The Automation in Construction

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Automation in Construction
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/autcon
Planning and developing facility management-enabled building information
model (FM-enabled BIM)
Pardis Pishdad-Bozorgi a,⁎, Xinghua Gao a , Charles Eastman b
, Alonzo Patrick Self a
a School of Building Construction, Georgia Institute of Technology, 280 Ferst Dr., Atlanta, GA 30332-0680, United States
b School of Architecture, Georgia Institute of Technology, 247 Forth St, Atlanta, GA 30332-0001, United States
A R T I C L E I N F O
Keywords:
Building Information Modeling (BIM)
Facilities management (FM)
FM-enabled BIM
COBie
Industry Foundation Classes (IFCs)
Integrated Project Delivery
Facility Operation and Maintenance (O&M)
BIM-enabled handover
A B S T R A C T
Successful implementation of FM-enabled BIM can be achieved with 1) a clear definition of what FM-enabled
BIM constitutes, 2) a seamless and practical process of collecting the FM-enabled BIM data throughout project
development phases, and 3) a well-executed interoperability plan for exchanging data between BIM tools and
facility management systems, such as Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS). This research
contributes to the body of knowledge by first defining, and examining one of the first few pilots implementation
of FM-enabled BIM, and discussing the challenges encountered and the lessons learned, and then by proposing a
research framework for future researchers to systematically and strategically build the knowledge foundation on
BIM for FM field. The implementation process described and the lessons learned captured in this pilot project
provide valuable insights into the successful implementation of FM-enabled BIM.
1. Introduction
As a new paradigm, Building Information Modeling (BIM) is trans-
forming the process of developing, sharing, and capturing project in-
formation. BIM applications in design and construction have outgrown
the research stage and are now widely deployed; however, application
of BIM in the facility management (FM) phase is still developing, and
the research in this area, while growing, is still at a very early stage.
Indeed, the potential of BIM to transform the FM phase has yet to be
fully exploited [1,2]. Considering that the FM phase lasts much longer
than the design and construction phases, any process efficiency BIM can
occasion will introduce a much greater cost savings [3]. According to a
report by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST),
the estimated cost of inadequate interoperability in the U.S. capital
facilities industry is $15.8 billion per year; about 57.8% of this cost is
borne by owners and operators during facility O&M [4]. These costs
arise from inefficient business process management, redundant facility
management systems, the cost of training on those systems, pro-
ductivity loss, rework costs, and other issues [4] that BIM can address
[2]; by offering owners and operators a powerful means of retrieving
information from a virtual model of a facility, BIM can support and
complement a wide range of information technologies used by facilities
organizations [1].
Recent research has begun to explore how BIM can be leveraged to
provide facility managers with a more automated approach to space
management, capital planning, and asset management [5,6]. BIM can
inform decisions on preventive maintenance [1,3,5,7], building systems
analysis [5,6], and commissioning processes [5,6,8,9]. BIM can also be
utilized to develop emergency planning and response strategies
[2,5,10], as well as approaches to decommissioning and re-purposing
[5,11,12]. To adopt BIM for FM in practice, the industry still needs to
establish the economic value of implementing BIM for FM, identify the
FM information needed to be included in BIM for different types of
organizations, determine the tools available, workflow processes, and
best practices, among other necessary metrics, parameters, and guide-
lines [5]. The information to be included in BIM is collected con-
tinuously, throughout different project stages and for different purposes
[13,14]. This surfeit of pre-project and execution phase information in
the BIM models delivered to facility personnel typically do not contain
the necessary information for executing FM tasks [15]. In order to make
BIM useful for facility managers or owners, project teams should define
early on which FM information they need to include in their BIM
models [15], and then establish a systematic process for capturing it
during the design and construction phases.
The term “FM-enabled BIM” used in this paper refers to a BIM model
containing required FM data for auto-populating computerized facility
management systems (CMMS). This research discusses the im-
plementation process for developing FM-enabled BIM in the context of a
higher education institution. In such a setting, the major objectives of
implementing FM-enabled BIM, as defined by the project, are to support
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2017.12.004
Received 23 February 2017; Received in revised form 11 October 2017; Accepted 6 December 2017
⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: [e-mail] (P. Pishdad-Bozorgi).Automation in Construction 87 (2018) 22–380926-5805/ © 2017 Published by Elsevier B.V. T

FM tasks involving space analysis, retrofitting, and preventive main-
tenance.
In order to examine the current state of practice and determine
future research directions, this paper presents the results of a broad
literature review of BIM for FM and investigates a real-world im-
plementation of FM-enabled BIM. Through the BIM implementation,
the study closely examined the overall process of developing and de-
livering FM-enabled BIM models, identified the information required
for these models, explored the strategies for capturing and transmitting
FM data, uncovered the challenges faced during the BIM-enabled
handover, and collected the bottom-line lessons learned on the project.
