Today, the global construction industry is actively promoting the adoption of BIM, and it has become nearly impossible to move forward without it.
Many organizations are investing heavily in BIM, yet they often struggle to find a profitable and sustainable business model.
Some acquire BIM models without fully understanding their capabilities. When the time comes to apply them, they realize they lack the skills to operate these models effectively…
Currently, in China, there are very few successful cases of BIM application in the operation and maintenance phase. Claims of successful implementation are even rarer. This situation raises important questions: Where exactly do the problems lie? What factors are hindering BIM’s effective use during operation and maintenance? What challenges does BIM face?
Immature Market Environment for BIM Operation and Maintenance
BIM first gained traction in China’s design industry before gradually extending into the construction phase. This is largely because the design sector is the natural origin of BIM. Recently, BIM modeling software has become more user-friendly, making the initial modeling process relatively straightforward.
However, applying BIM during later stages of construction has proven much more complex. It requires coordination across multiple disciplines and involves greater collaboration challenges. As the saying goes, “Building models is easy, but using models is difficult.”
Applying BIM to the operation and maintenance phase presents even greater challenges. This phase often spans longer timeframes, involves diverse stakeholders, and lacks sufficient prior experience—both domestically and internationally. Among the many reasons for this, the overall immaturity of the BIM application market plays a significant role.
The market remains underdeveloped—there are no comprehensive guidelines, a shortage of skilled professionals, unclear definitions of roles and responsibilities, no established market positioning, and a lack of effective operational mechanisms. This leads to disorder, which manifests as chaotic pricing, unclear roles, and ambiguous accountability.
Consequently, the market is mixed with both capable players and disruptive elements. In the short term, this situation has severely impacted companies genuinely committed to BIM. Yet, in the long run, these growing pains are an inevitable stage in BIM’s development. Clearly, BIM still has a long road ahead.
Lack of a Clear Business Model
Questions abound regarding how BIM should be managed during operation and maintenance. Should professional service companies oversee it, or should owners manage it themselves? How can BIM operations be integrated with traditional property management? What are the expected input-output relationships and maintenance cycles?
These and similar issues all revolve around the business model for BIM in the operation and maintenance phase. Ideally, these considerations should be addressed before applying BIM. Unfortunately, many organizations exploring BIM at this stage overlook these critical factors, limiting its effective implementation when it matters most.
“Why Use BIM?”
This question likely arises for every company or project considering BIM adoption. Answers vary depending on specific circumstances but often include reasons like “clash detection,” “comprehensive optimization,” or “virtual construction.” These reasons mainly relate to BIM’s use in design or construction phases.
The core reason is simple: BIM is used to directly address a specific problem. This is a sound starting point. Yet, many companies begin experimenting with BIM without a clear understanding of the problems it can solve, resulting in minimal gains.
The real starting point for BIM application should be operation and maintenance. This means beginning with a clear goal to solve a particular challenge in this phase. To achieve this, a comprehensive implementation plan must be developed—potentially including a clear business model—and advanced to the design stage.
Based on operational needs, BIM models and related databases should be designed with targeted requirements in mind during both design and construction.
For instance, if specific parameters or information are needed during operation and maintenance, design and construction teams must be required to embed these parameters or information interfaces at the appropriate stages. This contrasts with the current situation, where BIM models arrive with unknown capabilities, lacking necessary parameters and insufficient model detail for practical use.
Many challenges remain in advancing BIM development. The complex difficulties surrounding BIM in operation and maintenance require collective effort to overcome. Together, we can clear the heavy fog that currently clouds BIM’s full potential in this crucial phase.
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