Bim application to quantity survey with emphasis to quantity takeoff in hong kong

2 3) Introduction. 4 i. Background. 4 ii. The Hong Kong Construction Industry. 12 iii. Future of BIM and its Preparation. 13 iv. Limitations of BIM. 14 a. The problem or constraint when using BIM for Quantity take-off. 23 b. Cost estimation in BIM. 25 6) Methodology. 27 i. 35 v. Number of Years BIM has been Used in Various Industries. 36 v. Degree to which BIM has been Implemented in various industries. 37 vi. Reasons for adopting BIM in the private sector. 47 8)References. 49 Introduction Background of Problem Hong Kong is rife with opportunities in terms of development. The construction industry is pivotal in the development of Hong Kong. Unfortunately, Hong Kong is not taking the necessary steps to ensure that this happens. Hong Kong is at a pivotal place in its development goals, it should therefore be very conscious about the next steps and how it can achieve the same better and in the construction industry, embracing is the most logical step.

The Hong Kong construction industry has evolved over the years and this has seen the adoption of the Building Information Modeling processes in a manner that can only be described as ad hoc. BIM has been described as the process of creating an information database for a project in which the lifecycle information is expressed in such a manner that it creates, engineers, estimates, illustrates and constructs a construction project. The slow adoption of BIM processes is evidenced by the different parties within the country that have been providing BIM services and associated software solutions. BIM processes have been deemed profitable and so much so that some organizations demand that BIM concepts must be adopted both in their designs and their construction projects.

For example, waste management, cost overruns and mismanagement are still a major issue affecting the construction industry and failure to adopt to changes that would make these issues a thing of the past have caused a decline in public enthusiasm and support for the industry. The construction industry is also the slowest adopter to the technology. This is despite the strong evidence in other industry that shows that there is a strong correlation between adopting and implementing information technology and improved performance(Manish &Mandhar, 2013). Another example of how the construction industry seems averse to adopting changes that could improve it is the fact that the industry is still one characterized with a high number of work related conflicts. The slowness to change is seemingly the reason that despite efforts by the Hong Kong government to encourage the adoption of BIM process in the construction industry, the adoption rate of the same is still less than ideal.

Overtime, there was been immense improvements in construction drawing technologies has undoubtedly impacted the methods through which bills of quantities are prepared (Bazjanac, 2010). For example, since the advent of Computer Aided Drawings, engineers have been using this method to generate bills of quantities in construction. Building Information Management is currently considered to be the benchmark when it comes to computer aided drawings developments. The benefits of BIM on quantity surveying is the reason that an increased number o architecture and engineering practices have implemented the same. All indicators point to the likelihood of BIM revolutionizing the quantity surveying profession. The difference is important to the construction process. This is because with BIM, designers, architects and constructors can model real life construction situations before moving to the construction site which presents opportunities in today's construction industry (McCuen, 2008).

This is because of the fact that design deficiencies and constructability constraints associated with the poor designs are some of the most dominant reasons for poor performance in the construction industry. If BIM can improve or even eliminate these issues, it is probable that the conflicts existing between design and construction can reversed to a considerable degree by BIM systems and processes. BIM systems and processes are the future of the construction industry in Hong Kong. In addition to this, the CIC(the Construction Industry Code) provided the standard for using BIM systems and the government actively encouraged the private sector to use BIM systems. Like mentioned above, the cost aspect of construction is one of the major concerns for consumers.

Costs estimation is dependent on quantity take-off and measurements done by quantity surveys. The main issue is that the construction industry is still reliant on traditional methods of quality take-off where there is a manual component that is prone to errors. The Aim and Objective of the Dissertation The aim and objective of the dissertation is meant to investigate the investment benefits of using BIM in construction and more specifically by contractor firms and therefore propose methods of long term improvement methods for BIM systems in the Hong Kong construction industry. BIM designs have been adopted in a number of projects in Hong Kong, this after a number of organizations came up with reports regarding the advantages that BIM has on the construction industry, including the Hong Kong Institute of Business Information Modeling which gave a report on the same in 2005(Thomson &Miner, 2006).

