Prospects of building information modelling-facility management implementation in Malaysia

Abstract

The potential of implementing building information modelling (BIM) in facilities management (FM) processes is seen in facilitating more collaboration and information integration during the operations and maintenance (O&M) phases. In general, there are more studies on BIM application in the earlier phases than for facility applications. Specifically, there has been little discussion on best practices for implementation. This paper reports a pilot study on the readiness of UTM to implement BIM in its FM processes. A structured faceface interview was conducted with top management addressing four themes namely current scenario for handling facility data; business model; implementation strategy for digital data; and awareness to BIM. Findings show that the business model was mainly traditional using routine maintenance. Condition surveys were used for scheduled based maintenance. Outsourcing was used for only work orders above certain skills, risks and spending limits. No central automation of FM was detected and there was low awareness of BIM. The study concludes that the FM strategy in the study area is lacking a robust automation drive that can support the disruptive demands of BIM implementation in FM. Future work should be conducted only on universities that have already deployed BIM in their FM processes.