The challenges of facility manager involvement at design stage using building information modeling

Abstract

Facilities management is commonly known and plays an important role and function throughout the operation and maintenance of a building. Apart from that, facility managers should have the responsibility to ensure that facilities in a building are all well designed, constructed, operated and maintained. ‘Clash’ is a common problem in building installation which creates more problems in future maintenance and replacement. In order to resolve this problem, clash detection should be carried out during design stage with the aid of Building Information Modeling (BIM) tools to ensure the minimum requirement of building facilities maintenance during operation and maintenance stage is met. This project report highlights the roles of facility manager in the design stage, especially in clash detection. At the same time, integration of BIM tools is expected to help all parties involved including facility manager to visualise the buildability and constructability of the building facilities. The questionnaire survey was carried out to gain information on the level of awareness, challenges and barriers in the employment of facility managers. Impact of clash detection toward operation and maintenance stage and strategies to encourage the involvement of facility manager are focused in this study. Frequency analysis, measurement of central tendency and average index were utilized to analyse the result obtained. This study concluded that facility manager has a significant role in design stage which later benefits the development of a building project especially during operation and maintenance stage on the organizational, financial, governance, training, and regulatory aspects.