Journal of Building Engineering xxx (xxxx) xxx

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Building Engineering

journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jobe

An integrated decision support system for building asset management based

on BIM and Work Breakdown Structure
Maha Al-Kasasbeh a, Osama Abudayyeh b, Hexu Liu b, *
a
Civil Engineering Department, Hashemite University, Zarqa, Jordan
b
Civil and Construction Engineering Department, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI, 49008, USA

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The asset management phase of a building constitutes approximately 60% of its total lifecycle costs. However,
Asset management significant unnecessary expenses occur in current asset management practices because of the separation of the
Building information modeling design and construction phases from operation and maintenance and the lack of an effective building asset
Database management system
management system covering all types of buildings with numerous components. Asset management decision-
WBS
Life cycle
making is inherently a process that requires the assimilation of a multitude of data, processes, and software
systems. Therefore, this paper proposes an integrated decision support system for building asset management
that addresses the systematization and coordination of lifecycle data. In this approach, a lifecycle work break­
down structure (WBS) for the asset management system is developed to provide a unified hierarchy to categorize
and organize building assets. It is then used to develop the WBS-based integrated building lifecycle asset man­
agement model through a relational database management system (DBMS). Since building information model­
ling (BIM) is a rich information-based platform with large volumes of asset data needed, it is integrated with the
WBS-based DBMS to achieve an effective integrated building asset management. A case study of an educational
building is presented and discussed in the paper to demonstrate how the proposed automated solution is used for
asset management. The research contributes to the body of knowledge by formalizing a WBS-based unified asset
inventory hierarchy and mapping BIM data to the proposed hierarchy for effective asset management.

1. Introduction management systems usually are used to assist industrial practitioners in

Building asset management is a strategic and systematic process of
operating, maintaining, upgrading, and expanding physical assets
effectively throughout their lifecycle [1]. Asset management helps to
achieve the required level of service while minimizing cost. Addition­
ally, it helps to reduce risk and ensure an effective enhancement of
capital over an asset’s lifecycle [2]. Asset management is also beneficial
because it can lead to increased knowledge of the assets, better opera­
tional decisions, improved emergency response, and greater ability to
plan and pay for future repairs and replacements (EFCNMT, 2006). In
fact, effective asset management is more than maintenance. The
importance of asset management cannot be neglected because buildings
could suffer serious problems, such as deterioration, premature failures
and renewals, and possibly the need for replacement.
Building asset management is a highly challenging task since there
are many types of buildings with numerous components that have
different maintenance needs and requirements [3–5]. Asset
“1) the assessment of the current condition, 2) prediction of the future
deterioration, 3) selection of maintenance and repair strategies, 4) condition
improvement after a repair, and 5) asset prioritization and fund allocation.”
[6]. However, most building asset management systems use standard
building classifications for categorizing and analyzing assets [7,8].
These standard systems were designed without taking into consideration
asset management needs [9]. Besides, efficient building management
systems must give more attention to all phases of the building lifecycle.
As such, a reliable database that includes historical as-built information
is necessary for asset management functions, including maintenance,
condition assessment, and performance prediction. The lack of building
lifecycle integration creates significant inefficiencies in asset manage­
ment coordination [9–11].
Building Information Modeling (BIM) has been increasingly used for
asset management functions. BIM is an information-rich model with
large volumes of asset data that are a prerequisite for an effective
operation and maintenance phase [12,13]. Nevertheless, several

* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: malkasasbeh@hu.edu.jo (M. Al-Kasasbeh), osama.abudayyeh@wmich.edu (O. Abudayyeh), hexu.liu@wmich.edu (H. Liu).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2020.101959
Received 25 April 2020; Received in revised form 30 October 2020; Accepted 30 October 2020
Available online 4 November 2020
2352-7102/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article as: Maha Al-Kasasbeh, Journal of Building Engineering, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2020.101959
M. Al-Kasasbeh et al.
challenges have been identified in applying BIM for asset management,
including the lack of technical alignment between BIM software tools
and asset management processes and functions, as well as data inter­
operability [14–18]. In particular, Talebi [16] stated that: “BIM software
tools presently are not applicable or ‘ready-packed’ to fit the asset manage­
ment processes. In other words, the number of BIM tools supporting asset
management processes by far is fewer than tools supporting the design stage.
This issue causes ineffective administrative work routines and gives restricted
support to the crew onsite. Lack of technology alignment also leads to a digital
divide between the design and other stages.” Furthermore, attempts to
enriching 3D models with facilities data in current BIM platforms can be
challenging as it creates a discrepancy between the standard built-in
classification systems and the facility data structure such as asset man­
agement inventory [19].
Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to develop an integrated de­
cision support system for effective asset management using BIM and
database management systems (DBMS). This system is developed based
on a comprehensive work breakdown structure (WBS) framework to
facilitate the integration of all life cycle phases for building asset man­
agement. The comprehensive WBS framework consists of eight levels,
such as asset management system, building category, building major
part, system, subsystem, floor, space function, and assets. It provides a
unified hierarchy to categorize and organize building assets. BIM model
is also mapped to such a WBS framework so that the proposed system is
capable of addressing the discrepancy between the standard built-in
classification systems of BIM and asset management. The research
contributes to the body of knowledge by formalizing a WBS-based uni­
fied asset inventory hierarchy and mapping BIM data to the proposed
hierarchy (i.e., addressing BIM-Asset Management interoperability) for
effective asset management.
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. In Section 2, the
literature on building asset management is reviewed to clarify the point
of departure and demonstrate the rationale underlying this research.
Subsequently, the research methodology is described in Section 3. Sec­
tion 4 presents the WBS-based lifecycle model for asset management.
The development of an integrated decision support system for building
asset management is described in Section 5 and Section 6. A case study
of an educational building is presented to validate the methodology and
verify the prototype system in Section 7. The final section concludes by
highlighting the research contribution of this paper.
2. Literature review
This section reviews the relevant work with respect to building asset
management. To begin with, asset inventory management is first illus­
trated; then, how BIM has been used to support building asset man­
agement is discussed.
2.1. Asset inventory management
Asset inventory is vital to proper asset management functions. It is a
critical task when specifying the scope and schedule of building repairs,
asset condition assessment, and deterioration prediction [8]. An accu­
rate and well-developed building inventory can provide a powerful tool
to develop proactive maintenance and better operational decisions.
Furthermore, it can provide a better ability to plan for future repairs and
replacements. One challenge confronted by the facility management
(FM) industry is that numerous types of assets must be analyzed and
categorized. Such a challenge may present difficulties in the develop­
ment of a consistent management system for the different types of
building assets. The reason arises from the fact that each building type is
complex with unique characteristics and has numerous components
with different maintenance needs and requirements [7]. Also, buildings
have vast amounts of components, which have different maintenance
requirements [7].
As such, the listing and classification of the assets inventory is a vital
2
Journal of Building Engineering xxx (xxxx) xxx
step for a successful building asset management system and should be
developed in a thorough and detailed manner. Moreover, the classifi­
cation of assets would help categorize the entity information of similar
components on different projects in an identical way within a unified
system. Several research efforts have thus been dedicated to asset clas­
sification. For instance, Elhakeem [6] proposed a five-level building
hierarchy, including system, subsystem, component, type, and instance.
Similarly, Grussing [8] suggested a hierarchy system based on the
Uniformat element classification system. This hierarchy consists of three
levels, namely, building systems, building components, and building
sections. The building sections level includes attributes that describe the
characteristics of components, such as material types and locations.
Apart from that, Eweda et al. [3] developed a six-level building hier­
archy: 1) building level describing the building type; 2) space level; 3)
category level, which specifies the four main building disciplines rep­
resented inside the space, i.e., architectural, mechanical, electrical, and
structural; 4) family level, including all the components in the same
category that have similar characteristics; 5) family type level, intended
to clarify different types of components; and 6) family instance level,
which includes components properties.
However, these previous attempts regarding building inventory
systems were associated with some drawbacks. For instance, some assets
need to be defined in a detailed space, and failing to do so makes it
challenging to assign maintenance responsibilities to department
workers in a building. Furthermore, prior literature failed to include
utilities as parts of a building or consider the whole life cycle of a
building while designing their proposed inventory. Also, not all types of
buildings are included, such as educational buildings, which are the
main focus of this research. Additionally, the WBS was not standardized
to define the level of decomposition, which would minimize subjectivity
and the visible deficiency in the logical breakdown of building compo­
nents into an appropriate hierarchy. Finally, none of the assets inventory
presented in the former literature demonstrates comprehensive entities
that include mostly all types of assets in any building type.
Standard building classification systems have comprehensive facets
and could be employed as decomposition criteria. Even though this is a
promising idea, they still lack the specific requirements of asset man­
agement, such as asset location and asset attributes (e.g., condition and
deterioration rates) when dealing with building assets. This deficiency is
due to the priority that each standard classification system represents.
For example, the Uniformat standard classification system focuses on
functional components which are suitable for rough cost estimation
during the schematic design phase. Construction components and final
work results would be the priority of the MasterFormat classification
system, which is useful in organizing construction information such as
procurement, contracting requirements, a technical dividing of activities
and work practices, and mainly in the organization of cost.
2.2. BIM-enabled asset management
Another main challenge in applying asset management strategies to
buildings is the timely availability of quality asset information [20,21].
Such a challenge partly comes from the fact that asset data is dispersed
