A critical review on BIM for construction safety management

The earlier so-called “brick and mortar” industry is entering the digital era. Digitization in the construction industry gives efficient and effective ways to manage several construction aspects such as scheduling, cost, quality, information, and documentation leading to improved productivity. Along with these aspects, safety management also needs special attention in terms of digitalization, for a safer, more efficient, and productive work environment on construction sites. The Indian construction industry is known as labour intensive industry, which employs approximately 32 million of labour. The cost spent on the labour is 30% to 50% of the total project cost. Still, the labours are given the least attention in the construction sector. The bar of onsite construction accidents in India is rising at a rapid pace and it shows that current safety practices are insufficient. To manage the smooth and safer working of labour force and to reduce on-site accidents, conventional safety practices need to be replaced with advanced and digitalized safety practices. Building Information Modeling (BIM) is believed as the most prominent process that is supported by various tools, technologies for digital representations of physical and functional characteristics of a construction project. This study explores the comprehensive review of existing literature in the line of work of utilization of BIM for site safety. For the selection of literature, a well-defined methodology is adopted. It includes scientometric analysis followed by screening of the obtained results to review the most relevant literature in BIM for safety. Outcome of undertaking an extensive review would help to understand potentials of BIM for safety management, prerequisites needed to implement BIM for safety, its adoption process and also identify areas where additional research will benefit the future integration of BIM and site safety