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Zou, Y., Guo, BHW., Papadonikolaki, E., Dimyadi, J., and Hou, L. 2023. "Lessons Learned on
Adopting Automated Compliance Checking in AEC Industry: A Global Study." Journal of Management
in Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1061/JMENEA/MEENG-5051
1
Lessons Learned on Adopting Automated Compliance 1
Checking in AEC Industry: A Global Study 2
3
Yang Zou, Ph.D.1, Brian H.W. Guo, Ph.D.2, Eleni Papadonikolaki, Ph.D.3, Johannes Dimyadi, Ph.D.4 4
and Lei Hou, Ph.D.5
5
6
1Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The University of Auckland, 20 Symonds Street, 7
Auckland, New Zealand (corresponding author). Email: yang.zou@auckland.ac.nz 8
2Department of Civil and Natural Resources Engineering, The University of Canterbury, 69 Creyke 9
Road, Christchurch, New Zealand. Email: brian.guo@canterbury.ac.nz 10
3Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction, University College London, 1-19 Torrington Place, 11
London WC1E 7HB, UK. Email: e.papadonikolaki@ucl.ac.uk 12
4Codify Asset Solutions (CAS) Ltd, Auckland 1010, New Zealand. Email: jdimyadi@cas.net.nz 13
5School of Engineering, RMIT University, GPO Box 2476, Melbourne, VIC, 3001, Australia. Email: 14
lei.hou@rmit.edu.au 15
Abstract 16
Over the last decades, numerous Automated Compliance Checking (ACC) systems have been 17
developed. However, ACC is still not broadly used in the real world today; little is known as to how 18
ACC can be better accepted by the end users. This paper reports on a multiple-case study to learn 19
valuable lessons from recent attempts to adopt Automated Compliance Checking (ACC) systems world-20
wide. Firstly, eighteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty experts from eight 21
countries and supplementary data (e.g. documents, product information, and literature) related to each 22
case were collected. Secondly, the interview and supplementary data were then coded to develop 23
prominent themes. Thirdly, through a cross-case analysis, twelve most determining variables that could 24
influence the ACC adoption were identified. Three path models that explain the interrelationships 25
between these variables and ten propositions that can guide future ACC adoption were deduced. The 26
results indicate that the government should play an important role to facilitate ACC adoption through 27
funding, policies, and incentives. This study also provides valuable information to software vendors for
28
delivering ACC systems that meet the needs of the industry, and for innovation managers in the industry 29
to develop appropriate adoption plans for the ACC technology. 30
KEYWORDS: Automated Compliance Checking (ACC); Building Information Modelling (BIM); 31
Technology Adoption; Construction; Case Study; 32
Introduction 33
34
Every phase of the Architecture, Engineering & Construction (AEC) project lifecycle is subject to 35
compliance with a variety of requirements, including contractual, regulatory, and standards (Soliman-36
Junior et al. 2022). The process of checking the compliance of a building to these requirements is a 37
highly complex task that relies on human recognition and experience (Beach et al. 2015). In recent years, 38
there has been momentum in the development of Automated Compliance Checking (ACC), a process 39
of using software to assess building designs against compliance requirements without modifying the 40
designs (Eastman et al. 2009). First, new ACC approaches have been developed to digest legal 41
requirements in natural language (Zhang and El-Gohary 2019) and make the technology more practical 42
and easier to use by end-users (Dimyadi and Amor 2019). Furthermore, the advent and increased uptake 43
of Building Information Modelling (BIM) provides the opportunity to describe the AEC projects 44
through object-oriented data models (Eastman et al. 2011). Generally, rules representing compliance 45
requirements are either hard-coded into checking software or represented for both human-readability 46
and machine-processability (Amor and Dimyadi 2021). 47
Zou, Y., Guo, BHW., Papadonikolaki, E., Dimyadi, J., and Hou, L. 2023. "Lessons Learned on
Adopting Automated Compliance Checking in AEC Industry: A Global Study." Journal of Management
in Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1061/JMENEA/MEENG-5051
2
48
With the advancement and maturity of ACC technology, there is a pressing need to understand how 49
wide adoption of ACC can be facilitated. To meet this need, Zou et al. (2022) investigated New Zealand 50
(NZ) off-Site manufacturing industry’s readiness for ACC and developed a high-level ACC adoption 51
roadmap with key actions for NZ. Another study by Beach et al. (2020) conducted a survey within 52
United Kingdom (UK), which suggested a set of obstacles that prevented the adoption of ACC and 53
proposed a vision for future ACC development and implementation. However, both efforts were 54
regional studies and failed to explain the interrelationships among these obstacles (i.e., mechanisms of 55
ACC adoption). These limitations prevent technology firms, policymakers and practitioners from 56
understanding how and why ACC can be adopted in the AEC industry. To investigate what determining 57
variables and mechanisms influence the ACC adoption in the AEC industry, this paper reports a 58
multiple-case study that focuses on learning valuable lessons and experience in adopting ACC systems 59
from the international efforts and interpret evidence from these global attempts into theoretical 60
understanding. 61
62
Related work 63
64
ACC has been an active research topic for more than 50 years. A number of ACC implementations have 65
appeared over the last two decades and have been extensively reviewed (Dimyadi and Amor 2013). 66
Examples of these include CORENET’s ePlanCheck in Singapore, Solibri Model Checker (SMC) in 67
Europe, SMARTcodes, UpCodes, AutoCodes in the United States (US), DesignCheck in Australia, 68
KBIM in Korea, and ACABIM in NZ. The ePlanCheck was considered the most successful recent 69
implementation at the government level as it was commissioned by the Building Construction Authority 70
of Singapore and involved many industry stakeholders (Goh 2007). 71
Prior to the turn of the millennium, researchers and software vendors dedicated years of effort to 72
developing various digital representations of buildings, creating a challenge for downstream software 73
applications, including traditional ACC systems to access the right data from proprietary digital models. 74
The historical issue of lacking a platform-neutral open digital data exchange is being addressed by the 75
emergence of the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC), standardised as an International Organisation for
76
Standardisation (ISO) standard for open BIM (ISO 2018). 77
78
The immaturity of technology was considered as the main barrier leading to the lack of ACC adoption 79
(Beach et al. 2015), which can be explained through two aspects (Eastman et al. 2009). First, the ACC 80
systems are limited in capabilities in checking both regulatory and non-regulatory requirements. 81
Secondly, the data generated from the design stage is insufficient to support the derivation properties 82
and relations for ACC. To address these technical barriers, new ACC methods and systems were 83
recently developed. These efforts include the ACABIM system developed in New Zealand (NZ) that 84
employs a human-guided automation philosophy for compliance checking (Dimyadi and Amor 2019), 85
artificial intelligence approaches to requirements interpretation for compliance checking (Zhang and 86
El-Gohary 2019). A number of studies (Dimyadi and Amor 2013; Eastman et al. 2009; Hjelseth 2015; 87
Krijnen and Van Berlo 2016) have extensively reviewed the technological development of ACC. 88
Evidently, ACC technology is becoming mature and will likely be used in the day-to-day working 89
environment in the industry in the coming years. 90
91
According to the literature (Lee et al. 2003; Tornatzky et al. 1990), success factors towards the adoption 92
of new technologies include not only technological development but also human perception and policies. 93
Most of the existing ACC literature focused on technology but failed to consider the current ACC 94
adoption challenges. To better understand these adoption challenges from an end-user perspective, 95
Beach et al. (2020) recently conducted a survey study within the UK. This study ascertained a set of 96
obstacles that prevented the wide adoption of ACC in the AEC lifecycle and proposed a vision for future 97
ACC development and implementation. However, this research has three major limitations. First, it 98
only surveyed industry professionals who might not be familiar with ACC. Secondly, the study failed 99
Zou, Y., Guo, BHW., Papadonikolaki, E., Dimyadi, J., and Hou, L. 2023. "Lessons Learned on
Adopting Automated Compliance Checking in AEC Industry: A Global Study." Journal of Management
in Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1061/JMENEA/MEENG-5051
3
to explain the interrelationships between these obstacles. Thirdly, it only focused on UK context and 100
ignored important ACC adoption attempts in other countries, e.g. Australia, US, NZ, South Korea. 101
102
To summarise, there has been no existing study that has analysed the global efforts of ACC adoption 103
and can explain what determining variables and mechanisms influence the ACC adoption in the AEC 104
industry. 105
106
Research methodology 107
108
A multiple-case study (Yin 2011), which involves eight different cases, was conducted to explore the 109
key variables and mechanisms that influence the adoption of ACC technology in the AEC industry. 110
This method was selected because (1) it enables the exploration of a contemporary phenomenon in 111
depth and within its real-life context, (2) compared with the single case study, the multiple-case study 112
is recognised as being more robust and its results are more compelling (Yin 2011). In addition, the eight 113
cases described ACC adoption in eight different countries. As a result, the method employed in this 114
research could also be seen as a multi-country analysis. The multi-country analysis involves the 115
collection, analysis and comparison of data from multiple countries, and enables researchers to uncover 116
patterns, attitudes, similarities, differences and new opportunities (Sunström 1999). 117
Case selection 118
A case study is defined as an in-depth, detailed examination of a particular case (or cases) within a real-119
world context (Yin 2013). It has been widely used for research in both natural and social sciences. 120
Gerring (2017) pointed out that the units in case studies can vary according to different research nature 121
and subject areas, ranging from social groups (for sociologists), the individual (for psychologists), the 122
firm (for economists) to nations or organisations (for political scientists). For ACC adoption, each 123
country has its unique contextual characteristics in terms of policy, building code, regulatory 124
environment, building typology, building consent processes, stakeholder requirements, etc. All these 125
embedded factors influence and shape the development of ACC technologies, leading to the emergence 126
of various ACC systems that can fit into the existing compliance workflows for each country (e.g., 127
KBIM ACC system in South Korea (Kim et al. 2020), ACABIM system in NZ (Zou et al. 2022)). Based 128
on this observation, this study treats the experience and lessons of ACC adoption in each country or 129
region as an individual case. Purposeful sampling (Palinkas et al. 2015) was used to identify and select 130
information-rich cases related to ACC adoption. To ensure the cases can be situated within the context 131
of this research, three main sampling criteria were developed to govern the selection of case studies, as 132
below. 133
(1) The ACC technology reported in the case study should be at least a functional prototype system that 134
can fully or partly automate the compliance checking processes in the building lifecycle. 135
(2) The ACC system(s) should have been used in a real working environment or been tested in at least 136
one pilot project. This will ensure the selected case study contains some lessons and experience on the 137
adoption of ACC systems. 138
(3) The case study must have multiple key stakeholders involved. This will help unveil not only 139
technology-related experience but non-technology adoption lessons in the organisational, multi-140
disciplinary, collaborative, environmental, and other contexts. 141
Data Collection 142
Table 1 provides an overview of the sources that were used to collect data for the case studies. The 143
profile of interviewees and key interview questions can be found in Appendix I and Table 2. In total, 144
eighteen interviews with twenty experts involved were conducted with key stakeholders. Sixteen 145
interviews (with eighteen participants) lasted varying from 45 to 90 minutes (average of 60 minutes) 146
and two interviews (with interviewees P and Q) were conducted via emails due to language and 147
availability issues. The stakeholders who were invited to attend the interviews were involved in ACC 148
Zou, Y., Guo, BHW., Papadonikolaki, E., Dimyadi, J., and Hou, L. 2023. "Lessons Learned on
Adopting Automated Compliance Checking in AEC Industry: A Global Study." Journal of Management
in Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1061/JMENEA/MEENG-5051
4
adoption in their countries, held important positions in their organisations (e.g. Chief Technology 149
Officer leading the development of ACC systems, building consent officer conducting the pilot testing 150
of ACC systems), and had in-depth knowledge of ACC adoption experience. A semi-structured method 151
was adopted to allow adaptation of questions and accommodate the interviewee through follow-up 152
questions and further explanations relevant to the adoption experience (Rowley 2012). All the 153
interviews were recorded and transcribed. 154
155
Along with this interview data, documents, ACC product information and other textual data were 156
provided by the interviewees or collected through the Internet, to validate the emerging findings, enrich 157
the interview data to describe the big picture, narratives and characteristics of each case (Creswell 1999). 158
159
Table 1 Overview of data sources per case 160
Cases
Sources of
Evidence
Details
1: Australia
Documents
• Product information (CRC Australia 2005),
• literature (Ding et al. 2006)
Interview
Two interviews with ACC expert (who was leading the development
of DesignCheck) and another ACC expert (who was involved in the
development of DesignCheck).
