Barriers to 5D BIM Adoption

The Architecture, Engineering, Construction and Operation Industry (AECO) in Ireland, is engaged in a technological change which is intended to achieve ambitious objectives in terms of 20% time reduction, 20% cost reduction and 20% exports increase. The fact that the BIM methodology is becoming widespread among designers and builders in Ireland, many contractors and QSs find it difficult to implement 5D BIM for QTO and costing.

5DBIM can be defined as the process of applying costs to the model. Quantities takeoff can be generated from the 3D model and exported to a costing software. In a 5D environment, the Quantity Surveyors (QSs) and estimators can participate in data exchange within the BIM workflow from the design stage and provide better advice to the clients, exploring more efficient ways of improving building design, costs, and performance.

5D BIM adoption is still very slow and some QS practices do not have enough technological advancements to export Quantity Take off (QTO) from 3D models.

Quantities are the primary source that if organised into the Bill of Quantity (BoQ) and related to unit cost of material, additional costs, labour, and time, allow cost consultants to obtain the final account of the project.

Costing, and the Bill of Quantities, are prepared traditionally using drawings to perform manual QTO while completing costing tasks, a process filled with potential for human error.

By using the 5th dimension of BIM, and utilising costing software such as: Navisworks, CostX, Vico, Mudshark, etc. can import the information from the 3D model, to make groups and add cost to each component. The information Take off can be updated each time from the 3D model and allow contractors, subcontractors and project teams, to produce accurate costing information with model element attributes such as size, area, object family type and productivity projections.

Despite the difficulties in applying of a new technology, the QSs are beginning in an incipient way, to use BIM workflows in which the QTO is carried out by programmed routines, that can extract dimensions and, measurement data from the 3D models and to export them, into costing programmes.

There are multiple reasons and issues for the 5D BIM adoption of QS professionals, that can be classified under three sections as shown in Figure 1.

The resistance to changing the way of working, the lack of BIM capabilities, the silo discipline education as well as the fear of the unknown and to assume new roles are the main people barriers.

Despite of the QSs understand that the BIM methodology represents a significant technological change, that is transforming the way of producing and sharing information in the AECO sector, this is perceived with fear of the unknown and of assuming new roles for which it is necessary to acquire new technological capabilities.

Implementation of 5D BIM requires investing in training the staff and acquiring software licenses whose cost is significant, especially for small practices. BIM is much more than 3D models; It is a methodology of collaborative information management and whose application requires knowledge of the standards and the early implication of all stakeholders from the design stage.

Regarding Process barriers to 5D BIM adoption, the exclusion of the Main Contractors and Subcontractors from the early design and project planning, the lack of maturity of IPD (integrated project delivery) BIM maturity in Ireland and the lack of Government Lead as well as the lack of request of 5D BIM by customers, make difficult the 5D BIM adoption.

Many clients have a limited understanding of the BIM methodology and poorly trained staff on this methodology, so they do not demand this kind of services from other professionals in the sector. The cost of staff training is significant and requires time to incorporate these new knowledges into workflows. This affects the QSs in a significant way, whose incorporation into the project in traditional practice is in the delivering stage, while for a full integration within the BIM methodology require a collaborative approach from the early stage of the projects. QSs are not incentivized to engage or collaborate within the 5D BIM environment and the Government must take the lead and mandate for Public Sector projects encouraging the early engagement of QSs within BIM workflow.

Other significant barriers to 5D BIM adoption are that Clients are not paying for BIM services and this discourages the use of the BIM methodology. Fees need to be restructured to include any additional 5D BIM services.

Nowadays, there are also significant Technology problems to 5D BIM adoption, that require further investigation by software vendors in the same way that the designer software has been developed for their specific requirements.

The incorrect classification of the elements in the model makes it difficult to automate the extraction of the quantities and manual interventions are required to complete the process. This problem classified as technological as well, in my opinion, is a process problem whose solution requires the integration of the QS’s role from the design phase and establishing the information requirements that the models must include as well as providing a guide for designers for modelling with a collaborative approach.

Currently, many activities of QTO and costing must be done manually, such as: Link several models such as architectural model, M&P model, structural model and so on, with 5D platform to extract quantities and to export the derived quantities to costing programmes. Once again, acquire digital knowledges as well as to know how the 5D BIM tools work, are the key and starting point for the QTO automation process.

The lack of QS Model View Definition (MVD) is another of biggest technical issue and it is considered a great barrier to QS 5D BIM adoption.

MVD represent subsets of the IFC schema defined by buildingSMART International and group together certain information useful for specific workflows or uses.

Due to the lack of a specific 5D BIM standard, there is not an approach to cost planning and the production of Bills of Quantities (BOQs). All functional components of the design, such as slabs, floors, external walls and so on, are organize within a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). Into the categories of the WBS, overall estimated costs are allocated to the elements of the project.

Nowadays, exist many WBS in different regions and even within different sectors of the construction sector which makes it impossible for BIM software manufacturers to add all the WBS code in the objects due to the number of existing standards. Presently, to address this issue, QSs must add these codes themselves in the authoring model application or append them in the 5D costing tool. Doing that, QTO can be filtered based on this WBS and produce a cost estimate.

The accuracy of the information extracted from 3D models is other significant Technology issue that has a big impact on costing calculation.

Software vendors set up the quantities to be extracted from the 3D model, in accordance with their own parameters that do not follow any recognised method of measurement, therefore, the QTO generated by different applications, can produce Bill of Quantities (BoQ) with significant variations. To address this issue, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and the Society of Chartered Surveyors of Ireland (SCSI), integrates on the International Property Measurement Standards Coalition (IPMSC) are in the process of developing an international standard of measurement that will it be a guide to 5D BIM implementation.

Nowadays, the 5D BIM dimension become more relevant for the QS and there are many recommendations and initiatives to overcome the existing barriers and achieve an effective adoption of the 5D BIM dimension as shown in Figure 2.

In order to facilitate a complete 5D BIM implementation, further research and development of technological solutions is required that avoid excessive manual intervention in the extraction of quantities process as well as better interoperability between the Authoring software and the

5D BIM applications. The development of a specific measurement standard as well as the standardization in the WBS will facilitate the extraction of quantities process and will increase the accuracy of the information obtained.