Doctoral Dissertation - Towards a BIM-enabled Facility Management: Promises, Obstacles and Requirements

A substantial share of the organisations’ annual costs is associated with their facilities. A fundamental shift from a reactive facility management (FM) practice to a strategically orchestrated FM profession is thus a prerequisite for increased resource efficiency. One of the requirements for a coordinated facility management practice is information logistics. Building Information Modelling (BIM) is one of the most prominent initiatives frequently addressed by scholars and practitioners as a game-changer in construction industry in general and FM in particular. In order to fully reap the benefits of BIM in FM, however, further research is required. This study aims, therefore, to investigate the challenges against successful implementation and realizing the benefits of BIM in FM.

The primary focus in this study is the FM phase; but the earlier upstream phases have also been studied due to their implications for a BIM-enabled FM. From a spatial-scale perspective, this study is mainly focused on buildings rather than other construction entities. The findings could benefit both academics and practitioners. Overall, a pragmatic research philosophy has been adopted and the main research strategy used here is case study.

The current dissertation is composed of five papers. The focus of knowledge acquisition through papers alternately shifts between the applied and the theoretical. The primary theoretical grounds of the papers are the built environment management model (BEM2) (Ebinger and Madritsch, 2012) and BIM Framework (Succar, 2009). Further theories from the fields of design methodology and cognitive science have also been revisited.

http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A1303895&dswid=9230