The big BIM battle: BIM adoption in the UK for large and small companies.

Loveday, Jake; Kouider, Tahar; Scott, Jonathan R.

Abstract

As BIM adoption continues, the goal of a totally collaborative model with multiple contributors is attainable. Many initiatives such as the 2016 UK government level 2 BIM deadline are putting pressure on the construction industry to speed up the changeover. Clients and collaborators have higher expectations of using digital 3D models to communicate design ideas and solve practical problems. Contractors and clients are benefitting from cost saving scheduling and clash detection offered by BIM. Effective collaboration on the project will also give speed and efficiency gains. Despite this, many businesses of varying sizes are still having problems. The cost of the software and the training provides an obvious barrier for micro-enterprises and could explain a delay in adoption. Many studies have looked at these problems faced by SME and micro-enterprises. Larger companies have different problems. The efforts made by government to encourage them are quite comprehensive, but is anything being done to help smaller sectors and keep the industry cohesive? This limited study examines several companies of varying size and varying project type: architectural design businesses, main contractor, structural engineer and building consultancy. The study examines the barriers to a truly collaborative BIM workflow facing different specialities on a larger project and a contrasting small/medium project. The findings will establish that different barriers for each sector are actually pushing further apart, thus potentially creating a BIM-only construction elite, leaving the small companies remaining on 2D based drawing.

Citation

LOVEDAY, J., KOUIDER, T. and SCOTT, J. 2016. The big BIM battle: BIM adoption in the UK for large and small companies. In Galiano Garrigos, A. and Kouider, T. (eds.) Proceedings of the 6th International congress of architectural technology (ICAT 2016): healthy buildings: innovation, design and technology, 12-14 May 2016, Alicante, Spain. Alicante: University of Alicante [online], pages 53-67. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/10045/55250

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (published)
• Conference Name: 6th International congress of architectural technology (ICAT 2016): healthy buildings: innovation, design and technology
• Start Date: May 12, 2016
• End Date: May 14, 2016
• Acceptance Date: May 31, 2016
• Online Publication Date: May 23, 2016
• Publication Date: May 31, 2016
• Deposit Date: Aug 29, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 29, 2016
• Publisher: University of Alicante
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Pages: 53-67
• ISBN: 9788416724109
• Keywords: BIM collaboration; BIM adoption; Government BIM policy
• Public URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10059/1599
• Publisher URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10045/55250
• Contract Date: Aug 29, 2016