1. Introduction
The construction sector in Saudi Arabia is growing swiftly to meet the increasing demand for projects under Vision 2030. For instance, Saudi Arabia has seen an unparalleled increase in building over the past 20 years, resulting in the fast expansion of the country’s infrastructure, including the emergence of new cities, transportation infrastructure, airports, highways, and other types of infrastructure. This expansion, in turn, has led to construction experts worldwide becoming involved in investment and sector development. However, project delay is still a significant challenge hindering the Saudi construction industry. Such a prevalent occurrence of delays, from the point of view of experts and academics, has negatively affected the construction industry [
1]. For example, Saudi University Campus construction projects (UCP) experienced delays ranging from 50% to 150%, with 99% overrunning anticipated costs in 2016 [
2].
Moreover, in 2019, 40% of Saudi public buildings were delayed [
3], and in the following year, 355 reported that educational projects were delayed [
4]. Furthermore, the Saudi Contractors Authority [
5] announced that construction firms were the businesses that most frequently claimed bankruptcy. These delays result in various issues, including increasing costs, litigation, conflicts, and project discontinuation. The adverse effects of the delays motivated the researchers to explore the root causes of the delays and the potential solutions. Since 1991, Saudi researchers have narrowed their focus to exploring the factors causing delays and the percentage of delays. Interestingly, within the traditional construction process, the literature revealed consistency in the construction project delay factors between the Saudi context and those of other countries [
1].
As a result of the current high delay occurrence, there is a need to use the new technology advantages in the construction industry. Globally, there is an increase in interest in fourth-generation technologies, the most significant of which is Building Information Modeling (BIM) in construction [
6]. BIM, a complete process that can improve every aspect of a project, is crucial in the building sector. BIM makes it feasible for design, construction, and engineering teams to employ digital technologies. It typically produces better results overall. In addition, BIM has enormous prospects concerning reducing the scheduled time. BIM boosts technological work during the planning phase by developing 3D models that cover every structural perspective and characterize the framework’s requirements competently. Planning assignments may also improve the models [
7,
8,
9]. Honnappa and Padala [
10] utilized BIM in examining delay when considering a change in management.
Notably, even with the wide diffusion of BIM technology and its benefits to project success, there is still a need for project owners, consultants, and contractors to understand how BIM will affect their projects. The lack of trust is one of the biggest obstacles to adopting BIM; the lack of trust extends to methods for project management, communication, and data sharing among team members [
11]. Farouk et al. [
11] stated that management, readiness, ability, cooperation, cognition, education, and administration establish confidence in BIM-based construction projects. Several studies examined the influences on BIM capabilities, which improved the utilization of BIM. For example, Rajabi et al. [
12] investigated crucial factors for evaluating organizational BIM capabilities in Malaysia and Iran. He stated that knowledge of BIM capabilities is needed for the construction industry to recognize the benefits of executing BIM. Rani et al. [
13], through an examination of government strategies, discussed the challenges that prevent the use of BIM in the Indonesian construction industry and presented several proposals.
One of BIM’s features in improving construction practice is dealing with the Common Data Environment (CDE). Reasonable and operative BIM and Historic Building Information Modeling (HBIM) projects are shared and managed through a CDE. A CDE is a digital medium or software that promotes project stakeholders’ cooperation, data sharing, and version control. Within a CDE, various BIM models, data, and documents related to the project are stored, collected, and made accessible to authorized users. This centralized repository ensures all project participants can access the most up-to-date information, reducing errors and enhancing coordination [
14,
15]. Therefore, sharing data for BIM stimulates its use more in Saudi Arabia.
