Advantages And Disadvantages Of BIM System In Project Management Essay.

Importance of Project Management

Discuss about the Advantage and Disadvantage of BIM System.

This is an essay about the advantages and disadvantages of the software system BIM (Building Information System) in the area of the project management. The software system is an innovative technology of the IT in the area of the civil engineering. Nowadays the civil engineering constructions projects are required an effective level of project management for getting the desired level of success in their works. Use of the BIM software is providing lots of help in the concern are of the project management of the building construction projects. Likewise all other innovative technology of the information and communication technology, the BIM software system also has some disadvantages. IN other words, there are some potential challenges faced by the users regarding the use of the BIM software in the project management of the construction projects.

In this essay, the concept of the project management and the use of the BIM in the project management works will be analyzed by conducting secondary research work in the concerned area. The main focus will be given in the area of the earned value analysis of the construction projects in Hong kong. The use of the BIM software for the earned value analysis of the construction projects will be discussed and analyzed in this essay.

According to Sears et al. (2015), Construction project management is very important for management of the building operations and processes. The management process would be helpful for managing the construction processes and procedures. The construction projects have specific objectives and constraining factors that have to managed and dealt for successful completion of project. General management and project management differs because of the difference in requirement of project (Bynum, Issa and Olbina 2012). The importance of the project management for the construction projects are:

Management of operations and functions: The project management is helpful for easing the processes that are required and management of project works and teams (Fewings 2013). The construction and building projects have number of requirements such as raw materials, investments, time, and quality. The project managers have to use the techniques and skills of project management for making sure that the requirements of the project are aligned with the objectives and budgets of the project.

Formation of Coordination among team: The building projects require a number of team members and workers. The project management helps in forming a coordinated team working environment for the project team (Alzahrani and Emsley 2013). The operations and works of the project team are synchronized and managed due to the use of the project management skills. The construction project team includes:

Building Information Modeling System

Successful completion due to the project management: The team members and project operations require the guidance for completing the project successfully. The projects are completed successfully due to the use of project management skills like leadership and motivation (Eadie et al. 2013). The construction project requires the construction of structures and buildings. Hence, project management has largely helped in forming motivation and leaderships among the workers for completing the project of construction successfully.

Extensive planning process: The project management process includes the procedure of detailed planning and designing (Hardin and McCool 2015). The project managers would have to form extensive and creative plans for the construction process. The construction process has to be initiated by the use of proper design of the structure made. The structural engineers and the project managers would have to form a detailed design. The operations of the project would have to be scheduled before the initiation of the project. Hence, the planning process would help in timely completion of the operations of the construction project.

Cost estimation and budgeting: The capital budgeting and cost estimation is another crucial part for the project. The operations of the project must be completed in the allocated time by maintaining the quality of the resulting construction (Zhang et al. 2013). However, the expenses on the project must be limited and it should not exclude the allocated budget. Hence, project management would largely be beneficial for forming the budget and keeping track of the operations to make sure that the operations are completed in estimated budget.

Quality Maintenance: The project management provides the benefit of maintaining the quality of project. The construction project needs making sure that the building and the construction made must be of fine quality so that the constructed building would be strong and compact (Aminbakhsh et al. 2013). For example- The Skyscrapers of Hong Kong had been made by making sure that the buildings have long lasting life and safety features.

Building Information Modeling system is a software process that would be used for creating models and structures of buildings and infrastructures (Fewings 2013). The use of technological development had been useful for forming building structures and models in a software device. It is a very quick process and the computerized system has been helpful for forming the models of the buildings. Basically, the Building Information Modeling is useful for forming 3D models for the building and structures. It is useful for generating information and extracting the information from information system. However, with the development of technology, 4D, 5D, 6D and even 7D type of modeling in Building Information Modeling has been introduced. The 4D modeling in Building Information Modeling has been based on the detection of complexity and changes in the designs. The progress of building and construction has been added as the fourth dimension to the 3D modeling process (Alzahrani and Emsley 2013). The 5D modeling in Building Information Modeling has been based on the financial aspect of the construction process. The cost factor has been added in the modeling process as the fifth dimension to the 4D modeling. The 6D modeling in Building Information Modeling has acquired the dimension of energy consumption for the sixth dimension of building models. It has been based on the factor of energy consumption during the process of the construction process and operations. The 7D modeling in Building Information Modeling has acquired the management process for the seventh dimension of the building models (Sears et al. 2015). It has been based on the facilitation of the construction process management.

