Assessing Strategies of Building Information Modeling (BIM) Implementation in Sarawak Construction Industry

Abstract

The implementation of Building Information Modeling (BIM) in a construction project is gaining momentum across the globe particularly in developing countries. BIM implementation has been exceptionally slow in the construction industry in comparison to industries such as manufacturing and engineering. The construction industry in Sarawak is beginning to change as building clients and authorities mandated the use of BIM consistent with the CIDB transformation roadmap and Industrial Revolution 4.0. This paper is a part of a research project that examines the strategies associated with the implementation of Building Information Modeling (BIM) in Sarawak construction industry. BIM allows projects to be built virtually before they are constructed physically whilst removing inefficiencies and ability conflicts that may arise all through the construction process. Whilst BIM is presently receiving high volumes of attention around the world, it appears that well-known understanding of it's far still tremendously low. Thus, it requires a study to determine what are the strategies that could enhance the BIM implementation in the Sarawak construction industry. A questionnaire survey was conducted among 300 respondents from diverse construction stakeholders in Sarawak and 133 questionnaire surveys were returned for analysis. The collected data were analysed for descriptive, mean and factor analysis using IBM SPSS version 25 software. It was found that "subsidizing the price for BIM software" is the top-ranked strategy with a mean score of 8.1805. Subsequently, the results for factor analysis revealed that all factors for BIM implementation strategies were above 0.854. The key finding was the identification of the importance of government support to ensure successful BIM implementation in the Sarawak construction industry. Other important strategies identified include a strategic approach model to assist construction players to implement BIM and cooperation among BIM practitioner, academia and researcher to educate and expose BIM to students in institutions.