(BIM) has had a moderately slow emergence since its existence in the 1970s. In recent years the recession which affected the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry, resulted in the slow adoption of BIM. However, a significant rise in the BIM market globally is expected to take place in the coming years due to the introduction of cloud-based BIM technology.

The implementation of BIM has helped construction managers to improve quality control and productivity which is one of the major drivers in the market. This has led to expanding BIM into other management areas. The advantages of this technology have in turn supported the widespread adoption of BIM in the US and UK construction industries. 

The use of BIM helps to reduce a significant amount of project cost while meeting time and quality expectations in projects due to effective and efficient information sharing; better coordination in planning among other team members and accurate designing of models which extensively supports lean construction techniques.

Stanford University’s Center for Integrated Facilities Engineering reported the following benefits of BIM after conducting research on 32 major projects –

• Diminishes changes up to 40% by early problem detection.
• Compared to traditional methods of estimation, BIM produces estimates within 3% of accuracy
• Reduces cost estimation time by 80%

BIM emerged as a supporting technology that was developed and used to address the growing and complex challenges of modern-day AEC industries that could not be taken care of with traditional technologies.

BIM or 3D modeling has resulted in an abrupt reshaping of the AEC industry in the areas of technology and process.