Mo vi n g t ow ar d s B I M - kth.diva-portal.orgkth.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1229863/FULLTEXT01.pdf · S am m an f at t n i n g Många litteratur föreslog att BIM (Building

DEGREE PROJECT

IN REAL ESTATE AND CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT MASTER OF SCIENCE, 30 CREDITS, SECOND LEVEL

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN 2018

Moving towards BIM: Managing the gap between design and construction

Prisila Putri Pinarsinta Purba

Moving towards BIM: managing the gap between design and construction

Master of Science thesis

Title Moving towards BIM: Managing the gap between design

and construction Author Prisila Putri Pinarsinta Purba Department Real estate and construction management Master Thesis number TRITA-ABE-MBT-18114 Supervisor Väino K. Tarandi Keywords BIM implementation, construction project management,

organisational and contractual arrangement, model-based deliveries, BIM guidelines, knowledge management

Abstract Many literature suggested that BIM (Building Information Modeling) is a promising future for the AEC (Architecture, Engineering, and Construction) industry that offers enormous benefits to its actors, such as improved design quality due to less collision between disciplines and better understanding of building overview for better communication among the project team and decision-making process. However, lack of BIM knowledge and skill, absence of BIM legal acts, huge investment, software limitations, etc, are most of the time becoming barriers for them to reap the full potential of BIM. Especially during the project processes, there is a loss of value in information assets across phases. In a project setting, CPM (construction project management) organisation is believed to be in a key position between the client and the other project team members to encourage BIM implementation, for instance by the ability to formulate BIM guidelines, influence the organisational and contractual arrangement, and mandating model-based deliverables. Yet, this power comes with a bigger responsibility to manage those challenges aforementioned.

The purpose of the study is to investigate the current practise of a chosen CPM organisation, Forsen Projekt AB, and propose a suggestion of improvement to implement BIM during the design and construction phase. This study adopts qualitative method that builds on literature study and semi-structured interview in order to answer the research questions on what are the gaps faced by CPM organisation in implementing BIM and how to align BIM with the CPM practise in order to manage those gaps. The interview with eight different project roles from Forsen and its affiliated organisations in a project setting enables multiple perspectives about the challenges they perceived when working in BIM environment. The findings revealed that the major gaps founded in BIM implementation are related to organisational, legal or contractual, people and process, and IT-capacity. Suggestions on how to bridge those gaps are then formulated accordingly, such as the collaborative organisational structure, BIM general guidelines, and knowledge management strategies.

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Acknowledgement I would like to thank Professor Väino K. Tarandi as my supervisor and Associate Professor Tina Karrbom Gustavsson as my examiner for this master thesis. Their moral support, dedication, and constructive feedback are my driving force throughout this master thesis journey.

I would also like to thank Tomas Uzdanavicius, my supervisor from Forsen, who gave the opportunity to conduct the study in Forsen and arranged the access to the data collection. I also wish to present my profound gratitude to everyone that I have interviewed, whose contribution of time and knowledge I highly appreciate. Hopefully this report will be beneficial for them as well.

Lastly, my gratitude goes to my family and Swedish Institute for its study scholarship support that makes my journey in KTH possible.

Stockholm, May 2018

Prisil� Putr� P.P.

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Examensarbete

Titel Flytta mot BIM: Hantera klyftan mellan design och

konstruktion Författare Prisila Putri Pinarsinta Purba Institution Fastigheter och byggande Examensarbete Master nivå TRITA-ABE-MBT-18114 Handledare Väino K. Tarandi Nyckelord BIM-genomförande, byggprojektledning, organisations-

och kontraktsarrangemang, modellbaserade leveranser, BIM riktlinjer, kunskapshantering

Sammanfattning

Många litteratur föreslog att BIM (Building Information Modeling) är en lovande framtid för AEC (arkitektur, teknik och konstruktion) som erbjuder enorma fördelar för sina aktörer, till exempel förbättrad designkvalitet på grund av mindre kollision mellan discipliner och bättre förståelse för byggande överblick för bättre kommunikation bland projektgruppen och beslutsprocessen. Bristen på BIM-kunskaper och färdigheter, frånvaron av BIM-rättsakter, stora investeringar, programvaru begränsningar, etc, är emellertid oftast hinder för att de kan skörda BIMs fulla potential. Speciellt under projektprocesserna finns värdeminskning i informations tillgångar över faser. I en projektinställning antas CPM-organisation (byggprojektledning) vara en nyckelposition mellan klienten och de andra projektgruppsmedlemmarna för att uppmuntra BIM-genomförandet, till exempel genom förmågan att formulera BIM-riktlinjer, påverka organisatoriska och avtalsmässiga arrangemang , och mandatmodellbaserade leveranser. Ändå kommer denna kraft med ett större ansvar för att hantera de utmaningar som nämns ovan.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka den nuvarande praxisen hos en utvald CPM-organisation, Forsen Projekt AB, och föreslå ett förslag om förbättring för att implementera BIM under design och konstruktionsfasen. Denna studie antar kvalitativ metod som bygger på litteraturstudie och halvstrukturerad intervju för att svara på forskningsfrågorna om vilka luckor som CPM-organisationen står inför för att implementera BIM och hur man anpassar BIM med CPM-praxis för att hantera dessa luckor. Intervjun med åtta olika projektroller från Forsen och dess anknutna organisationer i en projektinställning möjliggör flera perspektiv på de utmaningar som de uppfattar när de arbetar i BIM-miljö. Resultaten visade att de stora luckorna som grundas i BIM-genomförandet är relaterade till organisatoriska, juridiska eller avtalsmässiga, människor och processer och IT-kapacitet. Förslag på hur man överbryggar dessa luckor formuleras därefter i enlighet med den samarbetsorganisationsstruktur, BIM: s allmänna riktlinjer och strategier för kunskapshantering.

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Abbreviations

AEC Architecture, Engineering, Construction

BIM Building Information Modeling

CAD Computer Aided Design

CPM Construction Project Management

DB Design and Build, equivalent to ABT-06 in Swedish practice

DBB Design-Bid-Build, equivalent to AB-04 in Swedish practice

DMS Document Management System

ICT Information and Communication Technology

IFC Industry Foundation Classes

IPD Integrated Project Delivery

IS/IT Information System / Information Technology

LoD Level of Detail

RFI Request For Information

2D Lengths and width (two dimension)

3D Lengths, width, and depth (three dimension)

4D 3D model connected to a timeline (four dimension)

5D 4D model connected to cost estimation (five dimension)

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Table of contents Introduction 8

Background 8

Aim and research questions 9

Delimitation 9

Disposition 9

Literature study 11

Benefits and challenges of BIM implementation 11

Collaborative contractual arrangement and process workflow 12

IPD, project partnering, and strategic alliance 12

BIM process workflow 14

IS strategy 15

Theoretical framework 16

Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) 16

IT and organisational change 17

Methodology 18

Research approach 18

Literature study 18

Semi-structured interview 18

Empirical findings 22

BIM use and benefits 22

BIM challenges 23

Lack of knowledge, skills, and appropriate tools 23

Huge investment that requires careful planning and consistency 25

Contractual arrangement and payment form that does not support BIM 26

Analysis and discussion 29

Perceived usefulness of BIM tools 31

Knowledge management strategies and BIM guidelines 32

BIM legal acts and contractual arrangement 35

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Is the role of BIM consultant needed? 36

Conclusion 38

Generalisation and limitation 39

Sustainability 40

Recommendations for future studies 40

References 41

Appendix 44

Interview questions 44

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1. Introduction

1.1. Background

Technology is boosting the implementation of more industrialized and productive models of management and construction (Àlvarez et al . 2017) and BIM is one of this technological innovation in the AEC industry . BIM, which can be defined as an information or data representation containing geometry, spatial relationship, geographic information, quantities, and component properties that can be used to simulate building life-cycle (Atkin and Brooks 2015), has changed the way buildings are designed, constructed, and operated (Azhar et al. 2012). Actors in the AEC industry can define the properties unambiguously by classifying the structure of the model universally, enabling product data exchanges between them (Atkin and Brooks 2015). Since the information in BIM is digital and shared around the team and stakeholders, consistency and coordination in using and producing information is highly important to increase the efficiency and reduce waste. It could also lead to increased reliability and thereby informing the decision making.

A previous study conducted by Svalestuen et al . (2017) shows that the use of BIM enable to mitigate some of the challenges between design and construction by fewer change orders and faster decisions, better coordination among trades, better control of quantities, increase constructability, etc. However, according to McGraw-Hill Construction (2009), BIM is less used by the production teams compared to the architect who is a heavy user of it. IT tools, such as BIM, is primarily used for the design process and administrative functions rather than as support for the production process (Gustavsson et al . 2012). There is a gap between optimistic predictions on the positive effects of BIM and the actual implementation and use of BIM, wherein several challenges are identified (Bosch-Sijtsema et al. 2017).

