BIM & Automated Quantities - Implementation Issues for the Australian Quantity Surveying Profession

This paper examines the issues related to the implementation of Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Automated Quantities technologies by the Australian Quantity Surveying profession. The paper is based on a review of current industry trends and issues with BIM implementation, detailed interviews with quantity surveying firms in Australia to evaluate how the profession is dealing with BIM implementation and a case study of a quantity surveying at the forefront of BIM implementation. Current industry procurement and technological trends clearly indicate that firms who are unable to reengineer their work practices to evolve with these trends and technological advances will find it increasingly difficult to prosper. The literature review and interviews reveal that there are considerable implementation issues for not only the quantity surveying profession but the construction industry generally in Australia. The key problem relates to quality issues with BIM models - the industry requires high quality BIM models for all professionals to be able to use the model most effectively and, more importantly, trust the accuracy of the information and data that is being generated. Liability issues for incorrect information/data generated from the models were also highlighted as a major area that needs addressing. The paper concludes with a case study of a quantity surveying firm successfully engaging in and leading BIM development to demonstrate that these issues are not insurmountable. NOTE: The paper received the Best Paper (Academic) award at this congress