Client-Driven Level 2 BIM Implementation: A Case Study from the UAE

2.1. Understanding Level 2 BIM

The effectiveness of working with Building Information Models depends on the degree of sophistication involved in the development of model contents and the way it is coordinated and managed across the life cycle of a project, which is called “BIM maturity levels” [16]. The BIM maturity levels and their relationship with collaborative working, data processing, and underlying technologies are described in Fig. (1).

The BIM maturity level determines the degree of efficiency in implementing the technology and process in regard to collaborating building information in a project environment. Level zero BIM maturity reflects unmanaged CAD in 2D, which is represented and exchanged in paper documents (including electronic documents). The collaboration at level zero is minimum, as information is exchanged using ad-hoc exchange methods that offer very little or no chance of information integration to support collaborative working. Level 1 denotes a managed CAD environment that uses 2D and 3D representations of building information. The information content at level 1 is created using standardized approaches to data structures (CAD standards), and it is stored in standard formats that can be exchanged among different CAD applications. Also, Level 1 replaces the ad-hoc information exchange mechanisms with the introduction of a Common Data Environment (CDE), which is used to share and exchange CAD files between various project participants. However, traditional CAD information still consists of drawings and documents without any embedded intelligence, which can offer opportunities for information integration by unlocking the potential of collaborative working.

Level 2 denotes a managed BIM environment that contains intelligent BIM models held in separate disciplines (discipline models), shared and coordinated using a structured approach on a CDE, and integrated using proprietary or bespoke middleware software for design (e.g., architectural structural, etc.), analysis (e.g., energy analysis, clash detection, etc.), project management (e.g., 4D, 5D), and maintenance purposes (e.g., COBie). Level 2 BIM is most desired by client organizations, as it can be achieved without fundamental changes to business practices, and it can also provide significant improvements in project delivery. The UK Government targeted a 20% reduction in the expenses of construction projects and required level 2 BIM for all public sector projects (with all the project and asset information, documentation, and electronic data) starting from 2016. Level 3 BIM denotes fully integrated and collaborative BIM, which is enabled by web services to facilitate collaborative building information using open standards (e.g., Industry Foundation Class (IFC)) without interoperability issues. It also extends the use of BIM applications toward the lifecycle management of building projects.

BIM Level 2 is designed with the intention of achieving a small step-change from the current standards and tools deployed in the construction industry. Moreover, although BIM Level 2 adoption has proven to be successful, BIM still requires a high level of collaborative working among the AEC disciplines—beyond traditional work boundaries with restricted contractual relationships—to achieve high-performing, low-cost built environments. Supporting this idea [17], investigated level 2 BIM collaborative workflows and concluded that the existing original practices must be transformed to successfully implement level 2 BIM. Another research [18] highlighted that contract provisions must be amended to support BIM implementation in projects. Within this context, the early project stages are critical for establishing comprehensive BIM development and implementation strategies that can facilitate integration and collaboration among team members through an entire project. However, traditional procurement forms do not support the early involvement of key project stakeholders, such as the involvement of a contractor in the design stage. Several authors have stressed that the construction industry is slow in the adoption of BIM, as there are no significant changes in traditional business models for facilitating the use of BIM and its associated processes [10]. However, most construction projects are delivered using traditional procurement (i.e., design–bid–build) because of the risk strategies and investment policies of construction clients who typically prefer the selection of lowest-bid contractors. Therefore, one of the main issues for construction clients in implementing BIM is the use of innovative strategies, which can deliver the best value for project owners with minimum disruption to existing work practices.

