Publications / 2011 Proceedings of the 28th ISARC, Seoul, Korea

Estimating with BIM: A Survey of US Construction Companies

Anoop Sattineni; R. Harrison Bradford II
Pages 564-569 (2011 Proceedings of the 28th ISARC, Seoul, Korea, ISBN 978-89-954572-4-5, ISSN 2413-5844)
Abstract:

The use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) in the construction industry is on the rise. It is widely acknowledged that adoption of BIM would cause a seismic shift in the business processes within the construction industry and related fields. Cost estimation is a key aspect in the workflow of a construction project. Processes within estimating, such as quantity survey and pricing, may be automated by using existing BIM software in combination with existing estimating software. The adoption of this combination of technologies is not as widely seen as might be expected. Researchers conducted a survey of construction practitioners to determine the extent to which estimating processes were automated in the conjunction industry, with the data from a BIM model. Survey participants were asked questions about how BIM was used within their organization and how it was used in the various tasks involved in construction cost estimating. The results of the survey data revealed that while most contractors were using BIM, only a small minority were using it to automate estimating processes. Most organizations reported that employees skilled in BIM did not have the estimating experience to produce working estimates from BIM models and vice-versa. The results of the survey are presented and analyzed to determine conditions that would improve the adoption of these new business processes in the construction estimating field.

Keywords: BIM, Estimating, Survey, US Construction Companies