Applications of Building Information Modelling in the Operation and Maintenance Phase of Construction Projects: A Framework for the Malaysian Construction Industry

Abstract

Building information modelling (BIM) is an inventive solution for enhancing the operation and maintenance (O&M) phase of construction projects. However, there is still a small and low level of BIM adoption in the O&M phase of construction projects in Malaysia. Hence, a framework is required for the Malaysian construction industry regarding the adoption of BIM in the O&M phase. The goal of this study is to examine the factors that influence the implementation of BIM technology during the O&M phase. A literature review was performed with more than 50 research papers from the past 10 years. This research was closely evaluated to create a list of barriers and drivers that might affect the application of BIM in the O&M phase. To ensure that these barriers and drivers match Malaysian conditions, a semi-structured interview was performed. Based on this interview, a refined questionnaire was created to gather feedback. Next, an online survey was conducted on 302 Malaysian construction professionals who work in the industry. The collected data were analysed for tests of reliability, validity, correlation, and a relative importance index. As per the findings, most of the respondents were familiar with the use of BIM technology, with 98.7% of the companies they worked at having more than 15 BIM engineers employed at the time of the survey. The lack of learning materials and equipment prepared by the academic institutions were identified as two main aspects requiring attention to improve the utilisation of BIM in the O&M stage. On the other hand, the utilisation of BIM, which increases the efficiency of data accessibility for the O&M personnel, has been rated as the most significant driver. Based on the findings, a conceptual framework was developed to provide insight into the matter and a future direction to overcome the matter. Therefore, this study managed to provide an in-depth perspective for future researchers into the factors that can enhance the implementation of BIM software during the O&M phase of a construction project.

1. Introduction

The construction industry is one of the oldest industries that continues to contribute to the financial development of Malaysia [1,2]. The local construction industry needs to keep evolving by following in the footsteps of the Industrial Revolution 4.0 so that improvements can be made [3,4]. At present, the construction sector is confronted with various new issues. These issues include a glut of 2D project documentation, the participation of numerous construction partners, inconsistencies in project design, and sluggish decision-making [5]. In order to improve construction projects from planning to design to construction to building maintenance and operation, new technology must be used. Building information modelling (BIM) was offered to local businesses by the Public Works Department (PWD) in 2007 to help the construction sector grow. The National Cancer Institute was the first government project to adopt BIM in 2010 [6]. A standardised machine known as BIM functions as a creative alternative to enhance the planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance process of a construction project, and it is essential for the future development of the construction industry [7]. Throughout the course of a project’s life cycle, BIM compiles all of the critical information that has been developed or recorded about it [8]. As a result of its special qualities, the BIM software has developed into a collaborative platform for sufficient building information storage and exchange among the many experts involved in the design, engineering, and construction industries [9].

All the digitally stored information represents the real and operational data of the project, which enhances the visualisation and construction feasibility of the design, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness and minimises the conflict that could happen among the construction parties [10]. Since its establishment, BIM has been greatly used by construction personnel to create project models rich with information so that they can achieve excellent quality for their projects at a lower cost and in a shorter period of time. Moreover, its project stimulation ability allows BIM to predict the actual performance on site, making BIM an efficient software for use during the construction phase. It can continue to be used for the project’s operation and maintenance phase until 7D BIM except for the enhancement in the construction phase, which covers the 3D modelling function of BIM [9]. In the lifespan of a construction project, the operation and maintenance (O&M) phase is crucial. This stage is designed to ensure that the finished facility and building structure can perform its functions effectively and safely over its entire lifespan without breaking any of the rules and specifications already in place. Updating the knowledge of the building’s equipment on a regular basis is necessary for facility maintenance. Regarding contemporary procedures, all O&M staff members heavily rely on a variety of systems, including document management systems (DMS), building automation systems (BAS), computerised maintenance management systems (CMMS), and computer-aided facilities management (CAFM) [11]. In addition to the technologies already discussed, BIM has significant potential for use throughout the O&M phase, including tracking maintenance work and managing energy consumption [9].

Through BIM technology, which provides a potent instrument for retrieving information from a digital model of a project, the construction sector is provided a fantastic alternative to increase productivity [12]. Despite the fact that BIM technology has been known to deliver a number of benefits to facilitate O&M since 2010 [8], the O&M sector has yet to accept this truth with even the most basic BIM installation. Due to the shorter time frame, the project owner and other project stakeholders typically give the investment priority during the planning, design, and construction phase. For this reason, the use of BIM throughout the operation and maintenance phase has received less attention than during the earlier project stages. In addition, it is well known that the construction project’s O&M phase accounts for the majority of a building’s lifecycle costs. The estimation states that a building’s lifecycle cost is three times greater than its development cost [13]. According to a report by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the facilities market is losing USD 15.8 billion annually as a result of the O&M sector’s lack of interoperability [14]. However, efforts to explore BIM technology throughout the O&M stage in the construction sector are currently minimal, with the majority of real-world applications mostly focusing on freshly completed buildings. BIM technology has the potential to lessen this financial loss. Only 1% to 2% of the total building stock is made up of all these structures with BIM implementation during the O&M phase each year [13,14]. The gap between the needs of the industry and the research scope of the study is still thought to exist. The existing research on the use of BIM during the operation and maintenance phase does not meet the actual needs of the industry [15]. As the O&M phase takes such a long time, the local construction community is not persuaded to invest enough money in BIM software for operation and maintenance applications as it requires a longer time to attain a return on investment (ROI) [8]. By examining the actual needs of the local construction industry, this article intends to reduce the knowledge gap between existing BIM expertise and the deployment of BIM throughout the O&M phase.

In light of the above discussion, it is evident that BIM has become a substantial part of the construction industry and its implementation is evident during the execution phase. However, still there is a hesitation observed among construction industry stakeholders to implement BIM in the O&M phase. There is a need to motivate and give confidence to construction industry stakeholders to adopt BIM in the O&M phase by identifying the main aspects to be considered in such a scenario. According to the problem statement, a few objectives have been set to guide this project throughout its progress. These objectives are “To evaluate the needs of the operation and maintenance construction industry for the BIM applications studies”, “To investigate the significant drivers and barriers of the BIM applications during the operation and maintenance phase”, and “To develop a framework based on the BIM applications in construction projects during the operation and maintenance phase”. After evaluating the factors in the literature, a questionnaire study was conducted in this regard. Following the receipt of the findings, a conceptual framework was developed. The researcher’s synthesis of the literature on how to describe a phenomenon was embodied by a conceptual framework. With the aforementioned understanding of other researchers’ points of view and the opinions from the research analysis, the steps to be taken for enhancement were laid out. The conceptual framework, therefore, is the researcher’s interpretation of how certain variables in this study relate to one another. As a result, it pinpoints the variables needed for the research study. It serves as the researcher’s “map” for carrying out the enquiry and providing future directions [16].

The scope of study for this research paper covered academic articles reviewing an industry case study of between 10 and 15 experts to identify the most significant drivers and barrier factors towards the implementation of BIM applications in the O&M phase of a construction project. The study specifically focused on a building construction project, and the expected stakeholders were the academic researchers, project managers, O&M personnel, and the project owner. The benefits of BIM applications in O&M activities that were focused on in this study included energy management and consumption, water supply, maintenance and repair work, and emergency management. Finally, a ranking of the current driver and barrier factors faced by the O&M industry in implementing BIM applications was provided in a framework.

