Abstract
The BIM taxonomy comprises technologies, process and people. As a technology and process, BIM adoption facilitates the achievement of better coordination of project activities, transparency, systems integration, and increased productivity in Architecture, Engineering and Construction projects. To this end, its adoption the UK construction projects have increased albeit not at the expected rate. Similarly, several studies have been carried out on BIM from various perspectives however; most of these studies focus on the technical aspect BIM. Studies on the ‘people’ aspect are lacking. Particularly, the potential influence of BIM adoption on the culture within UK construction supply chains is yet to be explored. Hence, this study conducted an in-depth qualitative exploration on how BIM adoption will influence cultural paradigms in UK project supply chains. Precisely, the study explored the effect of BIM implementation on attitudes and behaviours of participating teams on a BIM-based project, the culture that ensues, and its impact on the overall project supply chain performance.Adopting the mixed method research design, qualitative data (through semi-structured interviews) and quantitative data (through survey questionnaires) were collected from BIM experts for analysis. The qualitative method was deployed as the overarching research method for the study, while the quantitative method was used to corroborate findings from the qualitative inquiry. Analysis of the qualitative data using NVivo 10 show that extensive implementation of BIM in a project will facilitate adoption of collaborative attitudes and behaviours by members of the project supply chain. These in turn expedite the diffusion of a collaborative culture within the project culminating in performance improvements of the project supply chain. Findings from analysis of the quantitative data using cluster analysis technique support the above findings. However, a number of mitigating factors were also identified.
Following these findings, this study put forward five key recommendations for the industry and academia towards achieving rapid and widespread acceptance and adoption of the BIM process, with full appreciation of its technological, process and people aspects. The expectation is that with BIM widely embraced and deployed in UK projects, the traditional adversarial culture that the UK construction industry is renowned for will be jettisoned allowing for closer collaborative working, and improved efficiencies.
| Date of Award | 24 Feb 2017 |
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| Original language | English |
| Awarding Institution |
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| Supervisor | Andrew Arewa (Supervisor), Messaoud Saidani (Supervisor) & George Agyekum-Mensah (Supervisor) |