Early contractor and facility management team involvement in the BIM environment

Knowledge is the resource that contributes the most to an organisation’s competitiveness. Construction projects usually introduce
project teams from different disciplines. Hence, knowledge in projects is complex and difficult to manage. To efficiently manage
knowledge in projects, various strategies and tools have been applied over the years to support knowledge management (KM).
Building information modelling (BIM) is a technology that has recently gained a lot of attention in the construction industry. The
main feature of BIM is object-oriented and parametric modelling with the functions of dynamic visualisation, life cycle simulation,
early analysis, coordination and collaborative working. Many studies have explored the functions of BIM mainly at the information
level. However, only a few studies have considered the management of knowledge in a BIM environment. To fill this knowledge
gap, this study explored the potential and expectation of a BIM-based system for early collaboration among contractor, facility
management (FM) and design teams in the design stage. This study chose semi-structured interview as the main method to collect
qualitative information. A total of 30 experts working in the construction industry were interviewed. On the basis of the analysis results
of the collected information, a discussion was presented on how BIM can facilitate KM activities and relieve KM challenges. Therefore,
the discussion focused on the requirements and expectations of the integrated KM system in a BIM environment that can facilitate
the early involvement of construction contractors and the FM team into the design stage. This study also provides a new research
direction for the transformation of research focus from BIM to building knowledge modelling.