MT - Using BIM as a PM Tool: 4.3. – Secondary Data Summary

An exhaustive research was done to find the 35 case studies that served us as a basis to analyze the influence of BIM in real life construction projects.
The sample of projects was not homogeneous, with half of the case studies being projects build in United States (Table 4.4). This is probably due to the higher penetration rates of BIM in USA compared to Europe (Figure 1.2) and a higher number of scholars and professional bodies publishing articles about the subject on the west side of the Atlantic ocean. Regardless of this, 35 case studies are an important sample, and the results and finding obtained are relevant to analyze the role of BIM as a PM Tool.

Table 4.4 Case Study Count per Country
Country	Number of Case Study Projects	Percentage
USA	18	51,43%
UK	8	22,86%
France	2	5,71%
Canada	2	5,71%
Israel	2	5,71%
Germany	1	2,86%
China	1	2,86%
Middle East	1	2,86%
Total	35	100%

As it has been mentioned before, this part of the research was aimed to find in which ways BIM can help delivering construction projects based on the KPIs defined on table 3.1. The results show that Cost, Time, Communication, Coordination and Quality are the KPIs more positively affected by the implementation of BIM.
The same results show that the challenges and negative effects of BIM implementation are relatively few, and most of them are focused on software or hardware issues. We suggest that these problems and challenges could be solved with a wider implementation of BIM in all firms involved in the project, with better training for all employees involved and with stakeholders getting used to working in a new way. Further studies might be needed once BIM has more penetration in the industry to analyze if these challenges are actually easy to overcome.
Lastly, the a priori list of 10 reasons for PM to be BIM proficient (Allison, 2010) are here briefly compared with the results and findings of the case study research (Table 4.5) to analyze if what BIM lobbyist are saying about the potentials of BIM is actually being found in real life projects.

Table 4.5 Benefits of BIM for PM in the case studies
A priori benefit (after Allison, 2010)	Benefits in case study literature?	Example
Organize the project schedule and budget	Yes	project management team used 4D models to discover several conflicts in the schedule which were not discovered in the CPM-based Gantt chart (Haymaker and Fischer, 2001)
Work well with the Design Team	Yes	The design team was also able to share some information to help facilitate coordination. ( McGraw-Hill, 2010a)
Hiring and controlling the Subcontractors	Yes	Subcontractors were more knowledgeable about the project as they have been involved sooner and are resolving issues in the design and detailing stage that would typically come up in the field. (Khanzode et al. , 2008)
RFIs and Change Orders	Yes	37% reduction in coordination RFIs and a 32% reduction in coordination change orders (McGraw-Hill, 2009)
Optimize the Owner’s experience and satisfaction	Yes	savings of $9M and 6 months to the owner due to the use of the BIM / VDC tools and a collaborative project delivery approach (Khanzode et al., 2008)
Project closeout	No	The later phases of a project, such as closeout or operations and maintenance, are not seen as valuable opportunities for BIM by any users, including owners. (McGraw-Hill, 2009)
Profit margin	Yes	Engineers see BIM saving time and money. For them the analysis is simple: less problems equals more profit (…) profitability increased as a result of using BIM. (McGraw-Hill, 2009)
Progressive Owners are mandating BIM on their projects:	Yes	Half of owners (48%) say that BIM’s impact on the overall project outcome is a high benefit (...) increasingly, contractors are mandating BIM from key trades and owners are demanding it from entire teams. (McGraw-Hill, 2009)
PM Firm Growth	Yes	Leveraging BIM capability to win new business was reported as the top internal business benefit (McGraw-Hill, 2009)

The comparison shows that the a priori benefits of using BIM for Project Managers are actually being found in real life case studies. Only the benefits related to project closeout are not being yet perceived by users or owners. BIM benefits are thus not just theoretical and moreover, they are perceived by many stakeholders. Project Managers who are not pushing for BIM use in their projects should be aware of these benefits having real positive effects, and consider in which projects they could consider the potential implementation of BIM.
All the insights that we obtained from this secondary data gathering and analysis will be compared on chapter 6 with the information collected from primary sources. The results from these primary sources will be described and analyzed in the following chapter.
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