How can Building Information Modeling improve Facility Management?

October 25th

Plamen Ivanov Parteniev

25 October 2013

Author:

Plamen Parteniev

Consultant:

Niels Erik Hansen

VIA UNIVERSITY COLLEGE HORSENS, DENMARK Bachelor of Architectural Technology and Construction Management

HOW CAN BUILDING INFORMATION MODELING IMPROVE FACILITY MANAGEMENT? 7th Semester Dissertation 1

October 25th

Plamen Ivanov Parteniev

DISSERTATION TITLE: How can Building Information Modelling improve Facility Management?

CONSULTANT: Niels Erik Hansen AUTHOR: Plamen Ivanov Parteniev DATE/SIGNATURE: 25.10.2013

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STUDENT IDENTITY NUMBER: 146479 NUMBER OF COPIES: 1 NUMBER OF PAGES: 39

All rights reserved – no part of this publication may be reproduced without the prior permission of the author.

NOTE: This dissertation was completed as part of a Bachelor of Architectural Technology and Construction Management degree course – no responsibility is taken for any advice, instruction or conclusion given within!

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Acknowledgments I would like to thank Niels Erik Hansen for consulting me during the dissertation writing.

I would also like to thank my girlfriend Natalia for helping and inspiring me throughout the whole time.

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Abstract This dissertation will explore the history of Facility Management and will follow the evolution of this critical process. The focus however, will be on what are the issues with the way that today’s Facility Management is done and why does the industry have to change.

Additionally, an in depth study of how facility management is done for the Sydney Opera House. This study will analyse what exactly was involved in establishing state of the art facility management for this relatively old building.

Furthermore, the third part of the dissertation will research how UK and some other countries are striding to implement Building Information Modelling on a national level.

This will give an example of what steps should countries make in order to achieve a complete BIM transition?

Finally based on the research done, this report will answer how the usage of BIM on everyday basis for every project not only helps the building design process, but also helps the operation phase of the buildings. This report will explain which concepts should be used in to the design process and the establishment of the Facility Management in order to generally improve the whole building lifecycle. In other words reducing the cost and time for designing, executing and improving the efficiency and sustainability of the operation of the facility. Generally lowering the use of natural resources and the overall pollution generated by the facility.

Key words: Facility Management, Building Information Modelling, Integrated Project Delivery, Lifecycle, COBie, IFC standard, CAFM

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Contents 1. Introduction.............................................................................................................. 8 1.1 Background information and reasons for choice of subject ................................ 8 1.2 Problem statement ............................................................................................. 9 1.3 Research questions ........................................................................................... 9 1.4 Delimitation ........................................................................................................ 9 1.5 Choice of Theory, Research data and Research methodology........................ 10 2. What is the history and types of Facility Management? ........................................ 10 2.1 What is Facility Management? ......................................................................... 10 2.2 History of FM ................................................................................................... 12 2.3 Evolution of FM ................................................................................................ 14 3. How is Facility Management done in the Sydney Opera House? .......................... 16 3.1 Building Information Model .............................................................................. 18 3.2 Industry Foundation Classes ........................................................................... 22 4. What steps have UK made towards the implementation of BIM? .......................... 26 4.1 The 12 step action plan of UK .......................................................................... 26 4.2 How are other countries preparing for implementing BIM ................................ 29 5. How can the efficiency of today’s FM be increased? ............................................. 31 6. Conclusion............................................................................................................. 36

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Illustrations Figure 1. Building Information Modeling through the whole building lifecycle. ....................... 21 Figure 2 Transition of IFC data for BIM and FM model creation and implementation. ........... 24 Figure 3 Traditional design and construction process. .......................................................... 31 Figure 4 Improved project design and construction ............................................................... 32 Figure 5 Typical design and build approach with maintenance ............................................. 33 Figure 6 Typical design and build approach failing to do initial maintenance ......................... 34 Figure 7 Improved design and management ......................................................................... 34 Figure 8 Savings ................................................................................................................... 36

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List of Abbreviations 2D/3D

Two- and Three-dimensional

4D/5D/6D

Time, Cost and Facility Management aspects of BIM

AM/FM

Asset and Facility Management

BIM

Building Information Modeling

BIMFM

Building Information Modeling integrated Facility Management

CAD

Computer Aided Design

CAFM

Computer Aided Facility Management

COBie

Construction Operations Building Information Exchange

IAI

The International Alliance for Interoperability

IFC

Industry Foundation Classes

IPD

Integrated Project Delivery

HVAC

Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning

NFMA/IFMA

International Facility Management Association (formerly National)

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1. Introduction 1.1 Background information and reasons for choice of subject In 2011, USA registered that the building industry is a 16.5 trillion DKK industry that has about 30% waste. The buildings consume 40% of all raw materials. Facilities consume 40% of the global energy. Additionally buildings contribute 40% of the emissions and 20% of the landfills worldwide.

For every one kroner spent for designing a building, about nine kroner are going to be spent for construction and approximately 60 kroner are going to be spent for operation of the facility (BIM Implications for Facilities Management (CAFM) Webinar, 2011). This shows that the operational phase of the building is very critical due to the long duration of the process and the shear amount of energy and resources used.

On the other hand, Architects, Engineers and Contractors are working only on the design and construction phases of the building without thinking about the operational phase what so ever. This creates many problems when the Facility Manager steps in to play and tries to gather up all of the drawings, schedules, etc., which are in most cases delivered in paper.

For many years, the Facility Management process has been done with paper spreadsheets and drawings. This is a slow, tedious and inefficient process, which is still practiced today.

Most of the Facility Managers today, have adopted the Computer-Aided Facility Management, which have greatly increased the efficiency and productivity of their work.

CAFM is generally done in the form of a digital database that is set up manually. This step is an upgrade from the ink on paper Facility Management. However, in 21 st century it is a pity that the capabilities of the computer are utilized to such a limited extent.

The biggest problem is the process of setting the CAFM up, because it takes a lot of time for manual collection and placement of all of the information about the facility in to the Computer database. Taking in to account that in many cases, there were many parties involved in the design and construction of the project, and not all of the information is easily obtainable and some have been completely lost.

FM could also be done with the aid of Building information Modelling. This means that Facility Management can be done more efficiently by employing the computing capabilities. The BIM model can be exported via various standards in to the BIM enabled FM software, radically cutting down the time and effort in the process.

As technology is improving Cloud, based software have emerged. This software allows Facility Managers to view the BIM model easily with a tablet or a mobile device. This helps Facility Managers with flexibility and the ability to make fast decisions on the go.

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My reasons for choice of the subject are quite simple. Architects, Engineers and Contractors are employing a very limited approach to the building lifecycle. In fact their consideration consists of conception, planning, designing and construction of the facility. The operation phase is very often neglected regardless of the fact that it is a very important stage that has much higher financial and environmental impact, compared to the design and execution phases of the project.

If during the design of the project, the model is continuously fed and updated with information in to with consideration of the Facility Management of the building, then the Facility Management itself will be much easily conducted. This can be accomplished with the adoption of Building Information Modelling. BIM has been a passion of mine throughout my studies in VIA and the Facility Management aspect of BIM has been constantly neglected. That is why I would like to base my research on how BIM can be implemented in to the Facility Management.

1.2 Problem statement How can Building Information Modelling improve Facility Management?

1.3 Research questions What is the history and evolution of Facility Management?

How is Facility Management done for the Sydney Opera House?

