EXPLORING THE ADOPTION OF BUILDING INFORMATION MODELLING (BIM) IN THE MALAYSIAN CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY: A QUALITATIVE APPROACH

Abstract

The construction industry believes that Building Information Modelling (BIM) is a platform that has the potential to promote collaborative activities in the construction industry. Thus, clients are gradually enforcing the use of BIM in their projects, resulting in many construction companies investing in BIM technology in order to fulfill clients' needs. Therefore, the goal of this study is to explore the process and the level of BIM implementation in the Malaysian construction industry. This study was conducted as an exploratory study through literature review and interviewing the organisations that have had BIM experience. The result reveals that Malaysian construction industry players are having difficulties to implement BIM because they do not know where, when and how to start as there is no national BIM standard and guideline for them to follow. Lack of government involvement worsens the current situation besides having the resistance to change from people. To reduce the resistance from people, most of the companies came out with their own strategy such as developing new BIM unit, developing training and education program, changing management style and developing new roles and responsibilities. These activities could facilitate people and the organisations in adopting BIM because BIM is not only a technology but it is also involved in changing the current practices and processes including changing managerial function and hierarchy, including roles and responsibilities. Small to medium scale pilot projects can be described as the best practice to adopt BIM in reducing the risk when migrating from the traditional approach to a new approach. This study also identified that BIM Level in the Malaysian construction industry is between Level 0 and 1