Advantages of BIM System

The typical problems that are faced by the construction processes are lack of proper planning, coordination of the project, absence of professionally specialized equipments, difficulty in fixation, and no integration of the operations (Wang et al. 2015). All these issues have resulted in degradation and unsuccessful completion of the construction project. However, the use of Building Information Modeling would be helpful for the making a proper design of the buildings and constructions. It would help in making a proper design along with smallest details of the plan. The building plan would be helpful for making a scheduled plan of the construction project. This scheduled plan would be helpful for integration of the operations (Eadie et al. 2013). The well planned and integrated operations of the construction project would serve the purpose of successful completion of the project. The workers would be able to comply and communicate about the progress of the project work. It would help in coordination of the team workers. The conventional methods of cost estimation in construction projects would be far more difficult and unreliable. However, the use of Building Information Modeling would help them in easily cost estimation and budgeting. The 5D modeling in Building Information Modeling is based on the financial aspect of the construction process (Hardin and McCool 2015). The use of 5D modeling would take in consideration of costing factor and would help in forming a budget for the construction and building projects. The future change scope can be easily included in the models of the Building Information Modeling.

The Building Information Modeling has helped in various aspects of the designing of building and structures. The advantages of the Building Information Modeling include Computerized modeling, Ease of operations, Clash Detection, Goes beyond 3D modeling, Virtual reference, Overview of equipments used, and Data extraction (Volk et al. 2014). These points of benefits have been explained in the following paragraphs:

Computerized modeling: It does not matter how hard a human try, the design made by the machines are far more superior and detailed than the design hand made by humans. According to Love et al. (2014), the Building Information Modeling has the most prominent advantage that it is useful for making detailed designs of the buildings and structures. The computerized designs have smallest of details been perfectly laid out in the design.

Ease of operations: The Building Information Modeling has provided the ease of operations for making the designs (Volk et al. 2014). The handmade designs are prone to take much amount of hard work and time for completing. However, the use of the modeling technique using BIM would help in easing the workload and could be completed in comparably less amount of time.

Disadvantages of BIM System

Clash Detection: The clash detection is very important feature of the Building Information Modeling (Love et al. 2014). It helps in automatically detecting any errors or flaws in the design made. The use of the modeling technique is very crucial for the fixing any designing errors.

Goes Beyond 3D modeling: The Building Information Modeling had provided the scope of going beyond 3D modeling. It has included building designs with constraints like cost, energy requirements and management process.

Virtual Reference: The Building Information Modeling has provided the scope for the virtual reference to the managers involved in the project. It had provided them with most simplest of details and designing functions.

The Building Information Modeling has the disadvantages of requirement of understanding and Complex technological development. These two disadvantages have been explained below:

Requirement of understanding: The Building Information Modeling requires a lot of understanding for successful forming the design into the real world. The BIM software has considered lots of components while forming the designs of the building and structure (Ding, Zhou and Akinci 2014). These factors must be taken in consideration at real life level before applying the designs in construction process. It is important for understanding the level of implication of the modeling in the project before the implying them in the project.

Complex Technological Development: The Building Information Modeling is software and it requires many complex technological developments for being applied in the operations of any organizational project (Bynum, Issa and Olbina 2012). The hardware, software, processor, and the graphics used for the Building Information Modeling system in the construction project must be realized and implied in the technical equipments gathered for the project.

Earned Value Analysis (EVA) refers to an industry standard that used for the measurement of the progress of the project work at some point of time. It is about the forecasting both the time and cost required for the completion of the project work. In order to do so, the analysis of the variances in the project schedule and budget is required. Always it is not possible to complete the project development within the mentioned time limit and exact budget as declared in the initial level of the project. But, the problem is that the earned value analysis is about the exact time and budget. Therefore, the forecasting the variance is highly important in this process. The BIM system will help in the below discussed way in the construction projects in Hong Kong.

Challenges Faced by the Users of BIM System

According to Sears et al. (2015), EVA is a snap in time that can be used for managing the progress of the project as an early warning system. It ensures the prior notice regarding the definition of the works at the time of execution of the project development work. As per Rao and Cherian (2015), in order to get the effective level of use of the EVA in the project development and management, proper breakdown of the works is required. This is known as the Work Breakdown Structure or WBS of the project management work. The WBS refers to a product-oriented division of the whole project in several sub groups. The most common two formats of the WBS are Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) format, and the Uniformat. Generally the uniformat is use as the preliminary level and the CSI format is used in the final bidding level for developing the WBS of the project management work (Bhosekar and Vyas 2012).

The process of the Earned Value Management (EVM) deals with the three key elements; they are:  Planned Value (PV), Actual Cost (AC) and Earned Value (EV). The cost variance measurement can be done by subtracting the value of AC from EV. And the value of schedule variance (SV) can be measured by subtracting the value of PV form the value of EV (Kerzner 2013).