in the project life cycle. For example, as-built data is generated during
the design and construction phases, whereas the condition assessment
data is collected throughout the operation and maintenance phase of a
facility. Design and construction phases have large volumes of asset data
that are prerequisites for successful and effective building management
during the operation and maintenance phase [22,23]. They can provide
reliable information for lifecycle building assets performance pre­
dictions and decision-making. The separation of the design and con­
struction data from the asset data collection process in the current
practice leads to many issues, including information loss or inaccurate
and incomplete asset data. The fragmentation ultimately contributes to
delays in building management tasks and cost overruns, resulting in
wasted time and money on nonvalue-added tasks, such as searching and
M. Al-Kasasbeh et al.
Fig. 1. Research methodology.
verifying as-built documentation during the asset management phase
[19,22,24].
The lack of integration between these phases of the lifecycle of a
building makes information flow more difficult and ineffective. In
particular, existing building asset management systems typically wait to
build until buildings have been constructed and operated. Integrating
building lifecycle phases would better facilitate information flow and
improve the availability, reliability, and consistency of asset informa­
tion, resulting in reduced time and cost in asset management [25]. In
this regard, Terreno et al. [18] illustrated how to use BIM in both the
design and construction phase of a project and beyond that, and sum­
marized qualitative descriptions of the benefits of BIM from these in­
terviews. This means that BIM should be employed in the asset
management phase of a constructed asset. Subsequently, Thabet and
Lucas [25] developed steps for converting the spreadsheet-based
methodology into a model-based approach allowing the asset manage­
ment department to directly link to a BIM system.
However, several challenges in adapting BIM for asset management
include the lack of interoperability of current systems and fragmentation
of existing information [26], as well as the lack of specific requirements
in BIM applications [21,27]. Bercerik-Gerber (2012) mentioned that
even though BIM would improve productivity, support proactive deci­
sion making, and reduce costs, the facility managers had to recognize
the challenges that need to be overcome before fully realizing the vision
of BIM for asset management. To link BIM data to asset management,
there are some options, such as 1) the use of proprietary links between
BIM software and asset management platforms such as EcoDomus, and
OnumaSystems, 2) the use of industry foundation classes (IFC) format,
and 3) direct links through application programming interfaces [28]. On
the contrary, Teicholz [29] proposed data transfer strategies to integrate
BIM with asset management using open data exchange specification,
such as the Construction Operations Building Information Exchange
(COBie). These efforts attempt to solve the interoperability issue of BIM
and FM from the perspective of data schema and storage. However, they
did not fully address the problem related to information requirement, i.
e., what information should be exchanged between BIM and FM.
Recently, Jang and Collinge [30] identified fifteen key issues from the
perspective of a mechanical and electrical contractor. To address these
issues, the most notable solution is to specify information requirements
from the start of a build. In this regard, the research presented in this
paper is to develop a more comprehensive asset inventory hierarchy,
which, on the other hand, specifies the facility information
requirements.
It should be noted that digital twin was recently introduced as a
promising solution to advance asset management further. Essentially,
digital twin refers to a replica of the physical assets, consisting of three
3
Journal of Building Engineering xxx (xxxx) xxx
parts, i.e., physical word, virtual world, and the connection between
these two worlds. Lu et al. [21] reported that plenty of research is
moving from BIM to digital twins for facility operation and mainte­
nance. However, digital twin applications in asset management are still
at its infancy stage, and most of the previous research related to digital
twin primarily focuses on either conceptual proposal or digital
modeling-based data analytics (e.g., 3D as-built modeling). Moreover,
digital twin applications in asset management currently still concentrate
on the building level rather than the organization level and rely on BIM
technology for practical implementation.
3. Research methodology
The objective of this research is to propose an integrated asset
management system for owner organization (i.e., university) who em­
braces a cluster of various types of building facilities. The proposed
system is intended to facilitate the integration of all building lifecycle
phases through a unified WBS hierarchy for effective asset management.
Toward this objective, a case study method is used in this research since
it studies contemporary phenomena in its natural context and is best
applied to address explanatory questions [31]. In the context of the
presented research, a typical education building is chosen as a case study
to answer how the proposed system achieves more effective asset
management. The selected building contains common components and
functional spaces such as various labs, classrooms, and offices and serves
as a representative example to verify and validate the proposed system.
Fig. 1 presents the research methodology. As shown in the figure, it
consists of three steps: 1) developing a lifecycle building asset man­
agement model, 2) developing and implementing a lifecycle relational
database model for asset management, and 3) applying the developed
system in a typical educational building for demonstration.
• Step 1: Developing a lifecycle building asset management model
In this research, a lifecycle building asset management model is first
developed by formalizing a unified WBS. The WBS is used as the un­
derlying integrated lifecycle model for the asset management process. As
described earlier, existing asset management is limited in several aspects
such as 1) lack of coverage of utilities; 2) the inability to include all types
of assets in any building type; 3) insufficient in locating building assets
inside various kinds of buildings accurately. To address these limita­
tions, a comprehensive WBS is formalized based on an extensive liter­
ature review, industry practices, and standards. It provides a unified
hierarchy to categorize and organize various building facilities. The
WBS is capable of managing the building lifecycle phases, ultimately
ensuring that all data gathered from the design and construction phases
are effectively integrated with the asset management phase. The WBS
can unify information from various sources, such as as-built BIM from
the design and construction stage and inspection data from the opera­
tion and management stage. Fig. 2 schematically illustrates the proposed
WBS model that integrates all lifecycle phases and overcomes the data
blockage in the current practice.
• Step 2: Developing and implementing a lifecycle relational database
model for asset management that is integrated with BIM
Following this, a relational database is then developed based on the
lifecycle building asset management model and is further integrated
with BIM. It is worth noting that BIM offers historical data (as-built in­
formation) for building asset management, as it is a rich information
repository that hosts information required for asset management. In
other words, BIM provides a portion of asset information (e.g., status
facility data), whereas dynamic data in the formalized WBS hierarchy is
stored in the relational database (e.g., the lowest level, asset attributes,
which is described in Section 4). The dynamic building condition data
could be updated continuously during the operation and management
M. Al-Kasasbeh et al. Journal of Building Engineering xxx (xxxx) xxx