2. Literature Review

The purpose of the literature review was to examine the possible drivers and challenges to the adoption of BIM technology in Malaysia’s O&M sector. The analysis determined the primary function of BIM technology integration during the operation and maintenance phase based on the literature that was reviewed. These tasks included managing information and data, using modern technology, maintaining equipment, managing the indoor environment, evaluating performance, visualising dimensions, and managing energy. The reader may locate all the earlier research findings regarding the application of BIM in the O&M stage thanks to this literature review.

2.1. Barriers to BIM Applications in the Operation and Maintenance Phase

There are many barriers to the application of BIM during the O&M phase of a building which have been highlighted in various related literature. All these barriers are stated below, and are to be used as information resources for this project to investigate the significant barriers that apply to the O&M industry in Malaysia. The barriers can be grouped into technical barriers, organisational barriers, and legal and contractual barriers.

2.1.1. Technical Barriers

There are a few barriers faced by the current construction industry in applying BIM technology during the O&M phase. One of the most significant barriers is the complexity of each distinct space and system that falls under the O&M phase of a facility. This type of facility will generate a high heterogeneity of data regarding each specific and distinct function [9]. This is a huge obstacle for BIM implementation as most of the existing O&M technologies are unable to reach the required interoperability between these many different systems [17]. This could lead to insufficient information provided by the BIM model and the misalignment of data integration or standards [18].

Furthermore, facilities managers still face problems regarding the interoperability of BIM technology. The data integration quality between BIM and other existing O&M software remains unsatisfactory to the industry. The IFC format that allows for data integration between existing O&M software and BIM technology is rarely used in the industry as the IFC format data contains extra used information, making the extraction of the required data difficult and complex [19,20]. Moreover, the data created by various existing O&M software in the market produced unstandardised information further deepening the interoperability issue that is faced by the BIM technology [21].

Despite the presence of building information exchange standards, such as COBie, which can make the integration of O&M data smoother, O&M users still identified some drawbacks of these standards that could be further improved. One of these problems is that the complex layers of spreadsheets from the O&M industry reduce the visibility of semantics and data dependencies, impacting the system’s ability to navigate and query data. In addition, the integration of COBie data with a 2D/3D model is also displeasing [20,22]. Therefore, the COBie platform still needs to be tested, especially with respect to the complex and diversified user and technical aspects, before it can be fully utilised by the O&M industry [20].

2.1.2. Organisational Barriers

For BIM software to be implemented, highly educated BIM specialists with knowledge are required [9,23,24]. This condition has become a critical barrier for the construction industry as the majority of the current construction individuals lack professional BIM knowledge. Extra training will be needed for all the O&M team members to be well-prepared for the BIM software implementation, which also requires a certain amount of additional cost [25,26].

This leads to the next organisational challenge: the lack of research investigating the adoption of BIM technology in the O&M phase with a desirable return of investment (ROI). It is hard to convince the industry to spend extra financial allocation to implement BIM technology as the O&M stage tends to take a long period to balance out the cost [8,27]. In addition, there is insufficient clarity regarding the KPI and benchmark figures for the BIM management system [28]. Therefore, the roles and positions of the BIM management system become vague; hence, it is hard to implement in the O&M phase [17].

All these organisational barriers stop many people from introducing BIM technology in the O&M stage, limiting the number of real-world practice cases [27]. As of today, it is known that gaps and limitations still exist between the theory of BIM technology and its real-world practice due to many barriers [29]. Another organisational barrier that should be emphasised is the rigid industry, which refuses to adopt new technologies into its working culture [13]. Despite being proven to be beneficial to the industry, BIM technology is still rarely used by the industry, making the changes in the current O&M practice one of the primary challenges [13,30].

2.1.3. Legal and Contractual Barriers

The deficiency of effective support from rules appealing to the initiation of the required BIM quality standards, particularly in O&M, is a significant challenge for the use of BIM technology during the O&M phase [13,15]. The project stakeholders face a legal risk to determine the copyright of the BIM data, which are in a digital form, and protect all the information from other laws. Moreover, to create a seamless integration of data between each party during the O&M stage, data ownership needs to be agreed upon from the early stages of the project. However, the ownership and reliability of this BIM information can be threatened by cybersecurity failure. Therefore, the cyber and electronic systems used for the operation of BIM technology during O&M must be properly protected for such systems to appeal to organisations [31]. Therefore, the majority of the contractual documents during the O&M phase still require handling as paper documents, which are easy to lose and hard to access [13].

2.2. Drivers of BIM Applications towards the Operation and Maintenance Phase

Through the literature review, it was established that BIM technology consists of many drivers that can encourage the local O&M industry to adopt the use of this new technology. These drivers are grouped into technical drivers, organisational drivers, and legal and contractual drivers to match each challenge that was mentioned earlier.

2.2.1. Technical Drivers

Technical drivers are the most significant driver of BIM technology. This is due to the advanced features that they offer to the O&M stage, which allow for an efficient working culture and minimise the possibility of an error being made which could cause undesirable consequences. The technical drivers of BIM technology have been grouped into its three main technical advantages: data integration and transfer, energy consumption management, and emergency management.

Data Integration and Transfer

According to the current industry practice, most construction contracts in the industry require the handover of paper documents including a list of equipment, a catalogue of each piece of equipment, warranties, a maintenance schedule, and so on. All this information is crucial for the facility manager to manage the facilities and equipment of the building during the operation and maintenance (O&M) phase. Presently, the handover process, which occurs manually, often leads to an incomplete and inaccurate information transfer [13]. To overcome this obstacle, a BIM-assisted system can be applied to improve the effectiveness of the handover pattern from the construction phase to the O&M phase [15]. The high chance of information loss and mistakes during the large transfer of data from the project delivery phase can be overcome by applying BIM, which enhances the information transfer. BIM software is known to be able to digitalise all the construction information and data from the design and construction stage. This approach provides an opportunity for the O&M personnel to transfer all this essential data and assets in digital form as soon as the construction stage is completed [27].

Moreover, BIM can create a database for all the crucial O&M information for the O&M stage of the facility throughout its life cycle. In this case, BIM takes the role of a central database, linking all the O&M management systems such as BEMS, BAS, CMMS, CAFM, and DMS. According to past studies, for the data exchange to be carried out smoothly, certain SMART building standards will be used, such as the Construction Operations Building Information Exchange (COBie), Industry Foundation Classes (IFC), building SMART Data Dictionary (bsDD), and the Building Collaboration Format (BCF) [8,32]. All the significant data saved in the database can be synchronised across different parties through BIM software [33]. This allows all O&M personnel to consistently check on the update on the model and retrieve any data, regardless of time [32,33].

In addition, BIM software can increase the efficiency of accessibility of the O&M personnel with respect to the data. It is known that most construction projects consist of a high diversity of data with distinct spaces that each own a unique functionality. To produce accurate data for the access of all the O&M personnel at any time, researchers have shown that barcodes, RFID, and augmented reality (AR) can be adopted in combination with the BIM applications, which are capable of achieving this goal. For example, barcodes and RFID can be attached to certain equipment or items in the building, allowing any individual to scan and retrieve relevant information from the database [8,33]. Additionally, the AR technique can be used in collaboration with BIM applications to provide a superimposed geometric representation of the real-life environment of the building in addition to all the relevant BIM-based data about the facility [8].