2.2. BIM Implementation Challenges for Client Organizations

In spite of the client-enforced BIM requirements and Government Support, the BIM adoption in the UAE is limited to BIM technology applications with no focus on essential process improvements and collaborative work practices, which are fundamental for delivering client-centric BIM benefits to the built environment projects. For example, in the current BIM development process, a consultant’s BIM model is hardly ever transferred to a contractor to integrate the construction information about the installed products, which enhances a BIM model, for it to be used by the owner for operation and maintenance tasks. On the contrary, the BIM development process is rebooted with changes in the responsibility at a tender stage, or it is outsourced overseas to create a new BIM model for the construction stage and hand over, which is even worse. This non-collaborative practice eradicates most of the intelligence factors in BIM models, making them less valuable to clients for any future use. Because of the traditional procurement boundaries, consultants and contractors are usually reluctant to share the details of these failures due to a perceived risk of reputation damage and to avoid the loss of any future business opportunities. Similar issues were pointed out by several research studies. For example, a study [19] highlighted the fact that the BIM awareness in the UAE is a result of the extensive and aggressive campaigns of software vendors, which are mainly carried out to increase product sales. Therefore, the point of view of vendors regarding the BIM benefits and claims have become apparent in the region. This dilemma has resulted in “lack of support from the top management to accept the change initiative to implement BIM,” as decision-makers are not aware of the BIM potential beyond its software applications. [20] analyzed the BIM implementation in the UAE and reported that the usage of popular procurement methods (i.e., design–bid–build) prevents participants from getting involved in the design stage, resulting in a lack of cooperation and information exchanges and thus in low coordination levels, which limits the use of the BIM in construction projects.

Another study [21] conducted to investigate the BIM implementation in the UAE found that the lack of experience and knowledge, lack of awareness of BIM benefits, lack of client demand, and resistance to change traditional practices and investment expenses are among the key factors that hinder the BIM implementation in the UAE. Another survey [22] reported that only 20% of the AEC organizations in the Middle East use BIM or are in the process of adopting it, and even they still regard BIM as merely an advanced AutoCAD tool. These authors stressed on raising awareness regarding the BIM benefits so that all construction stakeholders can benefit from the wider applications of BIM. The following subsections summarize the key challenges facing effective BIM implementation in low BIM maturity markets.

3.1. Project Description

The project was a mixed-use development project with commercial and residential spaces at the podium and with two 21-floor towers above the podium floors. The project was situated within the urban fabric of a busy city at a central business location, and it was required to seamlessly interact with the existing surrounding buildings, adjacent busy roads, and a close-by military establishment area. The project team was challenged with a highly accelerated schedule, aggressive cost target, and with the implementation of new tools and processes, (i.e., BIM), to meet the client expectations and set new construction standards in the region. Also, the project is owned by a semi-government real estate developer that has a strong portfolio in the region and in many countries worldwide.

3.2. The BIM Implementation Roadmap

A BIM implementation roadmap was developed and agreed with the client, based on the Client’s strategic BIM implementation objectives. The strategic aspects of the plan included (1) the client’s BIM vision and requirements for the project; (2) creation of a BIM Implementation Team (BIT); (3) procurement and training of the supply chain; (4) establishing IT infrastructure; and (5) development of project specific contract documents. Production and management plan addressed the needs and requirements of creating and maintaining project BIM models throughout various project stages. The roadmap of BIM implementation in the project is presented in Fig. (2).

3.3. The BIM Initiative and Project Organization

The client decided to implement the BIM on this pilot project to explore its offered opportunities, especially in regard to reducing the capital cost and enhancing the digital facility management, and to extend the BIM initiative across all the projects. The client had an in-house construction team that conducted the feasibility study and initial project briefing. Also, the client engaged a project management consultant with the responsibility of the BIM management throughout the project stages. The role of the client’s BIM consultant was strategic and managerial and did not include model development at any stage of the project. The project management consultant was also responsible for the traditional project management responsibilities (i.e., contract administration, commercial management, design, and planning supervision, etc.).

3.4. Creating a BIT

The first challenge of implementing the BIM in the project was creating an eligible team to work in a collaborative environment and breaking the traditional status quo boundaries among the construction disciplines. This was achieved by creating a BIT from the start, where a clear definition of the roles and responsibilities, the key performance indicators, the BIM collaboration protocols, and the required procedures for the project and document management were outlined. In addition to the client’s own in-house team, the following stakeholders formed an early project alliance to steer the BIM implementation on the project:

• Design consultants: They were responsible for the design and development of the BIM models.
• A preferred contractor and a sub-contractor advising on the constructability of the proposed design in the BIM models and collaborating on the engineering value of the project design.
• Project management and BIM consultants for the client: They consist of separate but co-located teams for the project management and BIM management tasks, but the BIM consultant was not responsible for the model development at any stage of the project.

