Abstract
This research investigates the financial and operational impacts of including Building
Information Modelling (BIM) in engineering consultancy projects by examining its
ability to decrease re-work and increase cost effectiveness. It focuses on a BIM
inclusion by examining five multidisciplinary projects from a large engineering
consultancy firm. Considering the Return on Investment (ROI) of BIM through the
process of identifying and resolving clashes.
Project data was collected, reviewed, and then analysed using descriptive statistics
and comparisons methods. BIM implementation returned a substantial average cost
avoidance of re-work, ranging between 17,571 and 44,886 construction hours avoided
per project. The primary construction savings were expressed in monetary value
ranging between €2.99 million and €7.63 million, saved by avoidance of re-work. This
was achieved with a clash coordinating cost of €521,976 to €1.69 million.
ROI values indicated that the BIM investment had an investment return between
136.3% and 614.2% with an average ROI of 394.1%. Indicating a large financial
benefit to using BIM in engineering and construction projects. Projects in early
engineering phases, basic engineering, had significantly higher average ROI values
than projects that were at the detailed phase, indicating the importance of including
BIM in projects as early as possible.
The findings shows that the efficiency of resolving the clashes and the type of project
also impacted the returns achieved. Projects where the team took longer to resolve
the clashes achieved lower returns, indicating that more standardised BIM practices
and processes are needed. A need was also identified for the creation of standard
methods and practises to avoid clashing occurring in the first place, not just focusing
on solving them more efficient.