The Australian Construction Industry

Question:

Discuss about the Modeling and Construction Informatics.

The Australian Construction Industry evolved to be one of the major drivers of the country’s economic development. The industry is Australia’s third largest coming after the mining and finance industries respectively. As at the year 2015, the industry comprised of over 330,000 companies and employed more than a million people representing 9% of the country’s total workforce (Gerrard et al., 2010). The drastic growth of the industry is largely driven by a number of economic factors that range from income growth, population growth, technological development, industry activity, and commodity cycles. The widespread availability, location and price of resources, including building materials, building equipment and skilled labor are also factors that have contributed to the rapid growth of the industry (Acar et al., 2005). Another key factor that has contributed to the growth of the industry is the wide spread adoption of new revolutionary methods. These methods have been greatly promoted by the state government and positively accepted y the industry players.

According to a 2016 statistical report produced by the Performance of Construction Index (PCI), Australia’s construction industry has witnessed increased activity levels over the last four years. The report cites the adoption of new revolutionary construction methods as the primary drivers of construction activities in the country. One area of the construction industry which has faced significant growth due to adoption of revolutionary construction methods is the residential housing sector. According to 2015 report produced by the National Housing Supply Council, the country was facing a dwelling shortage of 328,000 in the year 2015 and the shortage was expected to grow to 640,200 by the year 2030. However due to the adoption of pre-fabrication construction methods, the cost and time associated with construction have been significantly decreased.

Through pre-fabrication constructors are able to simultaneously deliver multiple construction project elements thereby streamlining the construction schedule. The construction industry is also combining 3 D BIM with pre-fabrication to eliminate some of the potential problems in the construction face (Aranda-Mena, Crawford, Chevez, and  Froese 2009). Another new revolutionary construction method that is widely being adopted in Australia’s construction sector is 5D Macro-BIM. Through this method constructers are able to efficiently determine the cost and schedule of a construction thereby enabling for efficient delivery (Blayse, and Manley 2004). The country’s construction industry has also widely adopted 3D BIM for modeling purposes thereby providing for efficient design which helps prevent coordination challenges in the field.

Adoption of Revolutionary Construction Methods in the Construction Sector

The Australian government has played a significant role in promoting the adoption of new revolutionary construction methods in the country. The government has implemented policies to streamline the process of acquiring financing for pre-fabricated buildings. This has helped to reduce the challenges associated with the proliferation of pre-fabricated construction in the country. In an effort to drive investment in the construction industry, the government has established the Infrastructure Australia which is a body mandated to coordinate a national approach to the future infrastructure needs of the country. The body has also implemented a number of measures to promote the adoption of sustainable practice in the construction sector through the development of energy efficient green buildings.

 The industry has exhibited mixed response to the adoption of new revolutionary construction methods. Even though pre-fabricated construction practices have grown significantly, there is still considerable resistance from small and medium sized construction firms in the country who face difficulty circumnavigating the challenges associated with financing for this projects. However, organizations like the Australian Construction Association have positively received the new innovations in the construction sector. This is largely due to the fact that the new methods make the construction process safer, more competitive and more efficient thereby promoting the welfare of its members.

Approximately 98% 0f Construction businesses in Australia are categorized as Small and medium sized enterprises. However, the adoption of BIM is 20% lower among SME construction firms than it is among large construction firms. The Australian government has been in the forefront of promoting BIM adoption in the country due to the fact that through BIM implementation, in construction projects will help foster efficient exchange of data among individuals involved in a project thereby allowing for the establishment of proper procurement and logistic systems (Hossein et al., 2016).

In a 2012 study conducted by Newton and Chileshe, it was revealed that despite government efforts to promote the adaption of BIM among SME, one of the small and medium sized construction firms that generated less than $10 million utilized BIM (Hosseini et al., 2016). BIM adoption among SME’s remains low due to the numerous challenges facing it. One of the major factors inhibiting the widespread adoption of BIM is client demand. In a study conducted by the ACA, it was revealed that approximately 73% of SME construction firms that had a staff base of less than five have complained that there is no demand for BIM amongst their clients thereby making it an unnecessary expense (Hosseini et al., 2016).

Benefits of New Construction Methods

Another major driver of the poor adoption of BMI for SME construction firms is the cost associated with it. The firms argue that the transition to BIM would require them to invest significantly on employee training and the needed software. This makes it challenging for the companies to do so. The Australian construction industry is also faced with a fallacy that BIM is effective only when dealing with big projects (Gu, and London 2010). This fallacy has led to apathy on the side of SME construction firms with the regards to the adoption of BIM. The Australian government is keen to promote the adoption of SME and one way y which it is doing this is through education programs. The government seeks to educate SME on how they might take advantage of BIM to reduce their cost of conducting certain projects.

