Supporting Facility Management Processes through End-Users’ Integration and Coordinated BIM-GIS Technologies

Abstract

The integration of facility management and building information modelling (BIM) is an innovative and critical undertaking process to support facility maintenance and management. Even though recent research has proposed various methods and performed an increasing number of case studies, there are still issues of communication processes to be addressed. This paper presents a theoretical framework for digital systems integration of virtual models and smart technologies. Based on the comprehensive analysis of existing technologies for indoor localization, a new workflow is defined and designed, and it is utilized in a practical case study to test the model performance. In the new workflow, a facility management supporting platform is proposed and characterized, featuring indoor positioning systems to allow end users to send geo-referenced reports to central virtual models. In addition, system requirements, information technology (IT) architecture and application procedures are presented. Results show that the integration of end users in the maintenance processes through smart and easy tools can overcome the existing limits of barcode systems and building management systems for failure localization. The proposed framework offers several advantages. First, it allows the identification of every element of an asset including wide physical building elements (walls, floors, etc.) without requiring a prior mapping. Second, the entire cycle of maintenance activities is managed through a unique integrated system including the territorial dimension. Third, data are collected in a standard structure for future uses. Furthermore, the integration of the process in a centralized BIM-GIS (geographical information system) information management system admit a scalable representation of the information supporting facility management processes in terms of assets and supply chain management and monitoring from a spatial perspective.

BIM Digital Platform for First Aid: Firefighters, Police, Red Cross

“…The goal of this research project is the creation of a graphic database and an information database, poured into a cloud platform where the different users can view, through a web and mobile interface (on tablets/smartphones or 3D viewers), the information coming from the BIM models (Mirarchi et al 2018) overlapped by specific information for assistance. The approach of modelling for the rescuers' path will then take place with traces on the road graph already enriched with information from Google the database, which will allow users to reach the building.…”

QR Code Supported GIS Web System for University Facility Damage Report

“…Thus, this system offers an alternative way to solve the problem. The development of GIS comprehensive SQL database, 3D-BIM [11]- [13], and augmented reality mobile apps [10] in the proposed system are also highly recommended in this study for further system application.…”

“…QR Code is a two-dimension matrix code which has high encryption and decryption speed that can be read immediately by scanners and smart mobile phones. It has error-correction ability and high storage capacity information [11]. Because of its ability to store large amount of information, this QR Code can be programmed to perform various tasks such as link to a website, add an event into the calendar, and send text message.…”

Application of Building Information Modelling (BIM) in the Health Monitoring and Maintenance Process: A Systematic Review

“…One of the purposes of using BIM in the maintenance and monitoring process is detecting faults which will be useful for the FM process through some Fault Detection and Diagnostics (FDD) algorithms to find damaged components such as heating or air conditioning equipment [ 105 , 106 ]. Many projects were performed to improve the FM-BIM methods for reduction of barriers in this field [ 107 , 108 , 109 , 110 , 111 , 112 , 113 , 114 , 115 , 116 , 117 , 118 , 119 ]. The remaining articles adopted different attitudes like conducting precise steps for integration of the required BIM-FM information for owners’ need, improving indoor navigation, refurbishment goals, using BIM for management of electrical, plumbing, and mechanical systems in a various way such as multi-scale BIM model, using BIM Perspective Definition (BPD) to increase reusability in systems, using mobile automated BIM-FM systems for solving problems related to transferring data and Improving task efficiency in FM process [ 120 , 121 , 122 , 123 , 124 , 125 , 126 , 127 , 128 , 129 ].…”