2: China
Documents
• Product information (Nanjing Government 2021; Nanjing
Government 2022),
• literature (Wang et al. 2021)
Interviews
Four interviews with the ACC researcher (who had >3 years ACC
research experience), BCA officer (who was involved in a major
ACC pilot project), design engineer (who was involved in a major
ACC pilot project in China), ACC expert (who was involved in the
development of one ACC software)
3: Estonia
Documents
Project report (FIG 2019)
Interview
One interview with two ACC experts (who were involved in the
development of ACC software in Netherlands/Estonia)
4:
NZ
Documents
Case study report (NSC-BBHTC 2019), literature (Amor and
Dimyadi 2021; Dimyadi and Amor 2017; Dimyadi et al. 2020)
Interviews
Four interviews with a BCA officer (who tested ACC systems and
conducted a research project on ACC at the master level), an ACC
expert (who had >30 years BIM/ACC research experience and was
involved in the development of ACABIM), two standardisation
experts (who worked in the national standards body for NZ).
5:
Singapore
Documents
Literature (Amor and Dimyadi 2021; Goh 2007; Khemlani 2005)
Interviews
Two interviews with one ACC expert (who was recently involved in
a major ACC development project in Singapore) and another ACC
expert (who had >20 years ACC research and development
experience)
6: South
Korea
Documents
Literature (Amor and Dimyadi 2021; Kim et al. 2019; Kim et al.
2020)
Interview
Three interviews with an ACC researcher (who has >14 years ACC
research and development experience and has been involved in the
KBIM ACC system), a researcher (who has >20 years research
experience in BIM and ACC, and was leading the development of
ABIMO Checker), and one ACC expert (who has been developing
the KBIM ACC system)
7: UK
Documents
Project report (CDBB 2019)
Zou, Y., Guo, BHW., Papadonikolaki, E., Dimyadi, J., and Hou, L. 2023. "Lessons Learned on
Adopting Automated Compliance Checking in AEC Industry: A Global Study." Journal of Management
in Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1061/JMENEA/MEENG-5051
5
Interviews
Two interviews with the ACC expert (who had >10 years ACC
research and development experience), and the construction expert
(who had much experience in preparing building permit
applications)
8: US
Documents
Literature (Kim and Clayton 2010; O'Brien 2021)
Interviews
Two interviews with ACC researcher (who has been an active ACC
researcher >10 years, collaborated with ACC technology firms, and
had commercialisation experience on ACC research), and ACC
expert (who has been an active research in ACC and computing in
engineering for >30 years, and is one of the founders of
SmartReview)
161
Table 2. Key interview questions 162
No.
Questions
1
What were the specific reasons motivating the development/use of ACC technology?
2
What were the challenges in promoting the use of ACC? How did you solve the problems?
3
What technology improvements will enhance the ACC adoption?
4
What were the top factors to the success of ACC uptake?
5
What were the main barriers that prevented ACC uptake?
Data analysis 163
A within-case analysis was firstly conducted. In qualitative research, data analysis refers to the process 164
of systematically searching and arranging the interview transcripts, observation notes, or other non-165
textual materials to draw an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon (Sari and Bogdan 1992). In this 166
study, the content analysis included an iterative process of coding the interview data using Nvivo 12 167
(Edhlund and McDougall 2019) qualitatively in two cycles, as recommended by Saldaña (2015). To 168
reduce the individual subjectivity and ensure the reliability of the coded data, using multiple coders is 169
recommended (Berends and Johnston 2005; Evans 1996). In this project, the coding process involved 170
two independent coders and another supervisor. Both coders were key researchers of this project and 171
had good knowledge in the subject area of BIM and ACC. The first cycle of coding was structural 172
coding which applied a content-based or conceptual phrase representing a topic of inquiry to a segment 173
of data that relates to a specific research question used to frame the interview. It resulted in defined 174
codes from the data matrix being associated with multiple subcodes. For example, “the accuracy of the 175
results from existing ACC technology is questionable” was coded as “Inefficiency of technical 176
capabilities”. The latter cycle of coding was focused coding which categorised coded data based on 177
thematic or conceptual similarity. For example, the codes of “Inefficiency of technical capabilities” and 178
“manual practice of building code compliance” were grouped into the theme of “technological barriers 179
of ACC”. In addition, the possible contextual relationships in the interview quotes were highlighted to 180
support further analysis. For instance, “The industry does not have money and time to train professionals 181
to use BIM; (Government) funding is needed to facilitate ACC adoption” revealed a possible 182
relationship between the industry, policymakers and ACC adoption. Through this step, the most 183
outstanding codes were identified, themes were developed, and possible contextual relationships were 184
highlighted. 185
186
The agreement between the two coders on allocating text segments into categories was measured by 187
Cohen’s kappa (Cohen 1960) 188
=−
1−
189
Zou, Y., Guo, BHW., Papadonikolaki, E., Dimyadi, J., and Hou, L. 2023. "Lessons Learned on
Adopting Automated Compliance Checking in AEC Industry: A Global Study." Journal of Management
in Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1061/JMENEA/MEENG-5051
6
where is the relative observed agreement between the coders, and is the hypothetical probability 190
of chance agreement. According to Landis and Koch (1977), in most cases the values of range 191
between 0 and 1, and agreement is considered as sufficient based on strengthen when ≥ 0.8. 192
193
The values for the eight cases analysed were: 0.90 (Australia), 0.89 (China), 0.98 (Estonia), 0.95 (NZ), 194
0.94 (Singpore), 0.86 (South Korea), 0.85 (UK), 1.00 (US) respectively, with an average of 0.92. Then 195
the two coders discussed all inconsistencies and discrepancies to improve mutual understanding. During 196
this process, most inconsistencies and discrepancies were easily resolved when one coder pointed out 197
the other coder lacked sufficient understanding of the context, had overlooked or had interpreted the 198
language differently. For the remaining inconsistencies and discrepancies that the two coders were 199
unable to reach an agreement after joint discussion, the supervisor was involved, all three participants 200
reviewed and discussed these inconsistencies and discrepancies, and finally a resolution was reached. 201
202
Once the data for each case has been analysed and refined, a cross-case analysis took place following 203
the recommendations of Miles et al. (2018). The case-specific determinants were extracted, and 204
compared with each other to reach generic conclusions regarding the adoption variables. Twelve 205
adoption variables were obtained after iteratively analysing the case data and repeating the cross-case 206
analysis. In the meanwhile, a further analysis on possible interrelationships between adoption variables 207
was conducted. Based on this analysis, three path models that can determine the adoption of ACC 208
systems were deduced and ten propositions that can guide future adoption of ACC systems were 209
developed from the eight cases. 210
Data validation 211
The interview transcripts were sent back to the interviewees for checking, which is a critical technique 212
for building credibility in qualitative research (Lincoln and Guba 1985). No major modifications were 213
suggested to make. To validate the results of this study, the adoption variables, path models and 214
propositions were summarised and sent back to the interviewees for verification and feedback. Their 215
feedback was used to further improve the research results until a consensus was reached. 216
Findings 217
Case description 218
In this multiple-case study, eight countries were selected for comparative analysis: Australia, China, 219
Estonia, NZ, Singapore, South Korea, UK, US. Table 3 summarises the approaches of digital 220
technology adoption in AEC industries of the selected countries. It can be found that Australia, Estonia, 221
NZ and US implement a bottom-up approach; while the rest countries (China, Singapore, Korea and
222
UK) adopt an top-down approach. According to Jiang et al. (2022), bottom-up (i.e., industry-driven) 223
approach requires a lower level of government intervention while the industry takes an active part; in 224
contrast, top-down (i.e., government-driven) approach means that the government takes the lead and 225
launches a series of policies (e.g. BIM mandates) to get the industry stakeholders involved. Although 226
these two digital technology adoption approaches exist, we have also observed a similar pattern across 227
the selected countries, which is to build alliance of government, industry stakeholders, industry 228
associations and academics to promote the research and development (R&D) and adoption of digital 229
technologies. Each country is discussed separately as below. 230
231
Table 3. Approaches of adopting digital technologies in AEC industry 232
Country
Approach
of digital
References
Zou, Y., Guo, BHW., Papadonikolaki, E., Dimyadi, J., and Hou, L. 2023. "Lessons Learned on
Adopting Automated Compliance Checking in AEC Industry: A Global Study." Journal of Management
in Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1061/JMENEA/MEENG-5051
7
technology
adoption
(Jiang et al.
