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What all advantages BIM provides to facility managers?

In construction industry, one of the major challenges for facility managers is to enhance and standardize the quality of building information in such ways that the proposed building will be able to fulfill daily basis operational needs after construction. This information is also sent to upper management for evaluating the entire building’s facilities effectively. Though, various types of data system such as CAD, IWMS, CMMS, CAFM and EAM are used for optimal management of building facilities, assets, and spaces but none of them provides entire application of facility management (FM) practices.

Building information modeling or BIM, an emerging technology, has brought a range of opportunities for facility managers that help them in managing a building and its all physical assets in an efficient manner. Asset and facility management are basically a data-centric application because they are performed based on the information included in 3D BIM model.

CAFM and IWMS data system are basically used for space management. Users spend high amount of effort when they perform facility management using CAD files that are delivered from project construction documents. Sometimes FM application does not work aptly in managing any kind of changes, requiring inordinate synchronization while building configurations and affiliated data attribute change.

BIM facilitates a comprehensive digital repository of all construction items, and as a complete 3D model it is efficient of displaying a clear view of the project design that assists users to stay away from the boring 2D CAD drawing practices. BIM allows users to add any number of data to the components of the 3D model. Professionals can add data either within the application or in any external database such as Oracle. For example, BIM space components can be utilized to trace information about number of rooms, allocated area and occupant censuses. Equipment objects can provide information about manufacturers, room location, equipment specifications, etc.

To support the full building life cycle, various data exchange standards have been developed in the AEC and FM industry. Several organizations - Construction Specification Institute, OSCRE, FIATECH, The National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS), etc. has developed their own standard for performing BIM practice.

However, building information modeling is a complex process and it is not easy to handle for any inexperienced users. Nowadays, many firms have started to implement BIM for accomplishing pre-construction and post-construction activities. BIM is a very useful tool for analyzing building facility and asset management. It has brought a new direction in managing any project in a cost-effective and efficient manner. 

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