Exploring quality issues in building information models via structural design reviews

Abstract

Building Information Models (BIMs) are being used widely in the construction industry. BIMs generally contain errors and mistakes, if not identified, might result in long review processes with the employers or cause issues during code compliance checks or construction. Since the quality requirements vary according to projects and even the stakeholders within the same project, it is challenging to establish a standard quality-check procedure. To focus on the model quality, custom procedures tailored according to the needs of the design teams should be prepared. Hence, there is a need to explore the BIM quality issues and develop formulations to identify and eliminate them in time. Currently, there are no specific guidelines and formulations to determine the overall quality level of a BIM and propose Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC) procedures. In this study, design and model reviews from the owner are used to analyze the items to be checked for satisfying a structural model's integrity. The design reviews are classified and analyzed to understand the existing issues. This study contributes to a better understanding of BIM quality issues and proposes a direction toward BIM quality assurance and control formulation that can be tailored by practitioners and design teams.