Ain Shams Engineering Journal 12 (2021) 455–463

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Ain Shams Engineering Journal

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Civil Engineering

The level of Building Information Modelling (BIM) Implementation in

Malaysia
Idris Othman a, Yasser Yahya Al-Ashmori a,⇑, Yani Rahmawati a, Y.H. Mugahed Amran b,c,
Mohammed Ali Mohammed Al-Bared a
a
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, 32610 Seri Iskandar, Perak Darul Ridzuan, Malaysia
b
Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, 11942 Alkharj, Saudi Arabia
c
Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and IT, Amran University, 9677 Quhal, Amran, Yemen

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Building Information Modelling is one of the crucial topics in the construction industry. The construction
Received 17 August 2019 industry has played an important role to assist stakeholders to successfully transfer construction prac-
Revised 25 January 2020 tices to BIM-based technology. Currently, no systematic research that has been carried out to determine
Accepted 13 April 2020
the level of BIM implementation in Malaysia. Therefore, this paper aims to evaluate the diffusion of BIM
Available online 11 June 2020
among Malaysian companies. The results of the 268 responses received revealed that only 13% of the par-
ticipants from both public and private sectors are using BIM in their organization and this is a negative
Keywords:
sign that Malaysia is still far away from the position it supposed to be in BIM implementation. Lack of
Building information modelling
BIM implementation
awareness, costs, slow adaptation, unavailability of a clear guideline to assist organizations and policy-
BIM awareness makers toward BIM implementation transforming and that BIM was not mandated in sufficient time
BIM usage were observed to be responsible for the slow implementation.
BIM benefits Ó 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University.
Malaysia This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-
nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction been increasingly adopting it [3,4]. In reality, transformation was

