## 8 BIM Implementation Impacts: Benefits and Challenges
### Challenges with BIM Implementation  
While the project team recognized and anticipated many benefits of BIM, they also encountered several challenges during its implementation in this project. Similar to the list of benefits discussed in the previous section, a list of challenges associated with BIM implementation was compiled based on previous studies. This list served as the foundation for a survey designed to capture the specific challenges faced by the project team during BIM implementation. The results are shown in Figure 29.  
The project team identified the \"Lack of skills and experience to fully benefit from the model\" as the primary challenge in implementing BIM for this project. As mentioned in Section 5.2, 60% of survey respondents reported being beginners or having no prior experience with BIM. This lack of experience resulted in significant inefficiencies and difficulties in fully leveraging BIM for this project. Additionally, since the VDC service provider primarily handled the BIM tasks, other team members had limited direct interaction with the model. This restricted the full utilization of BIM in this project and was seen as an obstacle by the team.  
\"There's a third party that is facilitating the model, and that means if we want to communicate to the rest of the team in the model, we have to have that service party there to manipulate the model for us. So that's somewhat of an inconvenience as well as it has a cost to it\". --Project Manager, General Contractor  
Since the contract with the VDC service provider was basically a time and materials contract, each use of BIM in the project caused an additional cost, and this was a major barrier to fully implementing BIM in this project. The project manager of the general contractor commented on this issue as follows:  
\"Our concern was every time we do that (use BIM), it has a cost. So, we want it to regulate viewing the model and having to spend those funds to manipulate the model for things that were, in our minds, relatively minor that could be shown in 2D way. So, we were trying to manage the 3d resource and allocate it where the cost seemed appropriate. [...] I think if we had a 3D central model that was part of the project from day one, we wouldn't have worried about any of that. [...] So, we wind up alternating between communication in 3D and communication in 2D, based on a risk versus dollars sort of assessment\". --Project Manager, General Contractor  
Figure 29: Perceived challenges with BIM implementation by the project stakeholders.  
Another significant challenge perceived by the project team was the \"Lack of cohesion among the project team\". Fragmented contractual relationships among different disciplines, and especially the separate contract between the general contractor and the VDC service provider, led to a lack of clarity regarding BIM usage. Furthermore, not everyone utilized BIM in their work processes, and in some design aspects, BIM was not available. Consequently, sharing project information through the model, which could have streamlined data exchange, became difficult.  
\"Getting buy-in from other subcontractors would be the major issue. The steel structure, for example, there was nothing available, and I don't think there was an intent to provide 3d models\". --Project Lead, VDC Service Provider  
As a BIM Project Execution Plan was not developed for this project, and there was no specific BIM standard or requirement provided to clarify the BIM deliverables and data exchange processes, the project team had to face significant ambiguity about what should be modeled and coordinated during the project execution. This is why the \"Lack of standard for BIM\" is ranked high in the list of challenges.