Fig. 2. Proposed asset data flow.

Fig. 3. Unified WBS for integrated lifecycle building asset management model.

stage. items, including data entry forms and reports.

Accordingly, the relational model composes of historical, static, and
dynamic databases. This step involves the following tasks: 1) developing
the data acquisition module, which includes designing the required asset
inspection and analysis forms for the dynamic database along with the
data entry forms for populating the static and historical databases; 2)
developing the data storage module, which includes creating the data­
base tables from the relational data model and database schema; 3)
creating the data processing module, which includes integrating BIM
with DBMS for extracting historical as-built asset information from BIM
models as well as developing the asset management reports; and 4)
developing the web-based user interface, which involves two menu
• Step 3: This step develops an educational building case study to
demonstrate how the proposed integrated system is used for asset
management
In specific, an education building is chosen as a case study, i.e., the
College of Engineering and Applied Sciences (CEAS) building at Western
Michigan University (WMU). It is selected because this building is a
typical multiple-story building for both teaching and research, which
consists of various functional spaces such as teaching labs, research labs,
classrooms, offices, study lounges, and so forth. All asset information is

4
M. Al-Kasasbeh et al. Journal of Building Engineering xxx (xxxx) xxx

Fig. 4. Building asset database schema.

5
M. Al-Kasasbeh et al. Journal of Building Engineering xxx (xxxx) xxx

Fig. 5. Data entry form: a) dynamic inspection, b) analysis data, c) historical data.

6
M. Al-Kasasbeh et al.
Fig. 6. Proposed asset database storage module design.
Fig. 7. The ETL technique data flow diagram.
collected and stored in the developed database. Asset reporting is used to
demonstrate how the developed system effectively and efficiently pro­
vides desired information for condition assessment and facilitates deci­
sion making in asset management. The proposed methodology is
described in detail in the following sections.
4. WBS-BASED lifecycle model for asset management
Effective asset data management requires the development of an
integrated data model so that information can flow smoothly during the
lifecycle. This research utilizes a WBS to develop the building inventory
system in consideration of the project life cycle. A WBS is regarded as
one of the essential tools for defining and structuring project work [32].
Additionally, most organizations use WBS to break down a project into
manageable work packages that have well-defined scopes [33]. A WBS
breaks down the project deliverables into smaller units and organizes
the project team’s work into manageable components. It, as a hierar­
chical structure, categorizes and organizes project work. Each
descending level in the hierarchy represents increasingly detailed work.
This hierarchy and breakdown are essential within building asset man­
agement, allowing projects to be subdivided into deliverables. The WBS
is typically designed through a top-down approach. The upper levels of
the WBS are broken into logical groupings of work; each subsequent
level is further broken down until the work has reached a manageable
size. It subdivides work into manageable units that include all the pro­
cedures required to obtain the objectives.
Fig. 3 shows the proposed lifecycle WBS for the building asset
management model, integrating the design and construction data with
the operation and maintenance phases. The unified WBS framework is
proposed to track and manage all of a facility’s lifecycle phases, hence
facilitating data flow throughout the lifecycle of a building. This WBS
framework consists of eight levels, with the top-level being the asset
management system. Level two of this hierarchy is building categories
such as education buildings and healthcare facilities. Level three covers
the major building components, such as substructure, superstructure,
7
Journal of Building Engineering xxx (xxxx) xxx
and site work. Level four is building systems, including structural,
architectural, mechanical, electrical, and conveyance systems.
Level five refers to such building subsystems as openings, finishes,
and furnishing under the architectural system, and sanitary sewage,
storm drainage, fire suppression, plumbing, and HVAC (heating, venti­
lating, and air conditioning) under the mechanical system. Level six is
the floors of buildings. Level seven is space functions, including class­
room, laboratories, mechanical room, and so forth. The last level is as­
sets, such as drainage piping and windows. It is worth noting that this
framework is designed to have the flexibility to create asset accounts at
any level on the WBS hierarchy depending on the required details and
available resources. At the asset account level, the system must cover all
activities, information, and processes that result in the achievement of
effective building management throughout the building life cycle [9].
4.1. Coding system
An identification system is developed to support the WBS frame­
work. It is designed to provide an easy mechanism for coding each task
so that tasks are uniquely numbered and correctly summarized. In
addition, the work can easily be identified and tracked over time. The
proposed coding scheme can identify all the processes and tasks of a
building project. In a WBS, every level entity has a unique assigned
number; level 1 is designated by 1.0, all other levels are subordinate to
this level. Level 2 is designated by 1. X (e.g., 1.1, 1.2, 1.3). Level 3 is
designated by 1.X.X (e.g., 1.1.1, 1.1.2,1.1.3). This sequence continues
progressively until the asset task level is assigned for all work required
for the entire project. The proposed WBS has eight levels. Each
component at the last level should have a code that contains eight digits.
Since the tasks are properly subordinated, the project tasks can be
automatically numbered.
5. A lifecycle relational database model for asset management
The development of an integrated building asset data management
M. Al-Kasasbeh et al. Journal of Building Engineering xxx (xxxx) xxx

Fig. 8. The web interface of integrated lifecycle asset management.

Fig. 9. Asset account inspection form.

Fig. 10. Asset account prediction form.

system requires designing a corresponding database schema that rep­
resents the various lifecycle phases of the building assets. Fig. 4 presents
the building asset database schema. The relational database schema
discussed in this section was created using an entity-relationship con­
ceptual data model. Relations are expressed using the following format
with the primary keys underlined: Relation-name (i.e., attribute 1,
attribute 2, …., attribute n). The integrated lifecycle building asset
management relational model consists of three primary databases: his­
torical, static, and dynamic. The following subsections discuss these
databases.
5.1. Historical database
The historical database contains the tables that hold historical as-
built information generated from the design and construction phases
and potentially stored in BIM models. As shown in Fig. 4, these tables in
this database include 1) Building (Building ID, Building description,
Building address, Building area, Building year built, Categories ID); and
2) Asset account definitions (Asset account ID, Building ID, Asset ac­
count description, Criticality value, Installation or placed date, Design
life, Replacement value).