BIM is a new approach introduced in construction projects to
manage building design and project data in digital form through-
out a building’s life cycle, an approach that provides the exchange
and interoperability of information among the stakeholders [1]. Its
powerful benefits to reduce cost and time and increase productiv-
ity and efficiency have driven construction players to adopt it and
increasingly implement it in various domains [2]. Since 1970 s,
transformation from traditional construction practices to BIM-
based design has become one of the most widely debated and writ-
ten about topic on construction and therefore the AEC industry has
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: Yasser.alashmori@gmail.com, Yasser_16001693@utp.edu.my
(Y.Y. Al-Ashmori).
Peer review under responsibility of Ain Shams University.
Production and hosting by Elsevier
seen as a challenging process because it transforms through four
main stages; conventional stage (level 0). design-based modelling
stage (level 1), collaboration-based modelling stage (level 2), and
integration-based modelling stage (level 3) which represent the
levels of BIM development [5]. The types of processes, tools, tech-
niques, level of information, and collaboration to be used are cate-
gorized for each stage. Nevertheless, Extent of organizations’
performance or ability within a particular stage is measured to
determine BIM maturity level according to the BIM stages [6,7].
This paper has briefly highlighted the background of BIM, pre-
sented the level of BIM implementation in the international con-
text and evaluated the level of BIM in the Malaysian construction
industry. It is aimed to establish the current level of BIM imple-
mentation in Malaysia and identify its benefits to Malaysian con-
struction industry. Previous studies have discussed BIM benefits,
its challenges, and its technique effectiveness but no efforts have
been undertaken to establish the level of BIM implementation
among local construction companies. This would provide a bench-
mark for the Malaysian construction industry to define a suitable
framework for construction players for successful transformation
through BIM stages.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2020.04.007
2090-4479/Ó 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
456 I. Othman et al. / Ain Shams Engineering Journal 12 (2021) 455–463
2. Literature review
This section presents the background of BIM technology and
illustrates the BIM implementation in the international and
Malaysian context. Issues in construction and an understanding
of their possible impact on construction performance will be elab-
orated. Authors have presented the significant progression that has
been taken by Malaysian construction to improve construction
performance related to BIM implementation.
2.1. Background of BIM
Building Information Modelling (BIM) is a process that trans-
forms construction process from fragmental traditional practices
to an integrated digital manner process. It is supported by various
tools, technologies and contracts to gather, generate, analyse, and
manage the digital representation of the produced project model
[8,9]. BIM is well known as n-D Modelling platform for effective
communication and collaboration and its application has extended
from 3D geometric model to include scheduling, costing, and facil-
ity management [10]. BIM implementation added valuable advan-
tages to construction industry throughout the project life cycle. In
the design stage, BIM has proved its capability to enhance produc-
tivity and efficiency [10–12]. In construction stage, BIM can incor-
porate auto scheduling and cost analysis, and allows for enhanced
coordination and quality of project delivery [3,13].
2.2. BIM implementation in the international context
Internationally, BIM implementation has achieved a significant
level in certain developed and developing countries. According to
the report from McGraw Hill Construction, BIM implementation
is rapidly increasing in the international context [14]. In US, UK
and other European countries, BIM is mandated. Singapore has
reached 50% adoption and already required all projects to be sub-
mitted via BIM e-submissions. In Native, BIM format since 2016
and the government has issued different guides and code of prac-
tices for BIM implementation [15,16]. Also, Australia has achieved
strong adoption whereby around 42% of Australian SMEs use BIM
in level 1 and level 2 and around 5% have tried level 3 [17]. So,
there is a high competition in construction industries in those
countries to adopt technology and transform construction prac-
tices from conventional process to BIM-based technology.
2.3. BIM implementation in Malaysian construction industry
Construction industry in Malaysia plays an important role to
the Malaysian economy, contributing approximately 3 to 5 percent