Cost Variance (CV) = EV – AC

Schedule Variance (SV) = EV – PV

According to Gibbs  et al. (2015), the basics of an earned value management system are: a complete WBS prepared by applying a thorough and organized method, a baseline of the project schedule, baseline of the project budget, measurement of the account control. A time-phased baseline is required at the control account level. With the help of these procedures, the performance measurement baseline (PMB) is also possible.

In Hong Kong, many issues have been found in the area of the construction industry like low labour productivity, poor level of identification of the project requirements, lack of study and lack of professionalism in the construction managers. These are the major reasons of need of improvements and use proper project management strategy in the construction industry (Aliverdi  et al. 2013). In this area, the proper budgeting and scheduling is highly important. In order to do so, the use of the information technology is required. The BIM (Building Information Management) software is one of the most effective tools of information technology for the management of the construction projects.

Conclusion

BIM enhances specialized work at the plan organize by making 3D models that coordinate every one of building's components and it better speaks to the framework's necessities. Those models can likewise be upgraded if connected with calendar (4D) and costs (5D); the development can in this manner be better arranged completely at the plan stage. Time and cost controls are vital for any development association. EVM is broadly utilized for observing and controlling time and cost parameters as per a gauge and rendering conjectures (Walker 2015).

The main contributions of the framework are a coordinated WBS and a 3D building model that are given at first by the plan group. At that point, the development group works with the outline group to enhance the model by assessing time and cost parameters and surveying constructability with conflict discovery and by doing general perception and assessment of the model. Cycles of the venture's financial plan and timetable are made all through this stage (Wong and Fan 2013). At the point when the building model is done, the produced yields of the plan stage incorporate last amount departures, spending plan and calendar, the EVM stage with time-cost baselines, and a 5D show that coordinates time and cost values for the building and its related parts. At the development stage, the EVM module is utilized to set up venture execution in view of the rate of physical work set up. Change administration is additionally performed, took after with an overhauled spending plan, timetable, and 5D model of the building. Once the framework's modules and its engineering are set up, the improvement will initiate by evaluating the applied work process (Bhosekar and Vyas 2012).

These modules are (1) representation module, (2) time and cost assessment module, (3) booking module, and (4) earned esteem administration (EVM) module. The perception module incorporates the genuine building model that permits 3D and 5D representation. From this module, it is conceivable to determine time and cost values for every part of the displayed fabricating. At that point, by connecting this information to each of the development errands, the client can build up the timetable and the EVM modules, individually. Figure 1 represents the framework's interconnected modules and their related segments, while Figure 2 shows the engineering of the proposed framework in which clear depiction of the required data sources, investigation, criteria, and yields for both the plan and development stages is given (Wong and Fan 2013).

References

The primary contributions of the framework are an incorporated WBS and a 3D building model that are given at first by the outline group. At that point, the development group works with the plan group to enhance the model by assessing time and cost parameters and surveying constructability with conflict recognition and by doing general representation and assessment of the model. Cycles of the venture's financial plan and timetable are made all through this stage. At the point when the building model is done, the created yields of the outline stage incorporate last amount departures, spending plan and calendar, the EVM stage with time-cost baselines, and a 5D display that coordinates time and cost values for the building and its related segments (Kerzner 2013). At the development stage, the EVM module is utilized to build up venture execution in light of the rate of physical work set up. Change administration is additionally performed, took after with a redesigned spending plan, timetable, and 5D model of the building. Once the framework's modules and its design are set up, the advancement will initiate by surveying the theoretical work process as appeared in.

In this paper, the case study of a building construction project in Hong Kong is taken for understanding the impact of the BIM in construction project management. At the initial level of the project development the cost estimated for the whole project was 121.75 days and the total cost required for the project was $2,592,346.56. While using the BIM software system for the earned value management is applied in the project, a reduction in the time and cost of a steel framing work happened. Due to this, the total time required for the project dropped to 121.67 days. Obviously the total cost was also reduced to $2,591,212.80. Therefore, it can be concluded that the update of the system requirements is very vital for the project management using the BIM. Overhauls to the timetable and 5D model are promptly practical and profitable for evaluating the venture's execution with the EVM pointers. The ITCMS has an extraordinary number of potential outcomes as far as PC operations and information examination (Mayouf, Cox and Boyd 2014). It is evident that, with an entire outline and development extend, being able to guarantee coordination and joining among the venture group with BIM apparatuses and forms, matched with the utilization of an EVM stage that empowers a ceaseless survey of the execution, would be helpful for the construction projects in Hong Kong.