What steps have UK, made towards the implementation of BIM? How can the efficiency of today’s Facility Management be increased?

1.4 Delimitation This dissertation not going to go in depth with analysis of Integrated Design Process, COBie or the various information protocols connected with transfer of BIM information.

Additionally some of the Organizations involved with different subjects in the report will be excluded for simplification purposes. Only a few aspects of Building Information Modelling will be concerned due to the shear vastness of the topic. Even though all of those subjects are going to be used as part of the analysis. Only a comprehensible description is going to be made, due to the fact that the main focus of this dissertation is Facility Management and how it can be improved.

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1.5 Choice of Theory, Research data and Research methodology My choice of theory will be from the internet I have found a few informative sites that I am going to base most of my data from. Additionally I will make a case study of the Sydney Opera House. Furthermore, I will work with a government document from UK that will help me analyse why and how UK is pushing the implementation of BIM. I know that this will be the best approach to the topic because I can utilize the findings of the Sydney Opera House case study and the effort that UK puts in to implementing BIM, in to the main analytical part of the report and answer how FM can be improved.

I am going to do analytical research on both Primary and Secondary data. I am going to use information from my sources to preform my own analysis and draw my own conclusions. I will employ the qualitative research method to answer how the Facility Management process can be improved. I have chosen the abovementioned methods due to the fact that I feel that they will help me best answer how can Facility Management be improved.

2. What is the history and evolution of Facility Management?

2.1 What is Facility Management?

The first thing that needs to be established before starting this dissertation is “What exactly is Facility Management (FM). Strangely enough nowadays, Facility Management covers such a wide range of services and operations that even Facility Managers themselves are having a hard time explaining what exactly is involved in their daily work.

Facility management evolved quite a lot since the modern concept of FM and the introduction of computers in to the equation. Even with the expansion of the services that FM provides, the basic concept remains the same. “Facility management is a profession that encompasses multiple disciplines to ensure functionality of the built environment by integrating people, place, process and technology.�

(International Facility Management Association, 2008) This means that Facility Managers aim to increase the overall efficiency of the work in the facility by managing the people resources, optimising the used space and ensuring the smooth operation of the work. Additionally in 2009, a new global job task analysis 10

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was made in the form of survey. The research covered Facility Managers from 62 countries (International Facility Management Association, 2008). The survey managed to define 11 Core Competencies of Facility Management.

1. Communication – The Facility Manager (FM-er) should ensure the communication within and between teams of internal and external parties, which are involved with the facility.

2. Emergency Preparedness and Business Continuity – It is the FM-er’s job to establish long-term plans that will ensure uninterrupted the operation of the facility. Those plans should contain detailed information about what steps need to be made in different scenarios, even in case of emergencies.

3. Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability – Not only should the FM-er make sure that the facility and the natural surroundings are managed in the most sustainable way, but the FM-er should consider sustainable plans for the future.

In some cases, the FM-er can push sustainable building solutions during the early design of the facility.

4. Finance & Business – The FM-er should prepare strategic plans based on financial analysis, budget optimisations and procurement of materials or installations.

5. Human Factors – The FM-er should maintain healthy and safe work environment for all of the employees. If he/she fails to so, then the facility can be subject to prosecution, insurance claims, etc. This on the other hand can lead to loss of customers and investors. Additionally fire safety needs to be ensured with scheduled inspections and tests of fire equipment. A potential fire can cause loss of lives and possibly shutting down of the business.

6. Leadership and Strategy – The FM-er is a leader that inspires the staff, and ensures that they have the motivation to deal with problems. On the other hand, the FM-er should be able to apply different strategies to manage with those inevitable problems.

7. Operations and Maintenance – It is the FM-er’s job to ensure the smooth operation of the facility through carefully planned and scheduled inspections and maintenance. If he/she fails to do so then this could result in a standstill of operations and potential loss.

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8. Project Management – The FM-er has to ensure that all facility projects are running on time and within budget. This is accomplished by keeping track of schedules, expenses and statuses of all current projects.

9. Quality – It is the FM-er’s obligation to maintain a certain consistency of the work. This is done through regular quality assurance and quality control.

Additionally he/she should always be looking in to different ways to improve the quality of the products and services that the facility provides.

10. Real Estate and Property Management – The FM-er has to oversight the control, operation and lifecycle of all real estate and property. He/she should additionally manage their acquisition, utilisation and disposition.

11. Technology – Apart from the utilized technologies, the FM-er will encounter many new technologies that are being implemented in to the FM market.

Technologies such as Building Information Modelling, Building automation and control systems, Condition assessment and lifecycle analysis and many more.

Additionally the FM-er has to deal with problems occurring in the existing systems in order to manage and maintain the workflow of the facility.

2.2 History of FM It is rather hard to pinpoint the time when Facility Management originated. This is due to the fact that people have always managed their buildings. The first cities and civilisations emerged around 4000BC and there is evidence that there were large buildings for different religious activities and for exchange of goods. It is safe to assume that those buildings were maintained one way or another. Therefore, evidence of the first facility management exists dating back 6000 years (Prodgers, n.d.).

As centuries passed, there were many great civilizations that emerged and they were more and more organized. Going through 5th century BC when Athens was the most densely populated metropolis during its time. With the advancement of the civilizations, the infrastructure improved as well and buildings required more management, so did the FM of those buildings improved.

However, until 30-40 years ago, people did not really think about how managing the work conditions could yield benefits. Their FM responsibilities were limited to cleaning, procuring supplies and new equipment. The most advanced method of FM until this time was done via ink/pencil on paper due to the commercial unavailability of computers.

In the 1980s, people started to think about how the efficiency of the work in the offices can be increased. In 1978, a conference about “Facility influence on productivity” took 12

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place in Michigan USA (EuroFM, 2010). During this conference George Graves, Charles Hitch and David Armstrong suggested that it would be greatly beneficial for the building industry to establish an organization with Facility experts. Two years later George Graves, Charles Hitch and David Armstrong established the National Facility Management Association (NFMA), which was later on renamed to International Facility Management Association (IFMA).

In the same period, the Computer Aided Facility Management (CAFM) emerged (James R. Watson and Russ Watson, 2013). This method completely revolutionized the old school method because of the added computing power, ease of access and management of documents and sheets. The CAFM method gradually became more popular through the years however, even today, there are facilities that are being managed through the old school paper and pencil method.

In 1983, the first Bachelor and Master degrees in Facility Management were established in different universities in USA (EuroFM, 2010). Meanwhile Sir Frank Duffy adopted the FM concept while designing office buildings in Europe and in 1985 established a company that was the English equivalent of IFMA. Later on, that company became part of the IFMA group.

The flowing years the European Facility Management market developed with different paces for each of the European countries. In 1987, a meeting was held in the Netherlands, the purpose of that meeting was to explain and establish a European FM network. Since then the different European FM markets focused on different aspects of FM, some targeted managing services while others concentrated on maintenance.

IFMA helped the development of the European FM market by financing and organizing conferences. This led to the establishment of FM centers and University degrees in FM by different European countries.