of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) annually [18]. Therefore,
Malaysian construction industry has taken very significant steps
to improve construction performance in the national level through
the introduction of BIM since 2007 [19,20]. Malaysian Public Work
Department (PWD) embraced BIM since then by targeting that BIM
should be implemented on 10% of public projects under Rancangan
Malaysia ke-11 (RMK11) above RM 50 million. In addition, begin-
ning in 2018, BIM is mandate for any public project budgeted at
RM100 million and above [21]. According to Datuk Seri Dr Roslan
Md Taha (PWD Director-General), a total of 18 projects have imple-
mented BIM in different phases in PWD up to 2017 as shown in
Table 1. The purpose of BIM implementation in these projects dif-
fered according to design authoring, visualization, design review,
coordination, documentation quantity, and/or record model [22].
In 2015, construction industry launched a transformation program
and BIM was promoted to improve productivity [23].
Although, CIDB in Malaysia organizes a yearly program to pro-
mote BIM among construction practitioners to improve construc-
tion practices, Malaysian construction industry is still controlled
by traditional processes [24] which results in delay, cost overrun,
poor quality, low performance and low productivity, all of which
impact development and delay its international competitiveness.
According to Memon et al. [25], while BIM implementation in
Malaysia has met the requirements during the design phase, it is
poor during the construction phase. The application of BIM in the
design stage is more in the modelling parts, while in the construc-
tion stage it is not implemented [25]. This fragmentation in the
implementation causes delay of BIM application and keeps the
industry at a low level of BIM implementation. There are many rea-
sons for this fragmented process such as the lack of understanding
the process of BIM implementation, lack of skill in preparation of
plans in BIM and the ability to effectively utilize it with stakehold-
ers, resistance to changing current ways of working, lack of collab-
oration and coordination among various disciplines, limited
availability of usage guidelines, etc. [23].
3. Methodology
The objectives of this research are to identify the level of BIM
implementation in Malaysia, compare the finding to international
implementation, and identify the important benefits of BIM imple-
mentation. To achieve these objectives a questionnaire survey was
designed based on literature review. Then a semi structured inter-
view was conducted to validate the findings. Internet was the basis
of the literature review which was conducted to explore the BIM
technology implementation in the global context. Sources such as
journals, books, international conference and governmental
reports were used in this research. McGraw Hill Construction
2014 reports on BIM [14] was adopted to evaluate BIM implemen-
tation in the international context and used to identify variables
for evaluating BIM level based on the awareness of BIM technology
implementation process, BIM usage, and frequency of using BIM.
Therefore, in this research, the questionnaire was designed to
explore the participant background, and their knowledge about
BIM. Result of the questionnaire was validated by conducting semi
structured interview with two professionals on BIM in Malaysia.
This methodology developed a clear understanding of the level of
BIM implementation and benefits influencing companies to con-
sider BIM in their projects.
3.1. Data collection and sample size
The questionnaire was developed based on awareness of
respondent to BIM technology implementation process, BIM usage,
and frequency of using BIM. The questionnaire survey adopted in
this research was distributed during JELAJAH BIM, MyCREAST, &
QLASSIC 2018 seminar which was held in Melaka on the 2nd of
August 2018, Kedah on the 29th of August 2018, Sabah on the
20th of September 2018, and Sarawak on the 14th of November
2018. The seminar was open to Malaysian construction organiza-
tions and was focused on promoting BIM and other construction
technologies. This method of data collection was supported by
the two professionals invited for semi-structured interview as a
perfect strategy to involve companies interested in adopting BIM
as a new technology.
The population of respondents were calculated based on the
available online information under Real Estate & Housing Develop-
ers’ Association (REHDA) Malaysia for registered developers, the
Association of Consulting Engineers (ACE) for registered consultant
engineers, CIDB information system for registered contractors in
each state, and companies registered with CIDB MYBIM centre
 I. Othman et al. / Ain Shams Engineering Journal 12 (2021) 455–463 457

