Building information modelling within the Australian prefabrication: Findings of opportunities and barriers

Prefabrication has the potential to minimise total project duration and improve the quality of a project. Despite the potential, the uptake of prefabrication in the Australian construction industry is limited due to the dispersed locations of designers and manufacturers, clients' preferences and builders' capability. Recently, Building Information Modelling (BIM) has been recognised as a possible solution to eliminate the barriers as BIM can enhance the coordination of construction information and facilitate an informed decision at the early design stage. This research aims to investigate the opportunities of and barriers to integrating BIM within the Australian prefabrication context. Through a questionnaire survey of designers, managers, engineers and manufacturers, the design stage is revealed as the most vital stage in which to adopt BIM capability. The 18 survey respondents emphasised the main opportunities of BIM integration as being increasing mass customisation, and reducing project duration and schedule risks. The identified BIM challenges were centred on changing the business practices, replacing the existing computer-aided drafting (CAD) system and the upfront cost of BIM integration, for example, investment in BIM tools and training. The survey results document the opportunities of and barriers to BIM integration, and provide professional insights on how BIM can benefit prefabrication. Some limitations are acknowledged as the study reports on these findings from the Australian context. Future studies could employ case studies and be conducted in other countries to enhance the generalisation of these research findings.