In 2002, 15 representatives from the European countries established a European FM definition. Which, later on was accepted by all 29 countries. The countries additionally defined the key terms and phrases used for the different aspects of FM. They also agreed that FM is a very broad term that deals with many processes, services and facilities. During the following years, a number of contracts were signed and definitions were established within the European FM. This has led incredible growth of the European FM market. In 2009, Sven Teichmann estimated the market to be close to 5 trillion DKK (EuroFM, 2010). While other experts state that, the FM market averages out between 5-8% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The FM market has added many services and businesses. Facility Managing experts are taking part in to the design of projects in this way FM is able to establish more and more sustainable lifecycle solutions for the buildings in the design stages.

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2.3 Evolution of FM Conventionally speaking about Types of FM the reader would assume, that there are multiple types of FM that concentrate more on one or a few FM aspect. This is not the case, even though different countries do utilize Facility Management with focus mainly on services, or maintenance, they all fall under the same category FM. This dissertation is going to define three types of FM based on the evolution of FM. As previously mentioned the first type of FM is the so-called Ink/Pencil and Paper method.

Computer Aided Facility Management is the second type and the third type is called Building Information Modelling Facility Management (BIMFM). They all aim to achieve the same results the thing that sets them apart is that and as years passed, more and more services were added to the term FM. Additionally the improvement of technology opened many possibilities for improvement if the Facility Management.

The first type even though it originated many years ago and for its time it was quite a successful method. As facilities became bigger and more sophisticated, keeping track of all of the FM paper documentation became harder and inconvenient. Today paper facility management is done mainly to small and low-budged facilities or newly emerging facilities. The result is poor space management, untimely service installation maintenance that ultimately lowers the efficiency of the facility.

Facility Management has become a mandatory requirement in order to ensure the effectiveness and productivity of the facility. As technology improved and became more easily accessible in the form of computers and laptops. Facility Management was improving as well, covering a wider scope of services. With so many aspects to keep track of, it is quite a complex and expensive process. Those factors inevitably led to the creation of Computer Aided Facility Management (CAFM).

CAFM not only eases the Facility Management workflow through the added power of the computer it opens many doors for software that can automatically analyse and produce reports based on the data input. It additionally helps the Facility Manager in space management, layouts and helps with the information management of all relevant components (XcellonFM, 2013). CAFM ensures a steady improvement of the Facility Management by providing the Facility Manager with fast and accurate reports on vital facility information. However setting up the FM software with the specific building data is a difficult and problematic process taking up to few years in some cases. Some aspects of CAFM are: Strategic planning – CAFM can aid with property and space analysis which boosts the effectiveness of the facility by planning rearrangement or procurement of new assets. Additionally CAFM greatly helps with strategic positioning of equipment, demand for space and space limitations, environmental limitations, cost, and more (James R. Watson and Russ Watson, 2013).

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Space inventory and management – CAFM helps with management of space and inventory of space by gathering and organising all data connected with components and space this includes the following. Escape routes, information connected with fire preventive equipment and installations, determining to what extent space is utilized and additional data connected with the building such as: Life span and expectancy, Construction data and cost, Contracts and warranty information, etc.

Operations – CAFM allows the Facility Manager to keep track of the costs and potential optimisations for energy consumption, equipment performance, perform lighting adjustments as well as keeping the facility and the green areas clean and tidy.

Maintenance and repairs – With CAFM assigning maintenance and repairs is much easier because the CAFM software presents all of the required information such as warranty, production number, contact information for persons in charge of maintenance etc. Preventative repairs are even more effective and timely due to the ease that the system provides.

Assessments – This includes risk and security assessments, building and furniture condition inspections. This includes the generation of analysis spreadsheets and reports. CAFM allows those assessments to have a Geographical Information Systems (GIS) reference which aids in the overall reporting.

Space forecasting – The CAFM system can represent future space requirements based on projects and possible expansion of the staff. The system can perform plans and determine cost for relocations this helps to minimize the cost and effort.

Building Information Modelling Facility Management has been a great improvement from Computer Aided Facility Management, (even though BIMFM falls under the category of CAFM) because if done properly, a BIM model can include all of the relevant data connected with the facility. The BIM model represents graphically all of the components in the building.

For example looking at a lightning fixture from BIM standpoint, that fixture actually exists in the virtual model, it has accurate dimensions and materials. It has various information attached to it such as electricity usage, amount of light it generates, production number, Operation and maintenance guide, etc. All of that attached information can be used for various analysis, schedules, drawings, renders. During the Facility Management period when the light bulb needs to be replaced, the Facility Manager can easily check the manufacturer, amount of watts and volts and cost.

This is only true if the manufacturer or designer put time and effort to include all of the specific data for that light bulb. This example applies for almost every building component and piece of furniture. Luckily, many of the big furniture companies and companies producing installation equipment also create a BIM model so that their product can be accurately represented in the BIM model. More information on BIM and BIMFM will be given later on in the dissertation.

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BIMFM improves every aspect of CAFM and most importantly, BIMFM dramatically cuts down the time for extracting all of the information from the building by simply exporting the data with an interoperable protocol such as IFC (more about IFC - later in the dissertation). Additionally the BIMFM software is a 3D software that can graphically represent analysis in 3D giving a better understanding. Viewing this 3D model, the Facility Manager can check for access routes and can pinpoint the exact location of a piece of equipment that needs to be serviced. More on how BIM can improve FM will be expanded upon later on in the report.

3. How is Facility Management done in the Sydney Opera House?

The Sydney Opera House is one of the most recognizable architectural masterpieces of the 20th century. Underneath all of that architectural beauty lies is an incredibly sophisticated structure with equally complex systems and equipment. The footprints and drawings for the Sydney Opera House were delivered to the contractors in the 1958 and they consisted of pencil/ink on paper. There drawings were so complex that when the building was finished in 1974, it was slightly different from the architects drawings and sketches (Cooperative Research Centre for Construction Innovation, 2007). An attempt to transfer all of those drawings to CAD files was made in 1980 but was of little use due to poor management and execution. This resulted in poor Facility Management of this complex building for many years.

In 2005, the Australian Cooperative Research Centre for Construction Innovation undertook the serious assignment of improving the Facility Management of the Sydney Opera House (Sabol, 2008). During the two-year research done by the Australian Cooperative Research Centre for Construction Innovation, consisted of procurement of needed documents and drawings, ongoing long term viability analysis, and considering different ways of improving the management. A big part of the research was a possible post construction BIM implementation in order to ease the extraction of all of the building data on to a 3D Facility Management model that could increase the consistency, accuracy, speed and effectiveness of the Sydney Opera House management.

The main reason to why this endeavor was undertaken is that The Sydney Opera House had reached a moment where a major improvement of the installation systems were planned. In addition, the public spaces in the facility had poor maintainability and the spaces were not used up to their full potential. Such changes would put too much strain on the outdated way of Facility Management used in the Opera House and would cost too much money and time.

Speaking of the outdated way of Facility Management of the Opera House. It consisted of a few departments each having different responsibilities and having almost no interaction and cooperation between the teams. Taking in to consideration the gravity 16

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of the problem the facility was using multimillion-dollar budget every year for Maintenance and Operation and these resources were “wasted” away in an inefficient and out of dated maintenance system. A unified and integrated Facility Management System needed to be implemented.

The Australian Cooperative Research Centre for Construction Innovation decided to make the project as an example for other projects they wanted to push the boundaries of innovation in three key areas: Digital Modeling - The aim is to create a Building Information Model that accurately reflects all of the visual, physical and characteristic aspects of the Sydney Opera house (Cooperative Research Centre for Construction Innovation, 2007). The model would represent the geographical location and use all of the information connected with it.