Energy Consumption Management

In Malaysia, buildings are the dominant energy consumers, accounting for 30 to 40 per cent of total energy consumption and 70 per cent of the total electricity consumption. Hence, the construction industry requires new alternatives to help reduce energy consumption, which could contribute hugely to a sustainable economy [34]. BIM technology opens the gate for a great improvement in energy consumption management in the local construction industry. BIM technology allows O&M personnel to monitor real-time energy consumption and to analyse the performance through links with sensors and meters in the facility [27,33]. Due the capabilities of BIM technology in building energy management, studies have been performed to compare the actual energy consumption performance with the design energy consumption model to identify any discrepancies. This function allows the O&M personnel to discover any improvements for the design planning of future buildings and find ease in the decision-making process [8].

Emergency Management

The utilisation of BIM technology in the O&M phase can enhance the emergency management of a facility. BIM technology can assist the emergency response team in locating and discovering potential hazards through its graphical interface. Possible emergencies and possible damage can be simulated by BIM technology. Hence, a response plan could be discussed and tested before an actual emergency occurs [27]. For example, studies have been carried out to prove that BIM technology can be applied to fire safety assessment, ensuring fire risk prevention and an overall control ability on a more scientific basis [35].

2.2.2. Organisational Drivers

Communication among project stakeholders can be greatly improved with the implementation of BIM technology during the O&M phase [15]. BIM technology provides an information-sharing platform that enhances the collaboration between all stakeholders of a project [36]. The convenience that BIM technology offers is a faster way to obtain adequate and accurate O&M data for all O&M personnel [15]. Other than communication, BIM technology is believed to bring many benefits to the organisation in terms of financial management. Due to its technical advantages, such as the accurate information provided during the handover phase, easier information access, and faster analyses and problem solving, the organisation will be able to save a huge amount of indirect costs that might be needed for the traditional O&M management system [11].

According to Wang, Li [35], the BIM model can replace normal human patrols and 2D data extraction, improving information accuracy and reducing reliability on human labour. During the O&M phase of buildings, sensors can work independently with BIM technology with minimum human action to retrieve and utilise live information on the equipment or infrastructures through wired communication networks and wireless networks [32]. This can lead to a reduction in labour costs that might save a significant cost for the organisation as this is a long-term direct cost that must be accounted for by the project owner throughout the project lifecycle.

2.2.3. Legal and Contractual Drivers

The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), is an independent, non-governmental international organization with a membership of 167 national standards bodies [37]. The ISO 19650 series lists all the key standards that define relevant roles and responsibilities for managing information over the whole life cycle of a built asset using BIM [38]. Among the ISO 19650 series, the ISO 19650-3 outlines all the requirements for information management using BIM during the O&M phase of a project life cycle. This standard provides the information management requirements during the O&M phase for the project owner [32].

In addition, governments from countries around the world have set policies which demonstrate their initiatives toward the development of BIM technology in the O&M stage. However, most of the policies in this field have yet to reach a mature stage at which they can be implemented by the public [15]. For example, the government of the United Kingdom has mandated a BIM level 2 (federated models held in separate disciplines ‘BIM tools with attached data’) on all centrally procured projects from 2016 which include the hand-over of digital information that is required during the O&M phase [27]. The outcome barriers related to BIM applications are demonstrated in

Table 1. Outcome barriers of BIM applications towards operation and maintenance phase from the semi-structured interview.

Serial No	Identified Factors	Reference	Status	Remarks
Technical Barriers
1	The high complexity of the facility information in BIM software due to the highly specific and distinct O&M-related data.	[9,29]	Modified	The high complexity of the facility information and software run under BIM.
2	Most of the existing technologies are unable to satisfy the integration and interoperability requirements between different software under the BIM application.	[17,18,25,29]	Remained	-
3	The diversity of software run under BIM increases the complexity of the process.	[27]	Combined	-
Organisational Barriers
4	Rigid industry culture which refuses to accept the implementation of new technology.	[13,26,30,39]	Remained	-
5	Diverse operation and maintenance workflow implemented by different organisations.	[8]	Remained	-
6	High cost of investment to fully implement BIM software into the operation and maintenance phase.	[5,11]	Remained	-
7	Possibility of underperforming during the transfer from current practice to BIM application.	[28]	Cancelled	-
8	Lack of clarity regarding the overall management system, KPIs, and benchmark figures.	[25,26,28,40]	Remained	-
9	Unclear workflow for BIM application within an organisation during the operation and maintenance phase.	[17]	Remained	-
10	Insufficient research to investigate the BIM adoption in the O&M phase with a desirable return on investment (ROI).	[8,27]	Modified	Insufficient research and articles were provided to investigate BIM adoption in the O&M phase.
11	Lack of real-world practice to act as evidence for the positive return by practising BIM during the operational and maintenance phase.	[27,29]	Remained	-
12	Extra training must be given to the O&M personnel to famliliarize them with BIM.	[25,26,41]	Cancelled	-
13	Unclear position for BIM management team.	[17]	Combined	-
14	Lack of learning materials and equipment prepared by the academic institutions in preparing more engineers with BIM knowledge for the future.	Added	-	-
15	Technical expertise is required for the BIM model’s regular update and maintenance, which required high costs and were hard employ locally.	Added	-	-
Legal and Contractual Barriers
16	Lack of contractual and legal framework for the implementation of BIM applications in the industry.	[13,26]	Remained	-
17	Cybersecurity issue regarding the integration of BIM data.	[31]	Remained	-
18	The deficiency of effective support from rules appeals to the initiation of the required BIM quality standards.	[15]	Combined	-
19	Hard to distinguish BIM data ownership.	Added	-	-
20	Unclear determination of copyright regarding BIM data.	Added	-	-

, while the outcome drivers of BIM applications are shown in

Table 2. Outcome drivers of BIM applications towards the operation and maintenance phase from the semi-structured interview.