After the report came out, projects in MTR as well as other private developments have made solid attempts to implement BIM in construction and especially in drawings in the recent years. Even more progress has been made in the public sector. The Hong Kong Housing Authority has made reports that it has implemented BIM systems in the construction of public housing since 2006 (Collins, 2013). Credible records indicate that there are as much as 19 public housing projects by the HKHA at various project stages of construction and demolition in order to solve various related upcoming challenges. The study concluded that the productivity had declined significantly in the construction industry compared to other industries whose production had more than doubled in the same period.

In Hong Kong, the slow adoption of BIM technology in the construction industry is strange considering the traction that the same has been gaining in the last decade. In addition to this the BIM technology in the industry is readily available and already showing signs of rapid development (Chiu & Lai, 2016). In Hong Kong and other countries and regions that have slow adoption rates, a number of reasons have been suggested. • The lack of a well defined transactional business process model has significantly impeded the adoption of BIM technology in the construction industry. • The examination of current successful private sector integrated team models as well as setting out the various different methods will be appropriate depending on the client's demands. • The adoption of country wide processes • the consideration of methods for building and managing efficient project teams and, • the contribution to the debate on the best forms of procurement.

This will potentially encourage collaboration and innovation. The professions in the construction industry therefore have to prepare for the implementation of BIM if they are to benefit from advantages that the technology certainly adds to their profession. Limitations of BIM There are various automated approaches meant to extract quantity take-off information from traditional 2D and 3D models. In order to solve this issue, modeling guidelines have been reported to enable users to extract complete QTO in accordance to existing specifications (Chiu & Lai, 2016). This is because modeling guidelines can filter the relevant information at the modeling phase, rather than the more expensive extraction phase, and this would boost the QTO efficiency. One major impediment to the application of BIM based QTO application in the construction industry is that relevant information is always implicit.

Examples of such information includes spatial or topological information. This problem is in turn solved by the application of spatial query language that covers spatial operators and this is a proven to be a solution to constraints related to the partial model as well as satisfies spatial constraints. The authors of the research indicated however that the figures might be less than accurate since some designers preferred using the 2D component of BIM only. As of 2014, less than 5 percent of Hong Kong design firms were using BIM in more than 50% of their current projects. This is an extremely low rate of application of BIM technology in Hong Kong. Cultural Barriers Studies have shown conclusively that in many non-western countries and areas, cultural issues such as national culture, management styles and customs can significantly affect how one does business.

Studies have also indicated that there is a negative correlation between the aforementioned national differences and their impact on various subjects of information technology implementation such as, transfer of technology, information management and adoption of technology. Given the benefits that using BIM has on the entire process, the government can solve this problem by encouraging designers, even in-house designers, to use BIM technology from initial stages which is the design stage. This will potentially cost less encouraging private clients to demand BIM application into their projects and ultimately increasing the adoption rate of the same in the entire Hong Kong (CIC, 2015) Education and Training Regardless of the number of years that BIM has been in existence of Hong Kong and despite the fact that most industry professionals encourage the use of BIM, there is a significant number of professionals who are not as well versed in the application of BIM to apply it in the real world.

The lack of qualified in-house staff as well as the necessary BIM training and education are some of the most significant barriers when it comes to adoption of BIM in Hong Kong. Both the government and other professional bodies do not offer training to professionals and while there are a number of short courses on BIM in the market and the internet has opened the floodgates to education worldwide, the lack of clear cut guidelines on BIM has significantly affected the educational materials about BIM that are currently in the market. A recent study conducted in Hong Kong universities showed that both diploma and undergraduate degrees on construction related educational subjects did not mandate BIM training in their curricula and for the institutions that offered the same, it was neither mandatory nor regulated (McCuen, 2008).

At the feasibility stage, the information on the project is limited but the BIM would allow for the preparation of the initial cost in a more accurate manner. (Chou & Chen, 2016)discusses the preliminary cost planning as the second technique used by the surveyors in Hong Kong to carry out costing and plan for the different elements that make up a project (Azman, Abdul-Samad, & Ismail,2013). The use of the BIM provides the possibility of using the most available data to determine the cost estimates of a project. (Aranda-Mena, Crawford, Chevez,&Froese, 2009) explainsthe third capability as the progressive update on the cost as the project progresses. (Kulasekara, Jayasena, &Ranadewa, 2013). The BIM assists the surveyors to automatically get reflected when the changes are made.

