Building Information Modeling Supported Project Life Cycle Information Management

The AECO (Architecture, Engineering, Construction and Operations) industry has raised a good deal of interest surrounding the use of BIM (Building Information Modeling) for project life cycle information management. Ideally the new development of BIM should make a full knowledge sharing between the facility management and design professionals unprecedentedly possible. But in reality different stakeholders of AECO projects are still working in their own silos and are afraid to collaborate with each other. This paper aims to identify the root causes of the "information disintegration" issue in the AECO industry, which describes the lack of consolidation, unification and integration of building information over the project lifecycle and across different stakeholders. The options of bridging the knowledge gap between the design, construction, and operation phases by BIM have been investigated, as well as the need for data integration for facility management purposes. An in-depth case study is proposed to identify current problems pertaining to BIM utilization in facility management, in the areas of business processes, stakeholder perceptions and behaviors, and technologies.