Getting to grips with BIM: a guide for small and medium-sized architecture, engineering and construction firms.

Harty, James; Kouider, Tahar; Paterson, Graham

Abstract

The transition to a BIM collaborative working environment poses a number of challenges, risks as well as benefits for small and medium enterprises in the constructions sector as whole. The technology gap within the construction industry continues to widen between large companies and SMEs / micro-SMEs. Amongst the former, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is pervasive and has become a key infrastructure covering all aspects of business including design, construction, asset management, life cycle, marketing, cost management etc. Amongst the latter however, ICT is often limited to traditional 2D drawings, perhaps some static 3D visuals, email and possibly a symbolic internet presence. The status quo creates a divide in the industry and potentially may lead to a Macro versus Micro effect that will certainly hamper any effort for collaboration within the industry. The real challenge here, one would argue, is for those large organisations with experience and expertise in BIM to match their legitimate marketing discourse with a similar level of actions by providing reliable and credible case studies and even collaborate with SMEs to raise industry level and help to achieve a faster and smoother transition to BIM. The file for this record represents only a sample chapter from the whole work, which is available for purchase from the publisher.

Citation

HARTY, J., KOUIDER, T. and PATERSON, G. 2016. Getting to grips with BIM: a guide for small and medium-sized architecture, engineering and construction firms. Abingdon: Routledge.

• Book Type: Monograph
• Publication Date: Nov 23, 2015
• Deposit Date: Sep 28, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: May 24, 2017
• Publisher: Routledge
• ISBN: 9781138843974
• Keywords: Building project management; Construction business management; Digital architecture; Engineering project management
• Public URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10059/1843
• Contract Date: Sep 28, 2016