Furthermore, the model would use all of the fire, thermal, sound and structural qualities of all elements. In addition, the model would accurately represent each component such as service equipment, fixed furniture, electrical installations, etc. and show all of the required data attached to those components such as cost, manufacturer, specifications, serial number, etc.

Services Procurement - As above mentioned the opera house was due for a major service installations upgrade. Therefore, this is the most critical goal that the research aimed to accomplish. The main goal here is to establish a procurement system based on many criteria and mainly on performance analysis of different components of the new systems.

Performance benchmarking - Since the facility management system was quite inefficient and inaccurate there was a severe need for establishment of a new benchmarking system that would help to determine the key performance indicators.

With this system, Facility Managers would be able to establish better practice and improvement strategies for the whole facility. Spanning through all aspects of Facility Management mentioned in the first part of the dissertation.

Some additional issues that the Australian Cooperative Research Centre for Construction Innovation had to take in to consideration are: 

The Sydney Opera House has a 250-year design life. Due to the architectural accomplishment, the building will probably enter the UNESCO listing for World Heritage. That is why there are quite many complications and limitations to the renovation process and doing any type of changes to the building in general.



As above mentioned all of the documentation of the building consisted of inaccurate 2D hard copy documentation. The process of transferring all of the building information on to 3D Building Information Model would have benefited far better if the building documentation was originally drawn via 2D CAD software. However, the Opera House was designed before 2D CAD had been adequately implemented in to the building design process.

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

The structure of the Opera House is quite complex and the systems were originally designed quite innovative which actually makes making changes much more complicated and expensive. Those systems were undergoing a technology change implementing the new computer based services.

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The event and space planning system was not adequate what so ever, and an implementation of a new one would require a lot of money and time. Since the facility houses seven theaters and over a thousand rooms. Annually about 1000 events and 1500 performances take place in the Sydney Opera House (Cooperative Research Centre for Construction Innovation, 2007). The numbers speak for themselves about the gravity of this problem.

3.1 Building Information Model The creation of the BIM model for the Sydney Opera House was an accomplishment just by itself. Combining all of the existing data, which was outdated and inaccurate, with procurement of new and accurate data for the building itself took quite some effort to be done. In order to continue further a definition of BIM needs to be established: “Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a digital representation of physical and functional characteristics of a facility. A BIM is a shared knowledge resource for information about a facility forming a reliable basis for decisions during its life-cycle; defined as existing from earliest conception to demolition” (National Building Information Committee, 2012) This means that a Building Information Model has Geographic Information System integrated in to the site of the model. Additionally, each and every component has accurate dimensions, and the relations between the components are numerical. Those components can be easily visualized in 3D and have physical characteristics attached to them. Furthermore, different information can be attached to the components that can be used in various cases and eases up the process of design and Facility Management.

For example, if every building component such as walls, windows, roofs, floors have accurate thermal properties attached to it. Additionally if the model is virtually placed in the correct climate and space then the BIM software can use that information and perform energy calculations and reports. This process can be easily done throughout the design of the building, and in many cases, it does not disturb the design process because the program requires little input from the designer. Another example is each component has a type and the BIM software can easily extract the quantities and multiple attached specifications of this type of components. Multiple types of analysis, simulations and calculations can be easily done through the BIM software saving up a lot of time and effort in the process.

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The Building Information Model is different from 2D drawings in many ways. The 2D drawings are individual drawings and every time a change is done it has to be reflected in all of the 2D drawings manually. This results in multiple mistakes and problems that occur when the building has to be constructed. This is a very serious problem that occurs in virtually every projects today. Fixes to those problems are usually quite expensive and require a lot of time.

On the other hand, a BIM model is a virtual 3D representation of the building. A BIM model is smart because changes reflect instantly and automatically. This saves up a lot of time of the designers and eases the collision checks that can be performed on the go.

Here are some of the key benefits and generic attributes of BIM: 

BIM relies on a robust geometry that accurately represents different building components and numerically represents the relations between them.

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Each object in the BIM model has object properties attached to it those can be defined automatically by the program such as (dimensions, position, construction phase, etc.). Users can also attach object properties to the different objects such as (Fire, Sound qualities, Manufacturer product code, service date, etc.). Additionally specialized HVAC, electrical and structural objects can show disciplinary relevant information about the object such as (electrical energy usage, flow, outlet, etc.)

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All of that information can be used for decision-making, analysis, reports, design optimizations, innovation and facility management.

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The BIM model allows multiple people often working with different disciplines to be working with it at the same time. Additionally al of the information is stored in one place, which means - ease of accessibility across all disciplines (architects, electrical, structural engineers, contractors, facility managers, etc.)

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A BIM model supports data through the whole lifecycle of the building from concept through planning, designing, construction, operation and demolition.

This helps also to estimate the lifecycle costing of the components of the facility.

That data could be used for Facility Management through the operation of the facility.

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Environmental behavior can be predicted much more accurately because the manufacturers of the BIM software are using ever more accurate and reliable sources for their simulated environment data.

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Ultimately, BIM allows a faster and more flexible design process resulting with increasingly better production quality. Thus increasing the overall quality and efficiency of the building industry.

The industry has identified a few stages at which the BIM model can be made with different levels of detailing and information attached to the model. This virtually shows how BIM supports the whole lifecycle management of the project, from planning and designing, through construction, operation and demolition. (Pinsent Masons, n.d.).

3D – Model 

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First, the 3D model is a great visualization tool that helps designers to identify and fix problems while they are in the early stages and allows clients to get a visual indication of the progress of their project.

Additionally with so many architectural elements, service components, structural components intertwining in a building design many of them ought to collide.

These collisions are usually noticed when the building is being constructed and solutions can be quite costly. BIM provides a reliable function that automatically detects collisions and informs the user of the precise location.

The level of detailing means a greater level of certainty. This allows the dimensions of prefabricated elements to be more accurate. Using prefabricated elements minimizes the construction risks, costs and time.

4D – Time 

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Since all components within the BIM model have dimensions, time calculation can be performed by adding an object definition for construction time per m, m2 or m3. This helps the designer to grasp a basic understanding of how much time it would take for the components to be executed. Additionally the BIM model allows for temporary elements such as cranes, fencing, and wagons to be established thus gaining a greater understanding of the site plan throughout the construction stages.

Furthermore, a schedule visualization can be made in the BIM model that allows the identification of the critical path of the construction sequence. This helps the decision making process with accurate information.

5D – Cost 

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All elements in the BIM model have a property type. Quantity take-offs can be performed quite rapidly by grouping the required elements in a list. Additional relevant information about the elements can be included in the list as well. The accuracy of the quantity takeoffs is ensured, because any changes done to the elements automatically reflects in the list.

With the project definition of cost per m, m 2 or m3 added to the building components. The quantity takeoff lists can be further elaborated upon and turned in to a complete cost calculation.

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6D – Facility Management 

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After the designer has finished work on the model and the contractor has updated it during the construction phase the model has reached a level of information that it can be called “as built” model. The model contains all necessary information to conduct management and maintenance throughout the operation phase. Each component contains relevant information such as, manufacturer number, warranty, etc.

Virtual simulations can be performed in order to determine the performance of new equipment during procurement adding an extra layer of lifecycle costing.

Additionally sensors can feedback real information about the energy performance of the facility (Pinsent Masons, n.d.).

Figure 1. Building Information Modeling through the whole building lifecycle.

