Enhancing communication in construction industry through BIM

Construction stakeholders across disciplines still depend on traditional paper-based modes of communication. The collaboration efforts in construction industry still focus on the exchange of 2D drawings and documents. Nowadays, the increasing widespread adoption of information technologies adds a new dimension to the industry collaboration in construction projects. Building Information Modeling (BIM) is recognized as a great platform in exchanging information as well as visualizes playing an important role in industry collaboration transformation, replacing the traditional construction methods. The emergence of multiple applications with the ability to directly use and exchange information between stakeholders provides opportunities to enhance communication between industry stakeholders within the project collaboration. However, existing studies in this area have not indicated a clear picture on how BIM can help in improving communication between different parties in a project development. To rectify this problem, this paper aims to study underlying factors to the communication problems and the BIM technology methods implemented in Malaysia in dealing with communication problems between industry stakeholders in the construction industry. The research is carried out through case study on a BIM project in Malaysia. The semi-structured interview was analyzed with content analysis using the matrix table. Research findings revealed that BIM technology methods implemented in the case study have enabled communication between client and contractor to be more meaningful. Thus, this research encourages positive thinking of the industry practitioners regards to maximized collaboration, information sharing and mutual benefit while ensuring market competitiveness in construction projects