Table 1
BIM Implementation Phases in PWD’S BIM Projects [22].

Project Concept. Prelim. Detailed Procurement Construction As- Project Concept. Prelim. Detailed Procurement Construction As-Build
design design design Build design design design
p p p p p p p
National Cancer Bagan Datuk
Institute Polythecnic
Putrajaya
p p p p
SMK Meru Raya Kemaman
Ipoh Perak Hospital
p p p p p p p p p
Health Clinic Istana Raja
Maran Pahang Muda Perlis Arau
p p p p p p p p
MACC Selangor Besut
Shah Alam Polythecnic
p p p
MARA College Pre-Approved
Banting Plan (PAP)
Selangor
p p p
MBKT Kuala Pendang Hospital
Terengganu
p p p p
Endocrine Pasir Gudang
Complex Hospital
Putrajaya
Hospital
p p p
UTHM Batu Kajang Hospital
Pahat Johor
p p p p
Parit Buntar Seri Iskandar
Hospital Hospital

for registered companies of BIM services. The population were esti-
mated to be around 3533. By using Morgan’s table for determining
sample size from a given population [26], the sample size repre-
senting the total population is determined to be 346. In this
research, 590 questionnaires surveys were distributed to the par-
ticipants and 290 questionnaires were returned; out of the 290
retuned questionnaires, 268 were evaluated to be valid for further
analysis which covered the main objectives of this research. The
percentage of the returned questionnaire is around 77%, which is
acceptable limit by Akadiri [27].
3.2. Respondents demographic analysis
Participants involved in this research were targeted to be from
public and private sectors which include client/developers,
contractors, consultants, and participants from CIDB and MYBIM
centre. The results collected previously from responses from Mel-
aka state were published by the authors as a case study for BIM
level in Melaka [28], and it is merged in this paper with other
states to establish the level of BIM implementation in Malaysia.
The pie chart shown in Fig. 1 illustrates the percentage of the
respondent according to the states where the questionnaires were
distributed. As shown, the highest number of responses were col-
lected during the seminar in Kedah (38%) followed by responses
from Sarawak, Melaka and Sabah with 31%, 17% and 14%, respec-
tively. Participants from construction industry were from public
and private sector and included developers, consultants, contrac-
tors, academician, administrations, and others. It was observed
that the number of registered participants in the seminar were
around 200 in Kedah and Sarawak, while in Melaka and Sabah
the overall registered participants were about 100. Therefore, over-
all respondents are applicable to represent the level of BIM imple-
mentation in Malaysia. Professionals in the interview were asked
about the percentage of respondent and they both agreed that this
can perfectly reflect the level of BIM application in Malaysia.
For the interview, as highlighted two expert professionals were
invited to explore their feedback about the finding and discuss the
level of BIM implementation in details. The background of the
interviewees are as follow:

- Interviewee I: Director in a consultant company, he has a mas-

ter qualification and has been working for eight years. Seven
years of his experience involved BIM projects. He is extremely
aware of BIM implementation.
- Interviewee II: Head engineer for data management represent-
ing clients and developers, he has a Master of Business Admin-
istration and degree of mechanical engineering and he has been
working for 23 years. Two years of his experience involved BIM
projects. He is extremely aware of BIM implementation.

In this research, the authors have classified the respondents

Fig. 1. Percentage of Data Collection.
according to their qualification, years of experience, and position
as shown in Table 2. The qualification of respondents was mea-
sured to be 46%, 24%, and 14% for bachelor’s degree, diploma,
and high school, respectively. The percentage of respondents hold-
ing a master’s degree was 10% and only 1% had completed PhD. The
458 I. Othman et al. / Ain Shams Engineering Journal 12 (2021) 455–463

Table 2
Classification of Respondents (Demographic Analysis).

