Abstract

Construction industry's evolution is, historically, in the lowest level, if compared to other industries, such as auto manufacturing. Construction is a multidisciplinary industry, considering that designers, contractors, and owners are all involved in the same project, each one seeking their own interests. The complex environment surrounding design and construction makes the decision-makers hesitate about adopting new methodology. Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a new method and technology, which can improve both the design and the construction processes. The adoption of BIM is increasing significantly over the last years, and its effects can be seen on real life projects. In order to understand the effect of BIM on the design and construction industry, we have created a comprehensive survey, consisting of a general questionnaire and experts' interviews. The general questionnaire concentrated on most of BIM issues, while the interviews focused on specific points arisen from the general questionnaire. Most of the published papers in this area justify BIM adoption by focusing on BIM ROI, and the comparison between project with and without BIM. In this research, however, we tried first to understand BIM status at the AEC market, and then to measure its effects. Therefore, we have targeted all the players in the BIM field: engineers, architects, contractors, and owners. Through the general questionnaire, we have measured the relationship between the independent variables and outcome variables. The independent variables are: motivations, concerns, investment needed, software, valuable benefits, success measures, and BIM uses. The outcome variables include: companies' role, sector, specialty, market level, level of implementation, years of implementation, and experience. In the second part of the research, we have conducted a series of subject matter interviews to measure the effect of BIM uses and its intangible benefits. For the experts' interviews, we designed a structured interview which covers two major areas: BIM uses, and intangible benefits. Both areas derived from the general questionnaire, and we aimed to measure their effects on real life projects. After analyzing the general questionnaire by using Person Chi-Square test, the results shown a significant relationship between independent variables and outcome variables. Participants' responses shown that they share common objectives when establishing BIM such as: increasing communication, reducing rework, increasing coordination and collaboration between parties, improving quality, and increasing productivity. We have found that the use of BIM is varied, and the large companies are taking advantage of BIM technology. In addition, the majority of the participants indicate that BIM has a positive ROI, and its adoption generates more business. The experts' interviews uncovered the fact that AEC parties have common understanding about the intangible benefits, even though they perceive the benefits differently. The diverse views of intangibles' benefits were influenced by the distinct role of each party. Moreover, experts share information about BIM project, and the project outcomes are successful on the following metrics: cost, schedule, number of RFI, number of change orders, and quality.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2016

Semester

Fall

Advisor

Oloufa, Amr

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Engineering and Computer Science

Department

Civil, Environmental, and Construction Engineering

Degree Program

Civil Engineering

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0006432

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0006432

Language

English

Release Date

December 2019

Length of Campus-only Access

3 years

Access Status

Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access)

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