The implementation of BIM within the public procurement: A model-based approach for the construction industry

Recently more and more Public Sectors have been paying close attention to save cost and, at the same time, improve efficiency. Usually, the Construction Industry has a relevant annual turnover, which represents an important part of the GDP for most of the EU countries and concerns in a large part the Public Sector. Thus, some Public Clients, such as UK, are adopting new strategies in order to improve the current situation. One of these strategies is Building Information Modelling (BIM), which forces all the parties involved in the process to adopt a collaborative approach reducing inefficiencies. Moreover, also the European Parliament is going to encourage the BIM adoption to 'modernise the procurement process and ensure greater efficiencies'. The EU Directive will be an important push to reform the EU Members' Public Construction Procurement. The aim of this M. Sc. Thesis is to analyse the possible implementation of BIM within the Public Procurement, especially how Model Checking can be applied within Tendering to verify the compliance between the Client's requirements and the bid's contents. The first part presents both the most widespread Public Procurement Methods, such as Design-Bid-Build (DBB), Design-Build (DB), Construction Management (CM), Design-Build-Operate (DBO) and Design-Build-Finance-Operate (DBFO), as well as innovative kinds of Procurement Procedures, such as Integrated Project Delivery (IPD), Project Alliancing (PA), Cost Led Procurement (CLP), Integrated Project Insurance (IPI), Two Stage Open Book and Early BIM Partnering (EBP). A paragraph is dedicated to the drivers and the barriers of e-Procurement, which should be part of the Public Procurement strategy. Later, the main issues related to BIM are shown, such as current BIM Authorised Uses and Permitted Purposes, Interoperability and OpenBIM, along with BIM implementation in Public Sector of several countries (Singapore, USA, Finland, UK, Norway, Denmark, Netherlands, South Korea, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Iceland, Estonia, Sweden, Germany, China, Ireland, Taiwan and Italy) and the relation between e-Procurement and BIM. Additionally, the principal possibilities and challenges dealing with BIM adoption are presented. The following chapter is dedicated to the investigation of the possible BIM implementation in Tendering. Even if integrated procedures, such as IPD, seem to be the most suitable with BIM, a discussion of the BIM role in DBB and DB or Design Competitions is carried out, showing the main Client's requirements, benefits for Bidders and Clients, together with limitations and possibilities. Thereafter, a paragraph illustrates Model Checking in the evaluation of design proposals. First, a short description of the main commercial software, which can support BIM-based tendering (such as Solibri Model Checker (SMC), EDM Model Server, dRofus, Affinity, dProfiler, Autodesk NavisWorks, Tekla BIMsight, Bentley Projectwise Navigator, Riuska, Autodesk Ecotect, EasyBIM, Vico Cost Planner and Mitchell Brandtman) is provided. Later, a list of the most common operations, which nowadays a Client could check in a BIM tender together with the main commercial software available, is shown. More emphasis has been given to the software SMC, since this study was mostly carried out testing it and some new rules have been created. Moreover, a comparison between the published version of Statsbygg Building Information Modelling Manual and the translated rule-sets in SMC is carried out to understand the possibilities and limitations of the software in order to check Client's requirements. Another paragraph describes five case studies presented in literature to investigate the possible implementation of BIM in Tendering (cluster of University Buildings in Denmark, National Museum at Vestbanen in Oslo, Synergy Building in Helsinki, Office and Shopping Space in Canada and prison Cookham Wood in Rochester). Finally, the possible implementation of BIM in Tendering is tested on an Italian case study, a Theatre in Rimini, and a simulation of e-Tendering, adopting i-Faber e-Procurement platform, is investigated. This study shows that nowadays BIM, and especially Model Checking, can be a useful support for Public Construction Procurement only if the Public Clients hold the control of the process and they are able to define clear requirements.