Lastly, the researchers developed a strategic roadmap for future re-
search to build and grow the knowledge foundation of BIM for FM.
2. Background and previous studies
Recent research has confirmed the commonly accepted belief that,
with strategic planning, BIM implementation stands to be of great value
to facilities management [16], since “the inherent complexity of FM
presents opportunities for encapsulating rich semantic data within BIM”
at the design and construction stages of a building life cycle [17]. The
application of BIM technology in FM “varies depending on the orga-
nizational mission and the requirements of the facilities infrastructure
supporting it,” and the informational needs of different organizations
are quite diverse [1]. With no standard process or set of best practices
for creating an FM-enabled BIM model that addresses all the informa-
tion requirements of different types of organizations, owners are often
unsure of what BIM deliverables and processes demand [18]. Even
though BIM models could support owners in FM-related tasks, facility
managers do not normally use them, since they either do not contain
the information needed [19], or in many cases contain superfluous
information.
2.1. The required information in BIM needed for FM
In order to plan, develop, and deliver FM-enabled BIM, FM per-
sonnel must identify the required data for FM activities and define the
desired levels of detail [14,20]. The Construction Operations Building
Information Exchange (COBie) data format provides a standard for
capturing and recording project handover data created during design,
construction, and commissioning [21]. Because COBie allows for the
storage of a vast amount of different types of data, filling in all the types
of data fields would be overburdening [22,23]. Thus, in spite of the
utility of the COBie format, identifying the required BIM data for FM
activities remains a necessary and critical process [22]. Several studies
have been carried out on this topic. After identifying the potential ap-
plication areas of BIM for FM, Becerik-Gerber et al. [5] showed that
each one of these areas is data-intensive and requires specific data re-
quirements. They initiated a general approach of identifying data re-
quirements [5]. To understand existing FM requirements and the types
of maintainability issues that frequently occur during O&M, Liu and Issa
[14] developed a survey questionnaire to collect input from industry
practitioners. Their research resulted in the development of an initial
list of maintenance problems that should be considered during the
design phase [14]. Sattenini et al. [19] identified which information FM
managers would like to see in a BIM model, and they carried out a
university building case study to assess the performance of a BIM model
with that information. To study the non-geometric building information
needs for FM, Mayo and Issa [24] assembled a Delphi panel of facility
management personnel to establish a list of final BIM products and their
formats. In a university case study, Cavka et al. [25] identified types of
information required by O&M personnel to perform maintenance,
building systems monitoring, and manage assets. Lastly, ongoing re-
search conducted by Dias & Ergan [15] is trying to identify facility
managers' requirements on as-built BIM, with a focus on the main-
tenance of HVAC systems.
2.2. The strategies for capturing FM data during design and construction
phases
Theoretically, an ideal BIM model should perform the following
functions: hold information for different stakeholders throughout a fa-
cility's life cycle [13]; enable transference of facility information from
the design and construction phases to the operations phase; and provide
a reliable facility information database that gives facility managers
integrated views from which to retrieve and analyze information effi-
ciently [26]. However, in actual practice, at the handover phase, facility
managers typically receive a large amount of information in paper or
electronic documents, and must key relevant data into their compu-
terized facility management systems [27]. A number of studies have
been conducted to establish processes that realize the potential of BIM
to support FM by capturing required data throughout the design and
construction phases, and then formatting it for automatic importation
into computerized facility management systems. Studying a university
construction setting, Thabet et al. [22] proposed a BIM-FM workflow,
according to which an owner uses standardized data collection to in-
corporate BIM facility information into project FM systems at close-out
for improved efficiency and more accurate information. For BIM to
include relevant building service information in a useable format, Tian
and Liu [28] proposed a semiotics-inspired framework to extend BIM
beyond a service-oriented perspective. Within this framework, IFC
models are utilized for data exchanges [28]. Borhani et al. [29] studied
the current information exchange best practices developed by academia
and industry and proposed a workflow for BIM data transfer to asset
management systems. Moreover, Orr et al. [30] developed a BIM-based
workflow to capture object attributes and make seamless data transfers
from BIM models into FM systems. This system was assessed for its
applicability and flexibility in support of O&M practices within a uni-
versity's FM department [30]. However, the workflow discussed in this
research does not include the BIM model development process during
design and construction. These studies indicate that capturing, storing,
and transferring facility information cannot be optimized by the simple
adoption of BIM as a new information storage tool; and they further
show that project teams must also deploy a new BIM-enabled process
that first captures project information and then exchanges it in an open
data format, one that is potentially interoperable with different FM
software applications.