2022)
(Papadonikolaki
2018)
(Kim et al.
2019)
(Hosseini et
al. 2016)
(Liu et al.
2017; Ma et
al. 2022)
Australia
Bottom-up
✓
China
Top-down
✓
Estonia
Bottom-up
✓
NZ
Bottom-up
✓
Singapore
Top-down
✓
Korea
Top-down
✓
UK
Top-down
✓
US
Bottom-up
✓
233
In Australia, Australasian BIM Advisory Board (ABAB) was established around 2017 to build an 234
alliance of key industry stakeholders, government, industry associations to coordinate and provide 235
advice on harmonisation of BIM development across Australia and New Zealand (Built Offsite 2017). 236
ABAB has no powers but focuses on integrating a whole of built environment approach to support best 237
BIM practices, developing strategy, roadmap and standards, providing advice to both governments and 238
industry. Around 2019, the Australian BIM Strategic Framework was published as the first key step to 239
establishing a basis for governments to adopt a consistent national approach to BIM in major building 240
and infrastructure construction projects (ABAB 2019). 241
242
Liu et al. (2017) reviewed the BIM adoption in China. Firstly, the central government has provided 243
strong policy signal to encourage more use of BIM. For example, in 2011 the Ministry of Housing and 244
Urban-Rural Development (MOHURD) issued outline of Development of Construction Industry 245
Informatisation (2011-2015) and highlighted the nation will take BIM as core enabling technology to 246
support digital transformation in Chinese AEC industry. Almost at the same time, the Ministry of 247
Science and Technology (MOST) announced that BIM as a national theme in its 12th Five-Year Plan 248
on Science and Technology Development. Various BIM national conferences, BIM seminars, BIM 249
design competition, and BIM training have been organised raise the AEC industries’ awareness on BIM. 250
In addition, local governments and companies provided incentives (e.g., reward of extra points for BIM 251
applications in design competitions) to encourage them to adapt to the digital age. 252
253
The Estonian Digital Construction Cluster (EDCC) was launched in 2019 to improve the digitalisation 254
of the AEC industries in Estonia (ECSO 2020). EDCC was in partnership with four government 255
departments (Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, Estonian Road Administration, 256
Tallinn City Council and Enterprise Estonia (national investment agency), and the Estonian Association 257
of Information Technology and Telecommunications (ITL)) and brings together a broad range of key 258
stakeholders in the construction lifecycle value chain. The main objectives of EDCC include: helping 259
AEC industries better understanding and use digital technologies; improving collaboration between 260
different stakeholders; enhancing digital skills across the whole AEC sector. 261
262
In New Zealand, a nationwide alliance between the construction industry and government, known as 263
BIM Acceleration Committee (BAC), has been established in 2014 to promote the update of BIM in 264
New Zealand (BAC 2017). BAC has five main roles: developing and maintaining the NZ BIM 265
Handbook (which is a non-mandatory document to guide practitioners to use BIM); conducting annual 266
BIM update survey; providing case studies to demonstrate the capability and successful experience of
267
BIM use; providing training; organising conferences and events. 268
269
In Singapore, policies of the central government are easy to implement; as a result, Singapore has taken 270
a government-driven approach to increase the BIM use in the industry (Jiang et al. 2022). Since 2015, 271
the Building and Construction Authority has mandated all new building projects with gross floor areas 272
of 5,000 m2 and above to submit their architectural, structural, and mechanical, electrical, and plumbing 273
(MEP) plans in the format of BIM (Liao et al. 2020). The Building and Construction Authority of 274
Zou, Y., Guo, BHW., Papadonikolaki, E., Dimyadi, J., and Hou, L. 2023. "Lessons Learned on
Adopting Automated Compliance Checking in AEC Industry: A Global Study." Journal of Management
in Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1061/JMENEA/MEENG-5051
8
Singapore also developed the second Singapore BIM roadmap to encourage the local construction value 275
chain to adopt BIM in a more collaborative way (Shen et al. 2016). 276
277
South Korea is among the most proactive countries of developing and using BIM and digital 278
technologies (Lee et al. 2015). In 2017, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of Korea 279
provided around US$25 million funding to support the Korean BIM Standards (KBIM) project 280
(buildingSMART Korea 2022), which was the largest ever BIM R&D project in the history of Korea. 281
KBIM was led by buildingSMART Korea, with participation of more than 100 companies, universities, 282
government agencies and research institutes. It includes three phases: OpenBIM standard platform and 283
application technology development; Development of openBIM-based Automatic Rule-Checking 284
(ARC) Technology; OpenBIM-based integrated facilities management technology. 285
286
The UK government announced its Construction 2025 strategy (HM Government 2013) in 2013, aimed 287
to meet objectives of reduction of initial and whole life costs of built assets, improvement in project 288
delivery and service export, and reduction of carbon emissions. This document clearly defines a national 289
strategy to invest in digital technologies to transform the whole sector as efficient and technologically 290
advanced. To support this vision, UK BIM Task Group (2011) has further developed a report which 291
outlines milestones, strategies for academic support, training, industry involvement and legal issues 292
resolution. UK government policy is in place to mandate level 2 BIM from 2016 (Georgiadou 2019). 293
Construction Innovation Hub, a new partnership among industry bodies, policymakers, practitioners 294
and academics, has been recently established to drive innovation and address key challenges in the 295
construction industry (Construction Innovation Hub 2022). 296
297
US has selected a bottom-up approach in promoting BIM due to its unique BIM adoption culture: 298
various local state governments and different organisations are developing separate approaches. Even 299
so, some joint efforts across the whole country have been also observed. According to Jiang et al. (2022), 300
the US General Services Administration (GSA) established the first National 3D-4D-BIM Program in 301
2003, which require that all GSA-funded projects that used BIM should be submitted to the office for 302
final approval in fiscal year 2007 and beyond. Between 2006 and 2017, GSA published eight series of 303
BIM guidelines to cover the whole lifecycle of construction projects. The National Institute of Building 304
Sciences (NIBS) has collaborated closely with governments, industry, researchers and practitioners, to
305
develop and maintain its BIM guideline, build alliance, and provide BIM training and forums. 306
307
Table 4 presents the characteristics of ACC systems, and the context of the adoption in each country. 308
For all selected countries, adopting ACC to help the Building Consent Authority (BCA) conduct 309
building consent/permit assessment faster, easier, and more reliable was the primary business interest. 310
BCAider and DesignCheck of Australia were among the earliest ACC systems in the world; however, 311
they have not stood in the test of time and have no further development plans in place. Although ACC 312
has not been fully adopted in practice in all cases, these countries have transitioned or are in the process 313
of transitioning from paper-based workflows to e-submission systems (i.e. submission, assessment and 314
approval using digital data). In addition, they have plans to develop new ACC systems or improve 315
existing e-submission systems, translate their building codes into machine-readable rules, and build a 316
partnership with relevant stakeholders to demonstrate the benefits of ACC systems. 317
318
Table 4. Brief description of ACC adoption in the eight selected countries 319
Cases
ACC system
ACC adoption
Multiple
stakeholder
involvement
References
Australia
In 1991, an expert system,
BCAider, that can help
designers,
building surveyors
and educational trainers to
apply the Australian building
BCAider was
licensed for
distribution by
Butterworths from
1991 for about 6
Yes
(Dimyadi and
Amor 2013;
Ding et al.
2006; Ward
2014)
Zou, Y., Guo, BHW., Papadonikolaki, E., Dimyadi, J., and Hou, L. 2023. "Lessons Learned on
Adopting Automated Compliance Checking in AEC Industry: A Global Study." Journal of Management
in Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1061/JMENEA/MEENG-5051
9
code to buildings, was released
by the Commonwealth
Scientific and Industrial
Research Organisation
(CSIRO). In 2006, CSIRO
announced DesignCheck, a
new system based on IFC for
compliance assessment against
building codes. DesignCheck
used Express Data Manager
(EDM)
as the software
inte
gration platform for
encoding design requirements
from building codes.
years and then by
CBH, who stopped
distribution around
2005. DesignCheck
was not
commercially used
and there has been no
plan for further
development.
China
Since around 2015, the local
governments
(e.g. Shanghai,
Nanjing)
started the
transformation from paper-
based documents to e-
submissions (i.e. submission,
assessment and approval using
digital data). The government
of Nanjing led the
development of a BIM-based
e-submission system in
collaboration
with software
firms,
consultants and
construction companies. ACC
has been integrated into the
system to check those rules
that can be easily quantified.
There has
been a plan for
further development of the
system.
The BIM-based e-
submission system of
Nanjing has been
commercially used.
The first building
consent approval
using the system was
granted in 2021.
Yes
(Nanjing
Government
2021; Nanjing
Government
2022; Wang et
al. 2021)
Estonia
In 2019, A Netherlands-based
software
company, Future
Insight Group, cooperated with
Europe
an Commission's
Structural Reform Support
Service and
demonstrated a
BIM-
based process for
building permits in Estonia.
The
building permit
assessment system is a web
platform based on open BIM
components (e.g. (BIM Server,
BIM Surfer, Voxel Server). It
has embedded with smart
algorithms to automate some
labour-intensive manual
checks.
An Estonian proof of
concept was
conducted
using the
system developed by
Future Insight
Group.
Yes
(FIG 2019)
Zou, Y., Guo, BHW., Papadonikolaki, E., Dimyadi, J., and Hou, L. 2023. "Lessons Learned on
Adopting Automated Compliance Checking in AEC Industry: A Global Study." Journal of Management
in Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1061/JMENEA/MEENG-5051
10
New
Zealand
In 2019, Compliance Audit
Systems Limited (CAS)
introduced ACABIM, a cloud-
based automated compliance
audit system. ACABIM is built
upon the philosophy of human-
guided automation, taking IFC
model,
Business Process
Model and Notation (BPMN)-
compliant workflow model,
and
Legal Knowledge Model
(LKM)
as input to assist
human against the information
in the BIM model is audited.
