2.3 BIM ADOPTION LEVELS AND THE NEEDED CAPABILITY
The transition from the traditional usage of the 2D environment to
Computer Aided Design (CAD) and drafting to BIM requires extensive
efforts to migrate. One of the requirements is the adoption of a new
culture of using BIM. These cover a range of activities which are not
limited to building new libraries/ templates of BIM models specific to a
firm’s need, paying attention to certain legal risks, liabilities and
challenges that come with the benefits of using BIM, development of
training programs for both new and existing employees, developing
standards and a common language and adopting new policies/procedures for
creating and sharing BIM models (44 ;45;33 ;46 ).
Culture has been defined, described and conceptualised differently
depending on the context, the concept, the systems/school of thought,
the discipline, time and period surrounding its circumstances
(47 ). 48 referring to the UNESCO (1982),widely recognised
definitions for culture, sumarised it as the entirety of complex but
distinctive cognitive, immaterial, intellectual and emotional features
that distinguish a group. The authors further depicts culture as that
concrete whole that allows critical judgment and a sense of moral
commitment, encourages discerning values, permits choices and decision
making, enhances self-awareness and tolerates seeking achievements
untiringly and transcending limits.
Organisational culture is the culture of a social group which springs
from the underlying assumptions and beliefs of its members about what
they share in common, how the group operates and consequently, how they
relate. This shapes their attitudes and their resultant behaviour,
interpretation for better understanding hence successful outcome in
their environment (49 ). Consequently, firms transform through a
combination of intentional, unintentional processes; dynamic phenomenon
created, enacted or shaped by leadership behaviour; with a set of
structures, routines, rules and norms that guide the group towards a new
situation (50 ;51; 47 ). As leadership behavioural changes
are necessary to achieve the goals and objectives set in any
organisation, their underlying beliefs though unconscious, but expressed
in learned responses to problems of external adaptation and internal
integration, are of utmost importance (52 ;53 ).
Based on the impact of leadership on firm performance, the culture
exhibited is considered as cultural orientations. Cultural orientations
are practices that are prevalent among construction firms’ leadership as
part of the capability needed for internal and external integration.
Based on a review of literature, fifty (50) sentences describing
different orientation of construction firms’ manager, founder or owner
(leadership) are set out under eight (8) major headings thus: client
service orientation (CSO), conflict/dispute resolution (CDR),
environmental/external orientation (ENV), information and communication
technology (ICT), innovation, learning and knowledge management (ILKM),
production orientation (PRO), task and goal accomplishment (TAGA) and
workforce orientation (WKF) (54 ;55 ;56 ).
Briefly, external/environmental orientation relates with the scanning of
the business environment, gathering information and making the
provisions for the needed changes by matching the information received
with organisational capabilities and converting such to feedback that
can be turned into adaptive capabilities, hence competitive advantage
(57 ). Innovation, learning and knowledge management entails the
recognition of both technological and non-technological innovation,
transformation through research and development (R&D) and upkeep with
recent and best industry practices that are critical to the construction
industry. A major constraint to project execution is lack of awareness
and knowledge. Therefore, knowledge repository development and
maintenance are of importance as the need for innovation will only be
successful when different stages of knowledge are fully communicated and
understood through continuous learning .There are supports on innovation
as a major cultural factor affecting construction companies intention to
digitilisation (58 ;59 ).
Client orientation examines leadership dispensation towards achieving
overall improvement. This capability includes consideration for clients’
objectives, interest and satisfaction (60 ). Task and goal
accomplishment entails all firm’s contributions towards best practice
and global competitiveness which requires investment on autonomous
systems rather than adherence to traditional methods. Consequently, goal
accomplishment is task-related and centres on management decision on the
level of commitment or input to the task or work to be executed as well
as the decisions on what is right. Planning, job structuring,
monitoring, working environment and project benchmarking are subsets of
accomplishment.
For production orientation, management leadership style in
organising and controlling the production process will be enhanced
through automation. Issues relating to project plans and schedules,
materials management, safety, harmonious relationships, subcontracting
and performance standards will be enhanced thus resulting into less
wastage, less time, better quality and better image .
The workforce of industry 4.0 requires better education, improved
training, up-skilling and retraining. A workforce that is adequately
trained is better equipped, so will do more in less time. Factors such
as commitment, training and development, rewards and recognition,
teamwork /team building and supportiveness, employees’ participation are
the variables in this orientation (61;56 ). Digitalisation
enhances data assemblage; therefore, communication channels should be
unambiguous and reflect what is valued. Information and communication
technology considers the availability or lack of relevant information on
materials, labour and technology adoption, sophisticated tools for
computerisation of office and site activities (62 ). Conflicts
are inevitable in construction and are destructive when not properly
managed; however, a number of AI variants are available for dispute
handling and resolution (6 ). The variables for CDR include
harmonious relationship/interaction, clearly defined and allocated
functions, building of relationships, means of conflicts resolution are
(26 ).
