A study of the concept of future-proofing in healthcare building asset management and the role of BIM in its delivery

This research assessed the concept of future-proofing (FP) as a proactive initiative for enterprise asset management is an urgent need against uncertainty, particularly in health care due to unforeseeable demographic shifts and rapid advances in medical technology. Building information modelling (BIM) is a data-driven initiative but a rigorous analysis will indicate that a synergy exists. A multiphase design methodology was adopted to cover as much breadth and depth around the synergies that exist between future-proofing and BIM both in terms of delivery (supply chain) and in an enterprise context (organisational structures). In the first phase, an exploratory survey was conducted. The exploratory data were gathered to include responses of industry experts. The findings provide valuable insights regarding the integration of flexibility and design standardisation and whether this integration can improve change-readiness in designing future-proof healthcare facilities. Then, a first round of primary and secondary case study data were gathered from a major public asset owner organisation. The findings focused on the governance of BIM and FP in an enterprise context. As such three agendas emerged, namely government, strategic management and, due to the opportunities that BIM brings, information management. Then, a second round of primary qualitative data were collected and a series of interviews were conducted. The interviews targeted the opinion of leading industry experts across all phases of a project. At this phase the aim was to develop a classification ontology of the interactions between FP and BIM during project delivery. Finally, the findings were triangulated. As such, a reference model was developed, concentrating on the functional and organisational aspects of the core business of a service organisation. Finally, the three types of findings were connected to give a deployment plan for future-proofing asset management taking into account adoption of innovation which service providers can use to manage their assets across an enterprise.