A BIM approach for construction safety: applications, barriers and solutions

Abstract

Purpose Construction industry bears a lot of casualties and accidents more than other high-risk industries annually. Thus, the use of new technologies such, as building information modeling, automatic rule checking, information technology-based safety systems in order to implement the rules and safety standards, better controls the performance of workers on site and make high coordination between operational executives, leading to create a secure environment in projects by reducing accidents. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach In this study, a researcher-designed questionnaire was distributed among 200 companies that are active in the field of construction to evaluate the effect of building information model (BIM) for safety projects and barriers to adoption. Only 70 percent of questionnaires were returned. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences analysis has been used to determine the correlation coefficient among the respondents. Findings The results show the factors that lead to failure in the adoption of BIM in Iran are lack of well-trained personnel, proper social infrastructure, guidance and governmental supports. Originality/value Finally, the authors presented solutions for overcoming barriers and proposed some factors leading to the successful adoption of BIM in Iran.

4D BIM for Construction Logistics Management

“…Interviews highlighted the lack of training of site-based staff in how to operate 4D BIM software as a major issue. This aligns with Marefat et al [62], where many authors argued that the lack of training is a major barrier to BIM applications including 4D BIM. A trend of increasing reliance on a small number of individuals that were trained was identified by a number of respondents.…”

Investigating the barriers to building information modeling (BIM) implementation within the Nigerian construction industry

“…This singular factor has made professionals abandon the idea of obtaining BIM trainings and Certification. Marefat et al (2019) addressed the factors that lead to failure in the adoption of BIM in Iran to be; lack of well-trained personnel, proper social infrastructure, guidance and governmental supports. Similarly, Zhou et al (2019) revealed six barriers to BIM implementation in China which adequate attention have not been given to and they include; insufficient government lead/direction, organizational issues, legal issues, high cost of application, resistance to change of thinking mode and insufficient external motivation.…”

“…The results also showed that of the articles were published in Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management (10) followed by IoP Conference Series Materials Science and Engineering (9), and Automation in Construction (8). Interesting, with the exception of China (Zhou et al, 2019); and Iran (Marefat et al, 2019), none of the 10 studies were drawn from developing countries such as Nigeria. The Investigating the barriers to BIM search was further refined using the keyword of "Developing countries" resulting in 21 articles from open access and 29 from other sources.…”

BIM usage benefits and challenges for site safety application in Indian construction sector

“…In the construction industry, the reduction of labor productivity requires more labor hours per contract number. This indicates that the building industry lacks the production of ideas to save labor (Marefat et al, 2019). This shows that traditional safety practices are not alone sufficient and there is a need for advanced safety management.…”