Brigham Young University BYU ScholarsArchive All Theses and Dissertations 2017-12-01 Current State of Practice Associated with the Use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) in the Custom Home Building Industry William Noble Smith Brigham Young University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd Part of the Construction Engineering and Management Commons BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Smith, William Noble, "Current State of Practice Associated with the Use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) in the Custom Home Building Industry" (2017). All Theses and Dissertations. 6632. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/6632 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Current State of Practice Associated with the Use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) in the Custom Home Building Industry William Noble Smith A thesis submitted to the faculty of Brigham Young University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science James P. Smith, Chair Kevin R. Miller Evan D. Bingham School of Technology Brigham Young University Copyright © 2017 William Noble Smith All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT Current State of Practice Associated with the Use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) in the Custom Home Building Industry William Noble Smith School of Technology, BYU Master of Science Building Information Modeling (BIM) has entered the construction industry and has permeated the commercial sector. Research is continually performed to expand the capabilities and applications within the industry. However, research has historically been mostly limited to the commercial sector and has seen little expansion to other sectors of the industry including the residential sector. The potential cause for this may be the limited number of industry professionals who utilize the software to the benefit of their companies. The focus of this study was specifically the custom home building sector of residential construction in the United States because of the unique and potentially complex nature of each project. The study was performed using a Delphi Panel, which utilizes a panel of experts to reach a consensus on a given subject. In this study, the goal was to reach a consensus on the most common uses challenges and benefits of BIM within the residential sector. In the first questionnaires, the experts were asked to identify, with a series of demographic questions including the number of employees in their company, the number of homes they build each year, and the average sale price of each home. Each expert’s responses to the demographic questions were cross-referenced with the responses concerning uses, benefits, and challenges to provide other industry members wishing to implement with relatable demographic references to compare with their own company demographics. The experts then identified how they used BIM, what benefits they had seen, and any challenges they faced. The uses, benefits, and challenges identified in this questionnaire were ranked in the following questionnaire to identify the most common uses, greatest benefits, and greatest challenges. The top uses identified by this expert panel were design and visualization, the creation of construction documents, and quantity take-offs. The most common benefits identified by this panel were client visualization, plan accuracy, improved client communication, and ease of plan revisions. The most common challenges identified by this panel were high software costs, the steep learning curve when training employees, and the time-consuming nature of creating and maintain models correctly. Keywords: building information modeling [BIM], custom home building, residential construction, delphi ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would first and foremost like to thank my spouse and children for their constant support and encouragement. I would not be here today without them. I would also like to thank my committee and, specifically, my chair for his patience and diligence in helping me complete this process. His insight and expertise were invaluable throughout the course of this research. Finally, I would like to extend my deepest gratitude for the industry experts who took time out of their busy schedules to participate in this study. Their opinions and feedback made this research possible. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................... ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................... iv LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................................... viii 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 1 Background ...................................................................................................................... 1 Nature of the Problem ...................................................................................................... 2 Purpose of the Research ................................................................................................... 3 2 Review of the Literature .......................................................................................................... 5 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 5 Definition of BIM ............................................................................................................. 6 Uses of BIM ..................................................................................................................... 7 2.3.1 Pre-Construction Uses .............................................................................................. 8 2.3.2 Construction Uses ................................................................................................... 10 2.3.3 Post-Construction or Operations Uses .................................................................... 10 Benefits of BIM .............................................................................................................. 11 2.4.1 Benefits According to Industry Sector .................................................................... 11 2.4.2 Potential Benefits for Residential Construction ...................................................... 14 Risks Found in Commercial Applications ..................................................................... 15 Differences Between Commercial and Residential ........................................................ 16 iv 3 Methodology of the Research ................................................................................................ 18 Selected Research Methodology .................................................................................... 18 Research Design ............................................................................................................. 19 Research Limitations ...................................................................................................... 21 4 Results ................................................................................................................................... 22 Delphi Study Details ...................................................................................................... 22 Questionnaire One Design ............................................................................................. 22 Questionnaire One Results ............................................................................................. 22 4.3.1 Company Demographic Data .................................................................................. 23 4.3.2 BIM Processes ........................................................................................................ 25 4.3.3 BIM Uses, Benefits, and Challenges ...................................................................... 26 4.3.4 Questionnaire 1 Cross-Tabulation Analysis ........................................................... 27 4.3.5 Number of Employees ............................................................................................ 27 4.3.6 Number of Homes ................................................................................................... 30 4.3.7 Average Sale Price per Home ................................................................................. 33 Questionnaire 2 Design .................................................................................................. 36 4.4.1 Implementation Processes ....................................................................................... 37 4.4.2 BIM Uses ................................................................................................................ 38 4.4.3 Benefits of BIM ...................................................................................................... 40 4.4.4 Challenges Associated with BIM Use .................................................................... 41 v 4.4.5 Questionnaire 2 Cross-Tabulation Analysis ..........................................................