BIM-supported facility management application for asset and space management in hotel buildings

Facility Management is an organizational management activity that combines the people, place and process involved in a facility in order to improve the quality of life of people and the efficiency of a business (IFMA, 2023). After the mid-2000s, Facility Management started to integrate with BIM, Building Information Modeling, which was developed to solve problems in the construction sector. This thesis aims to examine the contribution and convenience of BIM-support to Facilities Management activities. In the content of the thesis, detailed information about the definitions and histories of BIM and Facility Management concepts are given, and explanations are made about why and how they were formed by the stages they have gone through from the past to the 2020s. In addition, an extensive literature research, including studies and publications with similar examples has been conducted to deepen the knowledge on the subject. Examples showing similarities and differences with the thesis study were evaluated and included in the thesis text. Within the scope of the thesis, The Marmara Pera Hotel was used as a case study and the reasons for choosing a hotel building and The Marmara Pera Hotel were explained. Technical visits were organized to the hotel building, interviews were made with the Technical Service and Housekeeping managers and data about the building, assets and the operation were collected. Afterwards, a Building Information Model was made, and the semantic information required for Space and Asset Management was added to the models. The stages of creating the geometric and non-geometric information model covering the entire building are explained in detail in the thesis text. In order for Facility Management to be carried out in a digital environment, information about the space, assets, operation and maintenance, energy type and energy quantity of that facility must be entered into the Facility Management software. In the facility selected for the case study, software called DigiTwix was used for digital Facility Management. DigiTwix was developed as a digital twin platform. It can be used for instantaneous space, asset and O&M of a facility, and it can also record different types of energy and water expenditures used in the facility by the meter readings and present them to the Facility Manager and technical staff with graphical representations. The content of the thesis includes the reason for the selection of DigiTwix software, its working logic and comparisons with its peers. Information was given about the institutions working on Facility Management and Facility Management competencies, and results were shared about the performance of the DigiTwix program in meeting these competencies. Before the DigiTwix software started to be used in the facility, the details of the online meetings and information sharing with the developers of the program and business officials were explained. After the commissioning of the software, information was obtained about the expectations of the personnel in the facility and development and improvements were made accordingly. After experiencing the software in the hotel and by the hotel staff, interviews were conducted with the hotel staff. As a result of the evaluation of the interviews, it was concluded that the participants had a very positive view of the digital Facility Management application. They believe that the technology and software will improve and facilitate their working conditions. It was concluded that time is needed for the development of the software proposed to be used in the facility and that this will be achieved with the opinions given. This thesis aims to examine the benefits of BIM-supported Facility Management applications. It is a research on how Facility Management by digitized methods can provide convenience to users compared to the applications carried out by traditional methods before BIM.