Solmaz Mansoori - Industrial Engineering and Management Department, Faculty of Technology, University of Oulu, Oulu; Finland
Harri Haapasalo - Industrial Engineering and Management Department, Faculty of Technology, University of Oulu, Oulu; Finland

An effectual implementation of BIM is hampered by an ambiguity of interpretation of BIM by users. Despite the considerable anticipated advantages for BIM, this ambiguity is exacerbated by the difficulties inherent in a successful BIM implementation. To reap BIM’s full potential, it is crucial to puzzle out the feasible values and risks of BIM implementation from multiple standpoints to come up with a common understanding of what BIM is and how it can be exploited in practice. In this study, we use the conceptual research method and, accordingly, review the literature on BIM topics in search of different approaches to the definitions, challenges and benefits of BIM. Results show that there are three dominant approaches in the interpretation and definition of BIM; ’product’, ’tool’ and ’process,’ each of which seems to have suboptimal features in their definition. In addition, the interpretation of BIM undergoes an evolutionary process from the product to process views. The findings from the review on vantage points and the challenges of BIM implementation revealed that, even though the benefits of BIM are rather clear, the number and variety of challenges indicate that the requisite knowledge and competence is not high enough in AEC industry. The literature-based findings of this paper go hand in hand with our perceptions from the industry. In other words, our literature findings explain our findings from the practice. Construction, as a conservative industry, evolves slowly but the full-scale implementation of BIM requires large scale changes in the whole industry, even structural changes at the business level. The aim of our future research is to provide knowledge for this development

Building Information Modeling, Construction process, Product data