Serial No	Identified Factors	Reference	Status	Remarks
Technical Drivers
1	Easier adaption to the industry due to BIM flexibility in creating a link between the database and the geometric element.	[9]	Modified	Create a database for all the crucial O&M information for the O&M stage of the facility throughout its lifecycle.
2	Fast identification of the root cause for any operation problems.	[42]	Modified	Allow the O&M personnel to have a better analysis of the issues during the O&M phase.
3	Allow for risk analysis during the operation of a facility.	[43]	Combined	-
4	Replacing human regular patrol around the building for the fire safety assessment, which saves labour costs.	[35,44]	Combined	-
5	Create a model with accurate positional data.	[9,24,45]	Modified	Digitalise all the construction information and data.
6	Hazardous waste management after the building has been completed.	[8,26]	Combined	-
7	Improving the ICT assets management within the building.	[8]	Combined	-
8	Capable of evaluating the impact of refurbishment and maintenance work for a building.	[11]	Cancelled	-
9	Discrepancies between the actual O&M performance and BIM-based planning in schedule and cost.	[29]	Combined	-
10	Better indoor space navigation.	[46]	Cancelled	-
11	Ability to capture instant phenomena in the building using liable sensors or techniques.	[15,44]	Remained	-
12	Produce an as-built model associated with a chain of BIM databases which makes it more convenient to query, analyse, and calculate statistics.	[33,47,48,49]	Combined	-
13	Allow synchronisation and consistency checks on the changes in data.	[5,32,40,44,48]	Combined	-
14	Interchange of information between BIM application and other facility management software enhances a higher working efficiency/high interoperability.	[5,30,36,40,50]	Combined	-
15	Provide a 3D BIM environment through which the facility management team can achieve a better understanding of the project.	[36,44,47,50]	Combined	-
16	Centring data into a BIM solution enables the data concerning spatial orientation, dimensions, and use to be understood/cloud-based framework.	[9,26,44,51,52,53]	Combined	-
17	Improve safety and emergency assessment efficiency and accuracy.	[26,27,35,54]	Modified	Assist the emergency response team in locating and discovering potential hazards through its graphical interface.
18	A reliable database and integrated views can be provided for all facility systems.	[11,23,50,55]	Combined	-
19	Provide visualisation and spatial analysis among all maintenance activities.	[11,23,24,41,42,47,50,51,56]	Modified	Able to produce high accuracy and visualisable data for all the O&M personnel.
20	Maintenance of the facility can be predictive.	[18,43,57]	Cancelled	-
21	Provide an accurate, as-built model.	[28]	Combined	-
22	Better data integration for the management team.	[17,50]	Combined	-
23	Allow O&M review during the project design stage to make sure all the O&M objectives and standards are being fulfilled.	[48,52]	Cancelled	-
24	With the aid of sensors, real-time conditions of the facility’s system can be integrated and shown graphically.	[18,26,33,48,58]	Combined	-
25	Enhance rehabilitation and conservation process of an existing structure/heritage assets.	[39,59,60]	Cancelled	-
26	Implementation of BIM to the ageing structure.	[60]	Cancelled	-
27	Digitalize the data input process to improve the working efficiency.	[27,44,58,61]	Combined	-
28	Efficiently locating the components and equipment in the building for maintenance work.	[27,49]	Cancelled	-
29	Enhance a more efficient building information access.	[27,50,56,57]	Modified	Increase the efficiency of accessibility of the O&M personnel to the data.
30	Better visualisation of the energy consumption of a building during the operational phase.	[8,25,27]	Modified	Compare the actual performance with the desired design performance of the overall operation and management system.
Organisational Drivers
31	Ease the decision-making process.	[8,18,43]	Combined	-
32	Minimize human error during data transfer such the as duplication of information.	[11,40,44]	Combined	-
33	Improve the communication between different parties.	[15,24,45,47,48,61]	Combined	-
34	Reduce the need for human labour and time.	[15,30]	Modified	Reduce the reliability of human labour.
35	Allow better handover patterns from the construction phase to the operation and maintenance phase with minimum information loss.	[15,49,62]	Remained	-
36	User-friendly interface.	[33]	Cancelled	-
37	Act as a reminder for the O&M personnel about the location and procedure to run routine maintenance.	[23,33,55]	Cancelled	-
38	Increase the chance of the team making the right decision by providing a better information interchange and visualisation aid.	[5,23,24,36,56]	Modified	Ease the decisino-making process throughout the O&M phase.
39	Enhance the planning work during the O&M phase.	[5,23,48,63]	Modified	Enhance the O&M future design.
40	Cost reduction during the operation and maintenance phase.	[11,18,27,43,44,61]	Modified	Reduce the overall O&M phase cost in the long term.
41	Enhance collaboration between all O&M personnel with the synchronisation of database information update.	[33,50]	Modified	Provide an information-sharing platform that enhances collaboration and communication between all the stakeholders.
Legal and Contractual Drivers
42	International standards started to emphasize BIM application.	[32]	Remained	-
43	Legal regulation set by foreign countries.	[15,27]	Remained	-

.

3. Methodology

The following study examines the Malaysian construction industry’s use of BIM technology during the operation and maintenance phase of construction projects. According to Figure 1, the study was carried out in three stages at various times in Malaysia. In order to better comprehend BIM technology and its current adaptation in the research and O&M phase of the construction business, a literature review was performed as part of the first phase of the research. To gauge how experts in the Malaysian construction industry perceive the use of BIM technology throughout the O&M phase, assessment questions were prepared based on the literature review. The elements affecting the adoption of BIM technology during the operation and maintenance phase in the construction sector were also highlighted. The questionnaire was created in the following phase, and it was modified to make it more applicable to local circumstances through the use of a semi-structured interview. The level of the respondents’ comprehension of the questionnaire was then assessed by a pilot survey. In the third stage, the data were finally descriptively analysed using the Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) software. Upon obtaining the responses, a conceptual framework was constructed by considering the top-ranked factors that play a substantial role in the acceptance of the O&M phase.

3.1. Semi-Structured Interview Development

A semi-structured interview was conducted with 10 to 15 experts to modify the draft questionnaire. The researcher asked open-ended questions by following a list of questions that were prepared before the interview. All the questions allowed the researcher to achieve a clear understanding of the significance of each point that was outlined in the draft questionnaire. The modification, addition, and cancellation of points inside the draft questionnaire were performed after the semi-structured interview to make the questionnaire fit into the local condition and therefore relate better to the research topic.

3.2. Pilot Survey

A pilot survey was carried out by the researcher to test the questionnaire among a small sample size to be compared with the actual target audience. By conducting a pilot survey, predictions can be made regarding the response patterns of the individuals and changes can be made to the questionnaire to achieve the desired result [64]. A limited sample of 20 questionnaires was given out during the pilot phase to see if the respondents were aware of the questionnaire’s purpose. Following the results of a successful pilot study, a large-scale distribution was conducted.

3.3. Questionnaire Development

To assess the variables influencing the application of BIM technology in construction projects during the O&M phase, a questionnaire was developed. Three sections made up the built questionnaire. The questionnaire’s first section sought general information about the staff. Twelve questions about the challenges facing the deployment of BIM technology in the construction industry’s O&M phase made up the second section. The third section also included the factors that may encourage the adoption of BIM technology throughout the operation and maintenance phase in the construction sector. A Likert scale with five possible responses—strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, and strongly disagree—was employed.

3.4. Target Population and Sample Size

To correspond with the objective of the study, the target population in this research included academic researchers with BIM experience, industry personnel with BIM knowledge, and O&M personnel from the Malaysian construction industry. To achieve a better result, the sample size of this study was determined before the main survey. Equation (1), below, uses Andrew Fisher’s method for the unknown population to estimate the sample size for the current investigation.

$$\mathrm{Sample} \mathrm{size}=\frac{{\left(\mathrm{Z}\text{-}\mathrm{score}\right)}^2\times \mathrm{StdDev}\times \left(1-\mathrm{StdDev}\right)}{{\left(\mathrm{Confidence} \mathrm{interval}\right)}^2}$$

(1)

The “Z-score”, which is also known as the “standard score”, indicates the confidence level of the survey. The confidence level is a measure of the degree of opportunities in which the confidence interval contains the real population parameters when a random sample is chosen several times. A Z-score shows the location of a raw score or a percentage of confidence level in any number of standard deviations below or above the population means. In this study, the confidence level was 90% because the overall amount of the target population was unknown, therefore reducing the confidence level. The Z-score for 90% is 1.65, and the standard deviation (StdDev) is 0.5. Moreover, the confidence interval indicates a margin of error of 5%.

The “Z-score,” usually referred to as the “standard score,” represents the survey’s level of confidence. The confidence level is a measurement of the likelihood that after multiple random sample selections, the confidence interval will contain the true population value. Any number of standard deviations below or above the population averages is indicated by a Z-score, which also displays the position of a raw score or a percentage of confidence level. As it was unknown how many people in the target population there were overall, the study’s confidence level was 90%. A 90% confidence level has a Z-score of 1.65 and a standard deviation of 0.5. Additionally, the confidence interval shows a 5% margin of error. The Andrew Fisher formula was used to determine a sample size of 273. The questionnaires were circulated on a wider scale than the sample size in order to further improve the accuracy of the outcome.

3.5. Data Analysis

It was important to carry out a data analysis after the feedback was received from the questionnaire. Hence, a few data analysis tests were carried out such as a reliability test, validity test, correlation test, and the relative importance index method. In addition, the Statistical Packages for Social Science (SPSS) software was adapted to complete these data analysis procedures.