Building Information modeling allows multidisciplinary data to be easily shared throughout the conception stages to the operation and demolition stages during the lifecycle of the facility. In order to access that integrated model data the International Alliance for Interoperability (IAI) decided to create an information protocol that could seamlessly extract targeted data from different BIM programs and they named this protocol IFC. This is the only open global standard and because of that fact, it managed to overrule the existing proprietary protocols (Cooperative Research Centre for Construction Innovation, 2007).

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3.2 Industry Foundation Classes The International Alliance for Interoperability (IAI) created IFC because the alliance had identified the biggest problem of the building industry. The fact that technology had improved so much through the years and with it almost every industry thriving because of implementation of new technologies and the competitive nature of the market.

However, the building industry still relies on the old school ink on paper methods resulting in an inefficient industry full of waste and pollution. Companies are always struggling to meet the deadlines and are afraid to spend money and time on research and innovation. The result is that, nowadays buildings are very similarly built to the way they were built 60-70 years ago.

The IAI wanted to create a universal language for the building industry that could increase the efficiency, quality, cost, time and ease the communication throughout each of the phases that buildings go through from concerting and planning to operation and demolition. The key aspect of the transferred data is lifecycle because this critical data is often neglected. During the operation stage, the lifecycle information about all of the building components is critical in order to perform efficient Facility Management.

Over the years, IFC was improved in a few areas. First, the protocol could support data about Geographic Information Systems (GIS) the engineering disciplines such as, structural, heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), electrical, etc. Additionally the stability of the protocol was greatly increased, which boosted the reliability and allowed IFC to be used on an industrial scale (Cooperative Research Centre for Construction Innovation, 2007).

Here are some of the general assets that IFC is based upon. 

Project – The project sets up definitions such as coordinate system, true north, default units, etc. It lays down the foundations for the work that needs to be done that might be a design, engineering, construction, operation, demolition, etc. (buildingSMART International organization, 2013).

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Actor – Defines the human resources it can be individual, an organization or a company. The resources can be used through the whole lifecycle of the project.

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Process – Every action or task that happens during the project lifecycle. For example designing, construction, maintenance, acquisition, demolition etc. The processes can be assigned to actors, they are arranged in to sequence in time, and the whole process scheme can be viewed and rearranged.

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Property definition – Each object within the IFC project can have a set of definitions attached to it. The definitions add an extra layer of information to the project that is used through the whole lifecycle of the project.

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Control – This function adds control over all processes and products in the IFC protocol. Control can put limitations or add freedom to all processes and products. It can be used to perform different activities such as costing schedules, working plans, etc.

Additionally a set of Facility Management specific concepts built within the IFC protocol: 

Shared Facility Elements – Similarly to the above-mentioned Project, the Shared Facility Elements scheme sets up the basic information in the Facility Management domain. The information can be regarding furniture, inventory, equipment, assets, etc. (buildingSMART International organization, 2013).

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Facilities Management Domain – The scope here is to identify the domain of interest of the Facility Manager and summarize all the information connected with specific businesses. For example assessment of condition for the components and assets. It is critical to implement this function during the Facility Management phase.

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Shared Management Elements – This scheme is a subtopic of the abovementioned Classes but it is strictly specified to the Facility Management phase.

It mainly deals with work orders, purchase orders, costing schedules and estimation of environmental impact.

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Process Extension – Once again, this notion expands upon the already established and above-mentioned Process. It deals with the definition of work plans and work schedules along with all of the subcategories. In addition, the identification of work tasks, procedures. Mainly helps supply resources with work tasks, plans and schedules (buildingSMART International organization, 2013).

Now that some basics about BIM and FM have been established, this report will describe the most important aspects of the models created for the Sydney Opera House. Since the project is incredibly sophisticated, it was chosen do become an exemplar project for application of BIM for Facility Management and Asset Management (AM/FM).

The Building Information Model was created for the purpose of the full lifecycle management of the Sydney Opera House. This BIM model captured not only the physical and functional characteristics of the building. It was expanded to accommodate a high level of maintenance. This was accomplished by creating a set of properties attached to objects that require maintenance. Those properties are Name, Description, Element, Item location, Functional space, Maintenance task schedule, etc.

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Index. This index is split in to two categories appearance or Building Presentation Index (BPI), which covers the overall appearance and Building Fabric Index (BFI), which covers the performance. Whenever an inspection was performed, the list could be attached directly to the maintenance model and would have to contain information about Name, Description, Inspection date, BFI rating, BFI target rating, BPI impression, BPI cleanliness, BPI tidiness, etc. This method would greatly ease the process of inspection and maintenance for such a big facility.

The space management was enhanced through the arrangement of all of the stores, location spaces and functional spaces in to rooms and places. This arrangement resembles a tree. This allows an easier graphical overview of the performance readings for the different rooms and places to be established.

The master model comprised of a few sub models. The sub models accounted for the different disciplines such as Architecture, Structural, Electrical, Plumbing, Ventilation, etc. The architectural model for example attaches architectural data as element properties. Some examples of these properties are Material with layers, Sound Rating, Fire Rating, Combustibility, Fire spread ability, Thermal rating, Loadbearing. Accurate geographical (GIS) information was added to the model through the use of surveyors and databases.

Figure 2 Transition of IFC data for BIM and FM model creation and implementation.

Arup had created the 3D structural model in Bentley Microstation. This model was exported via IFC to ArchiCAD. Afterwards the model was expanded until it had reached a level of detail that was needed for the purposes of Facility Management also known as “as built�. Finally, with the help of the previously developed IFC protocol that model 24

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was transferred once again from ArchiCAD to the IFC viewing software called CSIRO. This model was used for Facility Management purposes.

The finalized Facility Management Model provides a set of tools that greatly improves the processes of management and maintenance. Not only does it centralize all of the information to a few discipline models, the Facility Management system automizes and generally improves the work process in a few key areas (Cooperative Research Centre for Construction Innovation, 2007): 

All of the above mentioned object properties such as BPI (presentation) and BFI (performance) could be easily viewed. All of the objects are organized in a tree hierarchy, for example Ground floor > Kitchen > Oven no.35b. Additionally all rooms and spaces have functional classification. Those spaces have object properties as well, in order to track the overall condition and tidiness.

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Since it is a 3D model viewer and integrated FM program. All of the data can be visualized according to different properties. For example if the facility manager would like to determine which areas of the building have the lowest BPI (presentation) he or she can easily establish a 3D view of the floor that shows all of the spaces and each space would have a different color code according to the actual BPI rating. This process helps with making faster decisions on the go.

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Since it is a smart model many actions can be performed that can ease the work of the Facility Manager. For example, BPI and BFI scores can be determined and showed in a list only for a selected type of instances, for example only the elevators or only kitchens. Additionally the model can analyze the effects of different scenarios such as power shortage, water scarcity, etc. The model can calculate the impact on surrounding rooms if for example there is power shortage only in one room.

The Sydney Opera House exemplar has proved that that a complete BIM transition greatly helped for the creation of the Facility Management model. Through the development of dedicated IFC protocol all of the BIM data could be successfully transferred across different BIM software and finally to the FM software.

A few aspects of the FM process has been greatly improved. First, the FM data became much more accessible and consistent, now it is easier to add information to the model and the data can easily be reused. The model can seamlessly create many different reports in 2D and 3D. This resulted in a great boost in the productivity of the Facility Management.

