Raja R. A. Issa

Building Information Modeling in Support of Sustainable Design and Construction

AbstractThe use of building information modeling (BIM) has provided a means of increasing total project quality, providing accurate quantity take-offs, and improving scheduling, consequently diminishing total project contingencies and costs. Although BIM is a recent development, a lot of research has been conducted in order to further enhance the capabilities of BIM in design and construction. However, there has been very little research done so far on the effect that BIM has on sustainable construction practices. Hence, the goal of this research is to investigate the perceptions of the use of BIM for sustainable design and construction among designers and constructors. A survey was developed and administered through the Internet to determine the existing trends of BIM application in general as well as its use as a tool in sustainable design and construction. The survey results indicated that although the majority of the respondents believed that sustainable design and construction practices were of impor...

Return on Investment Analysis of Using Building Information Modeling in Construction

AbstractThe recent emergence of building information modeling (BIM) and the evolution of virtual design and construction (VDC) in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry are fundamentally changing the process by which buildings are designed and constructed. However, the perceived high initial cost of implementing BIM has deterred many industry professionals from adopting this technology. This paper aims to facilitate the decision-making process in the adoption of BIM by presenting the cost savings associated with implementing BIM. In many cases, an owner’s willingness to pay for the BIM is crucial in the contractor’s decision to use BIM. Therefore, in order to show the returns on the investment (ROI) of paying additional fees, data was gathered from three case studies on three sets of similar projects, with each set consisting of one recently constructed BIM-assisted project and one earlier, similar project completed without BIM. The potential savings to an owner choosing to invest ...

Perceptions of the impacts of organizational culture and information technology on knowledge sharing in construction

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to expand understanding of the factors that affect knowledge sharing in construction organizations. The outcome of this study will enable further understanding of knowledge sharing in construction and will therefore contribute towards successful implementation of knowledge sharing as part of organizational knowledge management (KM) initiatives in construction organizations.Design/methodology/approach – A survey was conducted of the 2005 Engineering News Record Top 400 US contractors to assess their perceptions of how factors such as organizational culture (OC), trust and information technology (IT) impact knowledge sharing in their construction organizations.Findings – The survey respondents strongly agreed on the perception that a proper organizational culture will enhance mutual trust in the organization. The respondents also perceived that IT will assist but not motivate people in sharing their knowledge and that not all types of knowledge can be shared using IT.R...

Ontology‐based information and knowledge management in construction

Purpose – There is an increasing recognition of the value of effective information and knowledge management (KM) in the construction project delivery process. Many architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) organisations have invested heavily in information technology and KM systems that help in this regard. While these have been largely successful in supporting intra‐organisational business processes, interoperability problems still persist at the project organisation level due to the heterogeneity of the systems used by the different organisations involved. Ontologies are seen as an important means of addressing these problems. The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of ontologies in the construction project delivery process, particularly with respect to information and KM.Design/methodology/approach – A detailed technical review of the fundamental concepts and related work has been undertaken, with examples and case studies of ontology‐based information and KM presented to illustrate the...

Ontology-Based Partial Building Information Model Extraction

AbstractThe current application of building information modeling (BIM) in the construction industry is generally focused on using the complete building information model during the life cycle of the project. With more information being added to the model, the size of the model file and the difficulty to manipulate the model increase. However, different use scenarios may only require access to certain specific information stored in the model. In contrast with the ample research of ontology applications in construction knowledge management, research of ontology in construction modeling has been limited. Hence, the purpose of this study is to use ontology in the extraction of a partial building information model from the original complete model. The building information models covered in this study are in the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) format, which is a widely supported open BIM standard. An ontology TBox is developed according to the existing IFC schema specifications. For each specific IFC model, a...

