A Taxonomy of Sources of Waste in BIM Information Flows

Since its introduction, Building Information Modelling has evolved into a major technology in the construction industry, where information flows play a major role. However, the very presence of waste within these flows prevents the technology from reaching its full potential. This paper aims to develop a taxonomy focused on the sources of waste within information flows in BIM projects, as existing taxonomies focus primarily on work and material flows. Using a collaborative design science research approach, the study was divided into two phases: first, semi-structured interviews were used to collect data on BIM practices. The data was then used to identify similarities and contradictions in the information flows using process maps. Second, the ShareLab approach was used to validate the findings through a common agreement. The paper’s main contribution is the taxonomy of sources of waste in BIM project information flows, as it closes knowledge gaps in one of the main flows of construction projects. Another contribution is its use of a new approach to validate an artefact in a Design Science Research methodology named the ShareLab approach.

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