Most recently, a project to
translate a number of priority
consenting documents from
the NZ Building Code (NZBC)
and associated normative
Standards into open legal
interchange standard
LegalRuleML (LRML) was
undertaken by the University
of Auckland in 2019, under the
NZ government-funded
National Science Challenge:
Building Better Homes,
Towns, and Cities (NSC
BBHTC)
Since 2019, CAS has
conducted a couple
of pilot projects
, in
collaboration with
building consent
authorities and
construction firms, to
test
the feasibility
and prove the
benefits of ACABIM
system
in New
Zealand.
Yes
(Compliance
Audit Systems
Limited
(CAS) 2019;
Dimyadi et al.
2020)
Singapore
In 1995, the Building
Construction Authority
introduced the CORENET
(Construction and Real Estate
Network) system to check 2D
plans for compliance. It
upgraded the system in 2002 as
CORENET ePlanCheck to
enable the processing of 3D
IFC models.
The system
implements ACC against two
major domains: architectural
and building services.
Recently, the Singapore
government has been
collaborating with local
vendors to develop the next
generation of ACC system,
called CORENET-X.
The CORENET
ePlanCheck was
commissioned by the
BCA
and has been
commercially used.
Yes
(Amor and
Dimyadi
2021; Goh
2007;
Khemlani
2005)
South
Korea
The South Korean government
started accepting non-visit
The KBIM building
e-Submission system
Yes
(Amor and
Dimyadi
Zou, Y., Guo, BHW., Papadonikolaki, E., Dimyadi, J., and Hou, L. 2023. "Lessons Learned on
Adopting Automated Compliance Checking in AEC Industry: A Global Study." Journal of Management
in Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1061/JMENEA/MEENG-5051
11
digital submissions for
building permit assessment in
2008. A system called
SEUMTER was developed
and expanded for nationwide
use in 2012. Recently the
government is in collaboration
with buildingSMART Korea
and a number of institutions to
improve SEUMTER to be a
new ACC system, called
KBIM.
KBIM employs
KbimCode, computer-
processable rules translated
from building codes.
has been tested
through several real
projects.
2021; Kim et
al. 2019; Kim
et al. 2020)
UK
The Digitization of
Requirements, Regulations,
and Compliance Checking
Processes in the Built
Environment (D-COM)
network was established
around 2018
to create a new
digital ecosystem to support
automated and easier
regulatory compliance
in the
UK.
In 2014, the National
Building
Specification (NBS)
completed a pilot
project, in
collaboration with
Butler & Young
, to
demonstrate the
systems
to perform
ACC using BIM
models.
Yes
(CDBB 2019;
National
Building
Specification
(NBS) 2014)
US
SMARTreview was
introduced around 2013 and
has been used by architects to
check compliance with
portions of the International
Building Code.
In 2016,
UpCodes AI was founded to
employ natural language
processing
to read from
building code database and
check BIMs against those code
requirements. Both software
tools work as plug-
ins of
Autodesk Revit.
Both SMARTreview
and UpCodes AI
have been
commercially used.
In addition, a close
collaboration
between academia
and ACC technology
firms
has been
observed
to explore
artificial intelligence
ACC solutions.
Yes
(Amor and
Dimyadi
2021; Clayton
et al. 2013;
Kim and
Clayton 2010;
O'Brien 2021)
Contributing variables and path models 320
During the process of coding interview data and comparing cross-case results, a total of twelve key 321
variables that affect the adoption of ACC systems were identified. The variables and their quotes in 322
each case study are presented in Table 5. In the meantime, interrelationships between some of these 323
variables were found in the context of these quotes. Through evaluating these variables and their 324
possible interrelationships in each of these eight case studies, three path models that can explain the 325
mechanisms of ACC adoption in the AEC industry were deduced (Figures. 1-3). The rest of this section 326
describes the three paths and formulates associated propositions. See Appendix II for details about the 327
path development with supporting interview quotes and literature. 328
329
330
Zou, Y., Guo, BHW., Papadonikolaki, E., Dimyadi, J., and Hou, L. 2023. "Lessons Learned on Adopting Automated Compliance Checking in AEC Industry:
A Global Study." Journal of Management in Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1061/JMENEA/MEENG-5051
12
Table 5. The identified variables affecting the adoption of ACC systems 331
Variables
Australia
UK
Singapore
New Zealand
Estonia
Korea
China
US
V1:
Government
Support
The industry can be
influence
d by the
governing parties'
focuses. One major
impediment is the
upfront investment
to support ACC
development in the
long term. The
funding should
cover not only the
technology
development but its
implementation in
industry. Unless the
g
overnment puts
ACC
in a
requirement in the
end, the industry is
not sufficiently
coherent to make the
change itself.
The government can provide
a driving force by insisting
on the digital audit trail.
Business incentives are
needed to encourage ACC
adoption, such as reduction
of costs or change in business
models.
To push ACC
implementation, the
government starts
accepting BIM e-
submission and
provides financial
support for industry
adjust from 2D to
BIM environment.
Most local councils
are not providing a
driving force for
ACC development
and adoption.
Coun
cils should
publish a roadmap
to lead the direction
for ACC uptake.
Funding is needed
for ACC
development, but
cost is a big concern
for the industry.
The government
needs to take the
lead, e.g. to set up
fast tracks for
contractors using
ACC systems. In
2
019, the
government
provided most
funding for us to
build the first ACC
demo with the aim
of gaining
experience and
showing people
the possibility to
get support.
The government has
power to change the
building codes, so
should lead the
development of
ACC
products and
their update. Slow
adoption is because
learning BIM and
ACC applications is
extra job for end
users. The industry
does not have money
and time to train
professionals to use
BIM. Funding is
needed to facilitate
ACC adoption.
To push ACC, the
g
overnment should
provide guidance and
support in terms of
policies. The central
and local
governments have
been exploring BIM-
based audit in many
cities and have
invested in
developing BIM-
based audit systems
and City Information
Modelling (CIM)
platforms.
Government is also
considered as one
of the main
potential client of
ACC technology
who needs to
improve efficiency
of design checking.
The driving force of
ACC technology is
different state to
state due to the
different
jurisdictions across
the nation.
V2: Human
resistance
People are reluctant
to try new
approaches as they
are not certain about
the risks involved.
In order to overcome
scepticism and resistance to
change guidance will be
produced, targeted to specific
audiences, to convey the
aims/objec
tives/ benefits of
digitisation of
regulations/requirements.
Additionally, will support
more complete and
consistent BIM usage. This
will also grow wider
awareness.
The main barrier is
the human factor.
The industry has a
lot of reluctance to
change. There is
always a pushback,
where a major
concern is the
additional effort in
BIM modelling.
One of the natural
barriers to ACC
uptake is human
resistance. People
understand it is good
but hesitate to take
action. The
overhead of learning
and using ACC is
high. Their attitudes
are not changed by
what other countries
have done.
The inputs into the
ACC systems is a
barrier for the
contractors to
adopt the
technology.
The problem is
p
eople. The ACC
project has been
going on since 2012,
but industry
acceptance is very
difficult. People
don't want to change
to 100% BIM based
e-submission.
Human factors,
organisational
factors and
management factors
need to be
considered, i.e.
whether the
technology enables
better work practice.
It's only meaningful
to perform BIM-
based ACC if the
project is designed in
BIM. Ho wever,
designers are more
reluctant in adopting
BIM compared with
contractors, because
there is an imbalance
in the benefits/profits
they get.
The transition into
digital modelling
and BIM based
practice requests
the a planned
process and
understanding of
current practice in
the industry. The
ACC technology
adoption may take
the hold generation.
That could be 30
years or more.
The collaboration
of the government
and the industry are
the key to push the
adoption. With the
BIM application
ready in the
Zou, Y., Guo, BHW., Papadonikolaki, E., Dimyadi, J., and Hou, L. 2023. "Lessons Learned on Adopting Automated Compliance Checking in AEC Industry:
A Global Study." Journal of Management in Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1061/JMENEA/MEENG-5051
13
industry, the
technology
development can
mainly focus on the
IFC model
processing for the
government.
V3: Industry
readiness and
innovativeness
The industry is
reluctant to change
as there lacks real
incentives to change
in the culture. The
industry needs to
learn how to how it
will get benefited
from the
technology.
Build a product or process to
meet majority of needs, trial
and test
in representative
environment and capture key
metrics, refine and ready for
scaling.
21 years ago, an
ACC solution was
developed in
Singapore, but the
industry wasn't
ready. Success
factors for ACC
adoption include a
good coverage of
standards, skills,
critical mass
(enough proportion
of industry
adopted), obvious
benefit for industry.
Incremental steps
are needed to
change the NZ
industry culture for
accepting and
adopting ACC
solutions. There has
to be a few visionary
people or a
triggering event to
lead the change of
the industry.
Estonia is one of
the most digital
society. 80% of the
designers and
contractors are
using BIM.
Government
people can work
with IFC files .
Industry acceptance
is a challenge,
especially for field
workers and
architects.
Korea has relatively
low adoption of BIM
by small and
medium-sized
architectural firms.
In current practices,
BIM models are
made by "BIM
centre" in the design
firms based on 2D
drawings. 3D design
using BIM platforms
should be adopted.
The ACC needs
from the industry
are coming from the
workforce shortage
and the productivity
challenges due to
increasing number
of project.
ACC relies on BIM;
however, the reality
is industry people
do not
use BIM
well.
The US ACC
technology is being
pushed into a higher
level of automation.
There are several
commercial ACC
systems available
on the US market,
such as SMART
CODES. There are
academic groups
researching into
cutting edge
technology to
further support the
ACC, such as deep
learning and natural
language
processing.
Zou, Y., Guo, BHW., Papadonikolaki, E., Dimyadi, J., and Hou, L. 2023. "Lessons Learned on Adopting Automated Compliance Checking in AEC Industry:
A Global Study." Journal of Management in Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1061/JMENEA/MEENG-5051
14
V4: Education
and training
Education is a major
impediment to BIM
and ACC uptake.
Develop audience specific
training and guidance,
establish methods for user
feedback and continually
refine alongside pathways
for enhancement.
There is also need to
retrain government
officers to work
with 3D.
It is key to train
building consent
compliance officers
on how BIM and
ACC works.
-
Education has been
provided for future
generation of the
industry, but current
industry people are
reluctant to change.
Education needs to
be provided in
universities on 3D
design tools and
BIM, so students will
have the intention to
learn BIM when they
start their career,
which is beneficial
for BIM uptake.
