Breaking the Barriers: BIM Adoption Challenges in Quantity Surveying Firms of Northern Malaysia

The Malaysian construction industry plays a crucial role in generating national wealth. To realize the vision of Malaysia as a well-developed nation, adopting technologies and innovations is critical for the industry, particularly as the country advances towards the Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR 4.0). Building Information Modelling (BIM) is one such process, supported by various tools, that significantly enhances construction project efficiency while easing the workload of industry professionals. As integral construction team members, quantity surveyors are poised to benefit from BIM in improving their cost estimation and planning processes. However, various challenges and barriers have hindered the full implementation of this innovation. The focus of this paper is to identify the barriers to BIM implementation within the northern region of Malaysia, a topic that has become increasingly relevant as Malaysia moves towards the Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR 4.0). Data collected from a survey of 22 QS firms revealed that the top two barriers are the high cost of operating BIM software and the high cost of training. Based on these findings, it is recommended that the government provide incentives to encourage QS consultants to invest in BIM technology.