8
M. Al-Kasasbeh et al. Journal of Building Engineering xxx (xxxx) xxx

Fig. 11. Asset account maintenance form.

Fig. 12. Developed WBS for WMU’s CEAS building.

5.2. Static database 5.3. Dynamic database

The static database holds tables that define the components and
processes in the asset management system. These tables consist of 1)
Facilities categories (Categories ID, Categories description); 2) Inspec­
tion method (Inspection method ID, Inspection method description); 3)
Condition rating (Condition rating ID, Condition rating description,
Rating, Action required); 4) Criticality rating (Criticality rating ID,
Criticality rating description, Rating); 5) Risk rating (Risk rating ID,
Asset account ID, Rating description, Risk value, Condition value, Crit­
icality value); and 6) Employee (Employee ID, Name, Employee expe­
rience, Employee address).
The dynamic database includes the tables that store and process asset
condition assessment and prediction information over time. These tables
contain 1) Asset account inspection (Asset account ID, Inspection date,
Condition value, Inspection method ID, Employee ID, Condition rating
ID, Time on service); 2) Asset account remaining life prediction (Asset
account ID, Prediction date, Employee ID, Remaining service life); and
3) Asset account maintenance (ID, Asset account ID, Maintenance
Description, Rehabilitation cost, Maintenance date).
6. An integrated BIM-DBMS asset management system

The design of the BIM-DBMS asset management system includes the

9
M. Al-Kasasbeh et al.
Fig. 13. Facility categories table in the static storage module.
Fig. 14. Inspection methods table in the static storage module.
design of data acquisition, data storage, and data processing modules
along with the user interface. Each module is described in the following
sub-sections.
6.1. Data acquisition module
The data acquisition module is developed to facilitate the data entry
for populating the three databases. It consists of several forms, as shown
in Fig. 5. Specifically, each static table in the static database has a data
entry form. For the static database, the information can be obtained
directly from the user or extracted from the static or historical databases.
The inspection and analysis data acquisition forms have been designed
to populate the dynamic database. In the inspection data entry form,
information regarding the condition of assets includes current condition,
inspection date, and other relevant static and historical data, as shown in
Fig. 5a.
The analysis data entry form is used for the prediction of asset
remaining life and is based on user data as well as data from the static
and historical databases (see Fig. 5b). For the historical database, the
information can be obtained from the design and construction phases,
which is extracted from the BIM model. To populate the tables in this
database, entry forms, as well as automated extraction and populating
scripts, were developed. Fig. 5c shows the data entry form for the his­
torical database, which includes the asset account definition tables. It
should be noted that this form is directly invoked by the Extract,
Transform, and Load (ETL) interface to populate the relevant database
tables and is not directly accessible by users.
10
Journal of Building Engineering xxx (xxxx) xxx
6.2. Data storage module
The data storage module achieves the lifecycle data integration by
using BIM and DBMS. Fig. 6 schematically illustrates the proposed
module. Specifically, as-build data and static data were obtained from
BIM and collected from the design and construction phases. Such data
was saved into historical and static databases. On the contrary, dynamic
data can be obtained from the asset management phase using inspection
and analysis forms. It should be noted that the complete data storage
module is an implementation of the DBMS schema discussed earlier and
shown in Fig. 4.
6.3. Data processing module
To facilitate the extraction of as-built data from the design and
construction phases to the asset management decision support system,
an ETL-based automated technique was developed. Fig. 7 schematically
illustrates how this technique has been carried out by performing the
three operations: 1) Extracting the as-built data from BIM models using
flat comma-separated values files; 2) Transforming the extracted data to
a staging area for re-formatting to fit the relational database schema;
and 3) Loading the data into the historical database tables.
6.3.1. Asset reporting
Four database views were designed and developed to process the
asset data and produce reports. Each view produces an asset manage­
ment report that is used for decision making. The four reports that have
been developed are:
• Asset account status report: This report is useful when the status of a
particular asset is needed by the asset manager. In this report, the
asset account condition behavior can be identified for a specified
given time interval. Determining the condition behavior later also
helps in prediction analysis for this asset,
• Asset accounts condition assessment report: This report includes
condition information about all existing asset accounts for a given
date range. It facilitates making decisions regarding maintenance
needs and helps with fund allocation,
M. Al-Kasasbeh et al. Journal of Building Engineering xxx (xxxx) xxx

Fig. 15. Condition rating table in the static storage module.

6.4.2. Reports
Four user report options exist under the report menu item: 1) Asset
account status report form, 2) Building asset accounts condition
assessment report form, 3) Building asset accounts condition prediction
report form, and 4) Building asset accounts risk assessment report form.
Examples of these reports are discussed in the case study section.

7. Case study

The CEAS building at WMU is used as a case study in this research to

Fig. 16. Criticality rating table in the static storage module.
demonstrate how to use the proposed automated WBS-based asset
management framework and decision support system. The CEAS was
• Asset account remaining service life report. This report presents the built in 2003 with a total space of 323,000 square feet on two floors that
prediction of the remaining life for all existing assets. It can be
helpful for future planning of fund allocation as well as taking pro­
active maintenance actions,
• Asset account risk assessment report. This report shows the risk value
for all existing assets for a given date range. It is used when the
criticality is important for the decision since the risk value is a
function of both condition value and the criticality. Examples of
these reports are provided with the case study section.