On the other hand, the interdependencies of the factors that impact the BIM capabilities were examined using a Partial Least Square Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM) [
16] and System Dynamics (SD) [
17]. At the same time, Tu et al. [
18] evaluated the status of BIM performance in the building phase by studying the interactions among the factors that impact the BIM system using SD. Moreover, most BIM studies have focused on the challenges that hinder BIM performance in such sectors. Moreover, some researchers found that these challenges included delay risk factors that hindered the BIM construction projects, such as ineffective planning and scheduling [
19]. This finding, in turn, led to the question: What is the association between the BIM implementation and the construction project delay factors? According to BIM studies, e.g., [
10,
20,
21,
22], it is generally known that BIM implementation contributes to a reduction in construction project delays. Some studies revealed that the delay reduction rate percentages reached savings of 5% to 10% [
23]. Nur Sholeh et al. [
24] stated that BIM led to a reduction in planning time of 50%, and in some studies, it reached up to 50%. Accordingly, this study intends to raise users’ awareness of using BIM by calculating the effect of BIM on Saudi building project delays. Additionally, with limited formal studies investigating BIM impact using advanced techniques like SD, this study seeks to convince industry practitioners to use BIM globally by highlighting its advantages.
The few studies performed either focused on one risk factor, such as ineffective scheduling and planning [
19], or the percentage of the influence of BIM on delay factors; this was based on the respondents’ perceptions as derived from surveys, such as in [
19,
25] or interviews, such as in [
24] not from a modeling method. Additionally, no studies have attempted to quantify the interdependency of the risk variables linked to building project delays and how utilizing BIM impacts them.
This study intends to assess how BIM adoption affects the risk factors linked to building project delays in the Saudi construction industry. Therefore, several steps are proposed, including the following: (1) a survey of the previous studies to define the most crucial impacts linked to construction project delays; (2) the development of survey questions based on the identified risk factors to be empirically tested among BIM specialists to evaluate the influence of BIM on those risks; (3) the development of an SD model to analyze the BIM influences on such delay factors using actual case study data. This study aims to expand the body of knowledge by determining the degree to which the ten key risk factors linked to project delays in the construction industry were mitigated by using BIM technology. The study aims to improve the performance of construction projects by identifying the decrease in delays brought on by using BIM.
5. Discussion
On-time delivery remains a major challenge threatening the construction project sector due to its adverse impacts on increasing project costs. This paper aimed to measure the BIM impact that could affect Saudi construction building project delays. Quantitative research was applied using surveyed questionnaires collected from 59 project participants involved in BIM construction projects. These factors were ranked based on their RII index and examined in the SD model.
The key findings demonstrated a relationship between the usage of BIM and the decline in construction building project delays. This result aligns with other studies worldwide, such as in Indonesia’s construction industry and the industries of India, the UK, and others. This research showed that the average reduction in project delays caused by BIM use compared to projects without BIM was 14.47%. This result is consistent with previous studies on reducing project delays by 5 to 10% [
23] and 50% [
24]. The findings also showed that the delay factor with the maximum BIM influence was poor site management and supervision by contractors (F7), as shown in
Table 5. The work of subcontractors or suppliers (F9) and ineffective scheduling and planning by the contractor (F5) are the second and third largest project delay factors affected by BIM, respectively. As shown in
Table 5, BIM can reduce these factors by 16.83% and 16.36%, respectively. However, the minimum reduction rate of the BIM impact of 11.67% was due to the lack of contractor experience and managerial skills.
Regarding poor site management and supervision by contractors (F7), the study demonstrated that BIM reduced the delay factor impact by 17.56%. This reduction is because the BIM improved the contractor’s leadership skills by enhancing the exchange and sharing of information among the project parties. This enhancement improved the contractor’s ability to communicate and coordinate visually among the stakeholders. Additionally, it supports contractors in managing site logistics and monitoring construction progress [
57]. Moreover, the significant features of BIM were the digitalizing and visualizing of the project data in 3D, the detection of clashes, and the synchronizing of the changes instantly among project parties. These features, in turn, improved contractor performance in managing and supervising projects.
Regarding delays in subcontractors’ work or suppliers (F9), the results showed that BIM reduced the impact of the delay factor by 16.83%. This reduction is attributed to BIM enhancing understanding of the construction task sequence and the project timeline [
55], identifying the accurate bill of quantities required to construct a project and the time needed, enhancing synchronization of the procurement process with the design and construction phases [
55], noticing clashes in advance and addressing them before they become severe issues on the site, facilitating communication processes between suppliers and subcontractors, and estimating accurately the amount of materials required from suppliers based on the project planning and scheduling. In light of all the above features, BIM’s usage simplified the contractor’s collaboration with suppliers and subcontractors.
