Application of information modelling technologies to improve the efficiency of managing the life cycle of construction objects

Abstract

The regulatory establishment of mandatory information modelling in construction has outpaced a consistent quantitative assessment of the stages of an object's life cycle at which economic effect arises and of its magnitude, which complicates the justification of investment in a digital model for an individual object. The aim of the work is a quantitative assessment of the contribution of information modelling technologies to reducing the total cost of ownership of a construction object over its full life cycle. An author's calculation model of a multi-apartment residential building with a 50-year operation horizon has been developed, covering the design, construction and operation stages; normative values are adopted from current codes of practice, and the parameters of the model object are set as a calculation example. The calculation shows that applying an information model raises design-stage costs by about 8% and reduces the costs of subsequent stages, while the integrated effect on the total cost of ownership amounts to about 3.8% at a discount rate of 12% per annum. Sensitivity analysis keeps the effect positive across all considered scenarios, and the result is most elastic with respect to the share of clashes resolved before entering the site.