Challenges and Possibilities for BIM Supply Chain Management

This paper could identify the strategic areas related to the construction challenges and possibilities for BIM established supply chain management between a main project stakeholder such like the Client, contractor and product suppliers.

First of the areas is design management, where it is essential to clarify how the model based design provided by a product supplier is linked to the architectural and structural design of the construction project. Furthermore, there are also possibilities to improve monitoring and management of design status information with help of BIM and SCM so that delays in design could be recognized as early as possible to avoid discrepancies on construction work at site execution stage.

In order to develop the workability of the design during construction stage, there is also a necessity to clarify possibilities for the subcontractors and suppliers to have an earlier access to a project so that they can guidance on the design resolutions or offer their own ideas.

As usual, in residential construction field, the main contractor orders concrete elements typically based on the designs made beforehand by a different structural engineer, not based on the negotiation with the supplier. However, the same product suppliers are usually involved earlier in projects relating to commercial building projects, and may improve the optimal structural solutions in coordination with the main contractor. In fact, the manufacture supplier is usually responsible for the design, manufacturing and installation of the products. This same approach could be applied in residential construction, at least in relation to steel frames and pre-cast concrete elements.

The product suppliers could comment feasibility and safety viewpoin...

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...ound in both local and international specifications and nomenclatures. In fact, the contractors that are contributing in the research project are international corporations, which makes the international options motivating for them, and raises also the information requests will improve to assist as international solution or not. The objective is that modelling archives and identification codes used are such that the project components and materials can be identified irrespective of the designer. In addition to uniform use of the nomenclatures, this requires that the modelling and naming of project parts in models are made by following the same concept in different design companies. Considering standard products, it should be possible to collect product needs efficiently from the model so that the needs can be compared with the existing products in the local market.