B3 - Group B - Farnelli

The Department of Civil and Building Engineering of Loughborough University, UK performed a survey of 13 questions which were given to AEC companies in both the UK and the USA in 2008. The purpose of this survey was to see if they could identify the reasons why use of BIM was much more prevalent in the USA. At that point about 25% of the companies in the USA reported using BIM for design, and only 14% in the UK. While some of this information is no longer as relevant, as some problems have been at least partially addressed, the results to offer some insight into what keeps companies from adopting a BIM program for their designs. The top five barriers according to those surveyed were: waste time and human resource, cost copyright and training, unsuitable for projects, current technology is enough and that people refuse to learn. This first reason is most obvious when BIM is first adopted, as starting a new program always brings in many problems. The first few models would likely take much more time, which would be a very large hurdle. Sheet setups that have been used for years have to be redesigned for the new program, and using the program also generally requires a significant amount of training and experience before workers build up speed. The second barrier, the cost of the program and to train workers, is directly related to this problem. Often business licenses for the software can be very expensive, and good training can be costly as well. Each new version of the software might require additional training, as well.

When these categories are broken down by country, it is obvious that different aspects are more important based on the country. Almost 40% of USA voters agreed that wasting time and human resources was a barrier, with only about half that percentage of UK voters agreeing. US voters also were more likely to believe that the current technology was sufficient. In all other categories the UK believed that they were more of a barrier than the USA did. The largest difference in this case was that less than 5% of USA voters said that people would refuse to learn, while almost 20% of UK believers thought this would be an issue. Interestingly enough, it seems from this study that the USA respondents were more likely to believe that these problems would be barriers, though they are more likely to work in a company that already uses BIM software.

 

Finally, the survey also asked the AEC companies if they thought that BIM would have a future in the industry. About 2/3 of those surveyed believed that BIM at least maybe had a future, with only about 1/30 thinking that it did not. Though these problems have been an issue, the promise of the benefits to the industry if BIM is implemented far outweigh the hesitancy due to the problems with the software.

Another source from an IT company also walked through different factors which can make it difficult to begin using BIM, specifically Revit. They identified problems such as the cost of possibly upgrading the hardware as well, as some firms would not have computers that would be able to handle the software. They also included initial costs due to low productivity. This document also addressed the “people refuse to learn” problem, which I had not really understood before I read this. Here it is explained that the problem lies in the frustration of using the program without proper training. They at least partially address the problem by proposing rolling training, teaching a few people at a time (perhaps on smaller projects).

Sources:

Yan H and P Damian (2008). “Benefits and Barriers of Building Information Modeling.” 12^th International Conference on Computing in Civil and Building Engineering, Beijing, 2008.

 “7 Questions You Must Ask Before Moving to AutoDesk Revit: What steps are needed for a successful implementation of this powerful software.” Trust I.T., LLC, Baton Rouge, LA, 2014. <http://www.trustitllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Trust_Autodesk-Revit1.pdf>

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