2.3. Previous case studies
Table 1 presents a summary of the publications in which BIM
models are developed to support FM in real-world projects. The table
compares the following aspects of these real-world implementation
cases: 1) the purpose of the case study; 2) the discussion of FM tasks
supported by BIM; 3) the discussion of the BIM information needed for
FM; 4) the process of developing the BIM for FM use, if any; and 5)
finally, challenges and barriers. As Table 1 shows, few of the published
case studies provides in-depth information on both “the required in-
formation in BIM needed for FM” and “the process of developing FM-
enabled BIM.” Even though theoretical research on these two topics has
been conducted through surveys, interviews, and group discussions
[5,14,15,19,22,24,28,30], and based on industry professionals' experi-
ence and beliefs, the findings have not been tested and examined within
the context of real-world projects. Thus, the challenges and barriers
associated with implementing the suggested methods and processes
have not yet been clarified. This research aims to bridge this gap by
presenting a pilot project on implementation of FM-enabled BIM, and
by proposing a roadmap for future research in this field.
3. Research method
To date, very little empirical research has been conducted to de-
termine how FM-enabled BIM can be developed during the earlier
P. Pishdad-Bozorgi et al. Automation in Construction 87 (2018) 22–3823

Table 1
BIM-FM case studies.
Case study name Year Author(s) The purpose of the case study (for testing
technology or process, etc.)
The FM tasks that BIM supports Required information in BIM
needed for FM
Process of developing BIM for FM
use during design and construction
phases
Challenges and barriers
encountered in the Case Study
An Anonymous Campus
Building
2010 Akcamete et al.
[31]
To assess the possible benefits of using BIM
for maintenance planning
Using BIM to support identifying
spatial trends for repair activities
and spatial relationships between
them
COBie is mentioned but not
discussed in detail.
Not discussed Briefly discussed
Auburn University's
Construction
Management
Building
2011 Sattenini et al.
[19]
To discuss the information needed by facility
managers within a BIM model
Not discussed Very briefly discussed. No
required information list is
proposed.
Not discussed Not discussed
MediaCityUK project 2012 Arayici et al.
[32]
To investigate how BIM can support effective
and efficient accomplishment of FM tasks
Maintenance operations and
space management
Not discussed Very briefly discussed FM challenges for the
university and for the
university building in
MediaCityUK are discussed.
Texas A&M Health
Science Center
2013 IFMA, Teicholz
[1]
To demonstrate the process of capturing
digital information about the spaces, systems,
and equipment used for facility management.
Preventive maintenance and
emergency situation regarding
operations
Not discussed Very briefly discussed Lessons learned and areas of
improvement are discussed in
detail.
USC School of Cinematic
Arts
2013 IFMA, Teicholz
[1]
To provide an example of BIM FM practices;
to summarize the progression of BIM-to-BIM-
FM across construction; to “demonstrate the
importance of focusing on information within
the BIM process, as well as the need for
integration and the user interfaces necessary
to support the uses of this information for
effective decision making”
Goals for BIM implementation
are discussed in detail; several
FM tasks supported by BIM are
narrated.
Some issues of determining
which data to collect are
discussed, but the required
information is not presented.
Software applications used in the
BIM development process are
discussed in detail, but the process
of developing BIM is not discussed.
Challenges and lessons learned
are discussed in detail.
Xavier University 2013 IFMA, Teicholz
[1]
To describe the use, integration, and delivery
of BIM through all stages of construction
Role of BIM in supporting FM
requirements is discussed, but no
particular FM task is specified.
Not discussed Not discussed Technical obstacles and lessons
learned are discussed in detail.
An Anonymous Real
Estate Development
Organization
2013 Chunduri et al.
[16]
To understand the effectiveness of the
procedures outlined in the BIM Planning
Guide for Facility Owners
Not discussed Not discussed Not discussed Not discussed
Manchester Town Hall
Complex
2014 Kiviniemi &
Codinhoto [33]
To document some of the issues involved in
the adoption of BIM in FM; to identify some
of the enablers of and barriers to BIM
implementation in FM.
Some FM services are listed and
discussed.
Not discussed Not discussed Briefly discussed
Northumbria University's
City Campus
2015 Kassem et al.
[34]
To investigate the value of BIM and the
challenges affecting its adoption in FM
applications
Several FM tasks supported by
BIM are briefly narrated.
Not discussed Not discussed Challenges are discussed.
University of British
Columbia Campus
2015 Cavka et al.
[25]
To understand the potential and the
challenges of transitioning from a paper-
based to a model-based approach in
handover and facility operations.
Maintenance, building systems
monitoring, and manage assets
Information needed for
maintenance, building systems
monitoring, and manage assets
are listed
Not discussed Challenges involved in
transitioning from paper-based
to model-based work flows and
practices are discussed
Penn State University's
Office of Physical
Plant
2015 Terreno et al.
[35]
To identify benefits gained from the effective
integration of BIM in FM
Not discussed Not discussed Not discussed Not discussed
An Anonymous Building 2015 Zadeh et al.
