Investigation of strengths and weaknesses of 4D BIM software applications in managing construction projects

The Construction industry has been in gradual decline in its performance and labor productivity compared to other industries. The weakness of using Information Communication Technologies (ICT) is from the vital causes. Building information modeling is one of the most emerging technologies in the AEC industries which promises in putting an end to this situation. The integration between 4D technology (3D + Time) and BIM is broadly known as "4D BIM" that represents the core of the present work. After analyzing the general workflow, the practical work is completed using the following software(s): Autodesk Revit 2013, Microsoft Office Project 2010, Autodesk Naviswork Manage 2013, and Synchro Professional V4.8. Based on reviews of BIM and a case study using 4D BIM, results are assessed depending on the general theoretical 4D tool requirements as well as 4D utilization areas in Construction and Project management. Despite of some weaknesses of current 4D BIM applications and emerging areas of future studies, the opportunity to use 4D BIM in visualizing and simulating the construction process is really interesting and can help project stakeholders in better management of time and space. However, 4D BIM could be more efficient and quickly adopted if deeper integration of 4D scheduling tools in the BIM methodology is achieved.