The sixth capability brought about by the BIM is the ability to make the changes in the costing and the designs different projects without having to make manual changes. The Chinese laws are in need that the surveyors should be able to track all of the changes and fix the specifications wen addressing the changes in a project (Anastasios, 2018). In most cases, the surveyors overlook the omissions especially when the building under construction is complex and possess difficulty or has many implications in creating the changes. The application of the BIM is important as it is capable of linking all of construction aspects like the plumbing, architecture, mechanical and the civil models(Brewer, Gajendran, & Le Goff, 2012). The drawings that are likely to cause conflicts can be corrected in the process of construction.

On the ninth capability, the BIM tool serves as the most effective tool in creating an understanding of the designs of the projects (Hergunsel, 2011). The Hong Kong city attracts the construction of the building with complex designs having different sets of relationships. The capability of the BIM helps in creating an understanding of the structures through the drawings which is necessary for the costing and planning of the building at an early stage of the building. (Goldswain, 2016)also proposes that the BIM would be able to assist the surveyors in quantifying the features as the process of quantifyingtakes up a lot of time of the surveyors if they chose to do it manually. One of the problems with the use of the BIM is to make full use of the technology in the construction activities even though the software may not be available in all of the construction cases (Monteiro, A.

, & Martins, 2013). The software for the use of the BIM may not be present in the part of the construction process as it may be expensive for the installation of the softwareand prove to be more costly especially for the surveyors that are involved in the small scale construction process. Similarly,(Kasim, Abidin, Zainal, Sarpin, Rahim,& Saikah,2017) identifies that the application of the BIM may have the constraint of having less manpower aware of the correct application of the BIM technology in the construction projects. Additionally, (Gamil, 2017)identifies the wider involving activities a part of the constraints in the implementation of the BIM. , n. d) explains that most of the constructors find the application of the BIM make the projects expensive and as such it becomes a challenge in the use of the project.

Additionally, the size of the project can also be a challenge to apply the project and create greater benefits to the due to the size of the project. Small projects may find it not necessary to apply the strategy in the construction project. The possession of the skills is also a challenge in the making use of the BIM. The product model also as way of method of estimation normally provide information on the type of building component, possible dimension and the general quantitative aspect of the construction in construction industries. The information technology aspect in processing is normally fundamental to the building estimation model this is shown by Scheer, (1994) There is more physical aspect in building and construction industries making the total house structure that is the windows, the structural beams the entire spaces as depicted by Ashworth, &Perera (2015).

The physical aspect of house structure is easy to manipulate digitally as part of the model structure, uniformity in model of construction entails four primary aspects used mainly in building and construction as way and method of estimating of construction cost as indicated by John Wiley & Sons. Oesterreich, &Teuteberg, (2016). all this methods are vital in project comparison estimation methods in the aspect of building construction strategies like the estimation area and even the volume estimation aspect in regards to the what makes the physical aspect of the house as indicated by Smith, Merna, &Jobling, (2009 ). Methodology There are various methods of collecting data. All have their merits and demerits that the researcher has to consider before settling on one or a hybrid of methods that suit the circumstances in every particular case.

Some of the examples of data collection include; In-personal interviews Preferred for its ability to gathering information using a personal approach and gaining the trust of the participants, in-personal interviews are preferred in cases where the researchers are gathering from a relatively small sample size. They are however costly compared to other methods of data collection and consume a lot of time to complete. Telephone interviews This is another popular way for collecting data from participants. Some of the main reasons for this include; • Surveys can be used to obtain detailed information regarding personal ideas, perceptions and opinions. • This approach is also a more cost effective method compared to others such as individual interviews. • it allows for accessing a broader range of information.

• They offer a chance for clarification in case information provided is not clear. For the purposes of this study, a questionnaire was designed on the basis of the findings from the literature review. The survey was focused on the experiences that the participants had with BIM and the importance of the technology in the various sub-sectors of the construction industry that the participants had experience in. The participants in the survey had experience working in the construction industry in Hong and therefore, for the purpose of this study, their experience of working on projects that employ BIM were considered sufficient insight into the current state of adoption of BIM in the construction industry in Hong Kong. The results indicated that BIM technology was used in various extents, various projects in Hong Kong and other projects within the Asian region.