One gap that is commonly experienced is that there is a loss of value in information assets across phases (Eastman et al. 2011). This could be motivated by BIM deliverables between parties that are not clearly defined (McGraw-Hill Construction 2009). A study conducted by Samuelson and Björk (2014) suggested that obscurity regarding BIM requirements in a project could be motivated by insufficient knowledge about the technology and uncertainty about the concrete benefits that can be achieved. Similar research by Gustavsson et al. (2012) found that the use of IT tools is widely spread in Swedish construction industry, yet the knowledge and understanding on how to benefit from using it is less developed. Another critique going in the other direction implied that there is a lack of model-based templates and that BIM models are difficult to produce despite of the client’s requirements (Samuelson and Björk 2014). Consequently, the consultants are commonly produce their own models for each phase and fail to reuse the information available in the existing format. Eastman et al. (2011) added that while the use of BIM technology is increasing rapidly, it is in the early stages of broad implementation and contractors are using many different approaches to leverage this new technology.

Eynon (2016) argues that a ‘true’ BIM contract will need to be founded on collaborative working, openness and trust, which enable collaborative work and fully integrated design solutions, such as

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IPD and project partnering. A good implementation plan should therefore involves making sure that management and other key staff members acquire a thorough understanding of how BIM is used to support specific work processes (Eastman et al . 2011), which implies the importance of managing changes from the individual level. Once the members of an organisation have identified a need for change and have widely shared this need, it becomes difficult to ignore, and the pressure for change comes from within the organisation (Schein 1999). Likewise, Bosch-Sijtsema et al . (2017) suggests that the main driver responsible for BIM implementation is mainly determined by an individual’s subjective positive or negative evaluation of BIM, instead of external pressure from clients and partners or by the internal capacity and knowledge to use BIM. It is therefore of high importance to raise individual’s understanding and perceived value of BIM, to drive its adoption in the industry. On the whole, BIM visions and promises for its implementation need to be complemented with a more realistic view of implementation conditions (Miettinen and Paavola 2014).

1.2. Aim and research questions

The aim of this study is to investigate the current practice of CPM in Forsen Projekt AB and propose a suggestion of improvement to implement BIM during the design and construction phase. The research questions are formulated as follow, in order to reach the aim aforementioned:

● RQ1. What are the gaps faced by Forsen as a CPM organisation in implementing BIM? ● RQ2. How to align BIM with the CPM practice in order to manage the gap between design and

construction phase of a project?

RQ1 will be addressed in the empirical finding section and RQ2 will be addressed in the analysis section, which is a synthesis between the literature studies, theoretical frameworks, and empirical findings.

1.3. Delimitation

The study limit itself on the construction project practises in Sweden. More specifically, it is limited to a chosen CPM organisation as a studied object and other organisations affiliated to it in the construction project settings. Further explanation will be presented in Chapter 4 about the research method.

1.4. Disposition

In overview, this thesis report is presented in seven main chapters.

Chapter 1 presents the general description of the subject area, which consists of the background, aim of research, research problems, and the limitation of the study.

Chapter 2 presents deeper reasoning on the subject area that have been done by other scholars, namely benefits and challenges of BIM, collaborative contractual arrangement and process workflow, and IS strategy.

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Chapter 3 presents the related concepts or theories that will help understanding the research problems, that consists of Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and IT and organisational change.

Chapter 4 explains how the study is conducted and motivates why specific methods are chosen. Given the nature of the study, this research adopted literature study and semi-structured interview methods. Implication on the research ethics of the chosen methods is then followed.

Chapter 5 presents the empirical finding from the interview. The finding is structured per subject area in relation with the research problem about the challenges of implementing BIM during the design and construction phase.

Chapter 6 relates the empirical finding with the literatures and theories in order to answer the main research question on how to manage the gap between design and construction phase of a project. This at the same time provides the contribution of this study for both theory and practice.

Chapter 7 presents the conclusion of the study, remarks on generalisation and limitation, reflection on the three pillars of sustainability, and recommendation to both the construction industry and further studies.

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2. Literature study

Literature studies about the benefits and challenges of BIM implementation, collaborative contractual arrangement and process workflow, and IS strategy, will be grounded as bases for logical understanding of concept and theories relevant for the subject to be studied. The literatures will help to address the research questions on the challenges faced by CPM organisations in implementing BIM and how to align BIM with the CPM practice in order to manage the gap between design and construction phase of a project.

2.1. Benefits and challenges of BIM implementation

For BIM to be accepted by the project team members, first of all it is important for them to realize and understand how it can benefit the project and more importantly, their organisations. For instance, a contractor organisation will automatically opted to use BIM in their production if they can see that the construction time can be shortened and variation can be minimized with BIM, regardless the absence of demand from the owner to use it. BIM coordination improves communication, which decreases construction cost and time, thus reducing risk. A detailed building model is a risk-mitigation tool for estimators that can significantly reduce bid costs, because it reduces the uncertainty associated with material quantities (Eastman et al. 2011).

Figure 2.1. Model-based delivery that outperformed the traditional delivery methods throughout

the building life-cycle (Source: Eastman et al . 2011)

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As an addition, Bryde et al . (2013) said that BIM is potential for construction project managers in improving collaboration between stakeholders, reducing projects’ documentation time, and hence, producing beneficial project outcomes, through its geometrical modelling, information output, and project management-related tools and processes.

Despite of its promising future for the construction industry, BIM implementation still faces challenges that needs to be conquered before the benefits can be reaped. Matthews et al . (2017) argued that it is the lack of BIM knowledge instead of shortage of training that hinder BIM use in construction. Hence, incorporating education and learning into a project’s BIM implementation strategy is deemed necessary. Besides educational institutions, construction industry as a whole is responsible to meet the need for BIM education. They need to work together to ensure that the workforce is provided with the education and competencies to adapt to the new working environment, because BIM, as one form of IS, can greatly change the day-to-day tasks, which eventually change the skills needed by the workers (Pearlson and Saunders 2010).

Technical issues such as interoperability between different BIM software packages are likely to be resolved over time by the IT company suppliers or software vendors. A more difficult challenge to be addressed is issue related to people agreement on common IT platform, collaboration to share the BIM data models and not restricting the information flow to and from other parties by looking to protect ownership and intellectual property rights of BIM-generated output (Bryde et al. 2013). Hoar et al . (2017) added that it is a challenge to manage information and data exchange between organisations within teams and across technical interfaces, before BIM can be regarded as a standard working process in the construction industry. While technology is in place, the people and the processes with which they work are lagged some way behind.

2.2. Collaborative contractual arrangement and process workflow

2.2.1. IPD, project partnering, and strategic alliance

According to Miettinen and Paavola (2014), BIM is a technology and an emerging new collaborative practice that requires new contractual arrangement: a shift from fragmented into integrated way of construction. Likewise, Winch (2010) and Eastman et al . (2011) implied that implicit in the implementation of BIM is a change in the relationship between the members of the project coalition, and a greater emphasis upon collaboration that build trust and common goals. Increasing globalisation and developed collaboration such as IPD (Integrated Project Delivery), project partnering, and strategic alliances, increase inter-organisational communication and developing information exchange by the use of IT-tools such as BIM (Gustavsson et al. 2012).

IPD is a method of delivering a project that integrates people, systems, business structures and practices, in a process that collaboratively puts to work the talents and visions of all participants to reduce losses and optimize efficiency through all phases of design, manufacturing and construction, according to AIA California Council (2014). IPD contract

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integrates the main project team members from the beginning of the project in order to achieve close collaboration among them, which is the keys to effective use of BIM technology (Eastman et al . 2011). The contract defines BIM software tools that the project team members will use and the information-sharing server solutions the project will support, for the benefit of the project as a whole. As illustrated on Figure 2.2.1 below, under IPD contracts, the owner, along with other core project team members, plays an active role through the life of the project and taking part in decision-making at all levels.

IPD aims to take project team integration into a trustful and communicative level by sharing the risk and reward of a project through common target project goals (Liu et al. 2017). The benefits of the project team involved are obtained based on the degree of success or failure achieved, measured in terms of price compliance, execution time, and quality of the building (AIA California Council 2007).

Figure 2.2.1. Integrated project organisation (SSA Engineers, Prahadevi, Mumbai, 2009,

with some adjustment )

Other project organisation structure that promotes collaboration is strategic alliance. It is a cooperative arrangement between two or more organisations that forms part of their overall strategy and contributes to achieving major goals and objectives (Gustavsson, 2016). Successful alliancing requires creativity, trust, commitment, interdependence, cooperation, open communication, goal alignment, and joint problem-solving (Peters et al . 2001).