6.4. Graphic user interface

A web-based user interface has been developed for this system to

provide access from any computer connected to the internet using a
standard browser. The interface includes two menu items (see Fig. 8),
including 1) Data entry forms and 2) Reports.

6.4.1. Data entry forms

This component includes dynamic, static, and historical database
entry options. Dynamic database option has three data entry forms,
including asset account inspection, asset account prediction, and asset
account maintenance forms. Fig. 9 presents an asset account inspection
form. Fig. 10 presents the asset account prediction form, and Fig. 11
shows the asset account maintenance form. It is worth noting that some
of the fields are populated automatically from the static database, while
other fields are entered by the user. For example, once the user enters an
ID, the asset account description is filled with information from the
database automatically. The static database option has six forms that
facilitate populating the tables in the static database. The historical
database option facilitates populating the historical database using the
ETL technique and the automated scripts that are developed for
extracting as-built data.
Fig. 18. Risk rating table in the static storage module.

Fig. 17. Employee table in the static storage module.

11
M. Al-Kasasbeh et al.
Fig. 19. a. WMU’s buildings table in the historical BIM database. b. CEAS building’s asset account definition table in the historical BIM database.
are dedicated to teaching and research. It includes seven computer
teaching labs, 75 research and teaching laboratories, and several class­
rooms, offices, study lounges, and breakout rooms. The building also has
a penthouse that houses all its mechanical and electrical systems. The
layout of the building is divided into two 600-foot wings (east and west)
that are joined by a central glass hub. In addition to the entire engi­
neering complex, there are two attached parking garages and a
basement.
A WBS asset management inventory of CEAS has been developed for
the automated asset management system. The portion of the WBS is
shown in Fig. 12, which illustrates the CEAS substructure and super­
structure. From this figure, the first level is the entire asset management
system, followed by the educational building type as the second level.
The third level is the building components, which include substructure
and superstructure. The fourth level is the system level and consists of
the CEAS architectural, electrical, mechanical, structural, and conveyor
systems. The fifth level is the subsystems, including finishes and open­
ings for the architectural system; HVAC for the mechanical system;
lighting and power for the electrical system; and walls and stairs for the
structural system. The sixth level is the floors and includes the CEAS
first, second, and penthouse levels for the superstructure, and the
basement under the substructure. The seventh level is the space function
and includes such spaces as faculty and administrative offices, stair area
and bathrooms on the first floor, classroom on the second floor, elec­
trical rooms in the basement, and mechanical room in the penthouse.
The eighth level includes such assets as ceilings for faculty and admin­
istrative offices, electrical power generator for electrical rooms, and
wood single-flush door size: 36′′ × 84′′ for classroom E− 241.
As mentioned before, the proposed WBS framework has flexible asset
accounts at different levels of detail. In this case study, the asset ac­
counts are marked with an asterisk, as shown in Fig. 12. As demon­
strated in this figure, the asset account level represents the depth of the
asset management breakdown for each subdivision. The following are
examples of asset accounts defined at different WBS levels along with
their descriptions:
• Asset account defined at the floor level (level 6):
− West and east wings of first floor doors for classrooms, halls,
faculty, and administrative office.
− Structural system in west and east wings for basement floor,
which includes beams, columns, walls, slabs, and stairs.
• Asset account defined at the subsystem level (level 5):
− Lighting system for all building floors (first floor, second floor,
and penthouse).
• Asset account defined at the space function level (level 7):
− Mechanical equipment in west wing of penthouse for mechanical
room A-3001.
12
Journal of Building Engineering xxx (xxxx) xxx
− Finishes in the east wing of the first floor for bathroom F205. This
includes ceiling, flooring, and wall finishes.
− Stair for space function A102. The base level for this stair is the
first floor, and the top-level is the second floor.
• Asset account defined at asset level (level 8):
− Celling for faculty office G262 in east wing of first floor.
− Electrical power generator for electrical room F001 in east wing of
basement.
− Wood single-flush door size: 36′′ × 84′′ for room E− 241 in the east
wing of the second floor.
7.1. DBMS tables and data entry
7.1.1. Static database tables
For the static database storage module that has been identified in
DBMS, each table has fixed data (static), as shown in Figs. 13–18. These
figures present the data entry for facility categories table, inspection
method, condition rating table, criticality rating table, employee table,
and risk rating table, respectively.
7.1.2. Historical database tables
The historical (as-built) database has been extracted from BIM
models. This database includes the building table and asset account
definition table, as shown in Fig. 19a and b. Fig. 19a presents historical
information regarding the CEAS building included in this database (of
which CEAS is one). Fig. 20b depicts a historical database for the
selected asset accounts for CEAS. For populating the dynamic database,
inspection, and analysis information for these asset accounts have been
collected. The inspection data covers the period from 2015 to 2018, the
prediction information covers the period from 2014 to 2018, and the
maintenance database table year from 2015 to 2018. Examples of these
databases are shown in Fig. 20a, b, and c, respectively.
7.2. Asset management reporting
The following reports are examples from the CEAS asset manage­
ment decision support system:
• Asset Account Status Report (see Fig. 21): This report presents an
example of the status of a specific asset over a specified period of
time. For example, Fig. 21 is the Celling for Faculty Office G262 in East
Wing of First Floor asset account report and shows that the ceiling of
this room was in good condition (Rated as 2) in 2015 and began to
deteriorate in 2016 and 2017 with ratings of 3 and 4, respectively. In
2018, this asset reached a rating of 5 that requires a total
replacement.
M. Al-Kasasbeh et al. Journal of Building Engineering xxx (xxxx) xxx

Fig. 20. a. CEAS building’s asset account inspection table. b. CEAS building’s asset account remaining life prediction table. c. CEAS building’s asset account
maintenance table.

