Investigation on the state and practice of Building Information Modelling (BIM) - based costing in the Malaysian construction industry

Abstract

The use of Building Information Modelling (BIM) and BIM-based cost management is still in its early stages of adoption in Malaysia. BIM has proven to be an important tool to take the construction industry into the next stage, yet many hinders exist on the way to fully incorporating it in the Malaysian construction industry. Moreover, BIM-based cost management is a vital tool that has the ability to save time and costs that is not being fully employed in the country. This research seeks to investigate the adoption of BIM in cost management within the Malaysian construction practice. The study comes to address the lack of BIM and BIM-based adoption. It seeks to identify the current states of BIM and BIM-based cost management in Malaysian practice and to take a closer look at the guidelines and standards available in the country. It also focuses on the difficulties faced when trying to adopt BIM and more specifically BIM-based cost management. Two main approaches are utilized to collect data. Primary data collection is through a semi-structured interview with eleven respondents working in the construction industry. Secondary data collection is through previously published data and research on the subject. The choice of study respondents is based on a set criterion that ensures the respondents have knowledge working with BIM and in construction related occupations to represent a small sample of the people working in the Malaysian construction practice. The outcome of the interviews concluded that the state of BIM and BIM-based cost management adoption in Malaysian is still at its early stages. That was due to a number of reasons including lack of awareness and motivations towards implementing it. Another finding showed that the current standards and guidelines issued by the Malaysian government are not yet up to the level needed by companies. A lot of companies tend to adopt international standards and localize some of their own to fill the gap of not having sufficient information issued by the Malaysian authorities. In regards to BIM-based cost calculations, this study found that is yet to be fully explored in Malaysia due to different reasons, one of which is the lack of experienced workers. Respondents also expressed difficulties implementing BIM-based calculations due to the general low adoption of BIM. Another key finding is that the biggest change can be made through the government’s full incorporation and push for more BIM oriented construction practice in Malaysia.