The contextual information requirements for collection and use of occupant feedback in BIM-enabled FM

Abstract

Purpose Occupant feedback is crucial for healthy, comfortable and productive offices. Existing facility management (FM) systems are limited in effective use of occupant feedback, as they fail to collect the vital contextual information (e.g. related building element, space) associated with the feedback. The purpose of this study is to formalise the contextual information requirements for structured collection of occupant feedback for rapid diagnosis and resolution of problems and integrating occupant feedback with building information modelling (BIM) for making use of its visualisation and analysis capabilities, and eventually for effective use of occupant feedback in FM operations. Design/methodology/approach A mixed-methods approach was conducted in four steps: (1) identifying occupant feedback types (e.g. echo in meeting room) in office buildings, (2) examining the current practice in collecting and processing occupant feedback via use cases, (3) determining the contextual information requirements via expert interviews and (4) validation of the information requirements via a BIM-integrated prototype. Findings The findings present the contextual information requirements for 107 occupant feedback types grouped under thermal comfort, indoor air quality, acoustic comfort, visual comfort, building design and facility services. Practical implications Feedback-specific contextual information items enable structured data collection and help to avoid missing data and minimise the time lost in manual data entry and recursive interaction with the occupants during FM operations. Originality/value The contextual information requirements determined are expected to enhance occupant satisfaction and FM performance in office buildings by better use of the occupant feedback and integration into BIM-enabled FM and can be extended to other building types in future studies by using the proposed methodology.

Guest editorial: Facilities management – a future proof management approach towards sustainability

“…Concurrently, Artan et al (2023) concentrated on formalizing contextual information requirements for a structured collection of occupant feedback, using a mixed-methods approach. Outlining 107 occupant feedback types, the study proposes contextual information requirements to enhance occupant satisfaction and FM performance by integrating feedback into BIM-enabled FM.…”

“…Focusing on campus facilities, four papers explore the impact of the indoor environment on education, innovative safety and security measures, green methods’ influence and challenges in reactive maintenance (Brink et al , 2023; Campos Fialho et al , 2023; Moghayedi et al , 2023; Moghayedi et al , 2024). Shifting to office settings, two papers analyse occupants’ perspectives for building performance enhancement and formalize contextual information requirements for occupant feedback using building information modelling (BIM) (Rasheed et al , 2023; Artan et al , 2023). In addition, the issue addresses maintenance strategies in commercial high-rise buildings (Arsakulasooriya et al , 2023), design guidelines for Thai community hospital buildings during the COVID-19 outbreak (Prugsiganont and Waroonkun, 2023), effective e-waste management practices in India (Sheoran and Das Gupta, 2023) and factors crucial for urban space maintainability (USM) (Rathnasiri et al , 2023), offering a comprehensive and forward-thinking perspective on the evolving landscape of FM.…”

“…In addition to addressing campus facilities, three papers within this special issue illuminate FM practices within office settings. Rasheed et al (2023) and Artan et al (2023) shared a common focus on comprehending and improving workplace environments through the analysis of occupants’ perspectives. Rasheed et al (2023) extensively evaluated global comments on operational factors, emphasizing the significance of scrutinizing occupants’ insights for building performance monitoring.…”