Utilizing building information modeling for facilities management

This study explores perceptions of BIM in the FM community and attempts to highlight real world issues that facility managers have faced while using BIM. The findings from the self-administered online survey and personal interviews suggest that BIM has the potential to bring data acquisition benefits to a great number of FM professionals. However, due to a lack of best practice and guidelines it is unclear exactly how BIM should be used for FM and that a lack of evidence of BIM for FM cost savings is a barrier to adoption. Moreover, many facility managers lack the necessary skills to use BIM for FM, and this, combined with a reactive culture, means that facility managers are in danger of not being treated as valuable stakeholders in BIM projects. There is a misconception that BIM can supply FM data with little effort, when in reality facility managers must work hard to acquire the data they need. Finally, it seems that the success of BIM for FM hinges not only technology and information exchange, but also collaborative working practices and well defined processes, highlighting the fact that BIM for FM truly requires a fusion of people, process and technology.

This paper is provided by the International Journal of Facility Management, a peer reviewed, open access journal available via the Internet at no cost, www.ijfm.net. All papers are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.