The construction sector is one of the oldest sectors of the economy that has
played a defining role in the survival of the human race. While it is slow to adopt
innovation, the last decade has been marked by an attempt to harness the true potential
of increased computing power and information technology products, to make the
ground-breaking shift from its traditional Computer Aided Design/Drafting (CADD)
approach to an information rich model-based approach. More and more constituents of
the industry are shifting towards Building Information Modelling (BIM) that provides
such a model-centric way of working. BIM has the potential to positively shift the
focus of the industry towards the much needed value-adding tasks, but its holistic
implementation is still a challenging task. The BIM process requires that all the
industry participants come on board and join hands for effective information
management throughout the asset lifecycle and this shift requires an overhaul of the
existing (fragmented) practices followed by the individual organizations in their
particular sub-domain. The industry as a whole has come to realize that adoption of
BIM is crucial for the built environment sector globally as it endeavors to overcome the
challenges of environmental sustainability, cost overrun, time delays, and poor quality
that are faced by the industry today. This realization is forcing the construction industry
to undergo a transformational change in the way work is performed, processed and
managed. Although BIM has been identified as an effective solution, its
implementation in several parts of the world remains low. The industry requires a wellcrafted
and well-documented path to increase the productivity, performance, and
efficiency via the use of BIM. This chapter aims to do this by reporting the global best
practices, standards, BIM implementation frameworks, manuals and policies from
different countries. Through this, the authors attempt to unfold the status of BIM
research, education and industry implementation in major developed and developing
markets around the world. At the same time, the chapter also lays out the BIM adoption
journey for these countries to allow the readers to understand how BIM implementation
takes place over time at the sector level. While the benefits of BIM, are evident in the
past research, these benefits alone may not be sufficient to convince stakeholders and
encourage adoption. An extensive study of the successful BIM cases from across the
world, the problems faced and lessons learned are reported in this chapter to allow the readers to develop a deeper understanding of the implementation process and
encourage adoption
Keywords: BIM Research, BIM Implementation, BIM Education, BIM
Adoption.
