Building informational modelling (BIM) and the potential implications on strategic choices made by construction companies in Italy

This research explores an emerging area of research about Building Informational Modelling (BIM) and discusses it in relation with the Italian ACE market. Although BIM exists for the last twenty years, only in the last few years it has been pushed by global construction companies and governments. At this stage people are becoming more aware of this innovation, but they still need more clarification and actual evidence of how new technologies have been used and how they could answer their needs. The idea is that working in a BIM environment can reduce the final cost of the project, reduce errors, time and create collaboration between the parties. Many journals are arguing that BIM can improve transparency, information sharing and deliver whole-life cycle project solutions. This study aims to understand the most beneficial directions with BIM: which sort of projects could benefit from it, how to organise a team to work in a BIM environment, how to invest in BIM innovation and how BIM is different to traditional practice. The first conclusions were about the change with BIM in the last few years globally, then in the Italian context. The results were concluded based on literature research (about the ACE industry, real estate data, BIM initiatives world-wide, BIM on the organisational level), then interviews with 16 global and 13 Italian participants. All participants were experts in the field and they provided opinions on: their experience with BIM, BIM potentials, challenges, differences between professions or different experiences between countries. An idea was to summarise conceptual solutions for ACE companies in Italy on how they could benefit from BIM. One of the conclusions was about the importance of collaboration and partnering within the supply chain. Other results were on advanced information sharing management. There was a perspective on SMEs and their route with BIM. Finally, they were some data on future potentials such as BIM for the facility and asset management.

Ho condotto 16 interviste a professionisti e utenti esperti nelle tecniche di BIM di tutto il mondo (UK, Germania, Francia, Australia, USA, Finlandia e altri paesi) e 13 interviste con i partecipanti Italiani. I temi discussi spaziano dalle tipologie di progetti che potrebbero usufruire positivamente dei vantaggi offerti dalle tecniche di BIM e capire chi sarebbero gli effettivi beneficiari di simili attività. La ricerca ha, poi, approfondito le aree più importanti che si potrebbero ottimizzare in parallelo alle tecniche ed alle prassi costruttive, quali la condivisione delle informazioni e l’integrazione delle supply chain.