Knowledge-based building information modeling (K-BIM) for facilities management

Abstract

Knowledge Management (KM) is a business management technique that promises improved competitive advantage among other benefits for an organization. The application of KM in construction is fairly researched and reported. Although Building Information Modeling (BIM) is gaining wide acceptance among Architects and Project Managers for efficient and effective design and construction management, the adoption of BIM in operations during post-construction phase such as Facilities Management (FM) is in its normative stage. As FM is knowledge and information intensive and relies heavily on historical information, a Knowledge-based BIM (K-BIM) that is developed on the basis of asconstructed information of the facility has the capability for effective and efficient FM and thereby enhance the competitive advantage of a FM organisation. Ontologies have the potential to represent the body of knowledge of the various domains involved such as KM, FM and BIM. Integration of KM, FM and BIM can also be achieved through ontologies. The proposed conceptual framework, K-BIM is an attempt to advance BIM by way of integrating KM, FM and BIM using ontologies, rather than building a system on a model built using BIM.