Senior designers
need to be trained to
use BIM and to know
the values of BIM so
they can proactively
learn about it. To
better promote ACC,
design companies
need to know more
about the ACC
system and improve
their design quality.
The industry needs
to firstly recognise
the value (o f BIM
and ACC).
V5:
Stakeholder
engagement
ACC should go
through incremental
development to
involve the users
from early stage and
ensure their needs
are addressed.
Consult with stakeholders (to
include academia, industry
and policymakers) to identify
prospective use cases and
gather requirements.
Top driver is
government.
Second driver is
consultation with
industry. The
motivation for
industry to use ACC
is the evidence of
efficiency
improvement.
The ACC system
needs to be audited
or certified, i.e. pass
a robust quality
assurance procedure
to ens
ure the
accreditation of its
results. ACC tool
was developed
replicating the
councils' checking
procedures to gain
trust. The
accreditation needs
to be acknowledged
by councils and
should be reviewed
at regular intervals.
Third success
factor is to involve
all stakeholders to
improve the
legislation. The
real challenge is
the different
stakeholders and
their demands, so
need to involve the
stakeholders.
KBIM Collaboration
was develop ed based
on openBIM as the
platform for
information storage
and exchange among
stakeholders.
To improve the user
experience, there is a
need to optimise,
improve and upgrade
the existing building
permit assessment
system using ACC
technology.
User friendliness is
the top factor of
technology
adoption. The users
do not care about
the technology
behind the scenes
but how the
technology to be
tailored to fit the
needs and
workflows of the
themselves.
The key of
successful
technology
development and
implementation is
to understanding
the expectations
and needs of the
potential clients at
the early stage. The
developers also
need to understand
Zou, Y., Guo, BHW., Papadonikolaki, E., Dimyadi, J., and Hou, L. 2023. "Lessons Learned on Adopting Automated Compliance Checking in AEC Industry:
A Global Study." Journal of Management in Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1061/JMENEA/MEENG-5051
15
the factors relevant
to technology
adoption .
Learning the
options of user
friendliness from
the stakeholders to
determine the
technology
developing
direction. The user
friendliness
includes different
aspects such as how
to fit into the
current practice and
the user
expectations.
V6: Pilot
projects and
case studies
DesignCheck was
tested by private and
public design
organisations for
validation and
feedback.
A market leader and
building consent
authority in the
construction
industry should take
it up. Then they can
demonstrate the
benefits of ACC
inside and outside
the company.
A good case study or pilot
project would be a strong
push for the government to
accept digitalisation.
Stakeholders have
been involved in the
creation of
modelling
guidelines (in ACC
pilot projects).
Successful cases
from other countries
can provide driving
force for public
policy; then
successful local
cases in NZ are
needed to convince
the industry. Having
a national checking
process agreed by
councils could
encourage
development of
related tools.
-
-
Two cities were
selected for piloting
BIM based
compliance
checking, where the
government is
pushing BIM through
mandatory means,
e.g. mandating 3D
audit for public
projects.
Currently, there are
only a handful of
experts that are
well-
versed in
drafting
sophisticated Form-
based Codes
(FBCs); therefore,
additional trial and
error are expected.
Zou, Y., Guo, BHW., Papadonikolaki, E., Dimyadi, J., and Hou, L. 2023. "Lessons Learned on Adopting Automated Compliance Checking in AEC Industry:
A Global Study." Journal of Management in Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1061/JMENEA/MEENG-5051
16
V7: Tangible
benefits
It is important to
show the
stakeholders how
they will be
benefited using
ACC.
Benefits of ACC in terms of
efficiency and cost reduction
can be a big driver. Trust
needs to be developed for
ACC tools and the results
they produce.
The driving force
for the government
to use ACC is
building quality,
productivity
improvement,
higher efficiency
and being less
reliant on human.
Automation can
help reduce the
workload so officers
can focus on more
complicated cases.
The benefits of ACC
needs to outweigh
the value of current
practice. The
industry needs to
know how the
council charges for
ACC service, and
whether it is fast
enough to be
worthwhile.
Currently it is
difficult to test how
much time BIM or
ACC saves for the
consenting process,
so there lacks
evidence to
convince people its
efficiency gain or
provide assurance
on its benefits.
The issue is that
we fail to build
what the users
want. The
intention for
developing our
ACC solution was
to gain experience
and build a
demonstration for
the industry's
internal
communi
cation to
convince the
government its
usefulness and get
the support they
need.
The government
wishes to enhance
building quality and
have less code
violations through
ACC.
The most important
factor is its cost.
Profit (or reduction
in cost) is the driver
for design companies
to adopt ACC.
-
V8:
Appropriate
marketing
-
-
-
There are mistrust
on the benefits of
ACC technology. A
big problem is that
the marketing for
the technology tend
to oversell and
promise for
functions that are
not yet fully
developed.
-
-
The adoption is
fundamentally
related to the actual
benefits but not the
marketing strategies.
Exaggerating or
overpromising the
benefits of
technologies would
result periods of
inflated expectations
and disillusionment.
The industry buy-in
is critical for
technology
adoption. The
commitment of the
clients including
industry and
government
required to deal
with different
associated factors
such as legal,
financial and risk.
Zou, Y., Guo, BHW., Papadonikolaki, E., Dimyadi, J., and Hou, L. 2023. "Lessons Learned on Adopting Automated Compliance Checking in AEC Industry:
A Global Study." Journal of Management in Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1061/JMENEA/MEENG-5051
17
V9:
Technology
integration
The problem with
the DesignCheck
was how to interpret
drawings. BIM
should be the base of
ACC, which require
international
agreement on APIs.
The existing ACC
tool (e.g., SOLIBRI
model checker) was
found having
limitations due to its
black-box nature.
To
help industry
accept ACC
technology, you
need to have really
good interfaces, all
aspects of
interfacing.
Currently the big limitation is
lack of integration of
technologies and tools.
The ACC software
(we developed) had
a wide definition for
checking that
allowed 2D
drawings to be
checked.
The ACC system
should be open to
allow anyone to
change rules and
regulations instead
of hard-
coding in
the rules. It's better
to be an open system
to avoid copyright
issues.
The improvement of
BIM technology,
smart standard and
IFC standard
provide strong
representation for
the ACC
technology.
However, the
technology is far
from
implementation
stage. The future
progress and the
problem are
uncertain in this
stage. The
optimised outcomes
need to integrate
industry knowledge,
computer expertise,
user community,
legislative bodies.
The ACC system
(we developed) is
web-
based and
linked with the
national digital
twin, where IFC
files can be viewed
in the digital twin.
ACC related BIM
applications require
e-submission
systems, changes
from traditional
building code to
KBIM code system,
and the development
of mobile, web, and
cloud-based
viewers.
Efforts are being
made to improve
usability (of KBIM)
through consultation
with field designers.
If the regulatory
compliance review
is made through the
use of ACC in the
regulatory process, it
will be a great
opportunity for the
diffusion of related
technologies and
technology
development.
ACC currently has
two directions, 2D
drawing checking
and 3D BIM
checking. BIM-based
ACC has just started
to develop, test runs
were performed at a
few pilot cities. From
the industry's
perspective, the cost
of using BIM in
many projects is still
too high. There is sti ll
a huge demand in
CAD audit, so the
i
ndustry would like
to have both
pathways.
The government is
pushing the
digitalisation of
building information
(at urban scale),
where building a
CIM platform is the
key, involving BIM,
internet and GIS. The
government is
leading BIM uptake
because BIM data
will help building up
the CIM platform.
The
implementation of
IFC model is
critical. That
directly impacts the
value of technology
building on top of
the IFC model. In
the US, federal
agency has adopted
the IFC standard for
infrastru
cture type
of projec
ts. That
encouraged the
development of the
technology.
Zou, Y., Guo, BHW., Papadonikolaki, E., Dimyadi, J., and Hou, L. 2023. "Lessons Learned on Adopting Automated Compliance Checking in AEC Industry:
A Global Study." Journal of Management in Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1061/JMENEA/MEENG-5051
18
V10:
Modelling
standards
Libraries of building
objects and systems
should be
incorporated in BIM
software, as
consistency in
naming between
different software is
necessary for rule
checking to work.
Modelling standard
and information
standard are critical.
ACC will benefit if
the model is good
and consistent.
Minimising
modelling effort can
make it easier for
industry to adopt
meanwhile balance
the requirement of
the model.
-
There needs to be a
standard for BIM
modelling to make
all data meaningful.
The industry needs
to provide required
information in BIM
in a specific format,
such as correct
naming of IFC
objects. Human
factor is the main
barrier as ownership
of responsibility is
not clear for model
quality.
Standardisation of
BIM modelling is
key. For instance,
the contractors
may standardise
models in their
own company, but
the standard is
different across the
industry.
The model is always
a problem. There are
often inconsistencies
and erro
rs in BIM
models. Architects
need to provide BIM
models suitable for
code checking. It's
better to have
intelligent
translators or
modellers that
allows ACC,
without regulating
people how to create
their models.
For ACC, it is
necessary to follow
appropriate
guidelines in the
modell
ing process,
but it is difficult to
consider this in the
field. T
here are
guidelines that must
be followed when
creating a BIM
model in order to
review various
requirements.
Setting up standards
for models in early
stage and perform
ACC will help the
model
standardisation
problem between
designers and
contractors. The lack
of model
standardisation
causes inconsistency
between model and
the actual building,
so the value of BIM
in operation phase
hasn't been
recognised.
The adoption of ACC
system will put
restrictions on
designers to make the
models in a standard
way.
The standards for
model deliverables
set by government
are not strictly
followed because
they are not
mandatory. The bad
quality of data and
BIM models may
cause pro
blems (to
further ACC
applications).
The beta testers
really liked our
ACC system
, but
found it really
difficult to use. We
analysed what
made it difficult to
use. We realised
that it wasn't our
software. It was the
quality of BIM that
they produced and
fed to the software.
Zou, Y., Guo, BHW., Papadonikolaki, E., Dimyadi, J., and Hou, L. 2023. "Lessons Learned on Adopting Automated Compliance Checking in AEC Industry:
A Global Study." Journal of Management in Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1061/JMENEA/MEENG-5051
19
V11:
Information
standard and
requirements
Modelling standard
and information
standard are critical.