3.5.1. Reliability Test

Cronbach’s alpha, which is one of the most widely used measures of reliability in the social and organizational sciences, was implemented in this research. This method was employed to determine the reliability of the result [65]. Cronbach’s alpha outputs a certain value which indicates a different level of the reliability of the result. A value of 0.9 indicates a high level of reliability, 0.7 to 0.9 is considered reliable, 0.5 to 0.7 is a little reliable, and 0.5 and below is considered a poor level of reliability.

3.5.2. Validity Test

A validity test was performed to determine the level of accuracy of the method implemented. Research with high validity is able to produce a result with high reliability [65]. In this research, the validity of the questionnaire used was tested, and this validity can be separated into face validity, statistical internal validity, and statistical structural validity.

Face Validity

Face validity is crucial as it is a simple preliminary step to measure the overall validity of a research methodology. This type of validity is concerned with the degree to which a technique appears and is perceived to cover the idea that is supposed to measure. The measure used is being tested to show that it seems relevant and appropriate for what it is assessing on the surface.

Statistical Internal Validity

Internal validity is defined as the extent to which the observed results represent the truth in the target population that is aimed to be studied and are therefore not due to methodological errors. The internal validity of a study can be affected by many factors, including errors in measurement or in the selection of respondents in the study. These factors should be investigated to eliminate errors.

Statistical Structural Validity

Structural validity is defined as the degree to which the results of the methodology are an adequate reflection of the dimensionality of the construct being measured. The output variance will indicate the degree of validity of the technique used, in which variance greater than 50% shows a methodology with good validity.

3.5.3. Correlation Test

Correlation tests in research allow for the measurement of the strength of the linear relationship between two variables and compute their association. A high correlation between variables can prove a strong relationship between the two variables, while a low correlation indicates that the variables are weakly related [66].

3.5.4. Relative Importance Index (RII)

The relative importance index (RII) shows the mean for a factor, indicating its weight according to the perceptions of the respondents. The RII was calculated using the equation below for each stated factor to rate their importance based on the feedback that was obtained from the respondents. The higher the RII value, the more important the factor. The factor with the highest weight has RII = 1, while the next factor with a lower weight has RII = 2, and so on. Equation (2), below, shows the formula used to determine the relative importance index in this study.

$$\mathrm{Relative} \mathrm{Importance} \mathrm{Index} \left(\mathrm{RII}\right)=\frac{\sum \mathrm{W}}{\left(\mathrm{A}\times \mathrm{N}\right)}$$

(2)

where W = weight of each factor; A = height weight of factor; and N = sum of respondents. RII is preferable for ranking the factors because it easily prioritizes each factor.

4. Results and Discussion

According to the response received from the distribution of the questionnaire, analysis and evaluation were performed to investigate this project’s findings. The findings from the respondents of this project were separated into several sections to achieve a more detailed evaluation and to ease the construction of the framework for the application of BIM in the O&M phase. These sections include general information about the respondents, the barriers to the application of BIM in the O&M phase, drivers of the application of BIM in the O&M phase, and contributions towards the application of BIM in the O&M phase.

4.1. General Information of the Respondents

Based on the results shown in

Table 3. Research demographic.

General Information	Number	Percentage
Education Levels
Bachelor’s Degree (BSc)	299	99.0
Master’s Degree (MSc)	3	1.0
Doctorate Degree (PhD)	0	0.0
Career Position
Project Manager	0
Site Engineer	210	69.5
Office Engineer	86	28.5
Academic Researchers	2	0.7
Others	7	1.3
Years of experience
Less than 5	233	77.2
From 5 to less than 10	65	21.5
From 10 to less than 15	3	1.0
15 or more	1	0.3
Institution Types
Contractor Company	218	72.2
Consultant Company	80	26.5
Academic Institution	4	1.3
Institution’s years of experience in the construction industry
Less than 10	9	3.0
From 10 to less than 20	0	0.0
From 20 to less than 30	2	0.7
More than 30	291	96.4
Institution size (number of employees)
Less than 10	0	0.0
From 10 to less than 20	1	0.3
From 20 to less than 50	0	0.0
More than 50	301	99.7
Number of BIM engineers in the company
Less than 5	1	0.3
From 5 to 10	0	0.0
From 11 to 15	3	1.0
More than 15	298	98.7

, the majority of respondents held a Bachelor’s degree (99%), and 69.5% of them worked in the industry as site engineers. Only 22.8% of the respondents had 5 years or more of experience. Most of the respondents worked at a contractor company (72.2%). According to the responses, the majority of the respondent’s companies had more than 30 years of experience in the construction industry (96.4%), with many employees greater than 50 years of age (99.7%). Most importantly, most of these companies were familiar with the usage of BIM technology, with 98.7% of the companies having more than 15 BIM engineers working at the time of the study.

4.2. Reliability Analysis

According to the reliability test carried out using the SPSS software, the Cronbach’s alpha value obtained was 0.866, falling under the range of 0.7 to 0.9. This indicates that the result obtained from the questionnaire distribution is considered reliable. The resulting output from the software is shown below in

Table 4. Reliability analysis outcome.

Case Processing Summary
		N	%
Cases	Valid	302	100.0
	Excluded	0	0
	Total	302	100.0
Cronbach’s Alpha		0.866
No. of Item		302
a. Listwise deletion is based on all variables in the procedure.

Note: N = Number of respondents.

.

4.3. Barriers to the Application of BIM in Operation and Maintenance Phase Analysis

4.3.1. Technical Barriers

Table 5. Structure of technical barriers.

No	Item	Correlation Coefficient	p-Value
1	The high complexity of the facility information in BIM software.	0.670	0.000
2	Most of the existing technologies are unable to satisfy the integration and interoperability requirements between different software under the BIM application.	0.535	0.000

shows the structure of the technical barriers. For the first technical barrier, “High complexity of the facility information in BIM software due to the highly specific and distinct O&M-related data”, a p-value of 0.000 was obtained, which shows that this driver is statistically significant. This shows that the high complexity of the facility information in BIM software due to the specific and distinct O&M-related data is a significant barrier that prevents the industrial individual to start practising the implementation of BIM technology in the O&M phase. The following technical barrier, “Most of the existing technologies are unable to satisfy the integration and interoperability requirements between different software under the BIM application”, also obtained a p-value of 0.000, showing that it is a significant barrier. Therefore, it was proven that the local industrial individual still thinks that the existing technologies used in the O&M phase are incompatible with each other under the BIM applications. Additionally, all the technical barriers had a correlation coefficient greater than 0.00, indicating that these barriers are positively correlated with each other. The organisational barrier with the highest correlation coefficient was the “High complexity of the facility information in BIM software due to the highly specific and distinct O&M-related data.” with a correlation coefficient of 0.670.

4.3.2. Organisational Barriers

Table 6. Structure of organisational barriers.