Apart from the culture requirements, the organisational/corporate
strategy of the firm is of utmost importance. In the field of strategic
studies, it is imperative that firms determine factors that hinder or
drive performance (63 ). The adaptive capability within the
context of this paper is the strategy that is set for digitilisation
with the main framework. Such ability is employed to acquire new
resources, combine both old and new in a value creating model( 64 ) . It describes a firms’ competence in
knowing what the market expectations are, altering its understanding in
response to such alterations, expanding its boundaries and putting in
place the required resources that will correspond to the latest
developments or expected developments (65 ;66 ). It is a
measure of the presence of available opportunity with the degree of
preparedness in the firm as well as the understanding of what the
digital phenomenon requires as far as information and knowledge exchange
is concerned. The variables adopted are eight (8) namely: willingness
and the resources to scan, retrieve, organise, share and store
information digitally; the ability and resources to communicate,
interact, maintain relationships and collaborate using digital tools;
the ability and resources to produce tasks/jobs requirements with
digital tools for the required level of understanding; the ability and
resources to communicate, collaborate, cooperate and network in a
digital environment; the ability and resources to enhance and promote
autonomous learning and embed such in the vision statement; willingness
and readiness of leadership to organise, coordinate, manage team with
multicultural diversity and spread in a digitally-coordinated
platform/environment; the ability to seek and engage clients that are
digitally-oriented or canvass clients to adopt digitally-oriented
designs and construction techniques/products (67 ;68 ).
According to (37,39,71) with reference to the Efficiency and Reform
Group (2011), the definition of the BIM levels in the UK is as follows:
• Level 0 (also referred to as the Unmanaged CAD stage) employs 2D
models using paper (or electronic paper) as the exchange mechanism.
• Level 1 (also known as the Managed CAD in 2 or 3D format using
BS1192:2007) uses a collaboration tool that provides a common data
environment with few standard data structures and formats.
• Level 2 (which is referred to as the Managed 3D environment) entails
BIM tools with attached data, that is commercially managed by an ERP.
Level 2 extends into 4D programme data and 5D cost elements as well as
feed operational systems.
• Level 3( is the full-blown process of data integration that is enabled
by web services compliance in conjunction with IFC/IFD standards. This
is managed by a collaborative model server known as integrated BIM, that
is iBIM.
3.0 MATERIALS AND METHODS
This study examines automation in construction firms as one of its
readiness to the transformation in industry 4.0. It relates building
information modeling to digitilisation and presents it as a necessary
platform/software/technology that will aid the construction sector in
attaining most of the advantages of artificial intelligence as
obtainable in other industries. As a result, a quantitative research
approach was adopted. This approach enhances determination of the
relationship between facts derived in a study and the findings/theories
from previous studies, therefore paving ways for further inquiries.
Leadership, culture, structure, strategy and the environment are some of
the major factors that determine firms’ outcome, growth, competitive
advantage and sustainability. This study therefore assesses construction
firms’ awareness and adoption of building information modeling as a
platform for the enhancement of digital transformation, through the
leadership of the firms. Construction firms thus become the population
with construction managers/owners/CEO as the sampling elements. The
population was drawn from three lists of construction firms totally 166.
The sample size was calculated as 116 which were randomly selected.
Based on the review of the literature, a research instrument was
developed. Culture was assessed as cultural orientation. Eight
orientations each with a number of sentences describing its contents
were set up. The statements range from 3 to 8 for all the eight
sub-headings. A total of 50 statements were arrived at for the eight
orientations. For the strategic capability, eight sentences describing a
firm’s awareness and preparedness for transformation were developed. The
transformation was measured as the level of awareness and adoption of
BIM. For this, three Likerts scales of low awareness, moderate awareness
and high awareness (1-3) was adopted. For the culture and structure, the
respondents were requested to express their level of agreement or
disagreement on a 5point-Likert scale of 1-5 indicating strongly
disagrees to strongly agree.
The Cronbach’s Alpha values for cultural orientation and strategic
capability are 0.946 and 0.637 respectively. The lower value obtained
for strategic capability might be due to the lower number of the items
measuring the construct. The value of 0.637 though questionable is
neither poor nor unacceptable (69 ). For further reliability, the
Bartlett’s test was conducted on the variables and were found
satisfactory based on significance. The results are hereby presented.