Towards a BIM-enabled facility management: Promises, obstacles and requirements

A substantial share of the organisations’ annual costs is associated with their facilities. A fundamental shift from a reactive facility management (FM) practice to a strategically orchestrated FM profession is thus a prerequisite for increased resource efficiency. One of the requirements for a coordinated facility management practice is information logistics. Building Information Modelling (BIM) is one of the most prominent initiatives frequently addressed by scholars and practitioners as a game-changer in construction industry in general and FM in particular. In order to fully reap the benefits of BIM in FM, however, further research is required. This study aims, therefore, to investigate the challenges against successful implementation and realizing the benefits of BIM in FM. The primary focus in this study is the FM phase; but the earlier upstream phases have also been studied due to their implications for a BIM-enabled FM. From a spatial-scale perspective, this study is mainly focused on buildings rather than other construction entities. The findings could benefit both academics and practitioners. Overall, a pragmatic research philosophy has been adopted and the main research strategy used here is case study. The current dissertation is composed of five papers. The focus of knowledge acquisition through papers alternately shifts between the applied and the theoretical. The primary theoretical grounds of the papers are the built environment management model (BEM2) (Ebinger and Madritsch, 2012) and BIM Framework (Succar, 2009). Further theories from the fields of design methodology and cognitive science have also been revisited. Paper 1 provides a theoretic basis for more focused studies on existing and desired processes in FM and their associated information transactions. In Paper 2, the current status of the building information management technologies used in FM is summarized; the prevailing issues are identified; and a number of technical solutions have been devised. Paper 3 shifts the focus back to the design phase and provides a knowledge base for developing further theoretical frameworks and conceptual models that support IT-implementation for formalized requirements management. Through Paper 4, it has been investigated how beneficial contemporary design-intent BIM deliverables could be to FM and what should be improved. The focus of Paper 5 again shifts back to the FM phase. Here, a methodology has been presented for measuring the benefits of BIM in FM using a proposed benefits realization assessment framework. Obtaining the full range of the benefits of BIM in FM, however, requires radical organizational changes and introducing new roles. Further research is needed for defining new business models that underpin and motivate such extensive organizational and procedural changes. More research should also be undertaken for enhancing data interoperability among different actors as well as among IT platforms used at different spatial scales namely BIM and GIS applications.