USING BUILDING INFORMATION MODELING (BIM) TO IMPROVE SAFETY PERFORMANCE IN MALAYSIAN CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

To date, numerous reports show that the rate of fatalities in construction are higher compared to the other industries. The scenario makes the safety research in industry is very important. BIM is a 3-Dimensional (3D) object database that can be easily visualized, has rich data and structured information. To improve safety in the construction industry, BIM is used to detect and alert construction members to potential project hazard. Nevertheless, the exploration of BIM in managing safety issues in construction projects in Malaysia are limited. The objectives of this paper is to identify the information that should be prioritized to enable BIM application that related to safety and to promote BIM implementation in safety management among construction players in Malaysia. 119 questionnaires were distributed among experienced site practitioner such as, consultants, designers, safety and health officer and contractor. The findings revealed that there are 11 areas which BIM can help to improve safety which are planning phase, visualization, testing and simulation of design solution, constructability review, clash detection, augmented reality, excavation risk management plan, crane management plan, fall protection plan; leading edges, fall protection plan; roofers and emergency response plan. The findings from the interviews provided clear evidence of the potential of improvement of safety management through BIM implementation. As the Malaysian construction industry are lacking the relevant data about the potential of BIM in safety aspect, this research can contribute towards achieving an even better practice in the Malaysian construction industry.