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4. What steps have UK made towards the implementation of BIM? Many countries have recognized the potential that BIM gives. However, implementing it on a national level is a difficult assignment. The majority of the companies are still using CAD software. A very small part are using BIM successfully and there is a good percentage of companies that have tried and failed to implement BIM. This part of the dissertation will examine what countries are doing in order to implement BIM. Those countries were not chosen because of their outstanding accomplishments in BIM implementation, rather they were chosen because of their approaches and plans to BIM implementation.

4.1 The 12 step action plan of UK The UK government has realized that the Construction sector is a very important contributor the development of the UK economy. The construction sector comprises of many subsectors, which provides work for 2.5 million UK employees (UK Cabinet Office, 2012).

The UK has made extensive research in how implementing BIM will affect the growth of the UK economy and has determined that it would be greatly beneficial for UK to become a leader in BIM. On 31 May 2011, the UK government undertook the assignment of integrating BIM in both public and private sectors by 2016. This means that the UK aims to modernize the sector and to lower the cost and the energy footprint by 20% (UK Cabinet Office, 2012).

Enabling BIM would yield many benefits, it would open many possibilities generally it will improve all stages of the project lifecycle.

This part of the report will inspect the “midway” progress of that assignment. Namely, what did UK accomplish so far and what steps are planned for the future.

This is what the government has already achieved as of November 2012 (UK Cabinet Office, 2012):  

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The government has established a set of requirements for training and skills.

The government has created a delivery team that is aiding all government departments in developing their own alteration of the strategy for BIM integration. This delivery team provides scheduled feedback to the Government Construction Board.

In order to ensure the smooth BIM transition the UK government has identified some key themes and topics and have employed a big amount of working groups and teams that will help with those themes and topics.

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The government wants to ensure that all parties involved in the construction sector will be able to successfully adopt BIM. That is why the government approached a number of professionals in the field.

The UK government informed a good amount of clients from private sector about the benefits that BIM has to offer in the form of explicit presentations.

The UK government has established Informational BIM hubs where small clients can seek advice, and get information about what BIM has to offer.

The government involved many different organizations in the development of interoperable standards that will aid the exporting and importing of BIM information.

The UK government has created a “2050 group” that aims to inspire the young generation in order to ensure the future of the BIM program.

This shows that the UK government has taken the “task” quite seriously. The foundation for improvement has been set. All of those achievements and activities are part of the first step (UK Cabinet Office, 2012).

Action 1 – states that the government should speed up and expand upon the abovementioned activities in order to implement BIM in the UK’s market and plan for potential expansion abroad.

The UK has already achieved observable results and other countries can look up to the UK’s accomplishment. However, there are many rivals for the title World Leader in BIM and The. UK clearly wants to be number one for a simple reason.

Action 2 – Ensure the global success of UK’s international construction and design companies, by getting recognition that “UK is the best in BIM”. This would lead to a steady stream of international clients and ultimately reflecting in a huge growth of the UK economy.

UK has acknowledged that BIM drives competitiveness, development in the market and overall gives a better image of the building sector. The EU Sustainable Construction Strategy is promoting BIM as a technology that increases the performance and effectiveness. Additionally the EU is developing standards and UK wants to contribute in the development of those standards.

Action 3 – The UK wants to overlook the development of the BIM standards in order to ensure that they are intraoperative with the ones that are being developed in The UK. The UK wants to use their leadership position to influence the development of BIM by the European Union.

In 2011 when the government released the initial report for BIM implementation. The government analyzed that it is possible to create sub sectors around BIM. For example a sector that can add data and value to the existing components in BIM.

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Action 4 – The UK wants to expand the Construction sector with BIM related services and software development. UK will collaborate with the BIM Technologies Alliance in order to ensure the growth of the BIM market.

The UK wants manufacturers to supply BIM models of their products. That is why the UK government has employed multiple organizations to work on various protocols and standards in order to ensure the easy transfer of data. However, the government acknowledges that it will be hard to ensure that all of the manufacturers will be able to grasp the importance of this endeavor.

Action 5 – The UK government is going to ensure that UK manufacturers are producing BIM data enabled models along with the actual products. That is why the government is actively cooperating with multiple organizations for the development of protocols and standards.

The UK government has would like to reduce the carbon footprint of the construction, the building site waste and increase the site safety and the accuracy at which talents are produced in factories. This is why UK is working with implementing “Designed for Manufacture and Assembly” concept in to BIM. For example when the designer places a concrete floor, the designer will be able to choose if the floor is made from prefabricated concrete elements, and this concrete floor would automatically transform in to appropriate families, and the designer would be able to change their arrangement.

Furthermore, those elements would contain information of what it would be the best way to cast, store, transport, and install them. All of this while choosing the best and most cost efficient way to design the concrete floor.

Action 6 – UK is going to collaborate with Offsite Construction Working Group and Industry and Offsite group in order to develop the “Designed for Manufacture and Assembly” concept of BIM, and implement into the design workflow.

The UK government believes that the benefits that BIM can provide to the Operation and Maintenance phase of the building will be substantial. The money that can be saved from the Operation and Maintenance phase when BIM has been utilized will be much greater than the cost of design and construction of that facility. That is why UK is closely examining every aspect of BIM that can yield positive results in regard with Facility Management. UK is also spreading the information about the positive aspects of BIM for the FM stage by working with many universities, architects, designers and investors.

Action 7 – The Government will work with research groups in order to determine all of the benefits that BIM can yield in to the operation, management and energy efficiency.

The UK government is assessing the public portals and is looking in to ways to improve how the portals handle BIM information.

Action 8 - The Government will invest in to the seamless flow of BIM data through public portals, in the pursuit to achieve a global leadership in BIM. 28

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In order to achieve global leadership in BIM UK is looking in to the future and has already started developing “Digital Built Britain”. This ambitious project aims to achieve big cost reductions in the construction, and Facility Management phase.

Action 9 – The UK is aiming to completely integrate BIM by implementing “Digital Built Britain”.

One of the problems that arises is that there are many BIM programs and transferring information from one to another is not supported in a lot of them. On the other hand, there are many issues with exporting inaccurate information.

Action 10 – The UK wants to ensure the seamless interoperability of software that is why the UK will be collaborating with international partners in order to work on International Building Information Modeling Standards.

The government has acknowledges that there is much data from existing projects that can be reused. However, extracting and converting this data is not a streamline process.

Action 11 – The UK government will start a program that will be able to extract and analyze BIM data in order to establish a BIM data recycling practice.

The government acknowledges that the quality of life in the cities is closely connected with the quality of services and information. The usage of BIM enables a part of the information to be fed in to the system. However, the customers need constantly changing data that should be supplied by mobile devices and satellites. Managing this aspect is one of the first steps that the UK is working on, to developing Smart Cities.

Action 12 – The government has initiated and funded a £25 million program called Future Cities. This program aims demonstrate how the cities of the future will work introducing digital economy and interconnection between all technology. This will ensure a healthier lifestyle.

The UK has established a well-rounded approach to tackling some of the biggest hindrances for BIM implementation. UK wants to be number one in BIM in order to gain global recognition and to be able to have input in which direction BIM is being steered.

Additionally UK recognizes that there are multiple benefits to being the leader in BIM and tries to seize.