Similar to this is project partnering; a collaboration form which addresses the possible benefits of BIM. Partnering focuses on close relationships between project team with trust and openness and emphasize on best value instead of just lowest cost (Liu et al. 2017). It has been presented as a potentially important way of improving construction project

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performance through direct benefits it can bring to both clients and contractors (Bresnen and Marshall 2000).

2.2.2. BIM process workflow

Researchers increasingly see a potential for model-based systems to make the handling of project changes more efficient (Bröchner and Badenfelt 2011) and Lindblad (2017) suggested that the main tool used to induce BIM use is by demanding model-based delivery of project information. A recent study conducted by Gaunt (2017) implied that working in a model-only environment enable to bring the project team closer together to gain greater understanding of the design earlier in the design process.

As illustrated in Figure 2.2.2 below, model-based delivery has driven far greater levels of engagement on the digital design models and subsequently reduces the design delivery and change process, enables more saving compared to the more traditional delivery methods. Again, it requires improvement of skill levels and engagement across all parties and the construction industry, that is also supported with softwares that meet the need of engineers who approve and review each design model. Implementation of model-based delivery approach requires open-mindedness, collaboration, and willingness from all parties.

Figure 2.2.2. Model-based deliveries that could significantly reduce design change

process (Source: Gaunt 2017)

Liu et al. (2017) pinpoint that there is a reluctance for designers and contractors to initiate new workflows due to the economic benefit distribution, while the owner is looking for an instant return on investment. For every party to be able to harvest their deserved profits, the use of BIM should be accompanied with increasing collaborative working for shared benefit following the information flow from the design to the contractor.

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Regarding the BIM workflow, Pučko et al . (2014) suggested that architects have to develop the 3D building model and determine required works, when initial design phases are executed to be incorporated into the BIM application. 3D models of the construction object must be created on the basis of geometrical and material properties of building elements, instead of classical 2D drawings. After that, engineers can upgrade the 3D model with a wide variety of different information, then contractor may execute the cost estimates and project scheduling. When the building model is upgraded with suitable input data, the contractors may obtain in each moment, for each building element, all relevant information for the execution of works, such as type of building elements, geometrical quantities, number of items, resources needed for implementation, execution times of project activities, technology implementation, costs, etc.

2.3. IS strategy

Utilizing IS (Information System) in the construction industry has been a huge issue to enhance productivity of construction projects throughout their life cycle and across different construction business functions. Since IS concept in construction is broad and subjective, formulating comprehensive frameworks of IS in construction would therefore effectively facilitate the strategic utilization of IS (Jung and Joo 2010). Failure to consider IS strategy when planning business strategy and organisational strategy leads to several business consequences, such as IS that fail to support business goals, IS that fail to support organizational systems, and a misalignment between business and organizational strategies, which can cause a company to miss business opportunities and any revenues those opportunities would generate (Pearlson and Saunders 2010).

Figure 2.3. IS strategy triangle (Pearlson and Saunders 2010)

As suggested by Figure 2.3, there are three key points about strategy that needs to be carefully balanced and complement each other: business, organisational, and information strategy. The decisions made regarding the structure, hiring practices, and other components of the organizational strategy, as well as decisions regarding applications, hardware, and other IS components, are all driven by the organisation’s business objectives, strategies, and tactics. IS strategy always involves consequences within business and organisational strategies, thus they should be considered when designing IS deployment. For instance, placing computers on employee desktops should be accompanied by set of changes to job descriptions, process design, compensation plans, and business tactics to produce the anticipated productivity improvement (Pearlson and Saunders 2010).

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3. Theoretical framework

Some theories are carefully selected to aligned the research questions, that are the technology acceptance model (TAM) and IT and organisational change.

3.1. Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)

Employees may resist to change if they view the changes as negatively affecting them. In the case of a new IS (Information System) that they do not fully understand or are not prepared to operate, employees may resist in several ways, such as denying that the system is up and running, sabotaging the system by distorting or otherwise altering inputs, trying to convince themselves and others that the new system really will not change the status quo, and refusing to use the new system where its usage is voluntary.

Figure 3.1. Simplified TAM (Source: Pearlson and Saunders 2010)

Therefore, system implementers and managers must actively manage the change process and gain acceptance for new IS in order to avoid the negative consequences of resistance to change. Managers cannot get employees to use a system until they want to use it. Figure 3.1 above illustrates that to convince the employees, managers may need to change the employee attitudes about the system, which is possible to be done if employees believe that the system will allow them to do more or better work for the same amount of effort (perceived usefulness), and that it is easy to use. Training, documentation, and user support consultants, are external variables that may help explain the usefulness of the system and make it easier to use (Pearlson and Saunders 2010). Before the employees can see the benefit of using the BIM tools or devices, first they need to know how to use it, thus a proper training in the implementation of a new tools, system, or method, will help to avoid their scepticism (Svalestuen et al. 2017).

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Furthermore, having the employees to participate in the system’s design and implementation is a way to ensure that their attitudes and beliefs are favorable to it. Beside allows the employees to better understand how the system works and thus make them easier to use it, involving employees in the systems’ design and development enables them to be more aware of the trade-offs that is inevitably occur during the system implementation, thus they will be more eager to accept the consequences of it (Pearlson and Saunders 2010).

3.2. IT and organisational change

Brynjolfsson and Hitt (2003) implies that it is the investments into organisational change and improved work practices that generate increases in productivity rather than the implementation of IS/IT in itself. Introducing a new technology into an organisation is generally aimed as an improvement to increase productivity. When substantial changes to work practice can be done, the benefits of BIM use can be obtained. The relationship between new technology and organisational change becomes relevant when studying the process towards the expected organisational changes (Lindblad 2017). According to Orlikowski (1992), there are three different causal relationships that have been found between technology and organisational change, from the perspective of which role the technology plays in the organisation:

a. Technological imperative. In this perspective, technology is viewed as exogenous force that have a large impact on the behaviour of the individual and the organisation.

b. Organisational imperative . In contrast with the technological imperative, this perspective assumes that technology is influenced by the context in which it is implemented.

c. Emergent perspective . This perspective, which is more like a combination between the earlier two, assumes that the influence of IT on the organisation emerge unpredictably as a result of complex social interactions. Technology is viewed as a trigger for structural change.

Hence, different analysis that can be drawn about the relation between new technology and organisational change depends on the perspective taken. Although those three views do not represent all perspectives of this process, they show that it becomes relevant to study both the technology in itself and also the environment and the context where the technology is to be used, when studying how technology influences change in an organisation (Lindblad 2017).

Companies that have invested in IT tools do not always reach the desired competitive advantages because they are still acting within the same process as before that primarily focused on repetitiveness and standardisation, rather than innovation and business development. As it is also a process that the organisation shares with all other project team members, cooperating and developing in the same direction at the same time is therefore required to reach major effects of IT investments, because it is not easily changed by one single actor (Gustavsson et al . 2012). IT enable business transformation within a single organisation, but the benefits of IT are realized to their fullest only once the changes include the organisations network of partners (inter-organisational change) (Lindblad and Vass 2015).

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4. Methodology

4.1. Research approach

As the purpose of this study is to find out what is happening and seek new insight on how to manage the gap between design and construction phase in a project, this is so-called an exploratory-inductive study. Inductive means that the data are collected and a theory is developed as a result of the data analysis, which generates new understandings and worldviews as contribution (Saunders et al . 2016). The study is based on qualitative method with data collected from interviews, in order to holistically understand human experience in context-specific settings. The empirical data is then analysed and compared to the theoretical findings from the literature study, as a basis to formulate suggestion for improvement. A CPM organisation, Forsen Projekt AB (which further will be referred as Forsen in this report), is chosen as a studied object in this research.

4.2. Literature study

Literatures from academic journals, handbooks, master thesis, postdoctoral thesis, lecture notes, magazine, and online publications in the area of BIM is used to present previous researches that have been done. Greater emphasis is put on the literature about BIM requirements, BIM challenges, contractual arrangement and BIM legal act as deliverables, and emerging roles and skills due to the changed process in BIM working environment.

4.3. Semi-structured interview

As one in the best position to see the emerging threats and utilize IS effectively, managers must be the knowledgeable participants in the IS decisions made within and affecting their organisation (Pearlson and Saunders 2010). Therefore, it is important to understand the reasons taken by the managers for their decisions, attitudes, and opinions about managing the project under BIM working environment, by conducting a semi-structured interview with them. This method is chosen as it allows wider discussion to hold together the interviews around the defined areas and the selected theoretical frameworks (Samuelson and Björk 2014). Gaining multiple perspectives from the project team members will allow thorough problem analysis and thus appropriate suggestion for improvement can be formulated.