Melaka Kedah Sabah Sarawak total

Education Qualification High-school 0.4% 4.9% 4% 4.5% 14%
Diploma 3.7% 11.6% 2% 6.0% 24%
Bachelor degree 8.6% 17.2% 4% 15.7% 45%
Master degree 4.5% 2.6% 0% 2.2% 10%
PhD 0.0% 0.4% 0% 0.7% 1%
Others 0.0% 1.5% 2% 1.9% 5%
Years of Experiece Less than 5 years 5.6% 13.4% 4.5% 9.3% 33%
5 to 10 years 5.2% 9.7% 4.9% 7.1% 27%
10 to 15 years 1.9% 7.1% 1.1% 5.2% 15%
More than 15 years 4.5% 8.2% 3.0% 9.3% 25%
Designation Executive 3.0% 10.1% 1.9% 10.1% 25%
Senior Management 3.7% 9.7% 1.1% 6.7% 21%
Junior Management 3.0% 7.5% 1.9% 3.7% 16%
others 7.5% 11.2% 8.6% 10.4% 38%

figure also shows that around 33% of the respondents have worked
from one to less than 5 year, which is the highest percentage
among other working experience groups. Respondents with a
working experience between 5 and 10 years and more than
15 years were about 27% and 25%, respectively, and only 15% of
the respondents have worked from 10 to15 years, which is the
lowest. In terms of the respondent designation, it can be observed
that 25% of the respondents are executive management, 21% are
junior management, 16% are the senior management and 38% are
others that included engineers, lecturers, QS and admin, which
was the highest percentage among the respondents. The propor-
tion of respondents according to the state of the data collection
is illustrated in the table. According to the interview discussion
about the classification of respondents, both interviewed profes-
sionals believe that the designation could be anything related to
civil or construction project (engineering, management, or a lec-
turer at civil engineering department) as long as the respondent
has knowledge of construction projects and BIM. In terms of qual-
ification, they mentioned that the majority of industry players will
have a bachelor’s degree which was exactly similar to the ques-
tionnaire result. However, they highlighted that the qualification
level was not supposed to affect the quality of the response.
In terms of company establishment, this study classified
Fig. 2. Classification of Respondents’ Sector.
respondents as either public or private. Fig. 2 shows the percentage
of public sector to private sector. It is clearly shown that majority
of the respondents are from the private sector (68%), which was
approximately twice as high than the participants from the public
sector (32%). There is no exact explanation for variation, but the
authors found that Malaysian construction has mandated BIM to
any public project budgeted at RM100 million and above [21]. This
was seen as an acceptable reason to have more respondents from
private sectors seeking to enhance their awareness and under-
standing of this new technology and its application in construction
projects because CIDB has recommended the mandatory use of
Building Information Modelling (BIM) in certain private sector pro-
jects by 2020 [29].
In terms of the Nature of Business, this paper has a diverse
range of respondents from Clients/developers, contractors, civil
and structure engineers, architectures, and Mechanical, Electrical
and Piping engineers (MEP). Fig. 3 illustrated the percentage of
participants from each business according to their related sector.
Total of 45% and 15% from all states represent contractors and cli-
ents, respectively, which is the highest compared to others. In pub-
lic sector, contractors represent 9% and clients was 6%. About only
1% of the total respondent from MEP and architectural engineer in
both sectors. Civil and structural engineers recorded 6% and 3%
Fig. 3. Respondent Nature of Business.
from public sector and private sector respectively. The proportion
 I. Othman et al. / Ain Shams Engineering Journal 12 (2021) 455–463 459

of respondents according to the states are clearly illustrated in the

figure.
Since the data of this research were conducted through one of
the promoting programs organized by CIDB to enhance BIM appli-
cation in construction projects, the diversity of participants in such
activities provide a positive sign of future collaboration and readi-
ness of these organizations to adopt BIM-based technology. In
other words, the availability of different organizations, from differ-
ent background, interested in BIM technology shows that there is
initiation and positive motivation to make changes to use a new
technology such as BIM. In the next section, the authors had dis-
cussed the involvement of those companies with BIM application
and the findings of data collected.

4. Results and discussion

Fig. 5. Period of BIM Implementation to Company Establishment.
In this section, the questionnaire results are analysed based on
the research objectives. The result of the level of BIM implementa-
tion and the level of awareness will be elaborated. The results of
the descriptive analysis are then compared to other countries to
have a good indication of the Malaysian level of BIM
implementation.