13
M. Al-Kasasbeh et al.
Fig. 21. An example of an asset account status report.
• Building Asset Accounts Condition Assessment Report (see Fig. 22):
This report presents condition ratings during March 2018 for all
CEAS asset accounts. This report indicates that some asset accounts
(i.e., celling for faculty office G262 in the east wing of the first floor)
need to be replaced. In contrast, others (i.e., lighting system for all
building floors (first floor, ground floor, and penthouse)) do not need
any maintenance.
• Building Assets Account Remaining Service Life Report (see Fig. 23):
This report presents the prediction of the remaining service life for all
CEAS asset accounts from the year 2016–2018. From this report, the
asset manager must conclude that the Celling for Faculty Office G262
in East Wing of First Floor asset account is a priority.
• Building Asset Accounts Risk Assessment Report (see Fig. 24): In this
report, all the risk values for the CEAS asset accounts in 2018 have
been presented. This report shows that the asset accounts, including
lighting system for all building floors (first floor, ground floor, and
penthouse), stair for space function A102, and mechanical equip­
ment in the west wing of the penthouse for mechanical room A-3001,
have more risk value so it should be the focus of the asset manager.
8. Discussions and conclusions
Building asset management is an integrated data-driven decision-
making process that is needed for proactively maintaining and ensuring
the long-term sustainability of building assets. This research contributes
a building asset management system that was developed using a unified
WBS hierarchy as the sole model for managing all university buildings
during all phases of the building lifecycle. An integrated decision sup­
port system for building asset management using BIM and DBMS was
then developed. This included developing data acquisition, data storage,
and data processing modules. The proposed decision support system
Fig. 22. An example of a building asset accounts condition assessment report.
14
Journal of Building Engineering xxx (xxxx) xxx
facilitated a wide range of functionalities, including the accurate
acquisition, storage, processing, and reporting of asset information
promptly. It has also increased operational efficiency by aiding in the
planning, execution, and coordination of maintenance operations.
It is worth noting that the integrated decision support system for
building asset management was developed using BIM and DBMS. The
integration between BIM and DBMS was achieved by the ETL technique
in the form of flat comma-separated values files. The WBS-based
framework is generic for all kinds of university buildings and lays a
foundation for managing and organizing buildings for effective building
asset management. However, the information extracted from BIM
(which is described in Section 5.1) could be exchanged through COBie
format. That is, the identified information could be transferred from BIM
to the integrated decision support system for building asset management
using COBie. In such a case, the extracted data in the format of COBie
need to be saved to the staging area and then re-formatted to fit the
relational database schema.
The integrated approach in this paper addresses the challenges dis­
cussed in the literature by creating one unified model that can be used
throughout the lifecycle of a building. It results in more sustainable,
efficient, and well-managed buildings, as well as in eliminating the
costly and time-consuming efforts caused by the separation of the life­
cycle processes. The proposed framework provides an inventory system
that covers all types of buildings along with their lifecycle information.
For example, the framework provides an accurate location for each asset
in a building, hence facilitating maintenance work assignments and
allowing information integration between the various phases of the
lifecycle. It also allows for creating flexible asset accounts that can be
defined at any WBS level, depending on the desired details and the
availability of resources.
Author statement
Maha Al-Kasasbeh: Methodology, Software, Investigation, Writing-
Original draft preparation.
Osama Abudayyeh: Methodology, Writing- Reviewing and Editing,
Supervision.
Hexu Liu: Methodology, Validation, Writing- Reviewing and Edit­
ing, Project administration, Supervision.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
M. Al-Kasasbeh et al. Journal of Building Engineering xxx (xxxx) xxx

Fig. 23. An example of building asset accounts remaining service life report.

Fig. 24. An example of building asset account risk assessment report.

