EXAMINING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SCAN-TO-BIM AND ADOPTION RATE OF BIM FOR VARIOUS FM FUNCTIONALITIES IN EXISTING BUILDINGS IN SINGAPORE.

Abstract

Living in an ever-advancing digitalised world, it is inevitable that all industries in Singapore will start to embrace and adopt advanced technologies. This will be prominent in the Built Environment (BE), in particular, the Facilities Management (FM) industry which is lacking behind in terms of implementation of Smart technologies. This research paper focuses on the Building Information Modelling (BIM) for FM (BIM-FM). When compared to other sectors within the BE, such as construction, applications of BIM are limited in the FM industry especially for existing buildings without BIM. With the emergence of scan-to-BIM technology which uses laser scanning to capture point cloud data, a BIM model could be generated easily. This simplifies the tedious process of BIM modeling from scratch for existing buildings. Thus, the key objective of this research study is to examine the receptiveness of FM managers in using BIM-FM and to determine if scan-to-BIM can eliminate the complexity of BIM generation for existing buildings from scratch. This is in hopes of ultimately increasing the BIM-FM adoption rate in Singapore. The key hypotheses to be tested in this research study are that Scan-to-BIM would not significantly affect FM manager’s willingness to adopt BIM for FM (Null hypothesis, H0) and alternatively, Scan-to-BIM would significantly affect FM manager’s willingness to adopt BIM for FM (Alternate hypothesis, H1). The research method adopted was through survey questionnaires sent to FM professionals followed by a post-survey interview. 37 valid responses were received and analysed accordingly along with a post-survey interview with Mr A. Main findings from both the survey questionnaire and post-survey interview highlighted respondent’s key information requirements for the five FM functionalities which would aid them in implementing scan-to-BIM. Following which, benefits of BIM-FM identified under literature review was also surveyed to understand if the listed benefits are applicable in the local context. The results reflected that the respondents significantly agreed to the benefits of BIM-FM for all given FM functionalities. Next, common hindrances faced by FM managers when adopting BIM-FM through scan-to-BIM was also presented to the respondents. The top three hindrances are identified to be cost, time and ease of implementation. Finally, respondent’s attitude to using scan-to-BIM for BIM-FM was analysed before and after the survey. All in all, it was concluded that scan-to-BIM can significantly increase the FM manager’s willingness to adopt BIM-FM for existing buildings in Singapore. This research serves as an insightful examination to push for the adoption of BIM in Singapore’s FM industry through the use of technology like scan-to-BIM. The research analysis would benefit FM managers who are interested to adopt scan-to-BIM and who wish to understand more about BIM-FM in the Singapore context.