3.5. Collaborative Procurement Strategy

The adopted procurement strategy was based on developing a special relationship between the project partners based on partnering principles [32]. The preferred suppliers were nominated and approved based on a “strategic partnership” agreement with the client. Also, the procurement strategy was built based on (1) strategic relationships, (2) partnering and collaborative legal framework, and (3) a phased procurement and competitive tendering process. Under this procurement strategy, the project partners were selected and engaged in the design, as as well in the construction stage, as shown in Fig. (3) [21].

A “preferred” contractor was nominated at the early stages, e.g., the concept design stage, so that the collaboration with the consultant could start with the aim of producing a highly coordinated and planned design that leads to minimum design errors, value engineering opportunities, and minimum Request For Information (RFI) during the construction phase. The “preferred” contractor and sub-contractor contributed to the design process by using 3D BIM models produced at different level of details during the design development process; however, they were required to bid at the tender stage along with other pre-qualified bidders in a traditional procurement process. Nevertheless, the preferred contractor and subcontractors, being involved in the design development stages, had an advantage, as they had in-depth knowledge of the project in comparison with their competitors in the bidding stage.

3.6. Employer Information Requirements (EIR) & BIM Execution Plan (BEP)

A key document for construction clients in the BIM implementation process is the EIR, which documents the technical, managerial, and commercial aspects of the BIM delivery from a client’s perspective [11]. The EIR also provided a contractual foundation to engage other key stakeholders in the BIM development and delivery process. Also, it was followed by a BEP, a master information delivery plan, and a task information delivery plan to further detail down the specifications and requirements of the EIR from each stakeholder. The information in the EIR ensured that useful information was being extracted from the evolving building information model and submitted to the employer (i.e., the client) at key milestones (also called data drops).

In this project, a two-stage process was employed to develop the EIR for the client. First, the preliminary client requirements were produced, which reflect the technical, commercial, and managerial aspects of the BIM based on the client’s understanding and vision of the BIM implementation. The client’s requirements were then refined during the BIM development process at the design stage, thus producing an updated version of the EIR to be included in the contract documents for the appointment of the contractor. The EIR was used to develop a project BIM brief, a scope of the services for the supply chain, and a pre-contract BEP. The supply chain was asked to complete the BEP by articulating how they were going to achieve the requirements set out in the EIR, thus enabling competition and innovation across the supply chain. The stakeholders responsible for the various aspects of the BIM development process were required by the EIR to provide assurances that the delivered information at each data drop is complete. In addition, they were required to affirm that this information meets the EIR requirements and that it is developed to the agreed level of maturity for the stage at which the information is delivered using different Level of Detail (LOD) as per BS 1192-2 [11]. A LOD represents overall stage of information development in a BIM model from graphical objects definitions (i.e. LOD 100 and LOD 200) to fully defined parametric objects (LOD 300) and then includes assembly information (LOD 4000 and as built information (LOD 500), thus allowing the client and the project stakeholders to make informed decisions at every stage of the project.

3.7. Process Maps

The project benefited from the detailed process maps, which explained the information flow and role/responsibility of each project stakeholder, including the client, in the entire BIM execution process. The project used two sets of process maps as described below.

3.8. One Integrated Model for Supporting BIM Applications

The client-driven BIM requirement framework, clearly defined process maps, and partnering based procurement strategy helped the project partners to work together in a collaborative environment, and they shared the model with each stakeholder and created a single point of truth for the project information at the design stage for decision-making. The success of producing a consistent and fully coordinated design for the project relied on creating a single and integrated BIM model for the project, which allowed the simultaneous exploration of complex architectural spaces and the coordination of intricate building systems through 3D modeling, the rapid prototyping of details, and the extraction of 2-D documentation from the comprehensive BIM model. To minimize the interoperability issues, the project used a single software platform, Autodesk Revit Suite, to develop the BIM models (architecture, structure, and MEP), which were coordinated & shared through Bentley’ ProjectWise, which was used as a CDE. The framework of the CDE is presented in Fig. (5) [21].

