Australia's Construction Industry: SME and BIM Implementation Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive overview of Australia's construction industry, highlighting its significant role in the country's economic development. It examines the industry's growth drivers, including economic factors, technological advancements, and the adoption of new revolutionary methods such as pre-fabrication, 3D BIM, and 5D Macro-BIM. The report delves into the government's contribution in promoting these methods and the industry's mixed response to these innovations, with a particular focus on the challenges and opportunities for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in adopting Building Information Modeling (BIM). It analyzes the current state of BIM implementation among SMEs, highlighting the barriers to adoption, such as cost, lack of client demand, and technical expertise, while also discussing the increasing trend of BIM usage within the sector and the government's efforts to promote it. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of strategies to facilitate BIM adoption among SMEs to enhance the efficiency of Australia's construction industry.

AUSTRALIA’S CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY
(Author’s name)
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Australia’s Construction Industry
Overview
The Australian Construction Industry evolved to be one of the major drivers of the
country’s economic development. The industry is Australia’s third largest coming after the
mining and finance industries respectively. As at the year 2015, the industry comprised of over
330,000 companies and employed more than a million people representing 9% of the country’s
total workforce (Gerrard et al., 2010). The drastic growth of the industry is largely driven by a
number of economic factors that range from income growth, population growth, technological
development, industry activity, and commodity cycles. The widespread availability, location and
price of resources, including building materials, building equipment and skilled labor are also
factors that have contributed to the rapid growth of the industry (Acar et al., 2005). Another key
factor that has contributed to the growth of the industry is the wide spread adoption of new
revolutionary methods. These methods have been greatly promoted by the state government and
positively accepted y the industry players.
Below is a graph depicting a forecast on the trend of Australia’s construction industry
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(Rodgers et al., 2015).
New Revolutionary Methods in Australia’s Construction Industry
According to a 2016 statistical report produced by the Performance of Construction
Index (PCI), Australia’s construction industry has witnessed increased activity levels over the
last four years. The report cites the adoption of new revolutionary construction methods as the
primary drivers of construction activities in the country. One area of the construction industry
which has faced significant growth due to adoption of revolutionary construction methods is the
residential housing sector. According to 2015 report produced by the National Housing Supply
Council, the country was facing a dwelling shortage of 328,000 in the year 2015 and the shortage
was expected to grow to 640,200 by the year 2030. However due to the adoption of pre-
fabrication construction methods, the cost and time associated with construction have been
significantly decreased.
Through pre-fabrication constructors are able to simultaneously deliver multiple
construction project elements thereby streamlining the construction schedule. The construction
industry is also combining 3 D BIM with pre-fabrication to eliminate some of the potential
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problems in the construction face (Aranda-Mena, Crawford, Chevez, and Froese 2009). Another
new revolutionary construction method that is widely being adopted in Australia’s construction
sector is 5D Macro-BIM. Through this method constructers are able to efficiently determine the
cost and schedule of a construction thereby enabling for efficient delivery (Blayse, and Manley
2004). The country’s construction industry has also widely adopted 3D BIM for modeling
purposes thereby providing for efficient design which helps prevent coordination challenges in
the field.
Governments Contribution
The Australian government has played a significant role in promoting the adoption of
new revolutionary construction methods in the country. The government has implemented
policies to streamline the process of acquiring financing for pre-fabricated buildings. This has
helped to reduce the challenges associated with the proliferation of pre-fabricated construction in
the country. In an effort to drive investment in the construction industry, the government has
established the Infrastructure Australia which is a body mandated to coordinate a national
approach to the future infrastructure needs of the country. The body has also implemented a
number of measures to promote the adoption of sustainable practice in the construction sector
through the development of energy efficient green buildings.
Industry Response
The industry has exhibited mixed response to the adoption of new revolutionary
construction methods. Even though pre-fabricated construction practices have grown
significantly, there is still considerable resistance from small and medium sized construction
firms in the country who face difficulty circumnavigating the challenges associated with
financing for this projects. However, organizations like the Australian Construction Association
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have positively received the new innovations in the construction sector. This is largely due to the
fact that the new methods make the construction process safer, more competitive and more
efficient thereby promoting the welfare of its members.
Building Information Modeling By Small Scale and Medium Scale Construction Firms
Approximately 98% 0f Construction businesses in Australia are categorized as Small and
medium sized enterprises. However, the adoption of BIM is 20% lower among SME
construction firms than it is among large construction firms. The Australian government has been
in the forefront of promoting BIM adoption in the country due to the fact that through BIM
implementation, in construction projects will help foster efficient exchange of data among
individuals involved in a project thereby allowing for the establishment of proper procurement
and logistic systems (Hossein et al., 2016).
