Enhancing Automation in the Construction Equipment Industry Through Implementation of BIM

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is becoming increasingly important in the construction industry and affects almost all stakeholders from building owners, planners and contractors to building operators. However, little importance is given in the academic debate to the relationship between BIM and construction equipment providers. This raises the question how the BIM method can be used to generate benefits in this sector. The presenting researchers, in cooperation with a local construction equipment provider, have selected its container construction division as a case study and analyzed how current processes can be streamlined and automated with the help of BIM. In this context, new automation processes, BIM-object libraries and add-ins for one of the most common BIM authoring software have been developed. Through this modular design approach, a flexible and lean BIM-based Configure-to-Order production system is created. This study presents the conceptual development of this BIM-based production system for construction equipment providers considering both methodological examinations and functioning software prototypes. The BIM-based production system is currently tested by the industry partner in pilot projects and preliminary findings are presented in this study.