No	Item	Correlation Coefficient	p-Value
1	Technical expertise is required for the BIM model’s regular update and maintenance, which require high costs and are hard to be employed locally.	0.615	0.000
2	Rigid industry culture which refuses to accept the implementation of new technology.	0.629	0.000
3	Lack of clarity regarding the overall BIM management system, KPIs, and benchmark figures.	0.585	0.000
4	Unclear workflow for BIM application within an organisation during the operation and maintenance phase.	0.327	0.000
5	Lack of learning materials and equipment prepared by the academic institutions.	0.765	0.000
6	Insufficient research and articles were provided to investigate the BIM technology adoption in the O&M phase.	0.459	0.000
7	Lack of real-world practice to act as evidence for the positive return by practising BIM during the operational and maintenance phase.	0.081	0.158
8	Diverse operation and maintenance workflow implemented by different organisations.	0.086	0.136
9	High cost of investment to fully implement BIM software into the operation and maintenance phase.	0.747	0.000

shows the structure of organisational barriers. Regarding the organisational barriers, seven barriers obtained a p-value of 0.000, which were “Technical expertise is required for the BIM model regular update and maintenance which required high cost and hard to be employed locally”, “Rigid industry culture which refuses to accept the implementation of new technology”, “Lack of clarity regarding the overall BIM management system, KPIs and benchmark figures”, “Unclear workflow for BIM applications within an organisation during the operation and maintenance phase”, “Lack of learning materials and equipment prepared by the academic institutions in preparing more engineers with BIM knowledge for the future”, “Insufficient research and articles made to investigate the BIM technology adoption in the O&M phase”, and “High cost of investment to fully implement BIM software into the operation and maintenance phase”. This shows that these barriers are valid and statistically significant. On the other hand, two of the organisational barriers showed different traits and had a p-value greater than 0.05. These were “Lack of real-world practice to act as evidence for the positive return by practising BIM during the operational and maintenance phase” and “Diverse operation and maintenance workflow implemented by a different organisation”. This shows that the lack of real-world practice and the differences in work procedures among the O&M organisations have been preventing the O&M industry from implementing BIM technology to a moderate degree. Furthermore, all the organisational barriers had a correlation coefficient greater than 0.00, indicating that these barriers are positively correlated with each other. The organisational barrier with the strongest correlation was the “Lack of learning materials and equipment prepared by the academic institutions”, with a correlation coefficient of 0.765.

4.3.3. Legal and Contractual Barriers

Table 7. Structure of legal and contractual barriers.

No	Item	Correlation Coefficient	p-Value
1	Lack of contractual and legal framework for the implementation of BIM application in the industry.	0.313	0.000
2	Hard to distinguish BIM data ownership from a project team that involves different parties.	0.547	0.000
3	Lack of cyber security maturity for the project data to be stored digitally.	0.545	0.000
4	Unclear determination of copyright regarding BIM data.	0.467	0.000

shows the structure of legal and contractual barriers. It can be seen that all of the legal and contractual barriers obtained a p-value of 0.000, which is less than 0.05. This proves that all the listed legal and contractual barriers are statistically significant and greatly impact the implementation of BIM technology during the O&M phase of a construction project. Moreover, all the legal and contractual barriers had a correlation coefficient greater than 0.00, indicating that these barriers are positively correlated with each other.

4.3.4. Barrier RII Rankings

Table 8. Barrier RII rankings.

No	Item	RII (%)	Rank
1	The high complexity of the facility information in BIM software.	84.04	13
2	Most of the existing technologies are unable to satisfy the integration and interoperability requirements between different software under the BIM application.	84.64	10
3	Technical expertise is required for the BIM model’s regular update and maintenance which require high costs and are hard to employ locally.	81.92	15
4	A rigid industry culture which refuses to accept the implementation of new technology.	86.49	7
5	Lack of clarity regarding the overall BIM management system, KPIs, and benchmark figures.	91.46	2
6	Unclear workflow for the BIM application within an organisation during the operation and maintenance phase.	89.01	5
7	Lack of learning materials and equipment prepared by the academic institutions.	93.38	1
8	Insufficient research and articles were provided to investigate the BIM technology adoption in the O&M phase.	85.70	9
9	Lack of real-world practice to act as evidence for the positive return by practising BIM during the operational and maintenance phase.	83.64	14
10	Diverse operation and maintenance workflow implemented by different organisations.	84.64	10
11	High cost of investment to fully implement BIM software in the operation and maintenance phase.	84.50	12
12	Lack of contractual and legal framework for the implementation of BIM application in the industry.	89.14	4
13	Hard to distinguish BIM data ownership from a project team that involves different parties.	86.42	8
14	Lack of cyber security maturity for the project data to be stored digitally.	88.81	6
15	Unclear determination of copyright regarding BIM data.	89.40	3

shows the barrier rankings based on RII. In the group of barriers, a total of 15 barriers were listed in the case study. Through the result analysis, the most significant barrier that effects the implementation of BIM technology in the O&M phase of a construction project was the “Lack of learning materials and equipment prepared by the academic institutions in preparing more engineers with BIM knowledge for the future”. This barrier was selected as the higher education institutions in Malaysia are yet to be equipped with the latest BIM technology learning system, indirectly causing a barrier for the O&M industry to implement BIM technology. The next following barriers that ranked at two and three were a “Lack of clarity regarding the overall BIM management system, KPIs and benchmark figures” and an “Unclear determination of copyright regarding BIM data”. With the ranking of all the studied barriers, plans and a research focus for the future can be set to overcome these barriers so that the utilisation rate of BIM technology during the O&M phase can be increased.

4.4. Drivers of BIM Application in Operation and Maintenance Phase Analysis

4.4.1. Technical Drivers

Table 9. Structure of Technical Drivers.

No	Item	Correlation Coefficient	p-Value
1	Create a database for all the crucial O&M information for the O&M stage of the facility throughout its life cycle.	0.333	0.000
2	Allow the O&M personnel to have a better analysis of issues during the O&M phase.	0.275	0.000
3	Digitalise all the construction information and data.	0.178	0.002
4	Able to capture instant phenomena and data in the building using liable sensors or techniques.	0.394	0.000
5	Assist the emergency response team in locating and discovering potential hazards through its graphical interface.	0.582	0.000
6	Able to produce high accuracy and visualisable data for all the O&M personnel.	0.429	0.000
7	Increase the efficiency of accessibility of the O&M personnel to the data.	0.098	0.090
8	Compare the actual performance with the desired design performance of the overall operation and management system.	0.482	0.000

shows the structure of the technical drivers. Seven technical drivers obtained a p-value of less than 0.050, which were “Create a database for all the crucial O&M information for the O&M stage of the facility throughout its lifecycle”, “Allow the O&M personnel to have a better analysis towards the issues during the O&M phase”, “Digitalise all the construction information and data”, “Able to capture instant phenomena and data in the building by liable sensors or techniques”, “Assist the emergency response team in locating and discovering potential hazards through its graphical interface”, “Able to produce high accuracy and visualisable data for all the O&M personnel”, and “Compare the actual performance with the desired design performance of the overall operation and management system”. This shows that all these seven technical drivers were statistically significant. On the other hand, only one technical driver showed different traits with a p-value of greater than 0.05, which was “Increase the efficiency of accessibility of the O&M personnel to the data” with a p-value of 0.09. This shows that most of the industrial personnel think that BIM technology increases the efficiency of accessibility to the O&M data to a moderate degree. All the technical drivers also had a correlation coefficient greater than 0.00, indicating that all the drivers are positively correlated with each other. The driver “Assist the emergency response team in locating and discovering potential hazards through its graphical interface” obtained the highest correlation coefficient of 0.582.

4.4.2. Organisational Drivers

Table 10. Structure of Organisational Drivers.