An enabler for code
checking is good
quality BIM models,
but some companies
cannot provide good
BIM models, which
makes code
checking hard to
implement。
-
The ACC solution
to make people
accept 3D is to help
them understand
how the model
works and trust the
tool. So an
information
standard for them is
critical. To unify all
BIM standards, an
information
standard and cloud
service are being
developed.
Standardised data
would bring new
possibilities and
benefits in the
future.
Accuracy and
quality of BIM
in
formation is
fundamental for the
outputs from ACC
tools.
Algorithm-based
checking is
preferred
compared with
rule-based
checking. Top
success factor is
the use of open
standards like IFC
and BCF.
Building code
related regulations
can set submission
requirements for
models, so that
architects create
models suitable for
code checking.
For ACC, objects
must have
appropriate
information. There
is a need for an
information
framework that can
clearly define in
what form the client
will use the BIM
model. Clear
requirements should
be defined prior to
design and
construction and
reflected in the
model.
We are
conducting research
on technology that
can automatically
supplement the
model with
insufficient
information in the
BIM model that does
not comply with the
modelling guide.
BIM still has
limitations but the
government believes
it's the future trend so
they are promoting
its uptake. The
government wants to
push the
standardisation of
BIM through
building up the 3D
audit platform.
Clients may have
requirements for
designers in terms of
data standards. The
templates set by
design companies
have variations and
are difficult to
control. Creating
models based on 2D
drawings can be very
inconsistent and
cause many
problems.
For ACC, the BIM
model has to be
complete and
makes sense, about
not only
the 3D
model, but also the
non-graphic, non-
geometric aspects.
Until the industry
gets more
standardized in
representation (of
information in
BIM). I don't think
there's much
potential for ACC
with those parts of
the building code.
W
e identified the
parts of the building
code that we
believe that
architects put in the
model in every
project intensely a
standardi
zed way,
and so therefore
they can be
checked.
V12: Standard
of interpreting
building code
-
The building code in UK is
frequently updated. There
needs to be a standard way
for regulations to be
represented in machine
readable form. The
government is w
orking on
digitising the documents, and
should be responsible for
ensuring regulations are
compatible with new
technologies.
It is a problem that
people from
agencies interpret
rule regulations
differently. The
current solution is to
quantify the code as
much as possible to
avoid disagreement.
The NZ building
code is improving in
terms of
accessibility and
computer readable.
A small body of
standards has been
converted to XML
and can be used for
ACC, but majority
of codes are still in
PDF. Translating
Existing
regulations are not
precise enough for
developing the
automated system,
the regulations
need to be changed
to a more sensitive
way to achieve
100% code
translation.
The building codes
need to be upgraded
to make ACC
mandatorily applied
for some projects.
There can be
intelligent
translators or
modellers to allow
ACC to recognise
the model instances
etc. The
The scope of ACC is
mainly quantifiable
regulations. Adding
regulations that are
abstract and not
quantifiable is
challenging. Some of
the regulations
require certain
properties in the
model that people
don't usually add, so
The interpretation
of the building code
is a challenge.
Two major
obstacles standing
in the way are the
lack of a formal
digital
representation of
construction
regulations and the
Zou, Y., Guo, BHW., Papadonikolaki, E., Dimyadi, J., and Hou, L. 2023. "Lessons Learned on Adopting Automated Compliance Checking in AEC Industry:
A Global Study." Journal of Management in Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1061/JMENEA/MEENG-5051
20
the documents is
one of the big
inhibitors.
The standards are
gradually moved to
XML format.
Consistency is an
issue when
translating codes
into computable
forms. Quality
assurance is needed
to ensure the codes
are correctly
translated. The
cross-check method
has been used in
code translations.
accumulated
building permit data
and model data can
be used for smarter
use.
In Korea, the
building codes and
regulations are
updated very
frequently.
need to be further
refined. Currently the
regulations are
manually digitalised
into computer codes,
in the future will
explore automated
code translation,
which require more
exploration in
technologies.
lack of a method to
automatically
extract and
transform
information from
construction
regulatory
documents into this
computer-
interpretable digital
representation.
The qualitative
requirements are
the key barrier of
the ACC
technology. Those
rely on the human
judgements.
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
Zou, Y., Guo, BHW., Papadonikolaki, E., Dimyadi, J., and Hou, L. 2023. "Lessons Learned on
Adopting Automated Compliance Checking in AEC Industry: A Global Study." Journal of Management
in Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1061/JMENEA/MEENG-5051
21
Throughout its history, the global AEC industry has not been generally innovative, and there is much 344
room for improvement (Blayse and Manley 2004). Many advanced construction markets like Singapore, 345
Germany are facing challenges with declining productivity and low safety standards (Lim and Peltner 346
2011). As a result, it was observed from the global adoption of digital technologies that the government 347
can play an important role at a macro level (V1: Government support). For example, an important 348
lesson we can learn from the successful national deployment of BIM from Finland is that a national 349
BIM strategy can facilitate the evolvement of the building and infrastructure sectors (Aksenova et al. 350
2019). The continuous government-led BIM adoption efforts in the UK, such as the BIM level 2 351
mandate, have helped the UK maintain a leader in implementing BIM on a national scale. The UK BIM 352
standards (BS/PAS 1192 series) have now been accepted globally and have become ISO (International 353
Organization for Standardization) standards (BSI 2018; ISO 2018). Similarly, the important role of the 354
government can be found in facilitating the use of blockchain technology in the AEC industry (Perera 355
et al. 2020). 356
357
For the adoption of ACC systems, a primary interest is to make the building consent/permit assessment 358
easier, faster and more reliable. The BCA is a core end-user, but adopting ACC systems in this process 359
will also directly benefit other stakeholders such as designers, and construction firms. The BCA could 360
consider providing incentives (e.g. fast-track pathway, lower costs for building consent/permit 361
assessment) to encourage, for example, designers to submit their applications in the required format 362
(e.g. IFC). Simultaneously, policymakers can work out new guidelines and policy recommendations 363
(e.g. new guidelines about preparing BIM-based e-submissions, new policies of ACC-based building 364
consent procedures) to support this transformation. Additionally, Beach et al. (2020) pointed out that 365
wide adoption of ACC requires the government to provide sufficient upfront investment and funding to 366
support the research and development, pilot tests of ACC systems, case studies, and transformation of 367
the whole AEC industry. Such funding will be paramount to influence small and medium enterprises 368
(SMEs). 369
370
The AEC industry’s innovations can be enhanced with sufficient support of the government (Suprun et 371
al. 2021) (V3: Industry readiness and innovativeness). It can be learned from the UK experience that 372
when the government proposes a national strategy of facilitating the adoption of BIM, stakeholders will 373
tend to follow such a big move and benefit from consistent and common requirements and standards 374
(Piroozfar et al. 2019). At the individual level, human resistance (people having a negative attitude 375
towards accepting new technologies) has a negative influence on industry innovativeness (Mohd Ishak 376
and Newton 2016) (V2: Human resistance). To address this issue, education and training provided 377
through universities, industry associations, and other commercial institutions could help enhance 378
knowledge and skills (V4: Education and training), which makes a positive contribution to innovative 379
AEC industry. The analysis has led to the development of the following propositions (see also Figure 380
1): 381
382
Proposition 1a. Government support (through the means of funding, incentives and policy) has a 383
positive effect on the innovativeness of the AEC industry, which increases the adoption of ACC systems. 384
385
Proposition 1b. Education and training have a positive effect on the innovativeness of the AEC industry, 386
which increases the adoption of ACC systems. 387
388
Proposition 1c. Human resistance has a negative effect on the innovativeness of the AEC industry, 389
which decreases the adoption of ACC systems. 390
391
392
393
Zou, Y., Guo, BHW., Papadonikolaki, E., Dimyadi, J., and Hou, L. 2023. "Lessons Learned on
Adopting Automated Compliance Checking in AEC Industry: A Global Study." Journal of Management
in Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1061/JMENEA/MEENG-5051
22
394 Figure 1. The first path explaining how growing innovativeness of the AEC industry leads to ACC 395
adoption. 396
Tangible benefits of ACC systems can be proven through early stakeholder engagement and multiple 397
pilot projects and case studies (V7: Tangible benefits). First, involving stakeholders from the early 398
stage will ensure the real industry needs are addressed (V5: Stakeholder engagement). Once the 399
technology is developed for real needs, stakeholders can see the benefits of the technology and will be 400
more willing to accept it. Furthermore, pilot projects can be conducted on a small scale and tested for 401
different sections of the building code (V6: Pilot projects and case studies). The main aims of such a 402
pilot (Ciribini et al. 2016) will be (a) to test the new technology in solving real problems and gain 403
experience for further technology improvement, (b) to gain implementation experience, (c) to validate 404
the potential benefits of the new technology. More case studies are recommended to be conducted at 405
this stage after the pilot projects. These efforts will help the AEC industry to gain more trust and 406
confidence in adopting ACC systems. Meanwhile, an appropriate marketing function contributes to 407
building stakeholders’ trust and understanding (Yisa et al. 1996) (V8: Appropriate marketing). A 408
common problem in current AEC industry is that marketing for new technologies trends to oversell and 409
promise for functions that are not yet fully developed. The second path links the following propositions 410
(see Figure 2): 411
412
Proposition 2a. Early stakeholder involvement has a positive effect on proving the benefits of ACC 413
systems. 414
415
Proposition 2b. Conducting pilot projects and case studies has a positive effect on proving the benefits 416
of ACC systems. 417
418
Proposition 2c. Tangible benefits and appropriate marketing strategy contribute to building 419
stakeholders’ trust and understanding, which has a positive effect on the adoption of ACC systems. 420
421
Zou, Y., Guo, BHW., Papadonikolaki, E., Dimyadi, J., and Hou, L. 2023. "Lessons Learned on
Adopting Automated Compliance Checking in AEC Industry: A Global Study." Journal of Management
in Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1061/JMENEA/MEENG-5051
23
422 Figure 2. The second path model explaining how building stakeholders trust on ACC systems leads to 423
adoption 424
The maturity of Industry 4.0 technologies, including ACC, is paramount for technology acceptance and 425
adoption in construction (Oesterreich and Teuteberg 2016). Any insufficiency of ACC systems has a 426
negative impact on its technology maturity. Four main paths were identified in this research that 427
generate positive effects on improving the maturity of ACC systems. Firstly, the integration of ACC 428
and other technologies has a positive effect on ACC maturity, through improved ease of use and data 429
exchange (V9: Technology integration). For example, four main modules (Code checking module, 430
Submission module, Pre-checking module, Automated rule-making module) have been integrated into 431
