# A BIM Platform for the Manufacture of Prefabricated Steel Structure
## 5 Conclusions and Future Work  
In this article, a BIM platform for the manufacture of a prefabricated steel structure is developed and applied in some actual projects. The platform acted as the \"brain\" of intelligent production management in the centralized control center of the manufacturing factory. It achieved the information-based whole-process management of steel structure processing and manufacturing, and the traceability of components by QR codes. During manufacturing, it acts as a bridge that communicates with all involved parties, making essential information accessible to corresponding users. Base on the developed platform, the quality of steel components and manufacturing efficiency has been dramatically improved.  
Firstly, this article summarized the technical characteristics and application directions of BIM and the development trend of prefabricated buildings in China. Then, it summarized the critical problems in the management of the manufacturing process of prefabricated steel structure buildings and proposed feasible solutions to the problems, and finally developed a BIM platform for the manufacturing management of the assembled steel structural building. This platform combines with WebGL, IoT, and BIM technology, and realizes the functions of IFC file parsing, data analysis and storage, model visualization and interaction, component production process management, and other functions. The platform takes the separated projects as the management unit and the components as the management objects. Additionally, it realizes the tracking of components in the whole manufacturing process. By assigning different permissions to each user role, a clear division of labor is presented. Thus, the efficient collaboration of the manufacturing management platform is realized. In conclusion, this platform not only helps frontline workers and inspectors to conveniently query and input the information of components but also facilitates the macro-control of the overall progress of managers. Besides, it also has made full use of the synergy and highly visible characteristics of BIM technology to realize the adequate management of the whole progress of the manufacture of steel structure.  
The platform can effectively improve the degree of informatization in the component manufacturing progress, which is convenient for managers and workers to grasp the manufacturing  
Figure 14: Daily production of steel components traced in the BIM platform.  
progress in real-time, and to solve the production problems such as delivery delay and quality defects in a timely manner. Finally, through the case study of the actual application, the practicability of the platform was confirmed. Therefore, the developed platform can work as a collaborative tool in the manufacturing processes among different users.  
However, limitations should be put forward for its further improvement and broader application. This platform only aims at the manufacture of steel structures, which is the initial phase of the life cycle of the buildings. Therefore, a BIM platform for the full life cycle of buildings needs to be further developed. The recognition of components is limited to the QR code attached to it. The application of the other IoT technology, such as RFID technology, can be further employed to increase the recognition efficiency of components. Besides, the performance limitations on the web side require a higher-level lightweight model. Finally, interoperability between other mainstream BIM software such as Revit and Bentley should be further developed for the broader adoption of this platform.  
Conceptualization, J.W.; methodology, S.C., J.W. and J.S.; software, S.C., J.W. and J.S.; writing--original draft preparation, S.C.; and writing--review and editing, J.W. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) under grant No. 51878475.  
The authors declare no conflict of interest.