Quantity Surveying and its Association with Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Digital Twin (DT)
Downloads
Quantity surveyors (QS) have many roles in the construction industry, and one of such roles is preparing bills of quantities that mainly entails taking measurements and pricing of construction work. They also develop schedule of project work, engage in construction project management, arbitration as well as dispute resolutions. Quantity take-off was their original role during 1820s when QS profession first came into existence. Critical observations brought criticisms that the profession would not survive if a tool could be developed that substituted QS roles in construction. Contingent to that criticism has seen the emergence of Building Information Modeling (BIM) that has specific attributes where the BIM technology can be used to quantify building works and produce schedule of works including cost loaded schedule in a 4D and 5D model interface respectively. Thus far, has the BIM technological innovation posed threats to the QS roles and/or to the profession? What of digital twin (DT)? The aim of this research was to investigate the QS and its association with BIM and DT innovation in the construction industry and to evaluate their future in the industry. Are they a bane or boon to the QS profession? Specific objectives were to determine the extent of BIM usage by QS, the level of the current usage and the future of QS considering BIM growth in the construction field. Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat (SWOT) analysis was conducted about BIM usage. Survey questionnaire was administered to investigate the use of BIM and DT, current usage and future standing in construction. The results showed that BIM and DT were opportunities that added to the progress of QS. It was concluded that QS needed to embrace BIM technology more with integration of digital twins for full benefits in the construction industry.
Downloads
1. Alhasan, S., Omar, A., Michael, T., & Bimal, K., (2019). Effectiveness of adopting BIM on quantity surveying profession during the project life cycle, In THIRTY-FIFTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE, p. 273-282.
2. Biblus: What is a digital twin? Examples and tips in construction. Accessed from https://biblus.accasoftware.com/en/digital-twin-what-is-it/ on December 15 2024.
3. Eastman, C., Teicholz, P & Sacks, R. (2012). BIM Hand Book, 2nd Edition. Chichester: J Wiley.
4. Fung, W., Salleh, H. & Mohd ,F. (2014). Capability of Building Information Modeling Application in Quantity Surveying Practice. Journal of Surveying, Construction and Property, 5 (1)1–13, doi: 10.22452/jscp/vol5no1.4.
5. Gilchrist, C., Cumberlege,R. & Allen,C (2021). Lack of implementing Building Information Modelling in the quantity surveying profession. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, doi: 10.1088/1755-1315/654/1/012025
6. Honghong, S., Gang, Y., Haijiang, L., Tian, Z. & J. Annan, J. (2023). Digital twin enhanced BIM to shape full life cycle digital transformation for bridge engineering. Automation in Construction, 147. doi: 10.1016/j.autcon.2022.104736
7. Khajavi, S. H., Motlagh, N. H., Jaribion, A., Werner, L. C., & Holmström, J. (2019). Digital twin: vision, benefits, boundaries, and creation for buildings. IEEE access, 7, 147406-147419.
8. Khan, R. A. (2020). Using Sensor Data from Building Automation Systems in Digital Twins Nutzung von Sensordaten der Gebäudeautomation in Digitalen Zwillingen (Doctoral dissertation, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Institute of Construction Informatics, University of Technology).
9. Pan, Y. & Zhang, L. (2021). A BIM-data mining integrated digital twin framework for advanced project management. Automation in Construction. doi: 10.1016/j.autcon.2021.103564
10. Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS, 2024). https://www.rics.org/profession-standards (Access date: 12.11.2024)
11. SAS® On Demand for Academics (SAS, 2024). Retrieved on December 13, 2024 from https://welcome.oda.sas.com/
12. Smith, P. (2014). BIM and the 5D Project Cost Manager. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 119, 475–484. doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.03.053.
13. Wao, J.O & Flood, I. (2016). The role of quantity surveyors in the international construction arena. International Journal of Construction Management, 16, 2, 126–137 doi: 10.1080/15623599.2016.1142251.
14. Wao, J. (2015). Predicting the future of quantity surveying profession in the construction industry. Journal of Construction Project Management and Innovation, 5 (2),1211-1223:
https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC183324
15. Wao, J.O. (2023). Effect of building information modeling(bim) innovation on quantity surveying. Proceedings of the Creative Construction Conference 2023. https://doi.org/10.3311/CCC2023-035
Copyright (c) 2024 Joel Ochieng’ Wao
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