Conclusion:

Use of the BIM software is providing lots of help in the concern are of the project management of the building construction projects. Without involving a good project management strategy the activities of the whole project may get hampered as the project team members may not be able to organize the activities and resources properly at the proper time. In order to do so, the analysis of the variances in the project schedule and budget is required. Always it is not possible to complete the project development within the mentioned time limit and exact budget as declared in the initial level of the project. The perception module incorporates the genuine building model that permits 3D and 5D representation. From this module, it is conceivable to determine time and cost values for every part of the displayed fabricating. At the development stage, the EVM module is utilized to build up venture execution in light of the rate of physical work set up. Change administration is additionally performed, took after with a redesigned spending plan, timetable, and 5D model of the building. At the last it can be concluded that although there are some challenges in the use of the BIM in the project management of the construction projects, the system is providing effective level of help in the concerned area.

References:

Abanda, F.H., Vidalakis, C., Oti, A.H. and Tah, J.H.M., 2015. A critical analysis of Building Information Modelling systems used in construction projects. Advances in Engineering Software, 90, pp.183-201.

Aliverdi, R., Naeni, L.M. and Salehipour, A., 2013. Monitoring project duration and cost in a construction project by applying statistical quality control charts. International Journal of Project Management, 31(3), pp.411-423.

Alzahrani, J.I. and Emsley, M.W., 2013. The impact of contractors’ attributes on construction project success: A post construction evaluation. International Journal of Project Management, 31(2), pp.313-322.

Aminbakhsh, S., Gunduz, M. and Sonmez, R., 2013. Safety risk assessment using analytic hierarchy process (AHP) during planning and budgeting of construction projects. Journal of safety research, 46, pp.99-105.

Bhosekar, S.K. and Vyas, G., 2012. Cost controlling using earned value analysis in construction industries. International journal of Engineering and Innovative Technology, ISBN, pp.2277-3754.

Bynum, P., Issa, R.R. and Olbina, S., 2012. Building information modeling in support of sustainable design and construction. Journal of construction engineering and management, 139(1), pp.24-34.

Ding, L., Zhou, Y. and Akinci, B., 2014. Building Information Modeling (BIM) application framework: The process of expanding from 3D to computable nD. Automation in construction, 46, pp.82-93.

Eadie, R., Browne, M., Odeyinka, H., McKeown, C. and McNiff, S., 2013. BIM implementation throughout the UK construction project lifecycle: An analysis. Automation in Construction, 36, pp.145-151.

Fewings, P., 2013. Construction project management: An integrated approach. Routledge.

Fewings, P., 2013. Construction project management: An integrated approach. Routledge.

Gibbs, D.J., Lord, W.E., Emmitt, S. and Ruikar, K., 2015. Building information modelling.

Hardin, B. and McCool, D., 2015. BIM and construction management: proven tools, methods, and workflows. John Wiley & Sons.

Isikdag, U., Underwood, J. and Kuruoglu, M., 2012. Building information modelling. Construction innovation and process improvement, p.385.

Kerzner, H.R., 2013. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.

Love, P.E., Matthews, J., Simpson, I., Hill, A. and Olatunji, O.A., 2014. A benefits realization management building information modeling framework for asset owners. Automation in construction, 37, pp.1-10.

Mayouf, M., Cox, S. and Boyd, D., 2014. Exploring different information needs in Building Information Modelling (BIM) using Soft Systems. In Proceedings of International Data and Information Management Conference(pp. 36-48).

Oke, A.E., 2013. Project Management Leadership Styles of Nigerian Construction Professionals. International Journal of Construction Project Management, 5(2), p.159.

Rao, B.P. and Cherian, J., 2015. Earned value analysis on an ongoing residential building Project in bangalore, india. International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology, 2(3), pp.317-319.

Sears, S.K., Sears, G.A., Clough, R.H., Rounds, J.L. and Segner, R.O., 2015. Construction project management. John Wiley & Sons.

Sears, S.K., Sears, G.A., Clough, R.H., Rounds, J.L. and Segner, R.O., 2015. Construction project management. John Wiley & Sons.

Volk, R., Stengel, J. and Schultmann, F., 2014. Building Information Modeling (BIM) for existing buildings—Literature review and future needs. Automation in construction, 38, pp.109-127.

Walker, A., 2015. Project management in construction. John Wiley & Sons.

Wang, C., Liu, X., Song, Y. and Han, J., 2015, August. Towards Interactive Construction of Topical Hierarchy: A Recursive Tensor Decomposition Approach. In Proceedings of the 21th ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (pp. 1225-1234). ACM.

Wong, K.D. and Fan, Q., 2013. Building information modelling (BIM) for sustainable building design. Facilities, 31(3/4), pp.138-157.

Zhang, S., Teizer, J., Lee, J.K., Eastman, C.M. and Venugopal, M., 2013. Building information modeling (BIM) and safety: Automatic safety checking of construction models and schedules. Automation in Construction, 29, pp.183-195.