In a 2012 study conducted by Newton and Chileshe, it was revealed that despite
government efforts to promote the adaption of BIM among SME, one of the small and medium
sized construction firms that generated less than $10 million utilized BIM (Hosseini et al., 2016).
BIM adoption among SME’s remains low due to the numerous challenges facing it. One of the
major factors inhibiting the widespread adoption of BIM is client demand. In a study conducted
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by the ACA, it was revealed that approximately 73% of SME construction firms that had a staff
base of less than five have complained that there is no demand for BIM amongst their clients
thereby making it an unnecessary expense (Hosseini et al., 2016).
Pie Chart Depicting an Average trend of Firms that use BIM and those that do not
( SME’s with less than 5 staff)
Another major driver of the poor adoption of BMI for SME construction firms is the cost
associated with it. The firms argue that the transition to BIM would require them to invest
significantly on employee training and the needed software. This makes it challenging for the
companies to do so. The Australian construction industry is also faced with a fallacy that BIM is
effective only when dealing with big projects (Gu, and London 2010). This fallacy has led to
apathy on the side of SME construction firms with the regards to the adoption of BIM. The
Australian government is keen to promote the adoption of SME and one way y which it is doing
this is through education programs. The government seeks to educate SME on how they might
take advantage of BIM to reduce their cost of conducting certain projects.
Current state of BMI in Australia’s SME
In a study investigating the current state of BIM adoption for Australian SME’s it was
evident that 58% of all construction firms that qualified to be termed as SME’s did not use BIM
in their business (McCuen 2016). The study also revealed that of those SME’s that had adopted
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BIM, 23.7% had only implemented Level 1, 8.1% had implemented Level 2 and 5.2% had
implemented level 3. This report reveals that even though SME’s constitute 98% of construction
firms in Australia, only 13% of them had experience with using level 1 BIM (McCuen 2016).
The result obtained from this study reflect those obtained by Rodgers et al. (2015) in
another study which demonstrated that 45% of SME’s had used BIM. However, another similar
study conducted by Gerrard et al., (2010) revealed that only 25% of all SME’s in the country
utilized BIM. Based on the discrepancies in these two studies, it is logical to conclude that the
level of BIM adoption amongst SME’s is increasing steadily. The studies have also indicated that
a major problem facing the widespread adoption of BIM within the SME construction sector in
Australia is immaturity of the IM implementation. This is because only 5% of SME’s operating
in the country has used level 3 while 8% have used Level 2 on their projects (Rodgers, Hosseini,
Chileshe, and Rameezdeen 2015). These figures demonstrate that the implementation of an
integrated BIM that has a level of cooperation that is satisfactory is quite a challenge for SME’s.
By comparing research findings from 6 years ago with those of know with regards to the
adoption of BIM, it is evident that the usage of BIM among SME’s is increasing. It is also
evident that the challenges that face the usage of BIM for SME’s remain the same. Most SME
construction firms still believe that there is little to no client interest with regards to the use of
BIM.
Bar Chat comparing SME Usage of BIM between the years 2010 and 2015
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The study also revealed that lack of technical expertise regarding the use of BIM is also
another major challenge facing SME’s in the country (Abuelmaatti 2014). Most SME lack the
resources to train or recruit individuals with specialized BIM skills and as a result they did not
see the need of adopting it. In reviewing the challenges faced with BIM adoption, it was evident
that most of the challenges stemmed from the fact that there was no clear evidence showcasing
the benefits of BIM for small and medium sized businesses. The absences of sufficient proof
regarding the benefits of BIM in small projects have made SME’s to consider the innovation too
risky to adopt (Sharafutdinova, 2015).
Conclusion
From the arguments provided above it is evident that the Australian Construction Sector
is largely driven by services provided by SME’s. The SME’s deal primarily in minor projects
and as a result of this they view BIM to be a risk. However, the recent increase in uptake of
technological innovations within the Australian construction sector and the increase in demand
for housing in Australia are expected to lead to a rise in the number of SME’s that will adopt
BIM. It is also recommended that the government and other institutions within the Australian
construction programs should implement strategies that make it easier for SME’s operating in the
country to adopt the BIM system and as a result increase efficiency of the country’s construction
industry.
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Bibliography
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Hosseini, M.R., Banihashemi, S., Chileshe, N., Namzadi, M.O., Udaeja, C., Rameezdeen, R. and
McCuen, T., 2016. BIM adoption within Australian Small and Medium-sized Enterprises
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