The interview plan (see Appendix) consists of general part that is intended for all respondents and specific part that is tailored for different roles in a project. The interview plan, that are mostly open-ended questions, in general covers the respondent’s experience and perceived benefits and constraints when working in BIM. Specifically, it also tries to explore other subjects that are likely to influence BIM adoption in a project practise, such as BIM-related requirements on the contract document, procurement channel, payment form, process flow, and collaboration between the project team. All interviews were transcribed and analysed following an interpretative process to

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gain a holistic understanding (Gustavsson et al. 2012) of the use of BIM in the design and construction phase.

In this study there are eight respondents representing different roles in a project. The design manager and construction manager are from Forsen and the other respondents are from its affiliated organisations in the project settings, that are the owner and contractor. Six out of eight respondents are involved in two chosen projects that are currently handled by Forsen, while the other two respondents, CTx and DMx, are giving their views as BIM practitioners in other construction projects they are involved in. The respondents details are presented on Table 4.3 below.

Table 4.3. Respondent’s details

No. Respondent Position Organisation type Project

1 CM1 Construction Manager CPM (Forsen) Project 1

2 CM2 Construction Manager CPM (Forsen) Project 2

3 CTx (Contractor)

Design Manager Glass facade designer and producer

-

4 DM1 Design Manager CPM (Forsen) Project 1

5 DM2 Design Manager CPM (Forsen) Project 2

6 DMx Design Manager CPM (Forsen) -

7 OW1 (Owner 1) Project Manager Real estate developer Project 1

8 OW2 (Owner 2) Project Manager Real estate developer Project 2

Regarding the interview method, it is wise to acknowledge that even though the respondents are representing specific role in a project, the answers they gave are their individual perspectives that do not represent their organisation’s perspective in general. As one’s perspective is highly influenced by their knowledge, skills, and experiences, it is necessary to acknowledge their backgrounds and the nature of the projects they are working on, to understand them.

● CM1 has thirty years working experience onsite and then as construction manager. In Project 1, CM1 is responsible for time schedule, manage the contractors, and control the budget during production.

● CM2 has an academic background as construction engineer and has been working in Forsen since fifteen years ago. CM2 has been involved in Project 2 since the beginning of it for several years back. As construction manager, CM2 has the same responsibilities as CM1 aforementioned and also making sure of the safety onsite.

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● CTx has an education background in civil engineering and four years working experience in a construction company before working in his current organisation, a glass facade designer and producer, for the last six years as facade design manager.

● DM1 has been working as design manager in Project 1 and two other buildings in the same development, for the last four years. Prior to that, DM1 has three years experience as structure designer and long before, DM1 has been involved also in international civil engineering projects. In Project 1, DM1 is responsible to coordinate consultants, make sure that the demand from tenants are included, control the economy by making sure that the design is according to the budget , and coordinating the end-product to meet the local regulation.

● DM2 has been working in Forsen as design manager for two and a half years. DM2 has prior working experiences as electrical consultant and electrical contractor.

● DMx started working in precast industry as BIM designer about ten years ago. DMx has been working in Forsen as design manager for the last six months and currently involved in five to six projects.

● OW1 has an education background in architecture. OW1 has been working with project management and design management for the last several years. In Project 1, OW1 represents the client as a project manager that responsible for the budget, time schedule, and ensuring the quality as required by the client.

● OW2 graduated from civil engineering program in 1999 and have worked ever since in project management in several different companies, such as consultancy and real estate developer. As project manager from client organisation in Project 2, OW2 responsible for the tenants, rents, and project cost.

● Project 1 is a renovation of a 64,000 sqm hospital building project in Stockholm, owned by a public client. The contracts with the project team are mostly DBB or AB-04, where Forsen is involved as design and construction management consultant.

● Project 2 is a 25,000 sqm office building project in Stockholm, owned by a private client. The contracts with the project team are mostly DBB or AB-04 where Forsen is involved as design and construction management consultant. There are approximately 15 to 17 design consultants and 133 contractors that are involved in Project 2.

Respondents privacy is guaranteed in this study, which has been informed to them prior to the interview. Besides respondents from Forsen, other respondents organisations are kept anonymous in order to avoid any harm or disadvantages. The report contains no sensitive information and has been through several discussions and controls from the supervisor in Forsen. All interviews are documented by a voice recording and the transcript is made afterwards, in order to make sure that no information is lost or misinterpreted. It is also worth mentioning that the author has no affiliation or conflict of interest with the respondents nor any products mentioned in this report.

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Reliability and validity as central judgments of the research quality have been taken into consideration throughout the research process. Reliability refers to the ability to replicate an earlier research design and achieve the same findings (consistency), while validity refers to the appropriateness of the measures used, accuracy of the analysis of the results and generalisability of the findings (Saunders et al . 2016). The implication of reliability and validity of the study will be justified on the conclusion part.

Figure 4.3.a. Illustration of Project 1 (Source: Forsen’s documentation)

Figure 4.3.b. Illustration of Project 2 (Source: owner’s website )

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https://humlegarden.se/nyheter-och-press/2017/ny-kontorsfastighet-i-solna-signerad-stjarnarkitekter/


5. Empirical findings

Interview with different project roles provides an overview of challenges, benefits, and expectations of BIM according to their interests. Table 5.0 summarizes the findings, which major points experienced by most of the roles will be explained in greater details below.

Table 5.0. Summary of empirical findings from the interview with different project roles

Experienced by (role):

OW DM CM CT

Use of BIM: - 3D model presentation for communication and coordination - Clash control - Quantity takeoff - Drawing or document management - Track the progress onsite

x

x x x x

x x x x

x x

Challenges of using BIM: - Lack of BIM knowledge across organisations in the industry - Requires more money, time, and energy, thus raises doubts

whether or not BIM is beneficial - Tools or programs that are not appropriate for some purposes - The model is not required as a deliverables in the contracts - Requires a careful planning and consistency - Most of the workers on site are not used with digital tools to

navigate the model & has limited access to them (i.e. tablets) - Rigor payment form (i.e. fixed-price for the contractors and

per-hour payment for the consultants)

x x x x x

x x x x x x x

x x x x

x x x

Benefits of using BIM: - Better understanding of building overview that helps in

decision making and improve project team communication - Improved design quality and constructibility because of less

collision between disciplines - Assurance of correct quantities

x x

x x x

x x

x

Note: OW: Owner, DM: Design Manager, CM: Construction Manager, CT: Contractor

5.1. BIM use and benefits

All of the project roles see that the most beneficial things they perceived from BIM is as a 3D presentation tool for communication and coordination among the team that provides better understanding of building overview and helps in decision making. This is especially beneficial for owners and tenants in the planning phase and for the onsite worker during the production phase. Other than that, all the respondents indicated that BIM is used to check the collision between disciplines. It is a prominent benefit that is experienced by them since it helps to detect errors early in the process, thus the design quality is highly improved and the errors in the production phase can

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be greatly minimized. In terms of design and quantities assurance, the contractor can benefits the most from it, since less errors during the production phase means less cost to them. However, it does not affect the owner since the contract is, most of the time, fixed-price.

Figure 5.1. 3D model on Project 1. In this project, BIM is used for presentation, coordination, and

collision control between disciplines (Source: Forsen documentation)

CM2 realizes that there are a lot more that can be done with BIM than what it is currently done in Project 2, such as for 4D and 5D BIM, but they are not doing it because it takes some times to input the informations on the 3D model. CM2 added that working in BIM is a huge thing because it involves a lot of people that is involved in a project. However, CM2 thinks that the 3D model will be a simple tool to have for the technical and operational phase of the building, besides just for the planning and construction phase that have been widely discussed. For instance, when some part of the building is broken and need to be replaced, then one can simply click on that specific item on the 3D model and get all the information needed to order the new one, such as the dimension and which factory produces it. This will be beneficial especially for the owners since they will hand-over their properties to other organisations to take care of, for a long period of time.

5.2. BIM challenges

5.2.1. Lack of knowledge, skills, and appropriate tools

All of the project roles that have been interviewed indicate that currently the lack of BIM knowledge is prevalent in their organisations. OW1 has previously tried to make their cost estimator to do the calculation based on the model and not the drawings, but it did not work out well because they did not feel comfortable nor did they have the knowledge to use the model. OW1 could have asked an external estimator to do the calculation based on the model, but there was not a lot of good estimator to do that, which perhaps was motivated by their prior bad experiences. CM2 added that the tools to bring further to 4D and 5D BIM is

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in place, but the people to do it is not there yet. This indicates that lack of BIM knowledge and skills is an issue across organisations in the construction industry: owner, CPM, contractor, etc. The production workers also currently have limited access to digital tools to navigate the model onsite, like tablets and iPads. DMx added that the production workers are not used to work with 3D models onsite. Similarly, DM2 implied that the production workers are sometimes lagging behind the consultants in terms of digitalisation in construction, thus it will take a lot of learning for them.

