Implementation of Building Information Modeling at the Construction Phase
Background & Goal
During the 2006 PACE Seminar, it was obvious there was a high level of
uncertainty from industry members regarding Building Information Modeling (BIM)
implementation. Industry members struggled to answer the question of how a BIM
should be used during the construction phase of the project. Other topics that didn’t have
clear cut answers were how risk and contractual relationships are affected using a BIM
and how a BIM affects project teams.
Building Information Modeling is such a new topic that it has forced construction
companies to develop their own implementation approaches with some trial and error.
Contractors in the beginning stages of BIM, have a lot of questions with regards to legal,
risk, and responsibility issues. Many contractors do no understand that BIM risk can be
dealt with in a very simple manner and that BIM doesn’t have to mean throwing out all of
your old coordination processes. The goal of this research is to gain feedback from
construction companies successfully using BIM at the construction stage and be able to
write some guidelines for other construction companies.
The end goal of this research is to provide construction companies with a clear
implementation plan that presents some options that could be tailored to their company or
project. To achieve this goal, interviews will be conducted of multiple BIM experienced
general contractors and Penn State faculty acting as a consultant to a general contractor.
The results of these interviews will be used to compare and contrast implementation
strategies.