Building Information Modeling in Construction Industry - Essay Example

It can therefore be said for sure that the construction industry is one of the key determinants of the economic situation around the world. In order to keep pace with the developments taking place in other sectors, the construction industry has also come up with a number of advanced techniques for coming with the advanced, energy advanced and environment friendly green buildings. Building information modelling (BIM) is one such technique which has been helping in speedy implementation of construction projects, with ingredients of IT and related fields.

Aranda-Mena et al (2009) state that, "The term BIM as such was originally popularised by Jerry Laiserin, referring to the ability to use, reuse and exchange information, of which electronic documents are just a single component". Hardin (2008) states, "BIM is a revolutionary technology and process that has transformed the way buildings are designed, analyzed, constructed, and managed." In today's information rich society, it therefore becomes quite important that every bit of information is collected, analysed and transformed into useful knowledge base with the help of information modelling system.

Building information modelling allows the user to judge the features and characteristics of a number of models in terms of different parameters, even before actual construction activity is to begin. This is done by evaluating the performances on a digital model of the building/s. While responding to the question of an interviewer, Goldberg (2007) defined the BIM as, "All the information about a project within its property lines to the centre of the earth and infinitely to the sky, from its inception through construction and use until its final decommission and elimination.

" This statement in a nutshell explains everything about the manner in which BIM assists the real estate industry. Using the computer simulation beforehand helps in minimising the risks, better disaster management and improving the safety standards. In fact technology has made it possible to have 3-D models of buildings with minute details of the expected usage. Some of the features of BIM include (Bacharach, 2009 and Arayici, 2008);Faster and effective processes: Once the processes start coordinating with each other, the overall process becomes quite fast and the project can be completed with the stipulated time period.

Shared Resources: With the help of CAD drawings and geospatial data the BIM can come out with a set of parameters which could be useful for the architect, draftsman, civil engineer, electrical engineer, contractor, lender, leasing and finance company etc. Therefore BIM has made it possible to share reliable data and information about the building with a number of stakeholders. This helps in better coordination between different agencies. Interoperability: For better coordination and interoperability different types of agencies are supposed to agree on methods and common interfaces for the most suitable building design.

This helps in strengthening the security, fault tolerance, timely completion, adherence to quality standards and user friendly building designs. Using BIM, the interoperability of data and information helps in maintaining a professional approach to building construction. Interoperability also makes it possible for the building design parameters to be tested on other