the South Korean KBIM e-Submission system (Kim et al. 2020). End-users tested this system and their 432
positive feedback on this integration included: (1) IFC-based submission set no requirement on specific 433
BIM tools for designers, (2) the system improved collaboration through managing documents, project 434
data and personnel information in a unified platform, (3) the automation of extracting input data from 435
KBIM system reduced input time and increased accuracy of information. Secondly, due to the lack of 436
modelling standards (Kong et al. 2020), BIM models are often generated in different ways by people in 437
the building design process. The inconsistency in creating BIM models (e.g. naming objects between 438
different software) will leave an issue for ACC to work. A BIM modelling standard that guides 439
professionals on how to prepare the BIM models for ACC purposes can address this challenge (V10: 440
Modelling standards). ACC will benefit from consistent and good-quality BIM models. In addition, 441
such a standard can improve modelling quality and reduce efforts of fixing and enriching BIM models 442
for ACC purposes. Thirdly, Amor and Dimyadi (2021) argued that the model for ACC to check should 443
contain sufficient, correct and consistent information. Setting up a standard on information requirements 444
(e.g. level of details, minimum data requirements) can lead to more accurate and better quality BIM for 445
ACC purposes (V11: Information standard and requirements). Fourthly, paper-based building codes 446
and standards are written in natural language by human experts and are published openly (Eastman et 447
al. 2009). 448
To enable ACC to work, it is critical to create a computer-processable version of building codes. 449
However, this interpretation of building codes is conducted by human experts, which is a time-450
consuming process. It showed from the NZ experience that it takes approximately a day of an expert’s 451
time to translate a page of a code and undertake quality control processes on the translation (Zou et al. 452
2022). Finding a standard approach to do the translation, and conducting quality assurance on the 453
translation work will contribute to a good-quality and consistent digital version of building codes (V12: 454
Standard of interpreting building code). Through analysing these insights and observations, the 455
following propositions can be developed: 456
Zou, Y., Guo, BHW., Papadonikolaki, E., Dimyadi, J., and Hou, L. 2023. "Lessons Learned on
Adopting Automated Compliance Checking in AEC Industry: A Global Study." Journal of Management
in Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1061/JMENEA/MEENG-5051
24
Proposition 3a. Integration of ACC and other systems contributes to improving the technology maturity, 457
which has a positive effect on ACC adoption. 458
459
Proposition 3b. Development of a BIM modelling standard contributes to improving the technology 460
maturity, which has a positive effect on ACC adoption. 461
462
Proposition 3c. Development of an information standard contributes to improving the technology 463
maturity, which has a positive effect on ACC adoption. 464
465
Proposition 3d. Development of a standard for interpreting building codes contributes to improving 466
the technology maturity, which has a positive effect on ACC adoption. 467
468
469
Figure 3. The third path model explaining the improvement of ACC maturity leads to adoption 470
Discussion 471
Contribution 472
The research outcomes contribute to the existing body of knowledge on ACC technology adoption from 473
three aspects. 474
475
Firstly, many theoretical models, e.g., Technology Acceptance Model (Lee et al. 2003), and Technology, 476
Organisation and Environment (TOE) framework (Dewi et al. 2018), have been developed to explain 477
technology adoption process at both macro and micro levels. Most of these models are focused on high-478
level concepts and fail to illuminate details about adopting a specific technological innovation. For 479
instance, TOE framework describes the process of adopting technological innovation is influence by 480
technological, organizational and environmental contexts. However, it does not specify the factors that 481
might exist in each context and explain the interaction of these factors. This study brings real-world 482
lessons about ACC adoption experience from Australia, China, New Zealand, UK, Singapore, South 483
Korea, Estonia and US, where 12 key variables and three path models that influence the adoption of 484
ACC systems are identified. This multiple-case study is the world’s first to investigate the adoption 485
mechanisms of ACC systems in the AEC industry. By using ACC as example, it successfully 486
demonstrates that interrelationships exist among key variables in technology adoption process and 487
taking advantage of these interrelationships leads to better technology acceptance and adoption, thereby 488
complementing existing technology adoption models (e.g., TOE framework). 489
490
Zou, Y., Guo, BHW., Papadonikolaki, E., Dimyadi, J., and Hou, L. 2023. "Lessons Learned on
Adopting Automated Compliance Checking in AEC Industry: A Global Study." Journal of Management
in Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1061/JMENEA/MEENG-5051
25
Secondly, the research outcomes enriched our understanding on key variables that influence ACC 491
adoption in the global AEC industries. Nearly all previous efforts (Dimyadi and Amor 2013; Eastman 492
et al. 2009; Hjelseth 2015; Krijnen and Van Berlo 2016) that reviewed the ACC development and 493
implementation were technology-focused. Beach et al. (2020) investigated ACC adoption in the UK 494
but only focused on a single country. This paper reports a further-step study that extracts empirical 495
lessons on ACC adoption from eight countries, finding 12 key variables (technology integration, BIM 496
modelling standard, BIM information standard and requirements, and standard of interpreting building 497
code, government support, human resistance, industry readiness and innovativeness, education and 498
training, stakeholder engagement, pilot projects and case studies, tangible benefits, and appropriate 499
marketing) that affect ACC adoption in all these countries and also providing many new insights in 500
addition to the work by Beach et al. (2020). For instance, Beach et al. (2020) indicated that lacking 501
artificial intelligence to interpret building code is a main barrier, while this study found it is more 502
important to develop a standard approach to improve consistency of this interpretation. This study also 503
highlights the importance of appropriate marketing as the ACC adoption is still at its early stage. 504
Overselling or overpromising will lead to negative impacts on practitioners’ trust on this technology. 505
ACC needs to be further improved in terms of technical capability as well as be integrated into existing 506
systems and workflows. Although the eight countries chose different digital technology adoption 507
strategy (bottom-up approach or top-down approach), collaboration between academia, policymakers 508
and the AEC industry is key. 509
510
Thirdly, the new path models developed in this research address the gap that no knowledge exists that 511
can explain the interrelationships between key ACC adoption variables. Specifically, the first path 512
reveals the importance of establishing an innovative AEC industry to facilitate the adoption of ACC 513
systems. In this process, policymakers can play an important role through the means of funding, 514
incentives and policy. According to the TOE framework (Dewi et al. 2018), it can be explained that the 515
support from policymakers can catalyse an environment to adopt ACC. Adopting new technologies in 516
AEC projects often benefits multiple stakeholders (Hall et al. 2013). Similar evidence on the importance 517
of the policymakers’ leading role can be observed from the adoption of BIM, blockchain, etc., 518
(Aksenova et al. 2019; Perera et al. 2020). The first path also reflects improving education and training
519
through tertiary and industry institutions has a positive effect on ACC adoption, which is in line with 520
previous studies that investigated the relationship between innovation and education in the construction 521
sector, e.g., Liu et al. (2010). The second path shows that building stakeholders’ trust and understanding 522
on ACC systems is a critical step towards adoption. The trend of overselling the benefits of new 523
technologies in construction (Andresen et al. 2002) will harm trust. Early stakeholder engagement and 524
conducting pilot projects and case studies will prove the benefits of ACC systems, thus bringing positive 525
impacts on building trust. The third path reflects that improving the maturity of ACC systems can lead 526
to adoption. Although previous studies (Amor and Dimyadi 2021; Eastman et al. 2009) already 527
discussed the technical challenges (some are to be addressed in the next decades), this research found 528
technology integration, BIM modelling standards, BIM information standards, and good-quality 529
machine-readable building code are among the most important technical factors from a technology 530
adoption perspective. 531
Management and policy implications 532
A number of management and pollical implications can be drawn based on the variables and path 533
models. 534
Firstly, there are many ACC systems in the market; however, most of them have limited technical 535
capabilities (Häußler et al. 2021). For instance, how to check qualitative statements has still not been 536
fully addressed. An implication of this study for R&D managers in ACC technology firms is that the 537
developed path models and propositions can support improving the adoption potential of their ACC 538
systems in the market. From a technological perspective, they may collaborate with academics, 539
legislative bodies and pilot users and consider improving the maturity of ACC systems through: (1) 540
Zou, Y., Guo, BHW., Papadonikolaki, E., Dimyadi, J., and Hou, L. 2023. "Lessons Learned on
Adopting Automated Compliance Checking in AEC Industry: A Global Study." Journal of Management
in Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1061/JMENEA/MEENG-5051
26
enhancing the checking accuracy and consistency, and expanding ACC capacity to check more 541
standards and requirements (e.g., qualitative statements of building code, urban planning and green 542
building standards), (2) developing methods for checking the quality of BIM and semantically enriching 543
BIM for ACC purpose, (3) extending ACC to check non-BIM formats (one possible way is through 2D 544
drawing-based BIM reconstruction (Zhao et al. 2021)), (4) integration of systems and tools, and (5) 545
developing a consistent, transparent and standard method of interpreting building code. From a non-546
technological perspective, obtaining end users’ trust on using ACC systems needs a step-by-step 547
strategy, including, e.g., engaging BCAs and pilot users throughout the whole process of developing 548
ACC systems, conducting pilot tests and case studies, proving tangible benefits (not overselling). 549
Secondly, potential early adopters (e.g., BCA, architects, engineers) should investigate the state of 550
practice of ACC systems, and develop their own adoption plans or roadmap to ensure the use of ACC 551
systems will bring tangible benefits to their own businesses. There is also a need to balance the 552
investment costs and expected benefits of adopting ACC systems. 553
Thirdly, it requires an innovative AEC sector to enable adoption of new technologies such as BIM and 554
ACC. Tertiary institutions are important as they nurture AEC professionals for the next a few decades. 555
Tertiary institutions and other education providers might consider: (1) transforming the existing 556
curricula to meet new needs of digital technologies, (2) offering short courses to help practitioners 557
understand how to prepare BIM models for ACC (e.g., BIM modelling recommendations, minimum 558
information requirements), and how to use ACC to get satisfactory results. ACC technology firms might 559
also support the education sector through offering education versions of ACC systems and co-training 560
students with academics. 561
Fourthly, the case studies revealed that early collaboration between ACC technology firms, 562
policymakers, industry associations and end-users is key to build stakeholders’ trust in ACC and 563