However, most of the respondents believes that in the coming years (ten to fifteen years according to DM2), ‘new generation’ that will enter the construction industry will be more BIM knowledgeable, as they are growing up with digital tools and hopefully be synergized with the appropriate education in the universities. What should be improved according to OW1 and DM1 is for the engineers to be not only good in softwares, but also combine it with practical or technical building knowledge, so that the model they produced is not just good and contains the required informations, but also constructability-correct or able to be built.

Figure 5.2.1. BIM work process diagram for the contractor, showing that the model from the architect, structure, and other related building services engineers as a starting point for

his work (Source: CTx documentation)

Besides lack of BIM knowledge and skills, many of the respondents implied that some BIM tools for their specific roles are failed to meet their needs, thus they have to work with several different software programs. DM1, DM2, and CM1 said that the 3D model programs they used to use, Tekla and Naviswork, does not have such tool to manage the

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contractors work, which is one of their key responsibility. Due to the program limitation, CM1 use several tools to assist him: Naviswork to extract the information from the 3D model, BlueBEAM to track the progress onsite, and Azta Powerproject to make the time schedule. CM1 does not connect the 3D model for automated time scheduling (4D) and cost estimation (5D) because most likely it will be incorrect, unless every little detail is inputted in the model, which is time consuming and he found impractical since he already knows what to do based on his previous experiences. Furthermore, CM1 added that the softwares do not understand particular conditions in the production site which can affect the time schedule, such as the case in Project 1, which is a renovation project. Therefore CM1 cannot trust the software program to do the automated time-scheduling from the 3D model. The time-scheduling and cost estimation tools will be more useful in the early planning phase of a new project, to give an overview of the construction period and cost estimates, but not during the production phase, according to CM1 and DM1.

CTx added that currently the softwares for his industry (glass facade design and production) is unprepared, unlike a more common industry such as precast system and steel structure. Therefore CTx needs to make a custom solution to produce the installation drawing, like a combination of Revit, Inventor, and their own software, Schuecal, for facade and door work. When combining several different programs, it is hard to make them to ‘talk’ to each other as they are using different kind of information and database, according to DM2. That is when the interoperability issue arised.

5.2.2. Huge investment that requires careful planning and consistency

Many of the respondents question whether or not doing a project in BIM is worth its huge investment in money, time, and energy. Will the informations be useful, not just during the design and construction phase, but also for the operational and maintenance phase? Hence, starting a project takes a lot of planning and communication between the project team members to formulate some kind of BIM manual, such as to decide for what purpose BIM is going to be used and therefore what information is necessary to make it as simple and as useful as possible and what tools to use, according to DM1 and DMx. Furthermore, CTx and DMx stated that the decision whether or not to use BIM depends also on the project scale and considering other project team member’s experiences with BIM. BIM is required in a huge project due to its complexity that would be impossible to be done without, whereas smaller scale project most likely will be cheaper to be done just in 2D. Working in BIM also requires the design team to have a good conceptual understanding early in the process, in order to avoid perpetual changes that will cost a lot of money. According to DM1 and OW1, currently some project teams can draw very good in the model, but become less specialist in their technical disciplines.

Other than a good planning, working in BIM requires willingness from all the project team regarding making changes on the model. As changes in project processes are inevitable, it is of great importance to do both minor and major design changes in the model. This could

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be a barrier because even making a minor change in the model takes more time compared to do it in a specific 2D drawing, according to OW1, DM1, and DMx. Consequently, the project becomes more costly because the team who is responsible for the changes is paid per hour based. Moreover, it will also takes more time for other concerned consultant to update the model because every changes made in one discipline will affects other disciplines in someway. On the other hand, making changes in the model is beneficial because it provides comprehensive understanding of what consequences is emerged, according to OW1 and DM1, and thus have better control of it, according to DMx.

Documentation of every changes is also vital during the production phase, where there are numerous deviation from the design. According to DM2, the contractors have no right to do the changes on the model because that is the authority of the consultants or the designers. This is an issue because many production workers did not report the changes they have made to the designers or the responsible ones, or they updated the changes only on the dwg files or 2D drawings. According to CM2, it is the responsibility of the CPM organisation to compile and update every as-built drawing from the contractors, for hand-over to the owner after completion of the construction. If the model is not updated, then it will become obsolete and every effort given to it will be pointless because it cannot be used for further purposes.

5.2.3. Contractual arrangement and payment form that does not support BIM

Other major limitation to adopt BIM that can be inferred from the respondents is that the model is not required as deliverables on the contracts from the project team. In most cases, the owners require 2D drawings in digital format for deliverables, so if there are any issues arise later in the project, they have something to look at as a reference point, and that is the drawings. For some reason, it is also the way that it is always been done, so no other deliverables are probably coming in mind. However, the design team are still producing 3D model, especially the architect, since the owner puts more detailed requirements on them, like the software program to use, LoD of the model, and the output formats.

The absence of legal act for the BIM model as deliverables leads to several implications. As it is not required in the contract documents, consequently the design team does not guarantee the correctness of the model. They provide it for the ease of communication and coordination among the project team, but they are only take responsibility for the drawings they produced, and not the model. It is experienced in the Project 1 where the 3D model is made available on the site office yet still has some design errors, thus the production team onsite can see the overview of the building in the model, but cannot rely 100% on what they see. This at some point can be risky if they are lacking a good sense of building constructability and or does not acknowledge that the model is unreliable.

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Figure 5.2.3. A screen showing the 3D model in the site office of Project 1 that is

accessible for every production worker

In the production phase, CTx wish that there is more demand to use BIM, so that they, as contractor organisation, will get more incentives by working on BIM, besides just doing it for the ease of their work processes. Seeing it from a perspective that represents owner’s interest in a project, DM1 said that the owner does not want to require BIM when procured the production team because they do not want to disqualify those who does not work in BIM but still have good portfolios in their previous experiences and manage to offer good price.

Other justification for that is because as owner, they do not know whom they are going to meet in the market when procuring the production team. Considering that uneven BIM knowledge is prevalent among individuals across organisations in the construction industry, it is worried that if they require the candidates to do the project in BIM, they (the candidates) will charge significantly higher price because they need to hire BIM consultant to handle the project. According to OW1, BIM is seen as voluntarily when procuring the production team because even though it is proved to be able to cut down the contractor’s cost, it does not give values to them as the owner because the contract is fixed-price. DM1 also expressed similar thought as OW1.

Besides lack of legal act of BIM model as deliverables in the contract document, the payment form seems to restrain BIM implementation in the project environments. The payment method in Project 1 and Project 2 are somehow hinders the project team to collaborate in BIM. For instance, because the consultants are paid per-hour based, the owners opted not to require the design consultant to put advanced information on the 3D

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model because it will take more time, and time means money. Other case is when DM1 on Project 1 tried to limit the involvement of BIM consultants in project meeting so they (the CPM organisation) do not have to pay them more. It will save some money but on the other hand it causes other issues because then the BIM consultant is detached from the project and do not have full understanding of what they are working on. Furthermore, even the contractors can benefit themselves from BIM, money-wise benefit is not experienced by the owners since the contract is a fixed-price, which perhaps what motivates them to not demand BIM.

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6. Analysis and discussion

Given the interview findings presented on Chapter 5, analysis of gaps in BIM implementation can be drawn and the possibilities to bridge the gaps are presented on Table 6.0 below. The suggestions to bridge the gaps are synthesized from the literature studies, theories, and interview findings. The gaps founded will be streamlined into several parts, in order to provide readers with basic understanding of BIM state-of-the-art and its influential factors for an effective implementation. Lastly, discussion of this framework will be presented in greater details in this chapter.