No	Item	Correlation Coefficient	p-Value
1	Improve the effectiveness of the handover pattern from the construction phase to the O&M phase.	0.297	0.000
2	Ease the decision-making process throughout the O&M phase.	0.195	0.001
3	Enhance better O&M future design.	0.229	0.000
4	Provide an information-sharing platform that enhances collaboration and communication between all the stakeholders.	0.264	0.000
5	Reduce the reliance on human labour.	0.697	0.000
6	Reduce the overall O&M phase cost in the long term.	0.371	0.000

shows the structure of the organisational drivers. It can be seen that all the organisational drivers obtained a p-value of 0.000, which is less than 0.05. This proves that all the listed organisational drivers are statistically significant and can encourage the implementation of BIM technology during the O&M phase of a construction project. All the organisational drivers also had a correlation coefficient greater than 0.00, indicating that all the drivers are positively correlated with each other. The driver “Reduce the reliability towards human labour.” obtained the highest correlation coefficient of 0.697.

4.4.3. Legal and Contractual Drivers

Table 11. Structure of Legal and Contractual Drivers.

No	Item	Correlation Coefficient	p-Value
1	International standards started to emphasize the BIM application	0.417	0.000
2	Legal regulation set by foreign countries	0.518	0.000

shows the structure of legal and contractual drivers. According to the output of the SPSS software, all the legal and contractual drivers obtained a p-value of 0.000, which is less than 0.05. This proves that all the listed legal and contractual drivers are statistically significant and have a positive impact on the implementation of BIM technology during the O&M phase in a construction project. Apart from that, all the legal and contractual drivers also had a correlation coefficient greater than 0.00 indicating that all the drivers are positively correlated with each other. The driver “Legal regulation set by foreign countries” obtained the highest correlation coefficient of 0.518.

4.4.4. Drivers’ RII Ranking

In the group of drivers, a total of 16 drivers were listed in the study, as shown in

Table 12. Drivers’ RII ranking.

No	Item	RII (%)	Rank
1	Create a database for all the crucial O&M information for the O&M stage of the facility throughout its life cycle.	87.22	12
2	Allow the O&M personnel to have a better analysis of the issues during the O&M phase.	89.93	6
3	Digitalise all the construction information and data.	88.54	11
4	Able to capture instant phenomena and data in the building using liable sensors or techniques.	89.47	9
5	Assist the emergency response team in locating and discovering potential hazards through its graphical interface.	85.89	15
6	Able to produce high-accuracy and visualisable data for all the O&M personnel.	89.93	6
7	Increase the efficiency of the accessibility of the O&M personnel to the data.	92.25	1
8	Compare the actual performance with the desired design performance of the overall operation and management system.	86.55	13
9	Improve the effectiveness of the handover pattern from the construction phase to the O&M phase.	90.79	4
10	Ease the decision-making process throughout the O&M phase.	90.86	3
11	Enhance the O&M future design.	91.39	2
12	Provide an information-sharing platform that enhances collaboration and communication between all the stakeholders.	90.07	5
13	Reduce the reliance on human labour.	84.39	16
14	Reduce the overall O&M phase cost in the long term.	86.36	14
15	International standards began to emphasize BIM application.	89.34	10
16	Legal regulation set by foreign countries.	89.67	8

. Through the result analysis, it can be seen that the most significant driver that can encourage the implementation of BIM technology in the O&M phase of a construction project was “Increase the efficiency of accessibility of the O&M personnel to the data”. The next following drivers, which ranked at two and three, were “Enhance better O&M future design” and “Ease the process of decision making throughout the O&M phase”. With the ranking of all studied drivers, the O&M personnel can have a clearer image of the main benefits that BIM technology can provide to the O&M industry. It also allows the researchers to focus on the less significant benefits to increase the practicability of these benefits so that BIM technology can be more well-rounded and appear as a great alternative for the O&M industry to carry out their work routine.

4.5. Critical Barriers Discussion

As shown in

Table 13. Top five significant barriers.

No	Item	RII (%)	Rank
1	Lack of learning materials and equipment prepared by the academic institutions.	93.38	1
2	Lack of clarity regarding the overall BIM management system, KPIs, and benchmark figures.	91.46	2
3	Unclear determination of copyright regarding BIM data.	89.40	3
4	Lack of contractual and legal framework for the implementation of BIM application in the industry.	89.14	4
5	Unclear workflow for BIM application within an organisation during the operation and maintenance phase.	89.01	5

, the critical barriers, which are the top five barriers in the RII ranking, were listed for analysis and discussion. The lack of learning materials and equipment prepared by academic institutions was found to be the most critical barrier to the implementation of BIM during the O&M phase of a construction project. This barrier was added to the research during the semi-structured interview in which one of the interviewees revealed that the primary problem that needs to be addressed to encourage the use of BIM technology is the lack of learning materials and equipment. BIM education should be implemented in all the high education institutions in Malaysia to prepare young talents for adapting to the transformation of industry [67]. Therefore, this result matches with the recent findings by Ibrahim, Esa [67], who also agreed on the lack of knowledge, skill, and training in BIM technology in Malaysia, which is believed to be the effect of a lack of learning materials and equipment prepared by academic institutions.

The next most significant barrier was the lack of clarity regarding the overall BIM management system, KPIs, and benchmark figures, which were ranked second. It is crucial to set the KPIs and benchmark figures before the full utilisation of the BIM management system during the O&M phase. This barrier ranked second as there was a limited case in which BIM technology was being implemented during the O&M phase. Therefore, there are no benchmark figures set by others specifically for BIM management systems; hence, most organisations choose to remain with the old working practice. Thus, to create a mature BIM management system, all of the BIM performance baselines and a history of critical services must be provided by authorities to support the implementation of BIM technology in the O&M phase [28]. This result is coherent with findings by other researchers such as Hoang, Vu [26]. In addition, Codinhoto and Kiviniemi [28] both stated that the lack of KPI and benchmark figures could cause misunderstandings within the O&M personnel while working with BIM applications.

Furthermore, the unclear determination of copyright regarding BIM data was ranked third among all the listed barriers. According to the responses, most of the industrial personnel showed concern towards the ownership issue with respect to the valuable information that is shared through BIM. The identification of BIM information ownership is hard to manage due to the high frequency of information exchange between different parties in a construction project [68]. This situation has been worse as there are no solid copyright laws that protect the data uploaded onto BIM. Hence, a major obstacle that needs to be overcome is to provide a set of rules and regulations that are capable of protecting the data and work information from any copyright issues. The result in which the unclear determination of copyright regarding BIM data ranked third was in agreement with the findings by Kassem, Kelly [13], who also found a lack of solutions for how to protect the BIM data from copyright issues.

The lack of a contractual and legal framework for the implementation of BIM applications in the industry is the next significant barrier, ranking fourth. This barrier correlates with the findings by Kassem, Kelly [13]. Currently, all the legal and contractual documents are handled and written in paper format [13]. The traditional method for contractual work remains due to other correlated barriers such as an unclear determination of copyright issues and a lack of cybersecurity protection, which ranked sixth. The immaturity of cybersecurity and the unclear data copyright figure prevents organisations from using BIM as a tool to process their contract documents. This barrier must be overcome with the establishment of a standard for a contractual and legal framework in BIM applications so that BIM can efficiently store all the important data and documents of a construction project throughout its life cycle.

Regarding the last point, the unclear workflow for BIM applications within an organisation during the operation and maintenance phase was ranked fifth by the respondents. With the implementation of BIM, new procedures, which the local industry is still unfamiliar with, must be practised by the employees. The unclear workflow includes the tasks that need to be completed, roles that need to be assigned, the function of each role, the time for the data to be shared through BIM, and the way of using BIM [17]. Aside from these issues, the barrier of “Diverse operation and maintenance workflow implemented by a different organisation” could also be related to this barrier. The difference in the O&M workflows implemented by different organisations has made this barrier harder to overcome as it is difficult to produce a standard workflow that fits into the work cultures of all organisations. This result agreed with the finding by Yalcinkaya and Singh [17], who stated that the process workflow for the BIM system to be implemented in the industry is still vague.