increase the acceptance and adoption of ACC systems in the early stages of market entry. Specific 564
actions that require close collaboration include, e.g., (1) industry practitioners participating in ACC 565
pilot tests, (2) BCAs, ACC technology firms and practitioners co-develop and co-maintain the digital 566
format of building code. 567
Lastly, the case studies further show that the policymaker plays an important role to facilitate 568
establishing an ACC uptake environment. From the policy perspectives, two main implications can be 569
drawn from the results of this study. 570
• A major use case of ACC systems currently is to assist BCAs in assessing building consent 571
applications, and make this process faster, easier and more transparent to both BCAs and 572
building consent applicants. Our research indicates that the BCAs and policymakers should be 573
open to BIM and ACC, and develop a timeline to adopt ACC systems. It is important to
574
integrate ACC into existing building consent systems to help BCA officers better accept this 575
new technology (Karlsson et al. 2010). Training and education can help BCA officers to 576
become more familiar with the new technology and related software tools. 577
• The adoption of ACC for building consent assessment requires a systematic update of the whole 578
process by all stakeholders. As an example, the BCAs’ use of ACC will rely on information-579
rich, high-quality BIM models submitted by the building consent applicants. Jiang et al. (2022) 580
categorised the government efforts of BIM adoption into two groups, i.e., top-down and 581
bottom-up approaches. Since BIM is the precursor technology of ACC and the adoption of 582
ACC is just emerging, Jiang et al. (2022)’s observation is applicable to the adoption of ACC at 583
macro level (e.g., country). For countries where policies and regulations from central 584
government are easy to implement, a government-driven approach for ACC adoption can be 585
used, where appropriate. The policymakers might facilitate ACC adoption through long-term 586
R&D and implementation funding for BIM and ACC, policies (e.g., mandate of BIM 587
submission of public-funded projects), and incentives (e.g., fast-track pathway, lower costs for 588
Zou, Y., Guo, BHW., Papadonikolaki, E., Dimyadi, J., and Hou, L. 2023. "Lessons Learned on
Adopting Automated Compliance Checking in AEC Industry: A Global Study." Journal of Management
in Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1061/JMENEA/MEENG-5051
27
building consent/permit assessment). For other countries like US (which is a federal union of 589
50 states and has many local state governments and different organisations working 590
differently), a different way (e.g., industry-driven) may be adopted. For instance, the 591
policymaker could play the key role as regulatory as well as support the establishment of 592
alliances to guide the whole AEC industry to evolve. 593
Limitations and recommendations for future research 594
This research is not free of limitations. Firstly, the institutional contexts of the eight selected countries 595
vary from one to another, because each country has unique characteristics in terms of policies, 596
regulatory framework and approval processes, building typology, and stakeholder requirements, and so 597
on. We focused on observing the homogeneity (i.e. the variables and path models that affect ACC 598
adoption) across the eight countries; however, the impacts of institutional heterogeneity were not 599
studied. Some researchers pointed out that institutional context can influence the diffusion of 600
innovations (Papadonikolaki 2018; Tigabu et al. 2015). According to de Mello Brandão Vinholis et al. 601
(2021), institutions refer to rules that frame and constrain economic behaviour and social interactions, 602
where the macro-instructional level (e.g., country) is related to the regulatory environment. Some 603
studies argued that the culture also matters in innovation adoption in the construction industry (Dorée 604
2004; Papadonikolaki 2018). In addition, UK and US are part of the Western World and share same 605
western culture; however, UK adopted a top-down approach in BIM adoption (e.g. BIM mandate) while 606
US adopted a bottom-up approach (Jiang et al. 2022). This might be explained that US is a federal 607
system and its local states work differently in silos. It can be deduced that the political system might 608
affect the adoption of innovation in AEC sector as well. So far, little is known on direct and indirect 609
links between the institutional contexts and optimal ACC adoption pathways at macro level. As a result, 610
further research is recommended to further explore the ACC adoption paths in these countries and 611
analyse the impacts of institutional heterogeneity on ACC adoption from system perspectives. 612
Secondly, there is a large discrepancy in the level of ACC adoption between cases. For instance, the 613
DesignCheck in Australia was developed around 2005 but was not used by the industry. The 614
ePlanCheck in Singapore was used by the industry only for a few years in the beginning but remains as 615
an active project commissioned by the Singapore government. Similarly, the KBIM system in Korea is 616
actively being developed on a national level involving research institutions as well as the government. 617
Since the adoption of ACC is just emerging (e.g., ACC has not been broadly used in most countries)
618
and ACC is a very small field, we did not consider the maturity levels of ACC adoption in selected 619
countries. Consequently, further research should consider developing maturity levels of ACC adoption 620
and summarising adoption paths of ACC in each country. 621
Thirdly, twelve key variables and three path models were deduced. However, some case-specific 622
features also existed and were not discussed in detail since it was not within the scope of this study. For 623
instance, there are different opinions about whether the use of BIM and ACC should be mandated. Such 624
a debate exists mostly because the AEC industry in each country has a different culture, market, political 625
environment, etc. Future research is recommended to identify those case-specific variables and take a 626
closer look at the comparison of different cases. 627
Conclusion 628
629
The increased momentum of ACC implementations in recent years has shown great potential in 630
developing this technology for wider use to address real-world compliance checking issues. However, 631
there has not been a dedicated ACC system today that has been adopted widely in construction, although 632
there are fragmented software tools being used by industry’s partitioners offering various degrees of 633
compliance checking capabilities. To examine key variables and mechanisms that influence the 634
adoption of ACC systems, this study conducted a multiple-case study. Valuable lessons have been learnt 635
Zou, Y., Guo, BHW., Papadonikolaki, E., Dimyadi, J., and Hou, L. 2023. "Lessons Learned on
Adopting Automated Compliance Checking in AEC Industry: A Global Study." Journal of Management
in Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1061/JMENEA/MEENG-5051
28
from the experience and the adoption efforts from eight different countries. Through cross-case analysis, 636
four technology-related and eight non-technical key variables have been identified, and three path 637
models have been deduced. The technology related variables include: (1) technology integration, (2) 638
BIM modelling standard, (3) BIM information standard and requirements, and (4) standard of 639
interpreting building code. Non-technical variables include: (1) government support, (2) human 640
resistance, (3) industry readiness and innovativeness, (4) education and training, (5) stakeholder 641
engagement, (6) pilot projects and case studies, (7) tangible benefits, (8) appropriate marketing. The 642
path models reveal important interrelationships among these variables. Firstly, improving the 643
innovativeness of the AEC industry through government support and proper training and education can 644
lead to ACC adoption. Secondly, involving stakeholders and conducting case studies can prove the 645
benefits of ACC systems. The proven benefits can help build the stakeholders’ trust and understanding 646
of this new technology, which leads to adoption. Thirdly, whether ACC has the capability of addressing 647
real-world challenges is still a main concern of the end-users. Continuously improving the technology 648
maturity and addressing any insufficiency of ACC systems can lead to wider adoption. 649
650
Data Availability Statement 651
All data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon 652
reasonable request. 653
654
Acknowledgement 655
The project is funded by the New Zealand Building Research Levy (Contract No. LR12046). The 656
authors are grateful to the experts involved in this study for their valuable time and contribution. The 657
authors would also like to thank Yuqing Wu and Sze Nga Hung for assisting with the data collection 658
and analysis in this study. The authors want to express their gratitude to editors and reviewers for their 659
valuable comments and feedback. 660
661
Appendix I. Interviewee profile 662
Interviewee
No.
Profession
Country
ACC experience
A
Academic
researcher
Australia
International leading ACC expert who was leading the
development of an early ACC system in Australia.
B
Academic
researcher
Australia
International leading ACC expert who was involved in the
development of an early ACC system in Australia.
C
Designer
China
Design engineer who was involved in a major ACC pilot
project in China.
D
BCA officer
China
BCA officer who was involved in a major ACC pilot project in
China.
E
Academic
researcher
China
Emerging researcher with >3 years ACC research experience.
F
ACC
technologist
China
National leading ACC expert who was involved in the
development of ACC software in China.
G
ACC
technologist
Estonia
National leading ACC expert who was involved in the
development of ACC software in Netherlands/Estonia.
H
ACC
technologist
Estonia
National leading ACC expert who was involved in the
development of ACC software in Netherlands/Estonia.
I
BCA officer
NZ
BCA officer who tested ACC systems and conducted a research
Zou, Y., Guo, BHW., Papadonikolaki, E., Dimyadi, J., and Hou, L. 2023. "Lessons Learned on
Adopting Automated Compliance Checking in AEC Industry: A Global Study." Journal of Management
in Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1061/JMENEA/MEENG-5051
29
project of ACC at master level
J
Standard
expert
NZ
National leading standardisation expert
K
Standard
expert
NZ
National leading standardisation expert
L
Academic
researcher
NZ
International leading expert with >30 years ACC research
experience
M
Academic
researcher
Singapore
International leading expert who was recently involved in a
major ACC development project in Singapore
N
ACC
technologist
Singapore
International leading expert with >20 years ACC research and
development experience
O
Academic
researcher
South
Korea
International leading expert with >14 years BIM/ACC research
and development experience
, who is involved in the
development of KBIM ACC system
P
Academic
researcher
South
Korea
International leading expert with >20 years BIM/ACC research
and development experience
, who was leading the
development of an earlier ACC system for Korea around 2010
Q
ACC
technologist
South
Korea
National leading ACC expert who is developing KBIM ACC
system
R
Academic
researcher
UK
International leading expert with >10 years ACC research and
development experience
S
Construction
expert
UK
Construction expert who had project experience (including
substantial experience on building consent applications) in both
UK and NZ
T
Academic
researcher
US
International leading expert with >12 years BIM/ACC research
experience
, who has successfully commercialised his ACC
research and is working closely with ACC technology firms
U
Academic
researcher
US
International leading expert with >30 years ACC research
experience
, who has successfully commercialised his ACC
research and is a founding member of an ACC technology firm
in US
Notes: Two interviews involved two interviewees (G/H and J/K) each time; The interviews with 663
interviewees P and Q were conducted via emails due to language/availability issues. 664
665
Appendix II. Path development 666
Supplementary data about the path development with supporting interview quotes and literature is 667
provided in a separate MS Word file. 668
669
670
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