Table 6.0. Summary of analysis

No. Analysis of gaps How to bridge the gaps

1 BIM guidelines Absence of general BIM guidelines or standard

- DM and CM first and foremost should be well-knowledgeable and ascertain to the other project team members

- Formulate BIM guidelines (i.e. LoD, use of information, tools and platform) that are generally applicable in every project, for the organisation to create values

- Plan BIM carefully and clearly in the beginning of a project, including the Information Delivery Manual (IDM)

2 BIM knowledge - Uneven distribution of BIM

knowledge and skills between individuals across oragnisations

- Imbalance between technical and software knowledge, between the ‘young’ and ‘old’ generation of individuals

- Knowledge management by formalising

training and knowledge sharing induced by BIM knowledgeable individuals

- Respective university programs should incorporate BIM and practical construction knowledge (i.e. training / internship program, scheduled training by companies)

3 IT capacity - BIM tools that does not fully meet

the needs of each role so it is required to use more than one tool. Consequently, interoperability issue between different systems and platforms is arised

- Limited access to BIM tools on

construction site

- Set long-term strategic decisions between organisations that requires investments in licences, education, and training

- Maintain good relationship with related software developers by giving input or feedback for improvement

- Technology is improving rapidly, thus it is believed that the interoperability issues will be solved incrementally by IT company suppliers or software vendors

- Provide the tools on site, considering that the benefit should exceed its cost

4 Organisational & legal or contractual - Fragmented project organisational

structure that hinders collaboration, such as DBB

- A more collaborative organisational form

that can support BIM implementation, such as IPD, project partnering, etc

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- Rigor payment form - Absence of legal act of BIM as

deliverables

- Shared risk and reward-based contract between project team members

- BIM deliverables should have legal acts that covers the ownership, responsibility, and liability concerns

5 Emerging roles and skills BIM coordinator role is needed, yet ineffective involvement of BIM-expert consultant is evident

- In the short run, establish BIM department will be more economically efficient. Invest in some BIM-experts with relevant background to be fully involved in projects and take leads in BIM training program

- In the long run, focus to build BIM capabilities on each individual and require such capabilities from future employees

Before going further to BIM implementation strategy, the main principle to be reminded from what previous studies have suggested is that BIM is a working process in an open data-exchange environment that requires greater collaboration and integration between all the project team members, where they are contributes to a single shared model (Gu and London 2010). Thus, every factor that is likely to influence BIM implementation should be adjusted to that working environment, in order to succeed. Empirical finding from the interview that is connected with the theories and literature studies results in at least four main factors that can influence BIM implementation, that are organisational, legal or contractual, people and process, and IT-capacity.

Figure 6.0. Main factors that influence BIM implementation

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6.1. Perceived usefulness of BIM tools

Some respondents indicated that they choose to work in BIM based on their own willingness because it helps them to deliver better works. This is in accordance with the TAM theory which suggest that an individual is willing to accept a technological introduction to their work process if they perceived it as useful and beneficial for them. CTx, regardless the absence of client’s demand and the 3D model from the design team as a starting point for his work, is still willing to build his own model so that he can work with his BIM tools under his time and his own cost (or his organisations) because it helps him in producing construction design drawing and deliver product information to the manufacturers. This indicated that CTx realised that the benefits he perceived by using BIM outweigh its limitations, thus it becomes the standard working process to him. CTx added that he use BIM to benefit himself or the organisation he represents, and not for the intention to benefit the project nor the client.

CM1 is willing to learn using Azta Powerproject, a program for time schedule and construction management, which is a drastic change from his previous way of working with 2D drawing that he has been doing for a long period of time. He was also introduced to Naviswork, a model reviewing tool, although he found that the program is confusing in the beginning. However, he felt that using those two programs is a better improvement from his old way of working, thus he continue to use them. What is perceived as beneficial for each role in a project is differ, so it is important that BIM first and foremost meet the expectation of the users, for instance is the ease of use, considering that most of the production worker are not used to work digitally. According to Gu and London (2010), designers, with CAD background, expect BIM to support integrated visualisation and navigation that is comparable to the native applications they use, while contractors and project managers, with DMS background, expect visualisation and navigation to be an important feature of BIM. Therefore in the beginning of each project, it is important to acknowledge the expectation of BIM use from every role involved, so that an appropriate BIM guidelines can be formulated. When doing so, it should be noted that the greatest gains can be found at higher levels of BIM maturity (Lindblad 2017).

Some respondents suggested that some BIM software programs are not satisfactory suited in some disciplines. According to Liu et al . (2017), it could be motivated by the lack of capability of the software program to perform a specific task. Gu and London (2010) added that the existing BIM applications are not yet completely mature for either design disciplines that see BIM as an extension to CAD, or contractors and project managers that expect BIM to be a more intelligent DMS that can extract data from CAD packages directly for analysis, time sequence and cash flow modelling and simulation and risk scenario planning. One example is the impracticality felt by CM1 to input all the detailed informations in the time-scheduling program, when it will most likely end-up incorrect because the program does not really know how things work in reality. Contractors’ relatively high level of craftsmanship could be one explanation of their lower use of IT tools in general, despite of their major needs for planning activities (Gustavsson et al . 2012). One of the important considerations for BIM tools in construction is to have the possibility of two

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way communication that enables easy reporting by the workers of errors, progress, etc., directly to the design team. The advance in smartphones and tablets technology allows contractors and subcontractors to frequently access the BIM model onsite for information extraction and coordination (Azhar et al . 2012). It also allows them to share BIM models in a web environment and perform various tasks onsite, such as walk-through, clash detection, and preparing digital RFIs (Rubenstone 2012). Providing those tools on site will cost substantially, however, the benefits of using them should exceed the cost, considering that ineffective traditional way of communicating can cost a rebuilding if the workers accidentally use old drawings (Svalestuen et al . 2017).

As software compatibility issues arised due to the need to combine several systems as suggested by the respondents, describing the process for data transfer between project team and assigning responsibility for managing, monitoring, and auditing the process, is critical to achieve interoperability (Manderson et al. 2015). According to Azhar et al . (2012), although IFC and XML Schemas have significantly helped to solve interoperability issues, the users must research interoperability when choosing BIM software applications, because both of IFC and XML have their inherent limitation. Meanwhile Bryde et al. (2013) implied that technical issues such as interoperability between different BIM software packages are likely to be resolved over time by the IT company suppliers or software vendors. This, however, should be accompanied by user-developer communications that are critical for a successful BIM implementation in the construction industry (Whyte et al . 2002).

6.2. Knowledge management strategies and BIM guidelines

To what extent BIM is used in a project is highly dependent on the level of knowledge, experience, and initiative of the person in-charge, usually the PM, from an organisation that he/she represented in the project. A project that is handled by a BIM knowledgeable person can advance the project processes and thus add more value to the project. The effect on a project will be more prominent from the CPM organisation, like Forsen, who has the ability to decide the working processes in a project. DM is an agent of change in a modern building industry (Eynon 2016), especially when the owner does not have the interest nor the knowledge to interfere the project processes and has a sole focus on the output. DMx proposed the use of Fieldwire for the design team on a project he handled, for easier drawing review and management, track the production progress, and communicate with the workers onsite, where another DM from the same organisation does not work with this program, which according to DMx is a really handy and convenience tool for a DM. Another example is from CTx who chooses to work with his own initiative that is considered more advanced than CTx’s co-workers. Even though CTx does not always get a 3D model from the design team of the project he handled, he is willing to build his own model and use specific BIM tools for the purpose of his work, because he feels that it helps him a lot.

Generally there is no restriction on how to get the job done in each project, so it leaves the DM and CM to decide what BIM tools to be used by the project team. Given that every individual in an organisation has different level of BIM knowledge and skill that builds from their previous experiences and background, it is therefore important to have a knowledge management strategies

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that is facilitated by the organisation. The use of BIM is initially mainly decided by individuals with a high level of knowledge via initiative of their own, or “bottom-up”, and then moves towards decisions on the organisational level (Samuelson and Björk 2014). Likewise, Matthews et al . (2017) said that one way to induce BIM implementation in an organisation is by engaging the BIM knowledgeable individuals as the actuator, for instance by establishing a communities of practice’ (CoP), where the change of new processes and workflows that staff is confronted with, can be discussed and learning can be initiated and shared.

Whether or not an individual or an organisation is investing in IT-tools, such as BIM, depends on recognising the benefits of it. This is a challenge because oftenly it is not possible to recognize or evaluate the benefits until after some time or later in the process (Gustavsson et al . 2012). To address this challenge, BIM knowledgeable individuals can start by, for instance, presenting the benefits they have obtained from BIM pilot projects they are involved in. The diffusion of innovative technologies is influenced by the positive experiences of adopters and the ability to modify the technologies to suit individual organisations’ own needs to successfully maintain business competitive advantages (Gu and London 2010). Incentives for these adopter or pioneer individuals is necessary in order to keep them motivated and appreciated. The knowledge sharing can be in the form of scheduled discussion and presentation, i.e. in the beginning of each week and has to be sustained until the goals is achieved. First and foremost, reasonable goals should therefore be set in the beginning. All DMs and CMs can discuss about the projects they handled and help each other finding solutions for any process-related issues.

Besides that, it is important for an organisation to build a standard by offering equal values in every project they handled, which to a greater extent can establish a firm impression and eventually escalate their competitive advantages in the market. There is a need to standardize the BIM process and to define the guidelines for its implementation (Azhar et al . 2012) that enables project stakeholders to save significant amounts of time in performing various tasks across the project lifecycle (Cavka et al. 2017). A general BIM guideline that encompass standard working processes, tools and platforms, desidered LoD, etc, should be made applicable in every project, especially when the owner has not specified BIM requirements, as implied by OW2 in the case of Project 2. BIM national guidelines can be used as a starting point for formulating organisation’s specific guidelines. Cavka et al. (2017) argues that owners often find it very challenging to develop and clearly formalize their BIM requirements in enough detail and to check for compliance to these requirements. Taking into account that it is necessary to follow the information flows, consider the activities required, outputs, tools, and technologies needed to facilitate the project team effectively (Eynon 2016), an example of BIM guidelines is presented on Table 6.2 below. The model should be carefully prepared and run through a pre-check application to make sure that the project is modeled appropriately for the intended use (Eastman et al. 2011).

