BQC 7004
ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR AND RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
SESSION 2024/2025
INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT
TITLE
Managing Organizational Change: The Integration of BIM in Facilities Management for Corporate-Owned Buildings
1: Introduction
Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a digital tool that enhances facilities management (FM) by creating comprehensive 3D models of buildings, capturing both physical and functional characteristics. BIM supports FM through improved data management and operational efficiency, helping reduce costs and improve building performance (Herbert et al., 2023). It also fosters better collaboration among stakeholders, such as architects, engineers, and contractors, by unifying project information, which minimizes errors and enhances decision-making. In facilities management, BIM allows for more efficient tracking, maintenance, and predictive reporting across a building's lifecycle (Mannino, Dejaco and Cecconi, 2021). Building maintenance management can be enhanced by integrating Building Information Modeling (BIM) with Facility Management (FM) and Building Performance Assessment (BPA). Through Performance Information Modeling (PIM), BIM provides a unified platform. to support data accessibility, condition monitoring and maintenance planning to demonstrate how BIM integration can improve decision making, visualize building performance and support preventive maintenance planning (Marmo et al., 2019). Ahuja, Sawhney and Arif (2018) explored how organizations can develop capabilities to achieve “lean” and “green” project outcomes in construction using Building Information Modeling (BIM). Through a hybrid approach, the technical and social skills required for successful BIM adoption enabled organizations to use BIM to improve efficiency, reduce waste, and promote sustainable development.
The purpose of this assignment is to study the process of integrating Building Information Modeling (BIM) into facilities management in a real-world corporate organization. This involves analyzing the organizational changes required to implement BIM effectively, focusing on the role of leadership, resource management and operational improvements that BIM can bring to corporate facilities management.
This paper critically analyses the organizational change processes required to integrate Building Information Modelling (BIM) into facility management for real-world corporate entities that own corporate buildings (e.g. banks, petroleum, telecommunications companies or conglomerates). It explores its impact on leadership, resource management and operations, demonstrating how BIM can transform. facility management practices. In addition, an artificial intelligence tool (ChatGPT) was used to assist in the completion of the first draft of the study. The use of AI is documented in detail, and critical reflection is given on how AI impacts the completion of this work.
2: Case Study: BIM Integration in Healthcare Facility Management at Shanghai Oriental Hospital
2.1. Organization Profile
The organization selected for this study is Shanghai Oriental Hospital in China, which focuses primarily on operating rooms, where environmental quality is critical for patient safety and operational efficiency. The facility management (FM) structure within this healthcare institution is complex, involving multiple systems to ensure smooth operations and compliance with strict health and safety regulations.
In this context, facility management requires a high level of focus on maintaining optimal environmental conditions, including air quality, temperature, and ventilation, especially in sensitive areas such as operating rooms. To meet these requirements, the organization’s FM department works with various external contractors for air quality control, HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) system inspections, and technical system maintenance. This multi-layered approach, while comprehensive, suffers from fragmented data flows, with relevant information spread across different platforms and departments. As a result, maintaining an up-to-date and holistic understanding of the facility’s operational status is challenging, leading to inefficient facility management and potential compliance risks.
The organization currently uses a BIM-integrated digital twin DT system for basic asset records, maintenance scheduling, and preventive care planning. However, the system largely operates in isolation, lacking integration with real-time environmental monitoring systems or spatial modeling tools to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the facility. This fragmentation results in significant delays in accessing and analyzing data, hindering proactive maintenance efforts that are critical in high-risk environments such as healthcare facilities.
2.2. Current Facility Management Practices
In its current state, facility management practices rely on a mix of digital and manual data management approaches across various departments. Key systems in use include:
Digital Twin System (DT): Manages maintenance records, work orders, and preventive maintenance schedules, supporting basic asset tracking.
Building Energy Management System (BEMS) and Building Automation System (BAS): These systems control and monitor building services, such as HVAC systems, but typically operate independently of each other.
Environmental Monitoring Tools: Separate tools monitor key environmental indicators, such as air quality and temperature, but data from these tools is not integrated into a central FM platform.
Document Management System (DMS): Manages facility-related documents, maintenance reports, and inspection records in a largely isolated manner.
