A BIM-enabled MEP coordination process for use in China

Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing (MEP) coordination is an important part of constructability review process. The rapid development of Building Information Modelling (BIM) could substantially facilitate this process by affording a visual and collaborative manner. However, BIM adoption in China has been hindered by the low management commitment and knowledge level. There is a need to develop a model to utilize BIM in China taking into consideration this current situation. This paper reports how design institutes without 3D modelling capabilities can work with modellers to perform MEP coordination with BIM. A BIM-enabled MEP coordination process for use in China is documented and further developed as one of the primary findings. IDEF0 language is used to illustrate the process in detail. It is found in the case study analysis that the use of BIM may not save overall design time as traditional 2D design was still used. However, it can reduce the costs of manual MEP coordination, the expected number of change orders, chance that significant number of change orders may occur, as well as MEP coordination related change orders as a percentage of total change orders.