In cases where the owner has specified requirements, CPM organisations need to tailor the BIM guidelines to be reasonably applicable in the project. There is still a need for guidance on where to start, what tools are available, and how to work through the legal, procurement, and cultural challenges (Gu and London 2010). This gives a CPM organisation, like Forsen, a key role position

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to influence BIM adoption in a project, yet at the same time imposes greater responsibility to be more knowledgeable and ascertain. Some of project owners, such as in Project 2 as suggested by CM2, have been working together with Forsen for many years, which indicates that there is a trust that has been built. Together with firm justification, the trust can be used as a cornerstone for a CPM organisation to suggest BIM working process in the projects.

In BIM, the project becomes an inter-organisational system thus a single project cannot compel the hired companies to use specific IT-platform if it does not exist in the companies. Instead, it is a long-term strategic decisions for each organisation in the project that requires investments in licences, education, and training for the employees. The project will then become part of the inter-organisational social system that handle the cooperation between companies in the sector (Samuelson and Björk 2014). Gaunt (2017) added that model-based delivery requires a developed level of technology skills across all project stakeholders, a reliable software platform and behavioural changes across all teams.

Table 6.2. Example of BIM guidelines for design and construction phase. The shaded cells indicate the required information (Source: Eastman et al. 2011).

After all, lack of BIM knowledge is the construction industry’s responsibility as a whole, where education is pivotal to create understanding of why and how BIM influences the way information is created, controlled, and managed within a project (Matthews et al. 2017). Together with educational institutions, they should ensure that the workforce is provided with the education and competencies to adapt the BIM working environment, for its effective implementation. Beside academical, practical knowledge is also substantial according to the empirical finding. Therefore a close collaboration between the construction industry and respective educational institutions is needed, for instance by conducting a training or internship program for students. Students need to be trained in applying computer-supported collaborative tools in team projects to appreciate the

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collaborative nature of projects across disciplines, as well as understand and experience the potential benefits (Gu and London 2010).

6.3. BIM legal acts and contractual arrangement

To a higher extent the empirical findings confirmed the outstanding issue about how fragmented the construction industry is, where the project team members are working on their own models, where one’s benefit and risk are solely theirs and not together as a team. This fragmentation stems from such deep structures, like contract models and tendering process, that are inherently challenging to alter significantly (Svalestuen et al . 2017). Here can be seen that organizational and legal issues seem to be the central barriers for extended collaboration (Dossick and Neff 2010). Collaboration that is able to overcome the legal and informal boundaries over the life cycle of the project-based construction is needed when the project teams are being specialized and segmented by focusing on their own interests (Liu et al . 2017), such as the case in DBB contract.

Some studies suggested that DBB contract, which is the nature of project where Forsen typically works on and many other project practises in general, hinders the BIM adoption since it prevents the contractors from doing detail design until after the project had been bid (Eastman et al. 2011). Liu et al . (2017) added that BIM can foster an open-communication environment but the separation between design and construction teams, in turn, hinders the direct communication. Accordingly, the empirical finding expressed that one of the reason why owner does not involved the contractor early in the design phase is because of the high uncertainty during that phase that will affect the cost, especially if there are many changes take place along the process. Considering that changes are inevitable, owners see it risky to procure the contractor early in the process. Those risks are therefore expected to be minimized with the development of multi-party relational contracts based on sharing of the risk and reward (Miettinen and Paavola 2014) and consequently, a more collaborative work among the project team members will pertained.

Eynon (2016) said that there are two tribes of design and construction that also exist within the contracting fraternity: the friendly tribes that are concern with the quality of the built environment and the hostile ones that use construction merely as a means of making money from uncertainty, errors, and missing information. This hostile behavior is well-depicted by DM1’s statement that contractors are usually suspend to report a design error later in the construction phase, so that they can request additional cost to rectify it. Adopting BIM makes it difficult for the project team members to hide those hostile behaviours, because BIM allows full transparency of time, cost, and design quality, and eventually enable to restore trust and goodwill between designers and constructors (Eynon 2016). Positive trust and communication in the beginning serve as an integrating mechanism and facilitate coordination and leadership of the project team members (Liu et al . 2017).

It is necessary to rethink the way of how the construction industry has been working for so many centuries as the only possible paradigm, to replace confrontation as a way of producing construction through collaboration between all the project team members involved (Àlvarez et al . 2017). What is urgently needed is a ‘true’ BIM contract that encourage collaborative work and

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fully integrated design solutions (Eynon 2016), sharing of information and sharing of the technology’s associated benefits (Eastman et al . 2011). In most cases where the CPM organisations assist owners in formulating the contract document, they have bigger role to influence the contractual arrangement regarding BIM legal act and collaboration method among the project team, like in Project 1 and Project 2. Again, it emphasizes the key position of CPM organisation to encourage BIM implementation.

To deal with the responsibilities of making changes during the project process, BIM model should have a legal act on the contract document, where it is required as deliverables beside 2D drawings, or optimistically to be the main deliverables in the long run. The contract needs to clearly articulate the modelling deliverables such as what and when information is to be available for review and distribution (Manderson et al. 2015). Mandating model-based delivery will indirectly solve the issue regarding 3D model reliability to be used for further purposes. However, it poses process-related risks, such as the lack of determination of ownership of the BIM data and the need to protect it through copyright laws and other legal channels. Beside that legal issue, there is also contractual issue to address who will control the entry of data into the model and be responsible for any inaccuracies, which is an enormous risk (Azhar et al. 2012). Mitigating those risks requires unique responses for every project depending on the participants’ needs, yet the goal is to avoid inhibitions that discourage participants from fully realizing the model’s potential. One solution is to set forth the ownership rights and responsibilities in the contract documents (Azhar et al. 2012) by defining mutual project insurance where all actors take a joint responsibility for the project. Model should be made accessible for respective project team members to make changes in specific phases, like the contractors to update the as-built model during or after completion of the construction phase, before hand-over to the owner. As the legal framework for working in BIM has developed, liability concern in an open data exchange environment are diminishing (McGraw-Hill Construction 2009), enabling collaboration to share the BIM data and not restricting the information flow to and from other parties (Bryde et al. 2013).

6.4. Is the role of BIM consultant needed?

Even though new roles such as BIM modeler and BIM coordinator emerge (Liu et al. 2017) as a consequence of BIM working process, the interview findings along with the prior analysis about BIM knowledge leads to a further question whether the role of BIM consultant is needed in project practices. Most of the respondents (DM1, DM2, and DMx), whose projects includes external BIM consultant, stated that the responsibility of the BIM consultant is generally to integrate the model from all disciplines (architect, structure engineer, mechanical-electrical-plumbing engineers, etc), run the collision control, and make sure that the model contains informations required on the BIM guidelines. However it seems that BIM consultant role in some cases are redundant because even though they posed a satisfying performance in computer programming stuffs, they are lacking of building construction knowledge, thus they might produce a good model with all the required informations, yet its constructibility is doubted, according to DM1 and OW1. Even if they have sufficient building knowledge and acknowledge some design errors in the model, they are not

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entitled to make changes, as it is beyond their authority. It is hard to form a collaborative environment when the model creation is outsourced (Liu et al. 2017).

Considering the limitations of BIM consultant, DMs are in dilemmatic position whether it is worthy to get them more involved to the project and kept well-informed, as they are third-parties that are hired by the CPM organisations. This is to some extent also motivated by economic reason, since the BIM-experts are paid per hour basis like any other consultant, thus the more involved they are in a project, the more is the cost that should be paid by the CPM organisation who hire them. Hiring an external BIM-expert shows that it is not common knowledge to integrate IT use in the daily organising activities and how the integration could be of use for the individual, the project, or the company (Gustavsson et al . 2012). According to Eastman et al . (2011), owners who choose to hire external consultant to produce the building information model should carefully consider full outsourcing of the model because it typically leads to underutilized, outdated, and poor quality BIM model.