Regarding risk factors of ineffective scheduling and planning by the contractor (F5), the findings indicated that BIM reduced the delay influence by 16.36%. As it was ranked as the fifth delay factor in the Saudi construction project time [
31], the reduction that BIM made on such construction planning and scheduling is considered a positive sign of the influential role of BIM in reducing the impact of such factors on Saudi construction project time. This reduction is due to the 4D and 5D BIM advantages linked with the project data. For this reason, our results align with the body of research showing that BIM positively impacts construction project planning and scheduling [
19]. BIM adoption has fundamentally changed the planning and scheduling process in the construction industry since it can link project information with the planning stage [
19]. Previous studies have demonstrated that BIM adoption has provided a practice with several advantages. For example, the Common Data Environment (CDE) provides a secure platform for sharing BIM data, models, and documentation across the project group. It ensures all group members operate with precise and consistent data [
58]. The CDE stimulates data exchange between different software applications used in the BIM workflow. It sustains interoperability and information integration, allowing seamless contact between tools and systems.
Open-source BIM projects can play an essential role in facilitating the adoption of BIM [
59]. Therefore, this technique may encourage BIM adoption in Saudi Arabia’s construction industry. Moreover, open-source BIM projects guide BIM software or platforms that are freely available and permit users to access, change, and spread the source code [
60]. Open-source BIM software minimizes the need for expensive proprietary software licenses. This makes it more accessible and affordable for construction companies, especially smaller organizations, or those with finite budgets, to adopt BIM technology. In addition, open-source BIM projects provide the flexibility to customize and tailor the software according to specific industry requirements and local standards in Saudi Arabia. This flexibility allows for developing BIM tools that align with the country’s construction practices and regulations.
Contrary to expectations, the implementation of BIM did not have the maximum effect on the change order factor since one significant risk factor resulted in delays documented in the literature.
In terms of the contribution to knowledge, this study is the first attempt in the BIM literature to investigate the BIM impact on construction project delays by focusing on the top ten risk factors, with their interdependencies connected to project delays and cost overruns, not just delay causes. The delayed projects led to additional costs. Therefore, this paper contributes to clarifying the difference in the delay between BIM and non-BIM projects, enabling projects to be measured using the SD system.
Concerning the implications for the practices, including those of contractors and government authorizers, a clear conclusion was drawn from this study: BIM technology is the most proper construction management approach to level up the construction industry. In addition, such a study also provided an in-depth understanding of the benefits and challenges of BIM technology during the construction phase.
7. Conclusions
The importance of BIM studies in managing construction projects has recently increased. However, more work needs to be conducted to explain how using BIM affects building project delays. This study intended to assess how using BIM affects the risk factors for project delays in the Saudi construction industry. After a literature review, the methodology consisted of five steps to achieve the purpose. The first step was to design and implement the questionnaire to measure the degree of BIM impact on the top ten project-delay factors. Then, the questionnaire data were statistically analyzed to compute RII for each project delay factor with and without BIM influence. After that, the RDBIM values were computed based on the RII values. The RDBIM values were inserted into the modified SD model. The modified SD model was applied to the case study, and it determined the reduced project delay. The main findings revealed that BIM has a maximum and minimum impact on the project delay factors “poor site management and supervision by contractors, F7” and “payment delays by owners for completed works, F2”, with reduction percentages of 17.65% and 11.76%, respectively. In addition, BIM does not influence “Shortage of manpower, F6”. The percent reduction in project delay was 14.55%.
Moreover, BIM improved the performance of the construction task sequence and project timeline. Hence, BIM usage reduced the impact of the delay factor of “Delays in subcontractors’ work or by suppliers F9” by 16.83%. The relative weight of the delay factor of “ineffective scheduling and planning by the contractor, F5” was decreased by 16.36% because of using BIM in construction. The outcomes assist the decision-makers in comprehending the benefits of BIM adoption in the Saudi construction sector. The adoption of BIM in the construction industry may be accelerated with more research and using the lessons of the industrialized nations.