A Better BIM: Ideas from other Industries

The architecture, engineering, construction and facility management (A/E/C-FM) industries have the opportunity to interoperate with software tools which utilise the IFC standard building information model (BIM). However, within the companies and projects which are currently using this standard there have been a number of issues raised with an impact on achievable interoperability. At the time that the IFC specifiers look at approaches to address these interoperability issues it is worth looking at other industries, who also have complex models and high reliability requirements, to see how whether there are lessons which can be learnt. In this paper the healthcare and manufacturing domains are surveyed in regards to their interoperability, conformance and certification approaches and novel ideas from these industries are presented for consideration of the A/E/C-FM industries and the developers of the IFC. A number of these approaches would argue for a restructuring of responsibilities between standards setting and certification, and others propose further development of freely available resources for all in the industry.