A NOVEL VALUE PROPOSITION OF BIM IN REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST FACILITY MANAGEMENT AND ITS POTENTIAL IMPACT ON BIM RECEPTION

Abstract

Building Information Modeling (BIM) has been acclaimed as one of the most revolutionary introductions to the built environment sector. There are numerous researches conducted to explore the benefits to justify this claim. Nonetheless, the reception towards BIM by the built environment sector, especially in facility management (FM), was rather tepid. In Singapore, BIM adoption was passive, propelled mainly by the government’s mandatory regulations, but not the benefits of BIM suggested by the literature. For FM in Singapore, since there is no mandatory requirement on BIM adoption, the adoption rate is even lower compared to the AEC sector. The reason is that current value propositions of BIM are not resonating within the FM professionals. Thus, this presents an opportunity for an introduction of a novel value proposition for BIM, which resonates better with the FM professionals. This, in turn, reflects an improvement in the reception of BIM FM, which can lead to a better BIM FM adoption rate in the future.

The literature review on BIM, REIT FM, and BIM adoption rate allows the study to recommend a novel value proposition that offers the use of BIM to enhance core business activity of an organization that could increase the revenue. Interviews, and a test project with a REIT shopping mall in Singapore, were conducted to validate the value proposition.

The study found that the low BIM FM adoption rate was indeed due to the diminished perceived benefits of the existing value proposition in the market. The existing value propositions of BIM do not solve the significant challenges faced by FM professionals. The test project, which showcases a value proposition that addresses a relevant challenge faced by the FM, resulted in an improvement in the perceived benefits of BIM. As a result, the reception of BIM FM was improved. This shed light on approaches that can be implemented to improve the BIM adoption rate in FM in the future.