BIM-Based Construction Progress Measurement of Non-Repetitive HVAC Installation Works

Abstract

Construction projects are often delivered over time and over budget. Deviations are often identified only during the finishing stages when improvement actions to recover from delays become limited. Building Information Modeling (BIM) will transform the construction industry to come in line with more digitally developed industries like manufacturing. However, up to now, BIM has been mainly used to support the information flow of the construction design process and limited effort has been invested to investigate how it could support the management of the construction execution process. The paper shows how BIM can be used to schedule and monitor non-repetitive construction tasks. The proposed approach shows how important information needed for scheduling (like the number of pieces to be installed in a certain location) could be extracted from the BIM model. Moreover, it shows how BIM could support a quantitative monitoring of the reached progress and how this information can be displayed in an intuitive way to the user. The approach was developed during the project COCkPiT (Collaborative Construction Process Management) and especially by collaborating with a Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) company using as a case study a medium sized hospital construction project located in Northern Italy.