4.1. BIM implementation in Malaysian construction industry

BIM implementation is always predicted by the readiness of

organization to adopt the technology and apply it in the business
environment. The bar chart in Fig. 4 represents the percentage of
organization that have adopted the implementation of BIM in their
construction projects, and it is clear that in both private and public
sectors, the number of organizations implementing BIM is very
low. This clearly indicates that BIM has not been adopted by those
organizations. The result revealed that only 8.2% from the public
sector are using BIM technology and only 4.9% from the private
sector. Most of the investigated companies reported that they are
not using BIM due to various reasons such as poor knowledge, cost,
lack of awareness, and/or difficulties to shift from traditional prac-
tices. It is clear that this has been an issue since 2013, as previous
reports have also shown that the level of BIM adoption and imple-
mentation is very low due to the similar above mentioned chal-
lenges [18,25,30,31]. It is clearly seen that around 10.8%
participants from both public and private sectors have no idea
whether their companies are using BIM or not, which could explain
the lack of knowledge about the technology.
McGraw Hill Construction evaluated the period of using BIM by
categorizing the time length to 1–2 year, 3–5 years, 6–10 years,
and more than 11 years [14]. This research adopted similar time
frame including 0 years for non-BIM users’ companies. Fig. 5
Fig. 4. Number of Participants Representing Organizations Using BIM in Malaysia.
Fig. 6. Period of Malaysian BIM Implementation Compared to Global Level of BIM
Implementation.
depicts the period of BIM implementation among organizations.
The highest value was observed in the 0-year users in both private
and public (56% and 16% respectively). Government supports the
application of BIM and the construction industry required BIM as
part of the agreement in government projects, therefore the appli-
cation of BIM in the public sectors is relatively higher than the pri-
vate sector. On the other hand, private sector faced challenges such
as business process changes, cost of technology, and professional
skills. Similar percentage in both sectors were recorded for compa-
nies using BIM for 1–2 years and 2–10 years, while only 11.1% of
public sector has used BIM more than 11 years.
The length of time that BIM has been utilized in Malaysia com-
panies is far behind the global level adopted from McGraw Hill
Construction report [14]. Fig. 6 compares the period of BIM tech-
nology application in different region and countries reported by
McGraw Hill Construction to result obtain by this research.
Adaptation and familiarity of the Practical BIM application will
have a significant impact to improve professional’s knowledge of
BIM implementation. In Malaysia, it is found that most construc-
tion organizations have not yet adopted the implementation of
BIM. As a result, professionals within the organization environ-
ment will not be able to experience and interact with the technol-
ogy and this would have a significant impact to improve the
technical and management skills of the construction team. Fig. 7
illustrates the frequency that respondents use BIM application.
The levels were designated as never, rarely, sometimes, often,
and always. Based on the responses, around 78% of the overall par-
460 I. Othman et al. / Ain Shams Engineering Journal 12 (2021) 455–463
Fig. 7. Frequency of Time Professionals Interfere With the BIM.
ticipant had never used BIM in his/her work and 10% has used it on
a rare basis. Assuming that sometimes is the good level of using
BIM that can help build skills and develop technical competency,
the total responses for those who use BIM in sometimes, often,
and always basis were measured to be only 12%. Those rates give
a drawback indicator of the BIM implementation in Malaysian con-
struction industry. Practical application of the technology is very
essential to overcome implementation challenges and understand
when, where and how to use the technology. Therefore, it is recom-
mended that construction companies to initiate the adaptation of
BIM and encourage their team to maintain its implementation.
This will make it easier for companies to involve BIM in their work
environment.
However, this finding shows that the level of BIM implementa-
tion is still very low and construction industry needs more effort to
enhance the practitioners’ orientation to BIM-based technology.
This study has explained the interviewees’ perception on the level
of BIM implementation to support and validate the above decision
of BIM implementation level. Interviewee 1 comments that Malay-
sia is not implementing BIM and he evaluated it at level 0 ‘‘conven-
tional level” because BIM project in Malaysia did not reduce cost,
time, and the productivity is still low. Interviewee 2 believed that
the implementation of BIM is not fully addressed and what Malay-
sia is practicing is just modelling which put it in level 1 modelling
stage. Both interviewees agreed that the implementation of BIM
concept as the management and collaboration platform was not
adopted and practiced. Interviewee 2 insisted that the BIM project
should fully utilize the concept of BIM through the construction
process which include the design stage, project execution, commis-
sioning and operation. Therefore, it is recommended that the orga-
nizations should commit to BIM adoption and start practicing BIM
processes within their projects, collaborate with each other to suc-
cessfully manage BIM project. Willingness and commitment
toward BIM technology is essential to make successful enhance-
ment of BIM implementation. Every sector in the construction
industry should be responsible to work together to improve con-
struction performance and achieve international competitiveness.
4.2. Awareness of BIM implementation
The awareness of BIM implementation and its processing in
construction projects has a significant impact to enhance top
Fig. 8. Awareness of BIM Implementation Process.
management decision toward the transformation to BIM-based
technology. BIM implementation is a challenging task and
involves multiple information from different parties, but aware-
ness of the processing would help to overcome the implementa-
tion challenges. This study has evaluated participants’
awareness of BIM process implementation as illustrated in
Fig. 8. The result revealed that majority of the respondents are
not aware of the BIM process. Although, private sector score
higher record than public sector, this does not indicate that pri-
vate sector is more aware than the public sector. The difference
in this proportion could be due to the difference in the partici-
pants from each sector. The proportion of professionals in both
sectors that scored a good understanding of the technology appli-
cation and process (in this study is moderate aware and above) is
still lower than it is supposed to be. Overall level of awareness
was 55% from all respondents.
During the seminars, participants discussed the BIM project
execution and how its information would be transferred through
different organization or parties in the same project. Participants
had serious doubts about the model ownership and privacy of
information. They were not clear of the BIM execution procedure.
Organizations tended to improve their involvements with BIM
and other technologies in Malaysia by attending CIDB related pro-
grams. Many participants have argued that the Malaysian govern-
ment should provide a comprehensive guide to understand BIM
execution plan and how different organizations can manage BIM
projects. Besides, BIM implementation should be mandated in both
public and private sector.
A one-way between-groups analysis of variance was conducted
to explore the impact of the technology adoption in the organiza-
tions of the level of professionals’ awareness, as measured by the
usage of BIM in the company as shown in Table 3. Participant’s
awareness was divided into three groups according to the usage
of BIM (Group 1: Yes; Group 2: No; Group 3: Maybe). There was
a statistically significant difference at the p < .001 level in usage
of BIM scores for the five groups: F (2, 17.78) = 15.54, p = .000.
Despite reaching statistical significance, the actual difference in
mean scores between the groups was quite small. The effect of size,
calculated using eta squared, was 0.02. Post-hoc comparisons using
the Tukey HSD test indicated that the mean score for Group 1
(M = 3.4, SD = 1.22) was significantly different from Group 3
(M = 2.27, SD = 1.13). Group 2 (M = 2.34, SD = 1.05) did not differ
significantly from either Group 1 or 3. This finding explains the sig-
nificant impact of the usage of BIM within a company to the level
of awareness of its team. As recommended above, organizations
are advised to take the responsibility to adopt BIM processes and
shift gradually to meet the construction industry transformation
program.
 I. Othman et al. / Ain Shams Engineering Journal 12 (2021) 455–463 461