Due to this decentralized setup, facility managers often struggle to access data because critical information is isolated in different systems and platforms. This silo impacts their ability to make fast and accurate decisions regarding preventative maintenance or operational adjustments. Additionally, limited visualization capabilities mean facility managers lack a spatial understanding of locations within the facility that require maintenance intervention, making it difficult to fully and timely resolve issues. The lack of a unified model also leads to gaps in maintenance documentation, which can cause critical information to be lost or inaccessible, especially in emergency or high-priority maintenance situations.
2.3. Integration Goals
To address these challenges, the healthcare organization has identified specific goals to integrate Building Information Modeling (BIM) with its facility management system. This integration is intended to achieve operational efficiencies, reduce costs, and improve decision-making, especially in sensitive areas such as operating rooms. The main goals of BIM integration are as follows:
1. Centralized Data Accessibility: BIM will serve as a unified platform. to centralize maintenance and environmental performance data, making it easily accessible to facility managers and other relevant stakeholders. This centralized approach will eliminate data silos that currently hinder efficient FM operations and improve response times for maintenance requests.
Enhanced Proactive Maintenance: The organization intends to implement a Performance Information Model (PIM) through BIM, enabling real-time monitoring and condition-based maintenance. This proactive approach will enable the FM team to predict problems before they become critical, thereby reducing downtime and preventing disruptions in sensitive environments such as operating rooms. By establishing performance baselines, facility managers can schedule maintenance based on equipment condition rather than fixed schedules that may not reflect actual needs.
2. Environmental Quality Monitoring and Compliance: In a healthcare environment, it is critical to maintain strict environmental standards in operating rooms. BIM models will include environmental monitoring parameters such as air quality, temperature, humidity, and ventilation rates. Using BIM to monitor these variables allows facility managers to more effectively comply with regulatory standards and make timely adjustments to maintain optimal patient care conditions.
3. KPI-driven maintenance assessment: One of the main goals of BIM integration is to establish key performance indicators (KPIs) that measure key aspects of facility performance. For example, in an operating room, KPIs may include air quality index, temperature stability, and equipment performance indicators. These KPIs provide real-time feedback on building conditions and trigger maintenance alerts when predefined thresholds are exceeded. By embedding KPIs directly into BIM models, facility managers can make data-driven decisions that improve operational efficiency and patient safety.
3: Organisational Change Management
3.1. Change Management Phase
Using Kotter’s 8-step process provides a structured framework for implementing BIM in facility management:
Create a sense of urgency: Emphasize the benefits that BIM brings to facility management, such as data accessibility, predictive maintenance, and cost savings, to create a sense of urgency to adopt BIM.
Form. a guiding coalition: Assemble a team that includes facility managers, IT experts, and executive sponsors to lead the BIM integration process.
Develop a vision and strategy: Define a clear vision for the role of BIM in FM and develop a strategic plan for phased implementation.
Communicate the vision: Share the BIM vision widely, using various channels to ensure all employees understand its benefits and goals.
Empower employees to take action: Provide facility managers and technical staff with the necessary resources and training to address initial technical challenges.
Create short-term wins: Demonstrate quick wins by implementing BIM in specific areas, such as preventive maintenance, to build momentum.
Consolidate results and generate more change: Expand the use of BIM to other facility management functions and iterate processes to improve practices.
Consolidating the new approach: Integrating BIM into standard FM procedures to ensure continued adoption and benefit realization.
3.2. Anticipated resistance
Technical barriers: Facility managers may be unfamiliar with BIM tools and perceive them as overly complex. Solution: Comprehensive training and hands-on workshops can ease the transition.
Cultural resistance: Employees accustomed to traditional workflows may resist the shift to a digitally integrated approach. Solution: Involving employees and providing clear benefits early in the implementation will help mitigate resistance.
Cost concerns: The initial investment in BIM software, hardware, and training may cause concern, especially if the short-term ROI is unclear. Solution: Provide a cost-benefit analysis that demonstrates the long-term savings BIM can provide.
Lack of customer demand: In the absence of customer requirements for BIM models, some organizations may believe that adoption is unnecessary. Solution: Emphasize the potential business development opportunities of BIM, especially if customer requirements grow over time.
