Document Type

Other

Rights

Available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike 4.0 International Licence

Disciplines

Civil engineering, Architecture engineering, Construction engineering, Municipal and structural engineering

Abstract

The Irish Reinforced Concrete (RC) sector has yet to realise the full potential of Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Lean construction. The positive impacts and benefits of both BIM and Lean in the wider Architecture, Engineering and Construction sector are widely recognised; many of these are transferable to the RC sector, but there is limited research and knowledge on practical transference, uses and advantages. This research aims to fill some of the existing knowledge gaps by examining BIM and Lean adoption and awareness in the Irish RC sector across sub-sectors, professions, and organisational levels, and by exploring opportunities for increasing their implementation. To achieve this. a comprehensive review of international literature was undertaken, the findings of which informed the content of a targeted sector-wide online survey. The data from the online survey was aggregated and analysed by company type (i.e. main contractor/sub-contractor) and profession. To deepen the analysis and further examine the survey and literature review findings, semi-structured interviews with representatives from each company type and profession were carried out. The results reveal that there is significant BIM and Lean awareness and interest in the sector. However, there are relatively low levels of application and full appreciation of the potential of both paradigms, particularly pronounced within the sub-contractor cohort. Yet, there is a strong sector-wide keenness for the implementation of both BIM and Lean. To capitalise on this, organisations need to invest in technology, people, education and training programmes in a structured and consistent manner.

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