In the short run, it seems to be a sound investment to have in-house BIM manager role or BIM department in the organisation, considering that all the projects in the future will be committed in BIM. They will also take active part in the BIM education program to train individuals in the organisation. However, CPM organisation should require future employees to be BIM capable to keep the plan sustain in the long run. By doing so, the roles of BIM manager will be gradually immersed in them, while BIM processes and understanding become embedded in the mainstream (Eynon 2016). As suggested by Pearlson and Saunders (2010), BIM as one form of IS can greatly change the day-to-day tasks, which in turn change the skills needed by the workers. This, will take times, while the respective education institutions taking their role to provide the students with adequate BIM knowledge so that they will be more prepared to face the new era of construction project practices. After that, it should be noted that the organisation should then provide necessary BIM softwares for the daily work process, if committed not to hire any BIM expert consultant.

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7. Conclusion

To briefly address the research questions:

● RQ1. What are the gaps faced by Forsen as a CPM organisation in implementing BIM?

Interview with different project roles from Forsen and its affiliated organisations in the project settings shows that they are facing more or less generic issues that can be found in the literature studies about BIM implementation. The gaps found are lack of BIM knowledge and skills across organisations in the industry, absence of BIM guidelines, limitation in IT capacity, current organisational and contractual arrangement that does not support BIM, absence of legal act for BIM as deliverables, and required skills and roles due to the changed process.

● RQ2. How to align BIM with the CPM practice in order to manage the gap between design and construction phase of a project?

To manage the absence of BIM guidelines in CPM organisations and in most projects, first and foremost DM and CM should be well-knowledgeable about BIM and thus can assure the other project team members, especially the owners, about the value that BIM can offer them, not only during the design and construction phase, but also for the operational and maintenance phase of the building. Only after people understand what the benefits of moving towards BIM are they will have the urge to learn and change their work processes. Then, BIM guidelines that generally applicable to every projects should be formulated, for the organisation to create values. When starting a project, BIM should be planned carefully and clearly because it takes consistency from the whole project team throughout the whole process.

To manage the lack of knowledge and skills and their uneven distribution between individuals in the organisation, formalising knowledge management strategy through BIM training and knowledge sharing, should be mandated. Some studies suggested that having BIM-knowledgeable individuals to encourage the knowledge sharing process, or so-called bottom-up approach, can effectively induce the BIM implementation. To a greater extent, CPM organisation should maintain close collaboration with respective university programs to provide students with necessary BIM knowledge and most importantly, practical knowledge to balance each other. Implementing BIM requires changes in work process and consequently, the skills required for the people involved in it. In the long run, CPM organisation should focus to build BIM capabilities on each individual and require that qualification for future employees, so it is not necessary to hire BIM expert consultant.

To manage the limitation of IT capacity, CPM organisation should set long term strategic decisions between organisations in a project, that requires investments in licences, education, and training. Besides that, during the planning process, it is of importance to describe the process for data transfer between project team and assigning responsibility for managing, monitoring, and auditing the process, and research interoperability when choosing BIM software applications. As many of the current BIM softwares do not meet the satisfactory of the users, it is suggested to maintain good relationship with related software developers by giving input or feedback for software

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improvement, while looking forward on the technology improvement to fix the interoperability issues when using several different BIM softwares or platforms. Adequate IT tools on production site, such as tablets and iPads for the workers should be provided, considering that the benefits to not have to rebuild because of misreading the 2D drawings, will exceed the procurement cost of those IT tools.

Lastly, to manage the organisational and legal issues, a more collaborative organisational form that can support BIM implementation, such as IPD, project partnering, project alliancing, are suggested to be adopted in the project settings, instead of the rigid and old-fashioned DBB contract. Those organisational form incorporate shared risk and reward - based contract between project team members that can encourage collaboration towards the same direction. Early adoption can start with a pilot project that has a short time frame, small qualified team, and a clear goal, before going further to the larger scale ones. This must be accompanied by having legal acts of BIM as deliverables during the design and construction phase, that should covers the ownership, responsibility, and liability concerns.

It should be noted that the aforementioned actions needed to move towards BIM should be done simultaneously, not only by the related project team members, but also by the other actors in the construction industry as a whole, such as the government, product manufacturers, software vendors, academics, and other affiliated associations.

7.1. Generalisation and limitation

The author believes that this study is applicable for the construction industry in general because even though the data collection is limited to Sweden practises, the gaps found in this study are quite similar to what others have faced according to the literature studies. That being said, the answers to the research questions can also be applied to other organisations in the construction industry that are facing similar conditions. However, it is wise to note that there are external factors that could possibly take effect on BIM implementation, such as the technological advancement and education workforce where the study is conducted, government laws, regulation, and industry maturity, which can be gauged by conducting further studies in other regions (Bröchner and Badenfelt 2011).

In terms of research method, there is no single one that has no shortage. Asides of its practicality to obtain in-depth knowledge about the studied object, the interview method is liable to respondents’ bias and errors, as well as researchers’ bias and errors, that may impair the outcomes. This research is also limited of a relatively low number of interview, thus enlarging the sample size can generate more intersubjective result, for the purpose of future research. Furthermore, seeking convergence across qualitative and quantitative data, which is lacking in this research, is advisable for future research in the similar context, to increase the validity and reliability of it (Vass 2017).

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7.2. Sustainability

Another finding from this study indicates that the construction industry practises where the data is collected are still male-dominated, where there is only one woman out of eight interview respondents. Adding to this as a point of acknowledgement, most of the references in this study are also male authors. Speaking of social sustainability as one of the three pillar of sustainability, gender equality is still an apparent issue in the construction industry in general, where further action needs to be taken to break the stereotype. Regarding the economic and environmental sustainability, shortly speaking there is no significant remark rather than author’s belief that BIM adoption in the construction industry is able to promote environmental sustainability and economic growth through the increased productivity it brings.

7.3. Recommendations for future studies

As contractual arrangement and project organisational structure seems to be a fundamental in BIM implementation, evaluating the effectiveness of ‘new’ collaborative arrangement in implementing BIM, will be an interesting topic for future studies. Other recommendation is to evaluate the effectiveness of bottom-up approach in knowledge management process towards BIM, as the literature studies suggested it to be a key approach of BIM implementation.

The author also founds an intriguing implication from conducting a literature study for this research. Although there are quite a lot of studies that have been done about BIM implementation and its kind, it seems that there are not much improvement in the construction industry, as justified by Bröchner and Badenfelt (2011) that construction technology changes slowly over the years, wherein the challenges dated back from almost a decade ago are still faced these days. As most of the studies are derived from the problemation in the industry, it is questionable whether the study findings are reflected back to them in the end. This is not necessarily needed to be raised as a future study, but more as a reflection about the practical coordination between the academics and the construction industry in post-research period.

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9. Appendix

9.1. Interview questions

Respondent name :

Organisation and role :

Project :

Venue, date and time :

Consent: (i) The interview will be recorded (ii) The final thesis report will be shared to the respondents, if preferred. (iii) respondent’s name will be kept anonymous on the report. Only roles and the organisation they represent in the project will be mentioned.

For all:

● Can you please introduce yourself: current position, working experience, and background? ● What is your role and responsibilities in this project? ● How do you and your organisation view BIM? ● Do you use BIM in this project? If no, why? ● What BIM tools you use and to what extent do you use it? ● How is your experience using BIM (the challenges and benefits you perceived) in this project

and in your organisation in general? ● Do you think there is a clear and explicit BIM requirement that is communicated to the project

team? ● How do you manage the communication and coordination with the other project team

members?

For owner:

● What are the main qualifications you required in procuring the team members in design and construction phase?

● What kind of procurement contract do you have with the project team? How is the payment method?

● Who formulates the contract document? Was BIM mentioned in the contracts with the design and production team? What motivates your answer?

● Does every command and coordination is communicated through DM and or CM?

For Design Manager (DM) / Construction Manager (CM):

● How do you perceive your role in the project to encourage the use of BIM among the team? ● Do you have enough power for decision making during the design / production phase? Or is it

fully the owner’s authority?

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● Do you set a specific design / production requirements for the design/production team? I.e. introduce a specific working method and tools

● Do you involve the contractor early in the design phase in any ways?

For contractor:

● Can you explain the process flow in the project? What do you think about the current process flow and the information provided? If you think there is a room for improvement, what can you suggest?

● What type of procurement does your organisation have in this project? How do you think it affects the way the project team works?

● What do you think about the role of CM in this project? ● Does the CM or owner set any production requirements for you or do you decide it yourself? ● Do you get involved during the design process? If no, why? If yes, how? ● What do you think about the information on the model/drawings provided by the design team? ● Do you usually produce your own drawing or model for production? If yes, what informations

do you usually add? Please motivate your answer. ● Have you experienced difficulties of interpreting 2D drawings in the production? If yes, how

do you deal with them? ● Do you use or provide the product model from fabricator on the open-access library? Do you

maintain close relationship with the designers in the project? ● Do you collaborate with other contractor in the project? If yes, in what forms and what tools

do you use to facilitate it?

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TRITA-ABE-MBT-18114

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