BIM-CAREM: Assessing the BIM capabilities of design, construction and facilities management processes in the construction industry

BIM adoption has accelerated worldwide since it is an important enabling technology for digitalisation in the construction industry. Adopting BIM requires transforming the traditional building life cycle stages (planning, design, construction and facilities management) into BIM-integrated project deliveries. Assessing the BIM capabilities of these stages helps organisations to identify gaps in their BIM uses and improve them. There is a lack of a comprehensive model in the literature for assessing the BIM capabilities of individual building life cycle stages and their processes. Existing assessment models focus on assessing the BIM maturity of construction projects and organisations which do not inform the required BIM improvements for individual stages and their processes. Hence, we iteratively developed the Building Information Modelling (BIM) Capability Assessment REference Model (BIM-CAREM) and demonstrated its usability through multiple explanatory case studies performed with two international design and engineering companies and two general contractors in Turkey. We assessed the BIM capabilities of design, construction and facility management processes of various buildings i.e. residential, stadiums, hospitals and airports. The results showed that the BIM capability levels of design, construction and facility management processes vary within and across the companies.