Developing an interoperability framework for building information models and facilities management systems

Abstract

Despite the fact that the value of extending Building Information Modeling (BIM) implementation through the operations and maintenance phase is simply to reduce the operations and maintenance costs associated with inadequate interoperability, facilities management information flow is neither automated nor seamless. Facility managers do not normally use BIM models data, since they claim that BIM models either do not include their information requirements, or contain a huge amount of superfluous data which makes the data exchange process tedious and overwhelming. Construction Operations Building information exchange (COBie) is developed to improve the facility data handover and to support facilities management systems. However, COBie add-in existing applications have their inherent limitation to generate all facilities management required data, particularly spare, resource and job data sheets, in which a manual data entry is still required. Through a series of interviews with industry practitioners, this paper analyses current data exchange practices as well as proposed a conceptual interoperability framework for seamless data exchange between BIM models and facilities management systems. A proposed database information system that automatically generates a rich COBie spreadsheet by linking BIM data models via the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) model to facilities management information provided by various sources. The proposed framework supplements the existing body of knowledge in facilities management domain by providing a system that facilitates seamless data transfer between BIM and facilities management systems. Facilities management organisations and owners can use this approach to decrease the redundant activity of manual data entry and focus their efforts on productive maintenance activities.

Main functions for building maintenance management: an outline application

“…Several contributions have been added, investigating the value and challenges of BIM, not only in the facilities management context, but also with focus on BM and existing buildings. Some works have accomplished this, both through literature reviews (Volk et al , 2014; Ilter and Ergen, 2015; Aziz et al , 2016b; Pärn et al , 2016; Kelly et al , 2013) and through various other studies (Ahn and Cha, 2014; Barbosa et al , 2016; Sampaio et al , 2016; Alwan, 2016; Cheng et al , 2016; Bortolini et al , 2016; Cecconi et al , 2018; Carbonari et al , 2018; Matarneh et al , 2018; Mirarchi et al , 2018).…”

“…The literature reviewed by Kelly et al (2013) on BIM for facility management showed that its value adding potential comes from the improvement to current manual processing of information handover as well as to the accuracy of facility management data. Matarneh et al (2018) also asserts that although there are commercially available technologies for transferring data between BIM models and facilities management systems, the process may not be straightforward or cost effective. The lack of interoperability between software systems and a limited integrated view of multiple domains for decision support, are some of the limitations to explain why the potential of BIM in the O&M phases has not been fully utilised (Cheng et al , 2016).…”

“…The lack of interoperability between software systems and a limited integrated view of multiple domains for decision support, are some of the limitations to explain why the potential of BIM in the O&M phases has not been fully utilised (Cheng et al , 2016). Thus, the necessity of best practices so that data transfer strategies are developed and documented (Matarneh et al , 2018), can be a challenge.…”

Bim Objects Library for Information Exchange in Public Works: The Use of Proprietary and Open Formats

“…BIM objects can be the container for exchanging information, and open format files can guarantee technical interoperability and software independency, as Hjelseth has suggested [9]. However, in current practice, information flow is neither automated nor seamless, as the theory illustrates [10] and it has been estimated that, in 2002, inadequate interoperability caused an annual cost of $15.8 billion in the U.S. capital facilities industry [11].…”

BIM-based facilities information: streamlining the information exchange process

“…The inherent power of BIM for FM is mainly associated with streamlining information flow between the project stakeholders during the facility lifecycle and facilitating information handover to FM teams (Matarneha et al, 2018;Reza Hosseini et al, 2018). Yet information flow among project stakeholders is neither automated nor seamless.…”