Contractual practices between the consultant and employer in Chinese BIM-enabled construction projects

Abstract

Purpose The management of building information modeling (BIM)-enabled construction projects is challenging and unstructured in nature, particularly in terms of contract administration. Even though previous studies have revealed various legal issues related to BIM, little is known regarding the contractual practices of BIM. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to explore the contractual practices between the BIM consultant and employer in detail. Design/methodology/approach An explanatory case study was carried out on four large BIM-enabled construction projects in China. Findings The contractual practices differed from one project to another in terms of ownership and intellectual property rights (IPRs) of the BIM model, roles of the BIM consultant, liability of the BIM consultant in the event of errors and delays of the BIM model, and BIM-related costs and payments. Some of the interesting findings are as follows: the employer shall retain the ownership and IPRs of the BIM model, the BIM consultant shall provide a warranty to ensure usability of the BIM model after project handover, the BIM consultant shall pay for damages or losses if the BIM model fails to deliver and the costs of BIM implementation shall be borne by both contracting parties. Originality/value This study provides a fresh, realistic insight on the development of plausible contractual practices between the BIM consultant and employer and the findings can be used to improve BIM contract protocols in future projects.

Model Ownership and Intellectual Property Rights for Collaborative Sustainability on Building Information Modeling

“…The contributed party owns the copyright [38] Evaluating the differences between Taiwan and China regarding legal aspects and conditions of potential contracts for projects supports BIM Designers own the copyright of the model and they may provide their intellectual property rights to the parties to the project [20] Know how digital-based design can be protected from unauthorized use Architects need to register the copyright of the design [24] Identify BIM-related contract issues and propose a contract framework The copyright will remain with the respective designers [39] Explore contract practices between BIM consultants and employers in detail 1.…”

Diretrizes de contratação BIM para órgãos públicos

“…Para auxiliar as instituições contratantes, as estratégias de implantação e disseminação BIM de Governos e Empresas contam com a publicação de diversos protocolos, guias, mandates, diretrizes e Planos de Execução BIM (KASSEM et al, 2015;SACKS;GUREVICH;SHRESTHA, 2016;GONÇALVES, 2018;LIAO;LEE;CHONG, 2019). Sacks, Gurevich e Shrestha (2016) afirmam que essa diversidade tipológica de documentos, proveniente de diversos objetivos, visão e contexto de negócios de diferentes organizações, dificulta que o poder público planeje sua estratégia de adoção BIM compilando todo este conhecimento num documento que atenda à diversidade de necessidades destas organizações.…”

“…Fonte: Autores (2021) Um Guia BIM é "uma coleção das melhores práticas para implementar o BIM em um projeto" (EASTMAN et al, 2018, p. 340), e contém "um conjunto de instruções detalhadas para ajudar usuários a preencherem os requisitos do mandate" (EASTMAN et al, 2018, p. 330). Os autores também afirmam que diversos documentos adotam outras nomenclaturas como "manual, handbook, protocolo, guidelines, requisitos, especificações de projeto, e padrões", mas normalmente se referindo ao mesmo material: os Guias BIM.…”

Towards a BIM-based approach for improving maintenance performance in IBS building projects

“…Several other industry projects worldwide covering real estate, waste management, transportation, supply chains and facility management have been successfully completed by implementing these technologies (Love et al , 2014). As a method that is rapidly gaining popularity, BIM and its related interoperable software components have been scrutinised by many building professionals, who have questioned the potential benefits to maintenance practices (Ismail, 2021; Liao et al , 2020). By integrating BIM and CMMS technology, it is predicted that future project construction teams will adopt digital information to facilitate maintenance management, whereby all the components will be evaluated in advance.…”