Table 3
One-Way ANOVA Test.

Descriptive
Awareness
N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error 95% Confidence Interval for Mean Minimum Maximum
Lower Bound Upper Bound
Yes 35 3.40 1.22 0.21 2.98 3.82 1.00 5.00
No 204 2.34 1.05 0.07 2.20 2.49 1.00 5.00
Maybe 29 2.20 1.01 0.19 1.82 2.59 1.00 4.00
Total 268 2.46 1.13 0.07 2.33 2.60 1.00 5.00

Based on the interview discussion, interviewee I agreed that BIM improves con-
ANOVA Test struction productivity and efficiency, reduces cost and time, enhances construction
environment in terms of safety and management. He explained that BIM applica-
Awareness tion is expanded, and the technology is in a continuous development to involve
all construction domains. For example, BIM was known as a 3-D modelling and
Sum of df Mean F Sig.
improved to include time and cost as 4 and 5-D, further development includes
Squares Square the 6-D of facility management. He also mentioned that BIM benefits will be
achieved if everyone is willing and committed to BIM, all parties should take
Between Groups 35.56 2 17.78 15.54 0.00
responsibility for implementation, and project stakeholders must collaborate effec-
Within Groups 303.14 265 1.14 tively. Interviewee II had a different opinion and argued that we know the benefits
Total 338.70 267 from books and journals. In terms of the construction practices improvement, he
has agreed that BIM visualize the project and include component specification
and details and even supplier information. He agreed that BIM could save a lot of
maintenance costs during operation stage but limited proof or real case study to
4.3. BIM benefits motivate companies to use BIM
claim BIM could save cost and time during other stages. To convince practitioners
of BIM benefits, the construction industry should provide evidence to player on
The benefits of BIM have driven construction industry to introduce BIM in
how this technology will benefit them or it must mandate its implementation.
construction projects. The construction industry main goal of adopting BIM is to
increase productivity and efficiency. Of course, literatures have listed a variety of
benefits that have led to significant improvement in construction sustainability.
Those benefits influence construction practitioners’ decision to adopt BIM. This 5. Conclusion
research has identified 18 factors as positive influence factors (IF) that strongly rep-
resent the most discussed benefits achieved by implementing BIM in construction
practices. Across all participants, the top 7 ranked factors -with the highest mean
The primary contribution of this research paper is to establish
of 4 and above- are increase productivity and efficiency, assess time and cost, elim- the current level of BIM implementation in Malaysian construction
inate clashes in design, integrate scheduling and planning, identify time-based industry. The construction industry works hard with CIDB to pro-
clashes, improve multi-party communication and monitor and track progress dur- mote BIM implementation to enhance professionals and organisa-
ing construction. These factors mostly concern professionals for adopting BIM.
tions’ awareness and encourage them to adopt BIM process and
Other factors are also significant and considered valuable to construction industry.
Table 4 shows the list of 18 factors used in this research with their mean score and implement it in their work environment. This research targeted
standard deviation. The result shows a mean between 4.08 and 3.85 and standard local construction organization participated in BIM promoting
deviation between 0.85 and 0.73, indicating a high agreement of the respondent’s seminars organized by CIDB. Questionnaire survey was distributed
perception with significant deviation. The test for consistency were excellent in Melaka, Kedah Sabah, and Sarawak. This study concluded that
according to Cronbach’s Alpha 0.98. According to Bui, Merschbrock and Munkvold
[2], BIM is seen as a catalyst innovation in the construction industry. Therefore,
adoption and usage of BIM technology concept within the organi-
organizations should understand the effective process for implementing BIM in zation has a significant impact to professionals and management
the projects. skills. The level of BIM implementation and team awareness

Table 4
Non-Exhaustive List of Benefits Influences BIM Implementation.

