Mechanisms for the implementation of building information modeling (BIM) for construction safety management in Hong Kong

Abstract

Building Information Modeling (BIM) with other associated Information Technologies(IT) is reshaping the construction industry worldwide, and is viewed as a systematic solution targeting at the industry’s nature as traditional, fragmented, document-centric and dangerous. In general, the industry is receptive to the change and becoming more Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) conscious, but the adoption of such implementation lags far behind. There have been a number of technology oriented studies aimed at inventing some BIM software functional modules to facilitate the construction safety management, but the philosophy behind that type of studies remains questionable –the applicability of those inventions for the safety management practice, the acceptability of those functional modules by the industrial practitioners, the non-holistic view on the construction safety management, as well as the equivalence of obeying the safety regulations and the safety performance on site. Essentially, the implementation of BIM is a certain Information System (IS) implementation in an industrial discipline, but BIM implementation is always treated as a static, objective and mechanical phenomenon, and the industrial practitioner’s participation during the implementation course have been subsequently not attained enough attention. Therefore, it is justifiable to take a view of management and/or process change on BIM adoption and implementation issues. In this perspective, how to integrate BIM into the construction safety management technologically, organizationally and institutionally becomes the problem for the Hong Kong construction industry, in which context the research is conducted. Driven by the aim of this study – to understand the mechanism for the adoption and implementation of Building Information Modeling (BIM) and other associated Information Technologies (IT) for the construction safety management in Hong Kong–the qualitative method approach is adopted. More specifically, the narrative approach as the strategy of inquiry is formulated given the consideration of the available time and resource for the study. In so doing, the researcher, himself as the most important research instrument, conducts ten open-ended face-to-face interviews with the industrial practitioners as the first-hand data, and a number of in-depth literature studies on the construction safety management in Hong Kong as the second-hand data. To characterize the qualitative study paradigm, all the procedures from drafting the interview questions to validating the research findings occur in an iterative and inductive manner, and a Computer Assisted Qualitative Data AnalysiS(CAQDAS) program, the QSR NVivo 10 is also employed to smooth the data analysis process.

Assisted by the program –the Word Frequency Query and the detailed coding analysis –the comparison of the results between the partial and the whole interview texts is made to confirm the sample size of the ten interviews has reached the theoretical saturation. Based on this point, all the sub-categories and child-codes under three top parent categories –Attitudes towards BIM in Hong Kong, BIM Acceptance by the Industry, and BIM and Construction Safety –are grouped into visual models for illustration. By comparing and contrasting with the existing knowledge, the research findings are further validated in terms of how to promote BIM implementation for construction safety management in Hong Kong. Beyond those in line with the previous literatures, the machine readable data format for the construction safety management needs to be further explored on its content and the quantification method. Whereas, how BIM implementation will promote the frank auditing as well as the relational contracting approaches are also worth further studied.

By examining the current contextual situations and through narrative inquiry on BIM implementation for construction safety management in Hong Kong, this study provides understandings, which are elaborated in a trajectory of the sociology of technology, on the implementation of a specific information technology BIM for construction safety management in the Hong Kong construction industry. The research also comes to an open conclusion ready to integrate any continuous emerging evidence, for both the expectation of the qualitative research and the nature of the issue to be addressed –BIM implementation as an emerging phenomenon. The thesis finally presents its recommendations for BIM implementation for the construction safety management in Hong Kong for administrators, policy makers and other decision makers.