Leveraging BIM for Decision Support and Logistics Optimization in Bahrain's Engineering Application

The construction industry in Bahrain is incurring significant delays due to several deficiencies such as rework and material handling, which result from miscommunication, coordination, and relocation among on-site parties. The industry needs a comprehensive communication and coordination tool to avoid these deficiencies. Building Information Modeling has demonstrated promising capabilities in enhancing communication and coordination through 3D visualization. Many of the technological breakthroughs of the past decades have stymied full deployment of Building Information Modeling. This overview presents research on the largest impediments, namely process development, disparate systems integration, and modification management, from several disciplines and considers approaches for their resolution. These include process and technology acceptance models; service-oriented architecture, middleware, and semantic web infrastructures; and novel design and facilitation approaches. It also discusses the unique contributions that Building Information Modeling and recommended research contributions from each respective technology domain can make to the overall problem.