The Bentley’ ProjectWise is a model collaboration platform that can support native Revit model exchanges, providing document management services with model-based project management support. The structure of the CDE is built upon the recommendations of the PAS1192-2; 2013, and the AIA-E202 suit of documents was used to define the legal aspects of the model sharing and exchange. All the project participants agreed NOT to over-model at any stage, so the design progression followed the implementation of the levels of development (LOD) as defined by the AIA BIM Protocol-E202. The model was progressively developed from LOD 100 to LOD 300 at the design stage, which was used to generate collaborative design reviews and clash detection, constructability reviews. The methodology and nomenclature of the PASS1192-2; 2013 was used to control the information sharing and collaboration tasks (i.e., work in progress, shared, published, and archived). Further, the fully-coordinated clash-free BIM model (LOD 300) was handed over to the successful bidder at the tender stage to further develop the LOD 400 model. The LOD 400 model was used to perform construction clash detection (e.g., clearances, etc.) and 4D simulations to support the planning process. In addition, it was used to track the contractor's progress and digitally report it to the client using the CDE. It was the contractor’s responsibility to update the LOD 400 model with the as-built information (floor by floor) and submit it to the client with the required information for the facility management tasks, thus delivering an as-built model (LOD 500) at the project handover.

3.9. BIM Authoring and Coordination Tools Used

One objective of this pilot BIM implementation project for the client was determining the efficiency and effectiveness of the BIM authoring and coordination tools in generating fully coordinated, clash-free BIM models at various stages, which could produce accurate and reliable project documents (i.e., drawings, specifications, etc.). Although the BIM models were used to produce project documents at tender stages, the use of the BIM models was contractually limited to “information only” due to the pilot nature of this project and the lack of experience of the supply chain partners. The BIM models were authored using Autodesk Revit platform (i.e., Revit Architecture, Revit MEP, and Revit Structure), which used inputs from the 2D documents and drawings. All the models were exchanged using the CDE through Bentley’s ProjectWise. Moreover, Autodesk Navisworks was used to create 4D models (taking a feed from the Primavera P6 schedule and LOD 300 Revit model), and Autodesk BIM 360 Glue was used for the document management and cloud-enabled information for synchronization and collaboration. The interoperability issues were resolved using the IFC format and the XBIM IFC viewer and analyzer.

3.10. BIM Benefits Achieved

A strategically implemented BIM-enabled the client to lead and manage the development and implementation of BIM from the early project stages to the construction stage (i.e., LOD 100 to LOD 500), ensuring that the client achieved the objectives of BIM implementation. The major BIM benefits for the client are summarized below.

3.11. Key Challenges in BIM Implementation

The literature review highlighted several key challenges in BIM implementation: (1) inexperienced supply chain partners, (2) traditional procurement and legal frameworks, (3) lack of technical expertise, and (4) technological barriers. In this project, issues related to procurement and legal aspects were more prominent than those related to human capital and technology.

The most critical challenge in this project was developing a collaborative procurement strategy that facilitates collaborative work in a region that strictly operates using traditional competitive procurement settings. This challenge is amplified when the supply chain partners are lowly matured and local BIM standards and legal frameworks are unavailable. To overcome these issues, several workshops were conducted at the start of the project to determine the supply chain BIM capabilities. These workshops were followed by a comprehensive training program that empowered the project team with the required knowledge and skills for working in a collaborative BIM environment. The key steps in this stage are listed below:

• Defining the initial client requirements
• Conducting workshops to capture the relevant information and data
• Capturing the supply chain capabilities
• A scenario-based analysis of the BIM applications and available BIM capabilities (e.g., what is the BIM maturity level of the project partners when applying the BIM to clash detection at the design stage?)
• Delivering relevant training in the conducted workshops and seminars in the IEC head office.

The capturing and capability assessment requirements helped the project team in setting realistic BIM application targets, identifying the need for training and agreeing to a comprehensive set of client requirements on which the contract documents for the project are based (i.e., project BIM brief, EIR, and post-contract BEP). Consequently, the partners could agree on a collaborative procurement strategy at the forefront of the project, which continued throughout the project’s development and delivery stages.