Research reveals that organisations in general are keen to provide their staff with the support needed to boost their competency in BIM and subsequently leverage the effectiveness of its implementation. However, employers need a decision-making tool to make better informed investments in specific work-based education and training that addresses the immediate upskilling needs of their employees. Therefore, the aim of this research project is to investigate the significance of Work-Based Education and Training (WBET) needs through the development of an Organisational Upskilling Model (OUM). A comprehensive literature review retrieved 25 hypotheses that were tested for significance from a questionnaire survey completed by 73 AEC professionals working for a large-scale UK engineering consultancy. Based on the current expert sample, the study revealed a holistic inter-organisational agreement that technology training is in high demand. Whereas, the organisational body of knowledge needs only to be better publicised, as employees were unaware of its immediate availability. OUM proved that the most influential variables to BIM Uptake were Attitude (R² = 0.569 & Q² = 0.395), User Competency (R² = 0.523 & Q² = 0.369), and Organisational Support (R² = 0.400 & Q² = 0.233). Informed by their in-house culture, OUM enabled the sponsoring engineering consultant to predict immediate WBET upskilling needs and plan for the required capital investment. However, ‘OUM’ may be applied by any BIM-adopting organisation seeking WBET informed decision-making assistance for better upskilling, continuous improvement, organisational learning, and ultimately business growth.

Purpose How knowledge exchange (KE) can be used for the continuous assessment and improvement of collaborative performance of project-based organisations in construction is explored. Collaboration on construction projects must be facilitated by people alongside practice of continuous performance assessment and improvement. Currently available assessment tools fail to explicitly define appropriate behaviours and actions due to a poor understanding of what it means for people to collaborate. In contrast, it is established that KE is the focus of collaborative efforts on construction projects; therefore, as most knowledge resides with people, it represents their role in collaboration. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach Through a phenomenological/interpretivist and qualitative methodology, how KE can be used for the continuous assessment and improvement of collaborative performance in project-based organisations in construction is explored. A single case study of a UK rail strategic alliance was adopted and six semi-structured interviews were conducted and analysed through a thematic analysis. Findings An assessment tool is proposed based on a set of 20 characteristics of KE, divided into seven categories and linked to indicators of collaboration. The tool can be applied to highly collaborative projects where BIM and Lean are implemented, and project participants are collocated. By measuring their performance against the set criteria, project teams can assess which of their behaviours and actions are inappropriate, and focus their efforts on correcting them. Originality/value Defining the abstract indicators traditionally used to assess collaboration in terms of characteristics pertinent to day-to-day communication amongst participants on collaborative projects to facilitate the continuous assessment and improvement of collaborative performance.

The provision of data with information management are a significant challenge for the digital developing construction industry. The utilisation of data from a built asset’s planning, design, and construction phases to the operations phase core and to the facility management function of building and integration in supporting core business and support services is frequently limited due to technical obstacles in information management. The paper presents the second of three stages of design science research to propose a conceptual approach for the implementation of the “as-a-service” method for the construction industry, namely “Building-as-a-Service” (BaaS). BaaS involves a shift in the concept of services: users become recipients of services generated by the building, not only services provided in the building. The paper shows the interdependencies between these various concepts and suggests a possible framework for the inclusion of these “as-a-Service” approaches for enabling a Digital Twin based on Building Information Modelling, which is becoming mandatory in several European states. The study gathered the foundational theoretical constructs through a literature review and elucidated them to make the proposed framework feasible. The theoretical foundations comprise Building Information Modelling (BIM), the Digital Twin (DT), the interconnecting technology of smart applications and the practical application in projects. The approach of “Building-as-a-Service” in combination with smart applications can be an approach to making the use of buildings available in a resource-saving way to clients, building owners and users.

This paper presents a case study of BIM implementation for Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA). The project is a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) between the University of Salford and Links FF&E, a design, manufacture and fit-out SME based in the UK. The project aims to implement BIM as a catalyst for a Lean transformation, streamlining process and operations. Initially, organisational process are reviewed, which is followed by implementing appropriate technologies to enable subsequent people and process transformation. The 30 month project is organized in 6 key stages. This paper presents findings from the first four stages that have been completed to date of 1. Establishing best practice knowledge in BIM; 2. Conducting a review and analysis of the organisation's current situation, 3. Developing a BIM-based collaborative strategy, and the fourth, which is currently progressing, 4. Pilot implementation of BIM collaborative strategy for DfMA. The remaining stages will conduct a project evaluation, before finally implementing an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system.

ERP implementations within large scale construction organizations have yielded more failures than successes. As a result of this high failure rate, the integration capability of ERP systems could not be fully understood and recognized by the construction (AEC) industry. The aim of the research presented in this paper was to investigate the role of ERP systems in enabling and facilitating Data Level Integration in construction industry organizations. In parallel with this aim, an ERP Data Level Integration Capability Matrix was developed as the metric for measuring the capability of ERP systems in enabling Data Level Integration. The matrix is validated with four case studies. The development of the matrix and the results of the case studies are presented in this paper.