In a study investigating the current state of BIM adoption for Australian SME’s it was evident that 58% of all construction firms that qualified to be termed as SME’s did not use BIM in their business (McCuen 2016). The study also revealed that of those SME’s that had adopted BIM, 23.7% had only implemented Level 1, 8.1% had implemented Level 2 and 5.2% had implemented level 3. This report reveals that even though SME’s constitute 98% of construction firms in Australia, only 13% of them had experience with using level 1 BIM (McCuen 2016).

The result obtained from this study reflect those obtained by Rodgers et al. (2015)  in another study which demonstrated that 45% of SME’s had used BIM. However, another similar study conducted by Gerrard et al., (2010) revealed that only 25% of all SME’s in the country utilized BIM. Based on the discrepancies in these two studies, it is logical to conclude that the level of BIM adoption amongst SME’s is increasing steadily. The studies have also indicated that a major problem facing the widespread adoption of BIM within the SME construction sector in Australia is immaturity of the IM implementation. This is because only 5% of SME’s operating in the country has used level 3 while 8% have used Level 2 on their projects (Rodgers, Hosseini, Chileshe, and Rameezdeen 2015). These figures demonstrate that the implementation of an integrated BIM that has a level of cooperation that is satisfactory is quite a challenge for SME’s.

By comparing research findings from 6 years ago with those of know with regards to the adoption of BIM, it is evident that the usage of BIM among SME’s is increasing. It is also evident that the challenges that face the usage of BIM for SME’s remain the same. Most SME construction firms still believe that there is little to no client interest with regards to the use of BIM.

The Role of the Australian Government

The study also revealed that lack of technical expertise regarding the use of BIM is also another major challenge facing SME’s in the country (Abuelmaatti 2014). Most SME lack the resources to train or recruit individuals with specialized BIM skills and as a result they did not see the need of adopting it. In reviewing the challenges faced with BIM adoption, it was evident that most of the challenges stemmed from the fact that there was no clear evidence showcasing the benefits of BIM for small and medium sized businesses. The absences of sufficient proof regarding the benefits of BIM in small projects have made SME’s to consider the innovation too risky to adopt (Sharafutdinova,  2015).

Conclusion

From the arguments provided above it is evident that the Australian Construction Sector is largely driven by services provided by SME’s. The SME’s deal primarily in minor projects and as a result of this they view BIM to be a risk. However, the recent increase in uptake of technological innovations within the Australian construction sector and the increase in demand for housing in Australia are expected to lead to a rise in the number of SME’s that will adopt BIM. It is also recommended that the government and other institutions within the Australian construction programs should implement strategies that make it easier for SME’s operating in the country to adopt the BIM system and as a result increase efficiency of the country’s construction industry.

Hosseini, M.R., Banihashemi, S., Chileshe, N., Namzadi, M.O., Udaeja, C., Rameezdeen, R. and McCuen, T., 2016. BIM adoption within Australian Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs): an innovation diffusion model. Construction Economics and Building, 16(3), pp.71-86.

Acar, E., Kocak, I., Sey, Y. and Arditi, D., 2005. Use of information and communication technologies by small and medium?sized enterprises (SMEs) in building construction. Construction Management and Economics, 23(7), pp.713-722.

Gerrard, A., Zuo, J., Zillante, G. and Skitmore, M., 2010. Building information modeling in the Australian architecture engineering and construction industry. In Handbook of Research on Building Information Modeling and Construction Informatics: Concepts and Technologies (pp. 521-545). IGI Global.

Aranda-Mena, G., Crawford, J., Chevez, A., and  Froese, T. 2009. Building information modelling demystified: does it make business sense to adopt BIM?. International Journal of managing projects in business, 2(3), 419-434.

Rodgers, C., Hosseini, M.R., Chileshe, N. and Rameezdeen, R., 2015. Building information modelling (BIM) within the Australian construction related small and medium sized enterprises: Awareness, practices and drivers. Management, 691, p.700.

Blayse, A.M. and Manley, K., 2004. Key influences on construction innovation. Construction innovation, 4(3), pp.143-154.

Gu, N. and London, K., 2010. Understanding and facilitating BIM adoption in the AEC industry. Automation in construction, 19(8), pp.988-999.

Sharafutdinova, A., 2015. BIM in practice.

Abuelmaatti, A., 2014. Collaborative technologies for small and medium-sized architecture, engineering and construction enterprises: implementation survey. Journal of Information Technology in Construction (ITcon), 19(12), pp.210-224.

Hosseini, M.R., Banihashemi, S., Chileshe, N., Namzadi, M.O., Udaeja, C., Rameezdeen, R. and McCuen, T., 2016. BIM adoption within Australian Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs): an innovation diffusion model. Construction Economics and Building, 16(3), pp.71-86.