Guideline for building the capacity of contractors for adoption and implementation of building information modeling (BIM) in Ghana

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August, 2015
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Abstract
Presently BIM adoption by Construction firms has received widespread attention. The importance of BIM remains very eminent particularly at the construction stage. It provides higher efficiency and reduces variation in design. It is best cordial for off-site pre-fabrication of structural elements, ease project documentation with better precision, provides quality management of work during the entire project life, saves a lot of time and identifies clashes in programming before construction begins. The system estimates quantities of materials and provides financial benefits. In this paper the nature and constrains facing Ghanaian Contractors and possible guidelines to support capacity building of contractors to adopt BIM in Ghana have been highlighted. Among these guidelines are inclusive of leadership and management, vision and mission, assessment and collaboration, funding of project, legislation, execution plan of BIM, collaboration of data, monitor matrix and finalization of execution plan. Capacity building in these areas will go a long way to help in the adoption of this new technology- BIM. The research adopted quantitative approach in its data collection. Non-probability sampling technique namely purposive and snowball were adopted which gave a sample size of 35 respondents. In generating and gathering data, structured questionnaires based on the literature review were used. SPSS version 20, programme was used to accumulate data and later conveyed into the Microsoft Excel 2010 for comprehensive analysis using descriptive statistical tool made up of tables; mean and standard deviation; Relative Importance Index (RII); factor analysis and standard deviation for the degree of reliability of responses from respondents. It was found out that the fundamental requirements for BIM adoption and implementation include trained or qualified experts in BIM, working space, hard and software applications, repository library and screens. Also, it was realised that the level of adoption of BIM by Ghanaian contractors was low. .Some of the benefits of BIM adoption by Ghanaian contractors include elimination of variation in design, it saves a lot of time, and it controls quality. Sadly, these benefits are not fully achieved due to the following found challenges: high set up cost of BIM such as hardware, software and personnel training. Finally on the findings, it was realised that for full BIM implementation in Ghana the following capacity building factors should be considered such as management decision, technology and training , planning and execution, quality assurance and control, regulation and legislation and lastly data collaboration. Though BIM adoption level is very low, it can be implemented to achieve high level. To do this, it is recommended that the guideline factors for full BIM adoption should be implemented by Ghanaian contractors backed by government regulations.
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A Thesis Submitted to the Department of Building Technology of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of a Master of Philosophy (Mphil) degree in Construction Management, 2015
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