References [8] M.N. Grussing, Life-cycle asset management methodologies for buildings,
J. Infrastruct. Syst. 20 (1) (2014), 04013007-1-04013007-8.
[9] R Maha Alkasisbeh, O. Abudayyeh, Development of work breakdown structure
[1] M.A. Akofio-Sowah, R. Boadi, A. Amekudzi, M. Meyer, Managing ancillary
inventory framework for building assets, in: Conference of Construction Research
transportation assets: the state of the practice, J. Infrastruct. Syst. 20 (1) (2014),
Congress 2018, 2018.
04013010.
[10] J.D. Goedert, P. Meadati, Integrating construction process documentation into
[2] S.W.A. Shah, M.N. Mahmood, N. Das, Strategic asset management framework for
building information modeling, J. Construct. Eng. Manag. 134 (7) (2008) 509–516.
the improvement of large scale PV power plants in Australia, in: 2016 Australasian
[11] K. Farghaly, F.H. Abanda, C. Vidalakis, G. Wood, Taxonomy for BIM and asset
Universities Power Engineering Conference (AUPEC), IEEE, 2016, pp. 1–5.
management semantic interoperability, J. Manag. Eng. 34 (4) (2018), 04018012,
[3] A. Eweda, T. Zayed, S. Alkass, Space-based condition assessment model for
https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000610.
buildings: case study of educational buildings, J. Perform. Constr. Facil. 29 (1)
[12] S. Lee, J. Yu, D. Jeong, BIM acceptance model in construction organizations,
(2015), 04014032 (1)-04014032(12).
J. Manag. Eng. (2015), 04014048, https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)ME.1943-
[4] T. Hegazy, W. Gad, Dynamic system for prioritizing and accelerating inspections to
5479.0000252.
support capital renewal of buildings, J. Comput. Civ. Eng. 29 (5) (2015),
[13] X. Yin, H. Liu, Y. Chen, Y. Wang, M. Al-Hussein, A BIM-based framework for
04014058-1-04014058-8.
operation and maintenance of utility tunnels, Tunn. Undergr. Space Technol. 97
[5] R Maha Alkasisbeh, O. Abudayyeh, Building Asset Management System: A
(2020) 103252.
Performance Evaluation Approach, Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers,
[14] H. Yan, P. Damian, Benefits and barriers of building information modeling, in: 12th
2018, 2018.
International Conference on Computing in Civil and Building Engineering, Beijing,
[6] A. Elhakeem, T. Hegazy, Building asset management with deficiency tracking and
2008.
integrated life cycle optimisation, Struct. Infrastruct. Eng. 8 (8) (2012) 729–738.
[7] S.S. Ahluwalia, A Framework for Efficient Condition Assessment of the Building
Infrastructure, Ph.D. thesis, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada, 2008.

15
M. Al-Kasasbeh et al.
[15] F. Mehmet, Benefits of Building Information Modeling for Construction Managers
and BIM Based Scheduling, M.S. thesis, Worcester Polytechnic Institute,
Massachusetts, 2011.
[16] S. Talebi, Exploring advantages and challenges of adaptation and implementation
of BIM in project life cycle, in: 2nd BIM International Conference on Challenges to
Overcome, BIM Forum Portugal, 2014.
[17] A. Ghosh, A.D. Chasey, M. Mergenschroer, Building information modeling for
facilities management: current practices and future prospects, Build. Inf. Model.
(2015) 223–253, https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784413982.ch09.
[18] S. Terreno, C. Anumba, E. Gannon, C. Dubler, The benefits of BIM integration with
facilities management: a preliminary case study, Comput. Civil Eng. (2015),
10.1061-9780784479247.084.
[19] Jaehyun Park, Hubo Cai, WBS-based dynamic multi-dimensional BIM database for
total construction as-built documentation, Autom. ConStruct. 77 (2017) 15–23,
2017.
[20] P. Brous, P. Herder, M. Janssen, Governing asset management data infrastructures,
95, Procedia Comput. Sci. 9 (1) (2016) 303–310. Available: ISSN 1877-0509.
[21] H. Liu, O. Abudayyeh, W. Liou, BIM-based smart facility management: a review of
present research status, challenges, and future needs, in: 2020 Construction
Research Congress, Tempt, Arizona, USA, 2020. March 8-10.
[22] Tuyen Le, H. David Jeong, Interlinking lifecycle data spaces to support decision
making in highway asset management, Autom. ConStruct. 64 (2016) 54–64, 2016.
[23] C. Yuan, T. McClure, P. Dunston, H. Cai, Leveraging construction inspection and
documentation for asset inventory and lifecycle asset management, J. Inf. Technol.
Construct. 21 (2016) 72–85, 2016.
[24] C. Yuan, T. McClure, P. Dunston, H. Cai, Life-cycle approach to collecting,
managing, and sharing, J. Construct. Eng. Manag. 143 (6) (2017), 04017001.
16
Journal of Building Engineering xxx (xxxx) xxx
[25] W. Thabet, J. Lucas, Asset data handover for a large educational institution: case-
study approach, J. Construct. Eng. Manag. 143 (11) (2017), 05017017.
[26] C. Talamo, M. Bonanomi, Methodological experimentation: proposal of a datasheet
template for FM activities in the BIM environment, in: Knowledge Management
and Information Tools for Building Maintenance and Facility Management,
Springer International Publishing, Switzerland, 2015.
[27] H.B. Cavka, S. Staub-French, E.A. Poirier, Developing owner information
requirements for BIM-enabled project delivery and asset management, Autom.
ConStruct. 83 (2017) 169–183.
[28] P. Parsanezhad, J. Dimyadi, Effective facility management and operations via a
BIM-based integrated information system, in: CIB Facilities Management (CFM)
2014 Conference, 21-23 May, 2014, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2014.
[29] P. Teicholz, BIM for Facility Managers, Wiley, Hoboken, NJ, 2013.
[30] R. Jang, W. Collinge, Improving BIM asset and facilities management processes: a
Mechanical and Electrical (M&E) contractor perspective, J. Build. Eng. (2020)
101540.
[31] P. Runeson, M. Höst, Guidelines for conducting and reporting case study research
in software engineering, Empir. Software Eng. 14 (2) (2009) 131.
[32] H. Liu, M. Lu, M. Al-Hussein, BIM-based integrated framework for detailed cost
estimation and schedule planning of construction projects, in: ISARC. Proceedings
of the International Symposium on Automation and Robotics in Construction, vol.
31, IAARC Publications, 2014, p. 1.
[33] Y.M. Ibrahim, A. Kaka, G. Aouad, M. Kagioglou, Framework for a generic work
breakdown structure for building projects, Construct. Innovat. 9 (4) (2009)
388–405.