ID Factors Mean Std. a Ranking The important benefits identified were also supported by
Deviation the below listed researchers
IF1 Increase productivity and efficiency design. 4.08 0.77 0.98 1 [10,12,32]
IF2 Assess time and cost associated with design change. 4.07 0.82 2 [12,31,32]
IF3 Eliminate clashes in design. 4.06 0.78 3 [12,14,31,32]
IF4 Integrate construction scheduling & planning. 4.04 0.76 4 [3]
IF5 Identify time-based clashes. 4.03 0.80 5 [3,14]
IF6 Improve multi-party communication and maintain 4.03 0.77 6 [3]
synchronize communication.
IF7 Monitor and track progress during construction. 4.01 0.80 7 [12]
IF8 Effectively collaborate with other teams to successfully 3.99 0.79 8 [12,32]
deliver a product.
IF9 Integrate cost estimation. 3.99 0.80 9 [3,14]
IF10 Facilitate site analysis and planning. 3.98 0.77 10 [3]
IF11 Review design progress. 3.97 0.77 11 [3]
IF12 Increase sustainable goals. 3.91 0.79 12 [3]
IF13 Maintain success interoperability of building component 3.91 0.73 13 [3]
throughout the building lifecycle.
IF14 Enhance collaboration between stakeholders. 3.90 0.81 14 [3,12,14,32]
IF15 Promote transparency. 3.88 0.84 15 [3]
IF16 Support safety management processes. 3.87 0.85 16 [14]
IF17 Allow diversity Management. 3.86 0.79 17 [3,10]
IF18 Facilitate energy efficiency analysis. 3.85 0.81 18 [3]
462 I. Othman et al. / Ain Shams Engineering Journal 12 (2021) 455–463
increased when the organization practices BIM in its daily works
and training or promoting seminars will be passive if it is not
applied. Willingness and commitment always lead to effective
involvement in adaptation and encourages team work to enhance
the BIM implementation awareness. In this study, the opinions of
expert personal on BIM implementation and its benefits was dis-
cussed and recommendations were given accordingly.
The most significant finding of this study is that BIM implemen-
tation in Malaysia in both private and public construction sectors
are still in a very low level. Majority of the surveyed organizations
are not using BIM and the team are not practicing its concept. This
results in a delay of the diffusion of BIM implementation. The con-
struction players have difficulties to understand how BIM could be
executed among parties. The study shows that BIM has been
implemented in a fragmented environment to produce models
whereas BIM implementation in whole BIM project management
is inefficient. Therefore, in this study, it is recommended that
intensive workshops to promote BIM should illustrate the process
of the BIM implementation rather than only promoting the advan-
tages and the implementation benefits. A case study to show the
whole system process and its usefulness to improve work environ-
ment is essential to build concrete confidence for adoption. As a
matter of fact, professionals are facing difficulties to practice the
technology and improve technical and implementation skill. This
research recommended organizations to initiate the adoption of
BIM and encourage professionals to develop their skills on the
BIM implementation. Attending training or seminars will enhance
the theoretical knowledge of participant, while practicing the tech-
nology will increase skills and knowledge.
This study inevitably has a few limitations. In this study, four
states were the survey questionnaire were distributed, while states
such as Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, and Johor that have a high level of
construction developments were not targeted. It is worth to have a
future research to evaluate the level of BIM implementation in
those states and determine if the level of construction has any
impact on it. It is also important to highlight that this finding only
represents the level of BIM implementation in the last quarter of
the year 2018 at the time when the data were collected. As a future
work of this study, the authors are going to deeply study the BIM
implementation benefits and investigate the relationship between
BIM benefits and organization decision on BIM implementation
which will highlight the important factors of BIM implementation
that could drive player to achieve BIM benefits [33].
Acknowledgment
The authors would like to express their utmost gratitude to
FRGS grant Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia for supporting
this research.
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Dr. Ir. Idris Othman, [ASEAN Chartered Professional Engineer (ACPE-02579/MY),
PJK, P.Eng (BEM PEC113073), TOTAL-FRANCE Cert (Oil & Gas), PhD(UTP), MSc(USM),
BEng(UiTM), DEng (UTM), MIEM(M13558), MCSM(M0510), MyGEOPOLYMER, MQA,
EAC(Washington Accord,USA), ETAC(Sydney Accord,Aust), ETeAC (Dublin Accord,
UK].
Yasser is a PhD student at Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS since August 2017. He
has around 5 years working experiences including the area of oil & gas, stormwater
management, quantity surveying, construction management. He took his degree in
Civil engineering and Master in Construction Management from Universiti Tekno-
logi Malaysia on 2012 and 2016 respectively. He is interested on BIM implemen-
tation and its application on construction projects.
Dr. Yani is currently Senior Lecturer in Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS. She
obtained her Degree in Architecture Engineering as well as Master and Doctoral in
Construction Project Management from Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember. She
 I. Othman et al. / Ain Shams Engineering Journal 12 (2021) 455–463
is specialized on Sustainable project development and construction, Building
Information Modelling, and Collaborative Decision Making. She is also active
member in Project Management Institute.
Y. H. Mugahed Amran is an assistant professor of structural engineering at the
department of civil engineering, college of engineering, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz
University (PSAU), Saudi Arabia and former assistant professor at Amran University,
Yemen. He received his B.Eng in civil engineering and M.Eng in structure from
Universiti Tecknologi Malaysia (UTM) and PhD in structural Engineering from
Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) in 2011, 2013 and 2016. respectively. His research
interests are structural engineering, concrete structures, supplemental cementi-
tious materials (SCM), fibrous and porous composites, and smart materials &
structures.
Mohammed Ali Mohammed Al-Bared was born in Dhamar, Yemen in 1989. He
received his Bachelor of Civil Eng. from Infrastructure University Kuala Lumpur
(IUKL) in 2013, Master of geotechnical engineering from Universiti Teknologi
463
Malaysia (UTM) in 2015, and currently he is pursuing his Ph.D in soft soil stabi-
lization using sustainable materials in Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP),
Malaysia.
He has 24 research papers published in prestigious journals and international
indexed conferences. He was the corresponding author of two papers recently
published in Acta Geotechnica and the Journal of International Measurement
Confederation. He also published papers in Geomechanics and Engineering, an
International Journal, KSCE Journal of Civil Engineering, Geotechnical and Geolog-
ical Engineering Journal and Malaysian Construction Research Journal. He is
working in soft soil improvement techniques and dynamic and static loading effect
on soft soils.