In addition to this, the results of the first question indicated that BIM technology is currently gaining traction in Hong Kong and other neighboring Asian regions. This is because the participants were asked if they were aware of BIM technology and they all answered in the affirmative. Benefits that are summarized from the literature review were provided to the participants, who were to rate their significance to the implementation of BIM. The Likert Scale was used for statistical analysis of the responses. Using the results from the LikertScale,a mean was calculated for the ranking of the questions and then the standard deviation was calculated for all the benefits. The standard deviation allowed for the diversion in the answers to be seen statistically.

The higher the value of the standard deviation, the more the differences in the opinions of the participants. It is important to note that for the benefits and impediments of adoption, the participants were given the freedom to give more benefits or impediments respectively even if they were not identified in the literature review. Investigation Background In Hong Kong and, indeed, world-wide, the term Building Information Model is rather a ubiquitous term among architectures, engineers and construction industries and more so over the past decade. In many countries, the perceived of BIM are enough for the various countries to think about the adoption of BIM and some have even put in place road maps to follow so as to fully adopt BIM in their various construction industries.

The following are some examples. In 2014, China put in place two national standards that are directly related to the adoption on BIM. Finally, in 2014 and 2015, the Construction Industry Council established a road map for strategic adoption and implementation for BIM in the local construction industry and during the same time period, released the first complete account of the CIC BIM standards for public review. Most of the efforts have been paid to promote the adoption of BIM in the construction industry in Hong Kong in the last couple of years. Despite the efforts mentioned above, the rate of adoption of of BIM in the construction industry in Hong Kong is less than what is desired and way behind other industries in Asian countries and around the world.

The rate of adoption of BIM among professionals in BSE and Quality Surveyors is even more scarce, which has raised calls from professionals in these industries for the adoption of the BIM and its importance in the construction these specific sectors of the construction industry and the Hong Kong industry as a whole. The investigation below is of a Google Survey conducted on a group of 30 participants with varying experiences in various sub-sections within the construction industry in Hong Kong. Below is a tabulated summary of their results. Usefulness of BIM in Participants Companies Usefulness of BIM Frequency BIM improves project management 10 BIM improves on interdisciplinary communication 10 BIM improves on quantity take-off 7 BIM allows for better drawing and design 6 BIM allows for better time management 3 BIM allows for better quality control 3 The results of the first two questions indicated that BIM technology was gaining traction within the Hong Kong construction industry and different sectors were viewing the technology with different perspectives on its importance.

The following question was meant to investigate the most noticeable issues regarding the importance of the technology. The participants of the survey were asked to point out what among the choices provided was the most significant in terms of usefulness of BIM. A frequency distribution analysis was used to investigate the answers and the results displayed in the table as shown above. Like mentioned in the methodology section the level of adoption is ranked from 0 to 3. Like mentioned in the methodology section, this is based on UK standards that have been adopted throughout most countries in the world. Again, level 0 is indicative of a situation where there is no adoption at all while level 3 is indicative of complete and total adoption and integration.

All the levels in between are explained in detail in the methodology section. The bar chart below shows the level of adoption of BIM technology in the following sections of the construction industry in Hong Kong; Architecture structural engineering, BSE and quantity surveying. Number of Years BIM has been Used in Various Industries (Figures in the x-axis are percentages) The figure above shows that regardless of the nature of the work in the construction industry, as much as 20 percent of the participant were not aware of the period of time BIM was used in their companies and between 40 and 60 percent across all industries do not think that BIM has been adopted at all. The chart indicates that quantity surveyors have the lowest adoption rate by the high numbers of participants indicating that at no time was BIM used in their companies.

Between 10 and 30 participants across all industries indicate that BIM was used in their respective industries for between 1 and 2 years. Only between 10 percent and 20 percent of the participants across the three industries indicated using BIM for between 3 and 5 years. None indicated that BIM was used for more than 6 years. If the participants in the survey are representative of the situation in the Hong Kong construction industry, it means that there is still a lot of room for improvement going forward. BIM and Quantity Take off The next question of the survey sought to look into the adoption of BIM technology in the construction branch of quantity surveying and the application of the same in quantity takeoff. The first question related to BIM and its relation to quality takeoff was a Yes/No question regarding whether the participants' companies used BIM technology for quantity takeoff.