3.3. Adjustments Needed
Workflow Changes: BIM enables a shift from reactive to proactive maintenance. Facility managers need to develop new processes for condition-based monitoring, preventive maintenance, and real-time data updates.
Enhanced Communication: BIM supports improved information flow between stakeholders, requiring teams to adapt to a more collaborative environment where data sharing and model accessibility are prioritized.
Resource Allocation: Additional resources are initially required for BIM training and software/hardware procurement. Subsequently, resources can be reallocated from reactive maintenance tasks to proactive and predictive tasks, reducing long-term operating costs.
4. Leadership and Team Dynamics in BIM Integration
4.1 Leadership Style.:
When integrating Building Information Modeling (BIM) into facility management, adaptive and transformational leadership styles are essential. Leaders must focus on fostering a culture of innovation and continuous learning, which is essential to adapting to technological change. Transformational leaders inspire teams by communicating a clear vision of BIM’s potential, emphasizing its long-term benefits such as increased efficiency, collaboration, and data-driven decision making. These leaders actively engage with stakeholders across departments, promote alignment with BIM goals, and encourage cross-functional support. They also establish open channels of communication to ensure transparency, resolve issues, and make the adoption process as seamless as possible.
4.2 Teamwork and Dynamics:
The adoption of BIM transforms traditional team structures into a collaborative, integrated model. Team members move from isolated, function-specific roles to interconnected ones, working closely across departments to maintain a shared data environment. In this model, effective teamwork becomes critical because BIM relies on real-time information sharing and coordination. Roles such as BIM coordinators and data stewards often emerge to ensure data accuracy and streamline communication, supporting facility management tasks and proactive maintenance. To foster effective teamwork, organizations should provide targeted training on BIM tools and software. This training can build team confidence and skills, make workflows more cohesive, and foster a collaborative atmosphere. Emphasizing shared goals, clear communication, and trust within the team is key, as these elements help teams adapt to the new dynamic and optimize the benefits of BIM.
5. Long-term benefits and challenges of BIM in facilities management
5.1 Expected advantages:
Integrating Building Information Modeling (BIM) into facilities management can deliver significant long-term benefits in terms of operational efficiency, cost reduction and sustainability. First, BIM improves operational efficiency by enabling streamlined real-time data sharing across departments, enhancing decision-making capabilities and reducing response times for maintenance and repairs. The centralized data repository provided by BIM minimizes information silos and enables proactive maintenance planning, preventing costly failures and reducing operational disruptions. To reduce costs, BIM enables condition-based maintenance rather than planned maintenance, thereby optimizing resource usage and reducing unnecessary expenditure on frequent or repetitive repairs. With accurate data about building components, teams can better allocate resources, track expenses and identify areas for operational savings.
In terms of sustainability, BIM enables the monitoring and optimization of building systems such as HVAC, lighting and energy management, thereby reducing energy consumption, lowering greenhouse gas emissions and improving overall environmental impact. BIM also supports green building practices, helping teams select environmentally friendly materials, track waste reduction efforts and make informed decisions about building retrofits that meet sustainability goals. BIM's data-rich environment helps make long-term environmental decisions that support an organization's sustainability goals.
5.2. Challenges:
Despite these benefits, BIM implementation still faces some challenges. Training needs are a major hurdle because successful BIM integration requires facility managers, technicians, and other stakeholders to be proficient in using BIM software and interpreting its data. This training can be time-consuming and costly, especially in organizations that have traditionally relied on non-digital methods. Additionally, resistance to change may arise if employees are ill-prepared or unaware of the benefits of BIM.
Technology costs are also a challenge, as the initial investment in BIM software, hardware and integration with existing systems can be significant. Smaller organizations or those with limited budgets may find these upfront costs to be prohibitive. Additionally, ongoing technical maintenance is essential to keep BIM systems updated, secure, and compatible with evolving facilities management needs. Organizations must allocate resources for regular software updates, data security and troubleshooting, which can put a strain on budgets and require dedicated IT support.