4.2 How are other countries preparing for implementing BIM United States of America – In 2003 the National 3D-4D-BIM Program was established by the General Services Administration. The General Services Administration is quite substantial and influential due to the fact that it possesses or manages about 31mil m2 in real estate within the USA. The association is strategically implementing the 3D, 4D and BIM (buildingSmart, 2012).

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The General Services Assembly has increased the requirements for final concept approval. The architect will approve the final concept only if the spatial analysis is done in BIM. This obligates architects and engineers to work with BIM through the conceptual process. Additionally the Assembly is actively encouraging the usage of BIM throughout the whole design process.

The next steps that are in front of the General Services Assembly is to assess the BIM capabilities within the project’s lifecycle. Mainly in time scheduling, energy analysis, security and special validation.

The Assembly is looking in to obtaining open source Model Server technology in order to deposit all of the BIM models that are owned by the General Services Assembly.

This this is a key step will enable the storage and utilization of all BIM information from every building that has been completed.

The National Institute of Building Sciences have released the first version of the National BIM Standard in December 2007. This standard provides a guideline of how BIM can be implemented, including an overview of the principles and methodology. In May 2012, the standard was expanded with the second version, giving a more advanced and up to date vision spanning throughout the whole lifecycle of buildings.

Currently the institute is working on the third version of the National BIM Standard.

Denmark – In 2007, The Digital Construction Program was started by Danish government agencies along with The Danish University. Those agencies share about 5.5mil m2 in real estate.

The Danish Enterprise and Construction Authority created a project program that states that all projects above 5.5mil Euro need to be IFC integrated and BIM enabled. This program aims to increase the BIM lifecycle knowledge base of everyone involved in the construction industry. Additionally a set of guidelines and manuals were created to ease the job of the Architects Engineers and Contractors.

Norway – Statsbygg is a key advisor to the Norwegian Government in concern with building, FM and improvements of all government projects. Statsbygg is managing mostly public and government buildings the floor area sums up to about 2.6mil m 2.

In 2007, Statsbygg determined that BIM and IFC technology has to be in the core of the lifecycle management of their buildings.

Norway has already established a BIM specific database for management and storage of all BIM models that are used in the design of government projects, much like the one that USA is developing.

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Finland – The Government has established an association called Senate Properties and the main function of that association is to administer all of the governments’ properties. Those properties comprises mostly of public, cultural buildings and universities the total value of those buildings sums up to 5.6 billion Euros.

In 2001, the Senate Properties wanted to investigate the benefits of BIM that is why the Senate Properties started multiple projects, few years after the government established a rule that all projects from October will have to be IFC enabled. The government plans to establish BIM as a mandatory standard for every stage of the constructions lifecycle.

This was backed up with the release of the Universal BIM Guide for Industry, which provided plan scheme for implementing BIM in to every building related activity.

Singapore – The Government of Singapore has established a strategic program called Construction and Real Estate Network. This program allows for all parties involved in the building industry to exchange information and experience. Additionally the program is trying to help Architects, Engineers and Contractors to stop using conventional 2D drawing and implement all of the capabilities of BIM. The network allows designers to crosscheck their projects for regulation accuracy by implementing the IFC interoperability. Singapore plans to integrate BIM in to the construction by employing the IFC standard.

5. How can the efficiency of today’s FM be increased?

All of the work done in the report has led to the answer of this essential question.

Perhaps it is possible to say, “BIM supplies data for the FM phase”. However, this is a rather limited claim that does not examine the process and the complexity of what is involved in to using the BIM data for the FM phase.

In order to answer, “How can the efficiency of today’s FM be increased?” the whole project lifecycle has to be considered.

First, let’s take a look in to how are the design and construction processes usually done.

Figure 3 Traditional design and construction process.

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Figure 3 represents the traditional design and construction process. It is visible that the most money and effort is spent during the preparation of Detail Design and Construction drawings. The problem in this scheme is that when mistakes are discovered in the end of the preparation of the construction drawings it is really hard and expensive to make changes. The purple line represents the ability to make changes and in the beginning, it is rather easy to make changes while when the construction is underway and, suddenly there is a problem that needs to be fixed. It is hard to go find and apply the right solution. The blue line represents the cost aspect of changes. In the beginning, it is relatively cheap to change the design while during the construction phase it is considerably more expensive.

This traditional project delivery has been used through the years and there are many problems connected with it for example. The engineer enters the project design at a later stage than the architect does and the architect has already designed the overall shape of the building. However very often the engineer disagrees with some areas when he/she is considering the stability and the placement of beams and columns. This problem results in continuous changes until both the engineer and architect are happy with the result. Additionally, when the contractor joins the project, he/she has to make changes. This results in an unnecessary and very costly project delay.

Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) has been defined by (Association of State Facilities Administrators; Construction Owners Association of America; The Association of Higher Education Facilities Officers; Associated General Contractors of America; American Institute of Architects, 2010). Integrated Project Delivery a Collaboration between the owner, architect, engineer and contractor that aims to optimize the final result of the project through utilizing the knowledge and experience of all parties involved.

The essence of IPD is that all parties are involved in the project from the conceptual stages and design of the project. This ensures that all parties are going to agree with the general decisions about the project and will lower the amount of changes.

Figure 4 Improved project design and construction

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Figure 4 represents what the industry is trying to achieve. More work and effort put in to the design stages resulting in lowering the cost in the construction drawings stage and construction stage. Now how can the industry achieve that?

Integrated Project Delivery is a good start, involving the contractor and engineer in the early design stages will definitely help to decrease the amount of the costly and timeconsuming changes until the handing in of the building.

The research so far leads to the conclusion that BIM can greatly help in the design process. By accurately reflecting changes, allowing better collaboration within the project and generally easing the design process. However, there are very few companies that have integrated BIM on such a level, it is going to take some years before all countries acknowledge the benefits of BIM and additionally a number of years before BIM has been successfully integrated. Nevertheless, the research on how countries are trying to implement BIM in section 4 leads to the conclusion that Governments are acknowledging the benefits that BIM has to offer and are actively pushing forward to implement BIM. BIM standards, different plans of approach to the BIM implementation The green curve presented in Figure 4 graphically represents the benefits of implementing BIM and utilizing IPD in to the design process. Now let’s examine how the traditional design process extends through the operation and management phase.

Figure 5 Typical design and build approach with maintenance

Just looking at the diagram it is easy to understand that the utilization phase of the building is really important because operating and maintain the facility is a few times more expensive than the design and construction combined. Figure 5 graphs the cost and effort put in to the different stages of the buildings lifecycle. The first 2 years are spent in the traditional design and construction of the facility and throughout operation and maintenance over the years, it gradually becomes more expensive to run the facility until the moment where the facility is closed down.

While figure 5 represent the typical lifecycle of the building by design, the reality is that when the building is built a very poor form of facility management is established in the first years. This is represented very well by the blue line in figure 6.

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Figure 6 Typical design and build approach failing to do initial maintenance

The poor facility management in the first years is due to many reasons. If the building was designed in conventional CAD software and the FM is planned to be done with traditional CAFM software. Depending on the complexity of the building, gathering up all of the information for the building components for the purposes of FM can take about a year and a half. This process is usually prolonged due to the fact that a lot of the money of the investors and client have been spent on building this facility and obtaining all of the service systems, machinery and furniture. This results in virtually zero maintenance in the initial years and leads to earlier obsolescence and replacements of some of the equipment. As the graph show the cost of maintaining the building rises dramatically before the facility is taken out of operation.

