Understanding and Leveraging BIM Efforts for Electrical Contractors

The increased complexity of construction projects coupled with the increase in customer expectations has fueled electrical contractors' interest in innovation as a source of competitive advantage. Emerging technologies such as Augmented Reality and Digital Twins have recently gained momentum in the electrical construction industry. While these emerging technologies provide a novice approach to visualizing construction work, most of their use-cases are based on Building Information Modelling (BIM). Therefore, to unlock the full potential of emerging technologies, it is important to properly allocate and leverage BIM resources on a construction project. Therefore, this research aims to provide electrical contractors with a set of tools to understand and leverage their BIM resources before and during construction. To achieve the research objective, a survey was developed, and 23 complete responses were collected to identify factors that impact the actual percentage of electrical contractors' BIM Efforts. The survey results were augmented with follow-up structured interviews with subject matter experts having electrical and BIM experience. BIM practices collected from the interviews were grouped into three categories: people, process, and technology. The study aims to provide electrical contractors with a set of tools to leverage their BIM resources before and during construction. This study also highlights some of the ongoing challenges faced by electrical contractors when managing BIM changes during project execution.