Towards facilities information management through BIM

Abstract

Information plays a significant role in managing built environment facilities. These information are generated at different life cycle stages, by different parties, which also provide different values to a variety of stakeholders. The acquisition of appropriate information efficiently and effectively is two of highly important considerations in facilities management because of the nature of information flows, number of information providers and users. Building Information Modelling (BIM) is one of the popular mechanisms, which has adopted in construction sector to manage its information. This preliminary paper investigates how construction information is valued in facilities management. This is an initial step of understanding the possibilities and hindrance of using BIM as an effective vehicle to manage information during the facilities management stage. To achieve this aim, data were collected through literature review and 13 semi-structured interviews among construction professionals. Data were analysed thematically. The literature reveals BIM is an efficient mechanism to manage construction information. However, there is a difficulty of transferring appropriate information from construction stage to facility management. The study further identified the types of construction information that are highly usable for completing FM tasks, their uses and value attached to them.