Building Information Modelling in Construction and Engineering Practices

This research paper explores the challenges and barriers to the adoption of Building Information Modelling (BIM) in the construction industry. It examines the level of awareness of the engineering industry towards current technologies, identifies the barriers that manifest in the event of dealing with the implementation and adoption of BIM practices, and predicts the impacts of adopting BIM in an engineering project.

Research Methods In Engineering1
RESEARCH METHODS IN ENGINEERING
By Name
Course
Instructor
Institution
Location
Date

Research Methods In Engineering2
Title
Building information modelling in construction and engineering practices.
Background information
Cost efficiency and interoperability have been difficult to achieve in the construction industry.
These factors are very important when it comes to the final quality of a construction project. In the past,
due to the nonexistence of computer technology, the operations in a construction project were often
tedious, time-consuming, inefficient and costly due to the existence of unnecessary procedures (Bride et
al., 2013).
In spite of its availability, the performance quality of computer technology in the construction
field is still in the initial stages of development and has a long way to go. The reasons associated to this
underdevelopment could be software types and software examples employed by the industry players,
amount of available redundant data and information as well as the transmission of information manually
(Murphy et al., 2013).
It has been figured out that the use of (BIM) could offer a solution to these challenges in the
construction sector. With BIM virtual simulation of construction projects is possible. Unfortunately, users
tend to create the related software tools that tend to address interoperability only in their own aid and not
considering other people’s application concerns. Evidently, the employment of BIM is growing in
popularity within the Engineering world across the world and has become significant and beneficial to the
stakeholders at large. However, more still need to be done for the improvement of the same.
Current state-of-the-art
Interoperability issue has become increasingly important in the realm of the construction industry
as it directly affects the productivity and quality of a construction project. BIM technology has been
brought on board to help streamline the interoperability issues within the construction industry. However,
its adoption is still low in the construction industry of many countries across the world except in the US,
Europe, Australia and Canada where the adoption is quite doing well. In spite of that, there are some
barriers to dealing with BIM. As it was once said, "It is not a problem of knowledge and information on
the usage of ICT; it is always about the cost (Murphy et al., 2013)." Although there is awareness of using
the ICT its investment cost prevented most companies from adopting the BIM technology (Azhar et al.,
2015). Big companies due to their economies of scale and big asset values can afford ICT investment
while most of the small companies cannot adopt this new technology due to their inability to afford it.
Thus, this research will, therefore, seek to identify the barriers that manifest in the event of dealing of of
dealing with the implementation and adoption of BIM practices in various factors such as monetary
factors and other related issues (Steel et al., 2012).
Project objectives
 To examine the level of awareness of the engineering industry towards current technologies.

Research Methods In Engineering3
 To examine the challenges associated with (BIM) and barriers to its adoption in the engineering
industry.
 To find out possible factors which would facilitate adoption and implementation of (BIM).
 To predict the impacts of adopting (BIM) in an engineering project.
Research Methodology
This assignments goal is to focus primarily on the working capital by employing a narrow and a
simple work area. The established objectives aim towards discovering the hidden truths regarding
engineers’ and contractors’ perception of (BIM). In the field of engineering especially quantity survey,
BIM is considered as a significant tool. (Murphy et al, 2013). A positivist theoretical perspective best
concurs with this research topic, thus making the deductive approach the best way to pre-design the topic.
This particular research study tends to navigate through information regarding building information
modelling (BIM) with respect to construction and quantity survey engineering categorizing the research
under exploratory studies. The research data collected for this research study needs to be of vigor and
rigor but of medium level. Due to these forms of factors and categorizations, it is commendable to use the
survey approach since it becomes the most suitable a strategy for doing this research. Survey strategy is
further subdivided into two types that are the analytical type of survey and descriptive type of survey
(Bryde et al, 2013). Analytical survey becomes the most preferred type to do the survey since a research
operating under a deductive mechanism tends to emphasize on the reliability of the data gathered
systematically. Furthermore, the sample size is quite big and geographically dispersed thus justifying the
selection of an analytical approach (Steel et al, 2012).
Precise selection of random samples is the sampling method for this particular survey. Its main
aim is to standardize error-free data and it shows or exhibits the benefits of survey approach over other
such approaches as case-study which has restrictions of generalizability of the findings only to some
principles (Azhar et al, 2015).
It is also appropriate to choose the questionnaire survey technique for the research. It helps to
study and explore the correlation levels of quantity survey engineering and building information
modelling (BIM). Besides, an approach known as a focused interview was also used only with an aim of
seeking the expert's opinion (Steel et al, 2012). It’s worth noting that structured interview technique has a
number of advantages compared to other techniques and approaches. In addition, the structured
interviewing technique also has other benefits and strengths such as consistency and repeatability
(Murphy et al, 2013). With disregard to whether interviews have distinguished advantages or not, the
questionnaire technique became the most preferred choice of technique as a result of the representative
sample being huge in size and widely spread (Azhar et al, 2015).
References.
Azhar, S., Khalfan, M. and Maqsood, T. (2015) Building information modelling (BIM): now and beyond.
Construction Economics and Building, 12(4), pp.15-28.
Bryde, D., Broquetas, M. and Volm, J.M. (2013) The project benefits of building information modelling
(BIM). International journal of project management, 31(7), pp.971-980.

Research Methods In Engineering4
Murphy, M., McGovern, E. and Pavia, S. (2013) Historic Building Information Modelling–Adding
intelligence to laser and image-based surveys of European classical architecture. ISPRS journal of
photogrammetry and remote sensing, 76, pp.89-102
Steel, J., Drogemuller, R. and Toth, B. (2012) Model interoperability in building information
modelling. Software & Systems Modeling, 11(1), pp.99-109.