The Reality of BIM Implementation in European Design Practice

Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2015

Engaging in the BIM experience as a whole is much harder than is usually believed. Adopting a BIM approach, encompasses a change of management policy within the structure of the practices involved in the process. Having a clear organisational structure supports the efficiency of the communication. It affects its success. Very little research has been conducted on effective BIM implementation. This paper established the nature of BIM implementation. Eleven crucial issues worldwide provide the basis for the statistically controlled survey conducted across some of the biggest North-western European architectural practices, known to be BIM advocates and operating in the healthcare industry. The level of BIM implementation, based on eleven independent variables and their single implementation, proves to be below the level stated by the companies observed. The acronym BIM should not be synonymous with marketing campaigns. The outcomes of the study, presented in this paper, provide an opportunity to critically reflect on the requirements needed to reach an efficient level of implementation of the BIM platform in architectural practices. A clear organisational structure of the design team with a BIM manager that only acts as a coordinator among the overall design team, as well as the different external stakeholders involved in the BIM platform is highly recommended.