Finally, interoperability issues can arise when trying to integrate BIM with legacy systems. Without seamless integration, BIM's potential for data centralization and operational insights is limited, requiring organizations to proactively address compatibility issues. Balancing these challenges with significant long-term benefits is critical to maximizing the value of BIM in facilities management.
6: Role of AI in Research and Analysis
6.1 Use of AI:
In this study, AI tools facilitated rapid information gathering, summarizing content, and structuring sections of the analysis. Specific prompts were used to focus the AI output on relevant information. Examples include prompts such as “Summarize the benefits of BIM for facility management in terms of operational efficiency, cost savings, and sustainability” and “Explain effective leadership approaches to BIM integration using an adaptive or transformational style”. Each prompt generated focused responses that aligned with specific research objectives, making it easier to consolidate key points from lengthy documents and identify relevant topics for further analysis.
The AI responses had a significant impact on the research by providing a simplified way to extract information from complex texts, organize data into coherent sections, and maintain consistency across different parts of the assignment. The AI’s ability to summarize and rephrase complex concepts saved time and laid the foundation for deeper analysis and interpretation.
6.2 Reflections on AI:
The AI tool provided valuable insights and effectively supported the research process by simplifying information retrieval and helping to manage large amounts of content. This was particularly useful when processing multiple scholarly sources quickly, keeping the focus on synthesis and critical analysis rather than basic content extraction. However, challenges have arisen in ensuring that AI-generated summaries accurately capture subtle details and complex arguments, sometimes requiring manual adjustments to clarify or expand certain points.
The limitations of AI in academic research mainly lie in the lack of understanding of specific contexts and critical thinking. While AI can summarize and organize content, it cannot independently evaluate the validity of research or provide original insights, which are essential for rigorous academic analysis. Therefore, while AI has significantly improved efficiency and supported foundational work, its role in academic research remains supplementary. Users must conduct critical oversight, especially for in-depth analysis, to ensure that the output of AI meets the academic standards and objectives of the research.
7. Conclusion
This study explores how building information modeling (BIM) integration can enhance facility management (FM) in an enterprise setting. The organizational profile presents a healthcare case study that focuses on the need for advanced environmental controls and proactive maintenance. Currently, decentralized FM practices rely on siloed systems that create inefficiencies. Integration goals emphasize the use of BIM to centralize data, improve operational oversight, and support preventive maintenance, enabling facility managers to monitor key metrics such as air quality and energy usage, which are critical for high-risk environments.
The change management section covers organizational steps to adopt BIM, using models such as Kotter's 8-step process to manage the transition. It emphasizes the need to address expected resistance through early engagement and training, designed to overcome skepticism and prepare employees for a digital-first approach. Necessary adjustments include modifying workflows and establishing cross-functional communication to optimize resource allocation and collaborative problem solving.
In terms of leadership and team dynamics, effective BIM integration relies on adaptive and transformational leadership approaches that promote a culture of continuous learning and collaboration. Leaders promote cross-departmental communication, enabling teams to work seamlessly together in a shared BIM environment. Teamwork dynamics are evolving, with new roles for BIM coordinators and data stewards to maintain model accuracy and streamline data flows.
Long-term benefits and challenges summarize BIM’s impact on operational efficiency, cost savings, and sustainability. BIM’s centralized data model supports proactive, condition-based maintenance, reducing unnecessary expenses and improving asset lifespan. BIM’s capabilities in energy monitoring and resource optimization support sustainability initiatives. However, challenges include high technology costs and training requirements, and resistance to change poses a potential barrier to effective adoption.
The role of AI in research reflects how AI tools can support content extraction and synthesis. AI’s ability to generate summaries and structural insights improves research efficiency, but its limitations (e.g., lack of critical analysis) require oversight to ensure alignment with academic standards.
BIM has the potential to transform. enterprise facility management, shifting the paradigm from reactive to proactive maintenance through centralized data and real-time analytics. By facilitating seamless information sharing and improving resource allocation, BIM can not only optimize operational efficiency and cost savings, but also align with sustainability goals, helping enterprises reduce their environmental impact. The impact of BIM on the corporate sector lies in its ability to align facility management with wider organizational goals, fostering the sustainable, resilient and adaptable management models necessary for the modern corporate environment.