunders et al., 2012; Creswell, 2013). This is to facilitate an understanding of their
experiences from their own point of view.
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while handwritten notes and researchers preliminary reflections from the interview were
summarised into analytic memos, one per interview (Miles et al., 2014).
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Case 1 (Company A) Case 2 (Company B) Case 3 (Company C)
Achieved a capability for BIM level 2
but presently operating at maturity
level
Cases 1, 2 and 3 (shown in Table 2) represent experiences of BIM implementation from three
organisations that are some of the most prominent professional practices in South Africa and
will therefore be treated as key informants. It should be noted that since Company B (Quantity
Surveying) have only implemented BIM as part of a project team in the UK. However, the staff
have undergone training to acquire the capability to participate in BIM projects in South Africa,
at least to BIM level 1. This is not farfetched as the diffusion of BIM naturally starts with lead
design firms long before other allied professional organisation. Furthermore, while Companies
A & C have only been operating at BIM level 1, interestingly, the momentum for level 2 BIM
implementation (information sharing & coordination) has begun already (BSI, 2013). This is a
significant development from Kiprotich et al. (2014)s report of only isolated use of 3D
modelling and visualisation applications of BIM in South Africa. Yet, these efforts are limited
to intra-organisational drive for collaborative practices. Expectedly, as in the works of Wong
et al., (2011) and Cao (2015), the main motivation for implementing BIM for all the companies
are the associated benefits (see Table 3).
There are several commonalities in the experiences of the three organisations regarding the
benefits from BIM implementation. These experiences are similar to the findings in existing
literature (Wong et al., 2011; Cao, 2015). BIM is perceived as being able to assist in problem
solving, improving efficiency and increasing overall productivity. While all three organisations
attest to increase in productivity, Company C further links this to increased turnover.
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Table 4. Challenges to Implementing BIM
Case 1 (Company A) Case 2 (Company B) Case 3 (Company C)
Mind-set shift Resistance to change Time consuming training
Resistance to change BIM is all about technicalities High software and update
Time consuming training Huge training requirements costs
High software and update costs High cost of BIM authoring software Disconnect between
Disconnect between BIM is mainly economically viable for consultants (lack of
consultants: where other large scale projects interoperability) Project
consultants don't implement No BIM specialist in companys SA office team members silo
BIM, interoperability becomes mentality
Technological advancements reduces
an issue Need for allied
relevance of experiential knowledge
More efforts required to professionals to start
Implementation is being driven mainly by
develop good quality evolving their design skill
BIM champions from large practices
Presentations when compared
to traditional CAD
Companies A & C report very similar experiences of challenges to implementing BIM (see
Table 4). Importantly, resistance to change within their organisations and disconnect with other
professionals (lack of interoperability of organisational business practices) are key challenges
identified. These are two of the most prominent challenges to implementing BIM and can be
deterrents to increased adoption and implementation within the construction industry.
Collaboration through BIM is only as effective as the weakest link in the project team makes
it. Further, down times experienced when learning to apply new technology impacts negatively
on productivity (Cases 1&3). Company Bs report is from a different perspective as Quantity
surveyors, the participant mentioned that the lack of a BIM expert to facilitate implementation
is a challenge. These suggest, however inconclusively, that experiences of challenges vary by
organisation type. Nevertheless, for all three cases a common thread of evidence was that of
declining productivity as a result of a substantial amount of training that is required to facilitate
BIM implementation.
Participants have had both positive and negative experiences of BIM impacts on organisational
workflows (see Table 5). One impact of BIM that is rarely reported in literature is experiences
of downtimes while training or developing new organisational workflows to implement BIM.
Misunderstanding this may mean that organisations that are unable to overcome these
challenge have to roll back on the implementation. Perhaps more importantly, Company C
emphasised the temporal shift in effort for design and construction activities. This implies that
more work is done earlier in the delivery process when the cost impacts of change in employer
requirements are minimal effects on dependent activities. Furthermore, the findings suggest
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that creation of a new role for BIM facilitation and coordination within firms is critical to the
success of the implementation as in Porwal and Hewage (2013) and Sebastian (2011).
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