BIM Execution Planning in Green Building Projects: LEED as a Use Case

AbstractCompanies that embrace both building information modeling (BIM) and green building are making conscientious efforts to pursue the synergies between the two, namely the green BIM practice. When done right, project teams find that green BIM can improve project outcomes, and facilitate the accomplishment of established sustainability goals. Nevertheless, green BIM remains an emerging trend to the majority of the industry, and its full potential is yet to be explored according to recent market research reports. The hypothesis of this research is that for companies to succeed in practicing green BIM, a holistic approach that strategically plans for BIM execution in green building projects is needed. The BIM project execution planning guidelines (PEPG) is widely adopted today to offer general guidance and standardized workflow of strategic BIM implementation. PEPG is not meant to and lacks the specificity to address green building projects in particular. However, the popularity of PEPG is conceived as a...

BIM Education and Recruiting: Survey-Based Comparative Analysis of Issues, Perceptions, and Collaboration Opportunities

AbstractA survey was conducted to observe the dynamics between college building information modeling (BIM) education and student career development. The survey results were used to perform a comparative analysis of stakeholder perceptions in the educational and professional communities. The survey findings confirmed substantial gains in BIM adoption and implementation in both communities, and that a gap exists between the rapid growth of the BIM-related job market and the incentives in place to encourage students to commit to a BIM-oriented career path. The survey also evaluated the effectiveness of BIM education in colleges and industry recruiting practices in BIM staffing. The results suggested that an enhanced and more proactive partnership might be the solution to advancing BIM education and BIM talent acquisition in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry.

Comparison of Cost and Time Performance of Design-Build and Design-Bid-Build Delivery Systems in Florida

AbstractThe choice of construction delivery system is one of the most important decisions that a public highway agency will make with regard to a highway, bridge, or transit construction project. Although several research projects have been conducted on the subject of comparing costs and project duration, there has been no study that statistically analyzes these factors specifically for transportation projects, much less one that eliminates the largest variable of all: different public agencies. The objective of the research reported in this paper was to determine which of two delivery methods, design-bid-build (DBB) and design-build (DB), delivers highway and bridge construction projects at the lowest cost and in the shortest time period, and to back up the findings with a rigorous statistical analysis of the data. Data were taken from the databases of the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) and arithmetically and statistically compared through Levene’s test, the independent samples t-test, the W...

BIM's Impact on the Success Measures of Construction Projects

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is described by many as a solution to a number of inefficiencies in the construction industry. BIM is considered a new IT tool that implements new processes based collaboration between stakeholders. However, BIM’s adoption has been slow due to the ambiguity surrounding its definition, purpose and business value. A survey of 202 Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) professionals was administered to gain an understanding of the prevalent definition of BIM and to identify BIM’s perceived impact on the success measures of construction projects. Overall, the survey results showed that BIM was most frequently perceived of as a tool for visualizing and coordinating AEC work and avoiding errors and omissions and improving the productivity, schedule, safety, cost and quality of construction projects. The results of chi-square tests showed that the combination of an individual’s professional affiliation (defined by the survey group) and specific aspects of the individual’s age, education and organizational role had a statistically significant relationship. Additional chi-square test showed that the perception of BIM’s impact on one success measure (i.e. productivity, schedule, safety, cost or quality) was significantly associated with the perceptions of the other success measures. In particular, BIM was found to have the strongest perceived positive impact on the quality, cost and schedule of construction projects. The study’s findings assist in clarifying the ambiguity surrounding BIM and identifying the mutual benefits from adopting BIM. This in turn supports the required stakeholder collaboration essential for BIM’s long-term success.

Virtual Reality: A Solution to Seamless Technology Integration in the AEC Industry

In order for VR applications to be successfully implemented in a complex industry such as construction, they must be part of a vertically integrated construction environment. Whether immersive or non-immersive techniques are used in the VR applications, users must be able to visualize design and construction information in 3D, photo-realistic, and interactive images. The user must also be able to interact with external applications at real-time, thus, allowing VR systems not only to be used as presentation tools, but also as a universal interface for all construction applications. Finally, construction professionals must be able to view, alter, test, etc. any function or part of the proposed design and at any stage of the project life cycle through the virtual space. Because of the magnitude and complexity of the construction projects, the traditional way of doing business in the construction industry is to divide the whole project into work packages according to well-established specialization. The work packages are assigned to specialty designers and contractors respectively. Although a system like this brings significant benefit to the industry, it also results in difficulties in communication and extensive collaboration among the participants of the project.