BIM Application in Construction Projects: Quantifying Intangible Benefits

Abstract

Building information modelling (BIM) has been considered an effective and efficient tool among stakeholders of the construction sector as it delivers prominent results. Hence, this work aimed to determine the intangible benefits of BIM in construction projects. Various statistical analyses were performed to identify the most critical intangible benefits of BIM required for justification. To rank the intangible benefits of BIM, the relative importance index was adopted. Then, the rotated component matrix was conducted to correlate each intangible benefit to its estimated components. In the last phase of the research, interviews were conducted to validate and confirm the critical intangible benefits. Five critical intangible benefits were identified: better understanding of design, better information received and given, improved communication through visualization, reduce design error and improved accuracy of drawings. By knowing these five critical benefits, clients should prioritise these benefits in their justification of BIM implementation.

Keywords

• BIM
• construction industry
• intangible benefits