4.6. Critical Drivers Discussion

As shown in

Table 14. Top five significant drivers.

No	Item	RII (%)	Rank
1	Increase the efficiency of accessibility of the O&M personnel to the data.	92.25	1
2	Enhance the O&M future design.	91.39	2
3	Ease the decision-making process throughout the O&M phase.	90.86	3
4	Improve the effectiveness of the handover pattern from the construction phase to the O&M phase.	90.79	4
5	Provide an information-sharing platform.	90.07	5

, the top five critical drivers in the RII ranking were listed for analysis and discussion. Increasing the efficiency of the accessibility of the O&M personnel to the data was ranked first as the most significant driver of the implementation of BIM during the O&M phase in construction projects. This driver was ranked first by the respondents as the present speed of information sharing is increasing with commonly used mobile devices. Therefore, with the application of BIM, O&M personnel or clients can access the data anytime without time and location constraints. This driver allows the O&M industry to make a huge leap in their working efficiency as information access is inconvenient when all the data and information are stored as hard copy documents. The obtained result agrees with the findings of Shalabi and Turkan [50], who stated that BIM, which allows for the integration of data between various O&M software, can increase the accessibility of O&M personnel to the data just by using the BIM applications.

The driver that ranked second was the enhanced O&M future design. BIM technology allows the designers to create an O&M model before the project is constructed, allowing for changes to be made. This function allows the design team to have multiple trials before deciding on the best O&M design. The design team also can identify any error in the O&M model and find the desired solution to overcome it. Therefore, this driver was ranked second as it can save significant time and cost, allowing the team to allocate the extra cost and time to improve their work quality and efficiency. This result was expected as a large amount of past research demonstrated that BIM applications are capable of creating a better O&M design in terms of energy consumption, security, and many more factors. According to Xu and Mumford [48], BIM applications have proven their ability to track the energy consumption of a development, which can enhance the O&M design with respect to a minimum energy consumption.

Moreover, the ease of the decision-making process throughout the O&M phase was ranked third by the respondents among all the drivers of BIM implementation during the O&M phase in the construction project. Throughout the long period of the O&M phase, the O&M personnel face many situations in which correct decisions must be made to prevent any loss or wastage. BIM can produce reliable and accurate information about the facility, allowing the team to visualise and evaluate the respective facility [23]. Therefore, the correct decision for the maintenance schedule and frequency can be made by the team to ensure all the facilities and equipment work smoothly throughout their life cycle. This result agreed with Wang and Piao [56], who claimed that the application of BIM can enhance the efficiency of the O&M team in deciding work due to its ability to visualise the O&M facility with the integration of other technologies, such as augmented reality (AR). Therefore, there is no doubt that easing the process of decision-making is a significant driver that encourages the local O&M industry to utilise BIM applications.

Furthermore, the fourth significant driver of BIM implementation during the O&M phase in construction projects was to improve the effectiveness of the handover pattern from the construction phase to the O&M phase. Many documents and data during the handover phase have brought significant trouble to industrial organisations in which error and information loss can happen easily. Hence, it is believed that the respondents ranked this driver in the fourth position due to the convenience BIM could provide them. This statement was proven as the research showed that BIM can efficiently transfer all the information during the design and construction phase to the O&M stage, preventing any loss or duplication of documents [49].

Lastly, the fifth-ranked driver was providing an information-sharing platform that enhances collaboration and communication between all the stakeholders. Although this driver only ranked fifth, it is one of the most crucial drivers in this research. This organisational driver is correlated with a few technical drivers such as digitalising all the construction information and data and creating a database for all the crucial O&M information. The database created by BIM allows individuals to stay updated on all the latest revisions of O&M documents. Furthermore, the digitalisation of information allows the O&M personnel to keep track of the progress of the O&M activities, completely overcoming the difficulty associated with stakeholders’ different schedules and locations when communication between them is needed [50].

5. Contribution towards the Application of BIM in the Operation and Maintenance Phase via Conceptual Framework

This study aims to investigate the significant barriers and drivers of the application of BIM during the operation and maintenance phase. To achieve this aim, interviews and a case study were performed to evaluate the needs of the operation and maintenance construction industry for the BIM applications studies. According to the results obtained from the interviews and study, all the significant barriers and drivers were listed, and evaluations were performed in discussing the importance of these barriers and drivers. To conclude the overall findings of this study, a framework has been created. In the framework, the main three pillars of sustainability are included. These are environmental sustainability, economical sustainability, and social sustainability. Each driver or barrier related to a different form of sustainability is indicated by different colours, as shown in Figure 2.

According to the framework, most of the barriers to the application of BIM in the O&M phase are related to social sustainability. This result indicates that BIM technology has yet to reach the stage where the local industry can accept it as a user-friendly and mature system to be implemented during the O&M phase. Therefore, the focus in encouraging the local O&M industry to utilise BIM technology should fall on the right of the community to learn the ways of using BIM in a well-created environment for them to use BIM technology safely. The local higher education institution should prepare sufficient learning equipment with expert lecturers to teach the students relevant knowledge about using BIM and allow them to practice before entering the working environment.

Additionally, with respect to the benchmark of the BIM system and legal and contractual structures, the framework should also be defined well by the local government. It is important to set the legal framework and benchmark figures for the application of BIM in the O&M phase to create a safe and clear system that encourages all O&M companies to start using BIM. Only if these barriers, which are closely related to the rights and safety of the O&M community, are overcome can BIM technology can be accepted by the industry and help the industry further improve in the future.

Additionally, the research framework also shows that the drivers of BIM applications cover all of the three main pillars in which the overall working experience of the industry community can be upgraded to attain social sustainability. Moreover, the digitalisation of data allows for a reduction in the use of paper for documentation work. This can decrease the rate of deforestation for paper production and therefore achieve environmental sustainability. Lastly, with all the technical drivers that BIM applications offer, it is believed that the economic performance of the O&M industry can be increased due to the better design of the O&M system and the high working efficiency that BIM technology can bring to this field.

6. Conclusions

The aim of this study is to evaluate the factors that influence the implementation of BIM technology during the operation and maintenance phase of a construction project. The research began with a review of previous research papers on the implementation of BIM technology by other researchers. To meet the objectives, a questionnaire was developed based on a review of the literature, with a series of improvement procedures including a semi-structured interview with industrial experts and a pilot study prior to the main survey. Furthermore, Statistical Packages Social Science (SPSS) software was used to perform a set of data analysis procedures that included a reliability test, validity test, correlation test, and a relative importance index. Through the data analysis, the top-rank barriers and drivers were obtained and are shown in a conceptual framework. The top five barriers were a lack of learning materials and equipment prepared by academic institutions; clarity regarding the overall BIM management system, KPIs, and benchmark figures; an unclear determination of copyright regarding BIM data; a lack of contractual and legal framework for the implementation of BIM applications in the industry; and an unclear workflow for the application of BIM within an organisation during the operation and maintenance phase. On the other hand, the top five significant drivers were increasing the efficiency of accessibility of the O&M personnel to the data; enhancing the future design of O&M; easing the decision-making process throughout the O&M phase; improving the effectiveness of the handover pattern from the construction phase to the O&M phase; and providing an information-sharing platform. The developed framework will help the construction industry stakeholders to improve the O&M phase through its adoption. The study can be further extended to a wider range of construction projects, such as bridge construction projects or dam construction projects, where comparisons can be made regarding the barriers and drivers for the implementation of BIM.