Analysis of consultant and employer risks in traditional design and BIM projects

Abstract

Risks can lead to critical consequences such as delays and cost overruns in construction projects. Therefore, all stakeholders involved are directly or indirectly affected by these risks. The types, impact and likelihood of risks may change depending on the delivery system, contracts used, or technologies adopted in the projects. Building Information Modeling (BIM) is one of the trends that significantly affect the roles and responsibilities of the parties as well as the risks encountered in the projects. While some risks are common in Traditional Design and BIM projects, some different risks can also be seen. As the use of BIM is increasing day by day with high acceleration, many new risks have emerged. In addition, while some risks in Traditional Design projects continue their impact in BIM projects, other risks may no longer be a burden on the project. The risks that occur cause different types of impact on each party of the project. The three main parties that are usually involved in the projects, the Employer, the Consultant, and the Contractor, are the parties exposed to these risks. Each party is directly or indirectly affected by the risks. Although the Contractor, who is responsible for the execution of the works on the site, often faces the risks directly, the Employer and the Consultant can also suffer significantly from these risks. It is inevitable for all parties to take certain measures to prevent the occurrence of risks. In the literature, separate studies are conducted for the risks that occur in Traditional Design and BIM projects. In addition, these studies have been conducted neglecting the different positions of the parties. Most studies did not differentiate the risks faced by the parties and a few studies focused on the Contractor risks. However, the risks faced by the Employer and the Consultant in Traditional Design and BIM projects remain unclear. Therefore, a comprehensive study determining the risks and mitigation mechanisms for the Consultant and Employer in the process of transition to BIM is lacking in the literature. The aim of this thesis is to make a comparative analysis of the risks faced by Employers and Consultants in Traditional Design and BIM Projects and to determine the mitigation methods that can be utilized against these risks. In addition, this thesis sheds light on the different risks encountered in local and international BIM Projects. As a result, risk management strategies for the Employer and Consultant has been developed for the assessment and mitigation of risks in the Traditional Design and BIM projects. The steps used in the methodology of the thesis are as follows: (1) determining the Employer and Consultant risks encountered in Traditional Design and BIM projects through literature review, (2) calculating the risk levels by determining the likelihood and impact values of risks in Traditional Design and BIM projects through a survey and identifying the risk factors that change significantly in Traditional Design and BIM projects, (3) determining the risk mitigation mechanisms that can be used for the risk factors identified and evaluating the risk management approaches in BIM projects in Turkey and abroad through expert interviews, and (4) developing strategies for the Employer and Consultant for the assessment and mitigation of risks in the Traditional Design and BIM projects based on the field study findings. In the first step of the study, the basic features of BIM were examined extensively to understand the risks that may emerge in BIM projects. Different aspects of BIM, such as the development, implementation processes, BIM implementation plan, benefits and challenges of BIM were analyzed through the literature. In addition, a study has been conducted on standard contract types such as FIDIC, NEC, and AIA, which are frequently used in construction projects. The adaptation of these contract types to BIM projects and the new legal processes emerging with BIM were also analyzed in detail through the literature. The parties involved in construction projects and their risk area have been identified. Once the background information was collected, the main risks of the parties in Traditional Design and BIM projects were unfolded by a systematic review of the literature, and 74 risk factors for Traditional Design projects and 102 risk factors for BIM projects were identified. These factors were grouped under the following categories: natural risks, design risks, logistics risks, financial risks, contract risks, legal and regulatory risks, political risks, construction risks, and environmental & social risks. In the second step, a survey was conducted with a total of 30 experts from Traditional Design projects and 25 experts from BIM projects. These experts were selected from among the Employer and Consultant organizations. The experts were asked to evaluate the impact and likelihood of the identified risks according to the Likert scale. The reliability and consistency of the data obtained from the survey were tested via Cronbach's Alpha method. The likelihood, impact and risk level of each risk were evaluated separately for the Traditional Design and BIM projects. The results show that the top five risk factors in Traditional Design projects are underestimation of costs, exchange rate and inflation, economic crisis, national and international governmental relations impacts and costs for legal and contractual disputes. On the other hand, the top five risk factors in BIM projects are economic crisis, exchange rate and inflation, lack of BIM talents and experience in the team, work interaction and challenges related to coordination and teamwork and contractor default / contractor competence. IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) computer program was used for the numerical analysis of the collected data including the Shapiro-Wilk Normality test. Since data did not show normal distribution, the Mann-Whitney U test, which is the last stage of the quantitative analysis, was performed to observe which risk factors show a significant difference in Traditional Design and BIM projects. According to the findings, the risk levels show a significant difference in the Traditional Design and BIM projects in the following risk factors: defective design, data interoperability, intellectual property, economic crisis, national and international governmental relations impacts, authority and relations of the consultant, inadequate support from the designer in the construction process, low consultancy fee, language problem. In the third step, interviews were conducted with 12 experts in the quest to identify the mitigation mechanisms that can be utilized against the identified risks. While determining these experts, 6 experts (3 Consultants, 3 Employers) were selected from ongoing big scale Traditional Design projects and 6 experts (3 Consultants, 3 Employers) were selected from ongoing big-scale BIM projects. These experts suggested different mitigation mechanisms for the identified risks based on their experience. While experts focused on similar solutions for some risks (e.g., conducting training for adaptation to new technology), they offered marginal solutions methods for other risks (e.g., follow-up BIM models metadata for defective materials and equipment quality). Additionally, 3 BIM experts who work on BIM projects abroad were also interviewed. Information was obtained from these experts about the risks they face in BIM projects in foreign countries (where BIM implementation levels are higher), and the different perspectives between them and the experts working on BIM projects in Turkey were compared. As a result, risk management strategies for the Employer and Consultant for the assessment and mitigation of risks in the Traditional Design and BIM projects were developed based on the field study findings in the last step. This risk management strategies involves the risks that may be encountered, their likelihood and impact levels for the Employer and Consultant and also the mechanisms that may be utilized to mitigate these risks. The Employer and Consultant parties may use these strategies to assess the risks involved in the Traditional Design and BIM projects and adopt mitigation measures in the contract preparation stage. The Employer and Consultant parties may also have a better understanding regarding how certain risk factors change during the transition to BIM projects and prepare for the new risks that may emerge. Consequently, the specific contributions of this study are: (1) Identification of Employer and Consultant risks encountered in Traditional Design and BIM projects, (2) determining the risk levels in Traditional Design and BIM projects and evaluating the risks that show different values in different project types, (3) developing risk management mechanisms for the identified risk factors and determining different risk management approaches in BIM projects in Turkey and abroad, (4) developing risk management strategies for Employer and Consultant in Traditional Design and BIM projects.