Implementation of level 2 Building Information Modelling strategy for asset procurement

Despite the availability of Building Information Modelling (BIM) technologies for well over a decade now, their wide-scale adoption has been largely limited to the design stage for model authoring. The ultimate benefits from BIM have so far eluded the wider stakeholders at the project level and ultimately the end clients in any significant way. It is now accepted that the BIM technologies, on their own, would never achieve the overall benefits for the end clients as they potentially could. To address this, level 2 (L2) BIM has been proposed as an approach to BIM-based asset procurement as a set of processes, standards and contractual protocols for effective information management throughout the life cycle of an asset. This paper presents the implementation of the L2 BIM approach for a large asset-owning organisation, NHS Scotland. An approach for the application of current knowledge on L2 BIM in a practical scenario with a view to it being replicable by other organisations is proposed. A set of challenges that may arise in practice and pointers on how to address them are also outlined. In addition, a stepped approach for transition from level 1 to level 2 BIM is also suggested.