COBie

Operation and Maintenance costs in buildings represent a large part of the total building lifecycle cost. However, project delivery methods in the Architectural, Engineering Construction (AEC) industry are often focused on capital delivery and associated costs, which occur prior to the building handover to owners and occupiers. With the emergence of data specifications such as COBie (Construction and Operation Building information exchange) and the IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) open standard, there has been an increased interest in developing approaches that integrate building operation with the capital delivery phases. In this context, this research aims to assess how open BIM standards (i.e. IFC) and data specifications (i.e. COBie) can support information requirements of facility managers. A literature review of current studies on Building Information Modelling (BIM) for facilities management (FM) in general, and on IFC and COBie applications in FM in particular was conducted. Based on the results from the literature review, a use case was developed according to the Information Delivery Manual (IDM) methodology, in order to assess the applicability of IFC and COBie as sources of information for asset register creation and service life planning. The results from this use case highlighted shortcomings in IFC/COBie standards and commercially available tools and suggested improvements. In future work, the proposed research approach will be applied on a wider number of use cases in order to develop a decision support system that uses asset information from BIM to enable lifecycle cost planning during the use phase of buildings.

the construction industry despite the significant attempts to promote it.
Design/methodology/approach: This paper framed and compared the normative model of COBie to a descriptive model of COBie. The normative model was based on the assumptions and planned procedures outlined in the COBie documentation. The descriptive model was developed through a case study of COBie implementation, with ethnographic observations, interviews, and artifact analysis as the data collection methods and thematic analysis as the data analysis method.
Findings: The comparative analysis of the normative and descriptive models showed that the underlying normative assumptions of COBie can be challenged in its implementation. In the case study, implementing COBie disrupted the conventional practice of few participating firms as the data requirements and the expected sequences and timelines of tasks were not aligned with the industry norms for exchanging data. Furthermore, the normative model of COBie could not account for the unanticipated variability in the internal routines of firms for submittal production.
Practical implications: COBie, as an instruction-based model, may not provide enough flexibility for some firms to adapt to its requirements such that COBie tasks become integrated with their existing workflows. COBie tasks may become additional efforts, and at times, conflict with the industry norms and firms’ routines, and therefore, disrupt the efficiency goals.
Originality/value: This paper provides empirical evidence to clarify why implementing COBie has not been as efficient for all industry players as expected.

This article aims to present a theoretical review related to Building Information Modeling (BIM), Facility Management (FM) and Construction Operations Building Information Exchange (COBie), and promoting a comparative analysis of the specification and extraction process of the COBie standard among two acknowledged design BIM tools, Autodesk Revit and ArchiCAD. The aspects ranging from data input, setup, modify, data quality control until extraction were considered during the experiment.

Building Information Modelling (BIM) represents a move away from traditional practices and the formation of digital models to enable optimized decision making throughout planning, design, construction and operation stages of a facility's life. Usage of BIM is increasing, and seemingly has the capacity to transform every aspect of the construction industry, therefore making it essential for architectural practices to adapt and embrace this new way of working. Delivering projects through BIM within the UK construction industry is reaching a state of necessity. With the UK Government's mandate for BIM implementation coupled with developments in the BIM area, industry practitioners are becoming increasingly under pressure to adopt BIM. BIM technology can potentially change the process and product of architecture. According to Gaver (1991), new technologies primarily concentrate on the current articulated needs and tasks of the users and have the tendency to overlook the innovation potential of the new technologies at the same time. Understanding affordances that BIM can bring to the process of architectural design is a significant factor in the verdict of successful BIM implementation. This preliminary research aims to identify functional affordances of BIM and explore how they influence the architectural design process. Data collection was carried out through semi-structured interviews with BIM coordinators, architectural technologists and designers working on BIM projects to understand their perception of affordances that BIM can bring to the process of architectural design. We found that most actors/designers realize the potential of functional affordances of many BIM applications, however only a few utilize this capacity to enhance the design process. The literature and the results obtained through the interviews both revealed a potential additional affordance category which relates to the design stages and the use of BIM.