[36]
To test the proposed BIM quality assessment
approaches for FM
Not discussed Not discussed Not discussed Not discussed
An Anonymous
University
2016 Thabet et al.
[22]
To investigate the specific challenges in
determining facility information for use
during facility operations and management
Not discussed Briefly discussed Proposed workflow is discussed Not discussed
Three Anonymous
Universities
2016 Terreno et al.
[37]
To illustrate the key issues, considerations,
and value to be gained from BIM integration
into the FM phase
Not discussed Not discussed Not discussed Briefly discussed
2016 Not discussed Not discussed Not discussed
(continued on next page)
P. Pishdad-Bozorgi et al. Automation in Construction 87 (2018) 22–3824

stages of the building life cycle (i.e., design and construction). This
research examines the planning and development of FM-enabled BIM in
a pilot project to get rich insights into the implementation of an
emerging BIM-based process—in this case, FM-enabled BIM—in a real-
world context. Such in-depth insight cannot be achieved through gen-
eral surveys of large sample populations [39]. Evaluating FM-enabled
BIM implementation in a real-world context is crucial to capturing
lessons learned and defining future research directions [39].
To develop an in-depth understanding of the project, we have ac-
quired and studied a) the BIM contractual and implementation guide-
lines adopted in this project, which are discussed in Section 4.2, b) the
coordinated BIM models for construction and the as-built BIM models of
each discipline, which are discussed in Section 4.3, c) the owner's BIM
component requirement documentation, which are discussed in Section
5.1, and d) the specifications pertaining to BIM data capturing and
mapping to COBie format, which are discussed in Section 5.2. To fully
understand the interoperability issue faced by the project team re-
garding to importing the COBie spreadsheet into the CMMS, we have
also studied the project team's email records, the guide of importing
COBie format spreadsheets into the CMMS, the testing COBie spread-
sheet that has been successfully imported, and the final COBie
spreadsheet that has not been imported successfully. In addition, we
have observed the process of importing COBie spreadsheet into the
CMMS. The difficulties and challenges of data interoperability issue are
discussed in Section 6.1.
Semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders were carried out
to get further insights into the process of developing and delivering FM-
enabled BIM. Five of these interviews were in person, and six were
online interviews. The stakeholders interviewed included the members
of the institute's facilities department (seven individuals), the BIM
consultant team (three individuals), the superintendent of the general
contractor (one individual), the architect and mechanical engineer of
the design company (two individuals), and the mechanical sub-
contractor (one individual). The first round of interviews took place in
September 2013 and January 2014, before the project completed. Then,
after the completion of this project, from October of 2015 to June of
2016, the researchers conducted follow-up interviews. These interviews
were carried out to investigate the results of FM-enabled BIM im-
plementation further, and to discuss the challenges and improvement
opportunities for future advancement in the field. To ensure the ob-
jectivity of this investigation, the research team used a triangulation
method that involved interviews with the following parties: i) a third-
party software and consulting company whose software and service is
centered on BIM quality assurance; ii) the owner and user of BIM data,
which in this case was the facilities department of the institution; and
iii) individuals involved in developing the BIM data. The interviews
were conducted individually, and focused on each interviewee's in-
sights on process effectiveness and lessons learned.
Although the questionnaire was developed to guide the interviews,
the participants had the opportunity to discuss the project and the
process from their own perspectives. Each interview took between 1
and 2 h. All the interviews were audio-recorded, and thematic analysis
was carried out after the records were transcribed. The key pre-
determined questions were designed to correspond to the themes stu-
died, and included the following topics: 1) general project information;
2) the owner's objectives in implementing FM-enabled BIM; 3) BIM
software applications adopted; 4) BIM model development process; 5)
required information for FM; 6) the process of capturing, managing,
and exchanging FM-related BIM data; 7) BIM-enabled handover pro-
cess; 8) the infrastructure needed to implement FM-enabled BIM; and 9)
challenges and lessons learned.
Table 1 (continued)
Case study name Year Author(s) The purpose of the case study (for testing
technology or process, etc.)
The FM tasks that BIM supports Required information in BIM
needed for FM
Process of developing BIM for FM
use during design and construction
phases
Challenges and barriers
encountered in the Case Study
The Kerr Hall East
building of Ryerson
University
Khaja et al.
[38]
To investigate parametric tools that automate
information transfer between BIM models
and FM systems
Space management, occupancy
tracking, work order tracking,
inspection record, report
management
P. Pishdad-Bozorgi et al. Automation in Construction 87 (2018) 22–3825