The industry tries to achieve a generally lower cost curve represented in figure 7. This is how the lifecycle of the building will look like if the change of orders is lowered, the project delivery time is reduced, also decreased operation and maintenance cost.

Figure 7 Improved design and management

This report has already established that utilizing BIM and IPD in the design stages does yield benefits through the construction of the project but what about the ever so important Operation and Management stage?

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difficult process of gathering of all the FM specific data when the building has been delivered. Additionally the information gathered is often outdated or simply wrong.

Architects and designers has to really push beyond Integrated Project Delivery. They should consider what happens after the Delivery of the project and how can that be eased.

Similarly, with the integration of BIM in the design process, the delivery of the building can be faster, cheaper and with less change of work orders. However, BIM alone does not greatly help the Operation and Management phase of the building. BIM gives the opportunity to attach FM valuable information to the components of the model but since designers are neglecting the Operation and Management phase, the Facility Manager has to manually gather all of the FM specific information.

Construction Operations Building Information Exchange (COBie) is a standard that helps to collect critical Facility Management data such as product specification data, warranties, spare parts, maintenance schedules, etc. (East, n.d.)

The green line in figure 7 can be achieved by implementing sustainable building solutions in to the design of the facility. Additionally by implementing IPD with consideration for the Operation and Management of the building that will result in reduction of change orders. Most importantly, BIM has to be utilized for the design of the project, with the help of COBie, all of the FM critical data can be implemented in to the project. This will result in further decrease of the changes of the design and it will help to establish an information rich model that can be used for the Operation and Management of the facility.

However, the interoperability of the BIM design software and the FM software is not certain. In order to make sure that the data exchange is going to be easy and accurate.

Standards such as IFC has to be utilized to further refine the data and to ensure the exchange to the Facility Management software. This integration of BIM in to the FM phase is known as BIMFM. There are considerable difficulties in to changing the traditional design, construction and operation of the facility represented by the orange and blue lines in figure 7 in to the green line. However, the technology put in to the building industry is improving with exponential speed. The research on what steps are countries taking towards BIM implementation has proven that BIM is going to be the standard of building design in the future. Additionally the Sydney Opera House exemplar has proven that it is worth to create a BIM model even post construction for the purpose of establishing accurate transfer of data for the Operation and Maintenance stage.

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Figure 8 Savings

People who are currently looking in to implementing BIM are mostly interested in BIM because of the initial savings that can occur during the final preparation of construction drawings and construction of the project. However if BIM is properly integrated with standards such as COBie and IFC the real untapped savings are the in the utilization stage of the project lifecycle marked in yellow on figure 8.

6. Conclusion All of the industries today are greatly relying in the benefits of the improving technology.

The Building Industry however has not changed so much for many years. Regardless of the fact that it has the biggest impact on the environment and the people.

Innovative design technologies such as BIM are getting recognition by a number of countries as described in this report. Countries are preparing plans on how to integrate successfully BIM in to the project lifecycle.

The Sydney Opera House case study has proven that the utilization of BIM can become a very valuable tool for gathering essential data for the Utilization stage of the building, even after the building has already been designed by hand and constructed.

Utilization of IPD in the design process can help the implementation of sustainable design solutions. Which can lead to reduced environmental impact and operational costs.

If the building is designed with fully integrated BIM software and the model is populated with FM information based on COBie. Which will ensure the accuracy of the model and will result in less changes, faster execution, and improved building site safety.

Then the BIM enabled FM software can easily be set up with information exchange supported by protocols such as IFC. Ensuring the efficient and sustainable operation and management of the facility.

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List of References Association of State Facilities Administrators; Construction Owners Association of America; The Association of Higher Education Facilities Officers; Associated General Contractors of America; American Institute of Architects, 2010. Integrated Project Delivery For Public and Private Owners. [Online] Available at: http://www.agc.org/galleries/projectd/IPD%20for%20Public%20and%20Private%20O wners.pdf [Accessed October 2013].

BIM Implications for Facilities Management (CAFM) Webinar. 2011. [Film] s.l.: s.n. b. I. o., 2013. IfcProject. [Online] Available at: http://www.buildingsmart-tech.org/ [Accessed October 2013]. buildingSmart, 2012. National Building Information Modelling Initiative Report.

[Online] Available at: http://www.innovation.gov.au/industry/buildingandconstruction/BEIIC/Pages/Library% 20Card/NBIMIReport.aspx [Accessed October 2013].

Cooperative Research Centre for Construction Innovation, I. P. L., 2007. Adopting BIM for facilities management. 1st ed. Brisbane: Cooperative Research Centre for Construction Innovation, for Icon.Net Pty Ltd. East, W., n.d. Corps of Engineers Pilots COBie. [Online] Available at: http://www.nibs.org/page/0612_COE_COBie/ [Accessed October 2013].

EuroFM, 2010. What is FM?. [Online] Available at: http://www.eurofm.org/about-us/what-is-fm/ [Accessed October 2013].

International Facility Management Association, 2008. 11 Core Competencies of Facility Managers. [Online] Available at: http://www.ifma.org/know-base/fm-knowledge-base/knowledge-basedetails/11-core-competencies-of-facility-managers [Accessed October 2013].

International Facility Management Association, 2008. What is Facility Management?.

[Online] Available at: http://www.ifma.org/about/what-is-facility-management [Accessed October 2013].

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James R. Watson and Russ Watson, M. E., 2013. Computer-Aided Facilities Management (CAFM). [Online] Available at: http://www.wbdg.org/om/cafm.php#top [Accessed October 2013].

National Building Information Committee, 2012. National BIM Standard, United States: s.n.

Pinsent Masons, n.d. Building Information Modelling. [Online] Available at: http://www.out-law.com/en/topics/projects--construction/projects-andprocurement/building-information-modelling/ [Accessed October 2013].

Prodgers, L., n.d. The History of Facilities Management in 5 Minutes. [Online] Available at: http://mcmorrowreport.com/articles/historyFM.asp [Accessed October 2013].

Sabol, L., 2008. Building Information Modeling & Facility Management, Washington,DC 20036: IFMA World Workplace.

UK Cabinet Office, 2012. Building information modelling. [Online] Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/34710/ 12-1327-building-information-modelling.pdf [Accessed October 2013].

XcellonFM, 2013. CAFM-Comprehensive Facility management technique. [Online] Available at: http://xcellonfmuk.wordpress.com/2013/05/07/cafm-comprehensivefacility-management-technique/ [Accessed October 2013].

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October 25th

Plamen Ivanov Parteniev

List of Illustrations Figure 1. Building Information Modeling through the whole building lifecycle.

Source: http://kienviet.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/BIM_Illustration-500x250.jpg Date acessed: October 2013

Figure 2 Transition of IFC data for BIM and FM model creation and implementation Source: http://dcstrategies.net/files/2_sabol_bim_facility.pdf Date acessed: October 2013

Figure 3 Traditional design and construction process Source: Parteniev, P.I., 2013

Figure 4 Improved project design and construction Source: Parteniev, P.I., 2013

Figure 5 Typical design and build approach with maintenance Source: Parteniev, P.I., 2013

Figure 6 Typical design and build approach failing to do initial maintenance Source: Parteniev, P.I., 2013

Figure 7 Improved design and management Source: Parteniev, P.I., 2013

Figure 8 Savings Source: Parteniev, P.I., 2013

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