80 percent answered in the affirmative and 15 percent answered in the negative while 5 percent asserted they were unclear. To delve into the issue further, the participants were asked to rank the percentage of adoption of BIM specifically for quality survey and quantity take off. unable to fulfill standard requirement in HKSMM and iii. Difficulty in checking measurement error or evaluate accuracy. The pie chart below is representative of how the participants responded. Benefits of Implementation of BIM in Hong Kong The next section that addressed by the survey pertains to the perceived benefits of BIM on the construction industry and more specifically. Based on the literature review, the participants of the survey were given a total of six choices to rate using a 7 point Likert Scale.

The statistical means and standard deviations are those of values in the Likert scale as assigned by the participants. The results analyzed in this section of the survey are indicative of the fact that all the participants of the survey did not have the same opinions with regards to the benefits the benefits of BIM technology in different fields within the construction industry. The wider the varying views are represented by higher values in standard deviation. However, despite the differences in opinion among the participants, all the participants perceived the benefits of BIM as either moderate, great or very great. The mean in this case refers to the statistical mean representing the average of the choice of the participants on the Likert Scale.

the lack of a legal standard for specification for the implementation and adoption of BIM in Hong Kong. Barriers Mean Standard Deviation 1. IT infrastructure problems 4. issues related to the participants 5. the lack of demand from clients 5. lack of client demand and 6. lack of legal standards/specification to cope with BIM adoption, which had an average rating of much more than 5, would most likely be the three largest obstacles to the implementation of BIM in the local construction industry. It is also important to note that the responses that the participants gave were limited in that they were sourced from the literature review. This means that the participants might have had further ideas to most of the questions given in the questionnaires but were limited by the scope and design of the survey from expressing the same.

There are other barriers sourced from other peer reviewed literature not mentioned in this study include; too short design period, difficult to re-use the building services design when there is a change in client requirements, lack of industry support, lack of coordinated efforts/drive from the top, fragmented market, not able to specify the exact product to be used due to tender consideration, and liability of the BIM files. However, in Hong Kong there seems to be a lag for some reason. There is need for Hong Kong and its various authorities to seriously consider adopting and implementing the use of BIM technology as national standard. BIM is not by any means a new concept in Hong Kong. BIM was introduced in Hong Kong approximately two decades ago.

However, the concept is still remains unused in the construction industry. Some of the major tasks involved in quantity surveying include quantification, quantity take-off, preparation of bills of quantities as well as the preparation, estimation and pricing of entire construction projects. This is often tedious work if done manually and doing so leaves a lot of room for error. BIM can automate all of these tasks making the job of quantity surveying fast, less tedious and devoid of human errors. While this is a positive, the negative is that BIM threatens the practice of quantity surveying. BIM threatening quantity surveying and other professions in the construction industry is a substantive reason as to why its adoption and implementation in the Hong Kong construction industry might have been slow.

The private sector in the construction industry should therefore take advantage of the same, despite the challenges since in this case, the pros outweigh the cons. The first reason that BIM should be adopted and implemented in the private sector is the greater efficiency in all phases of construction that BIM is involved in. The multidimensionality of BIM allows for various deliverables, documentation and exchange of information to the prepared at the same time. Additionally, objected oriented designs re-use of information as allowed by BIM can accelerate the creation of drawings. Updating in the designs of a project is automatically updated and the information passed throughout all the phases therefore hastening the process. The adoption of BIM will impact professions such as quantity surveying without a doubt, however measures can be taken to ensure that these changes are taken in stride and the impact does not affect such professions so negatively.

Ultimately, traditional construction practices still employed in Hong Kong will not be sustainable in the long run and BIM adoption is inevitable if Hong Kong is to remain competitive. Next Step of the Study The next step of this study is to delve further into BIM and cost estimation. Cost estimation is another aspect of the building process that benefits from computable building information such as BIM. While designs are made by architects, cost estimates require that the estimator or QS digitize the designs into a cost estimating package. , &Froese, T. Building information modelling demystified: does it make business sense to adopt BIM?. International Journal of managing projects in business, 2(3), 419-434. Ashworth, A. , &Perera, S. H. (2008, August). Building Information Modeling (BIM): A new paradigm for visual interactive modeling and simulation for construction projects.

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