Prioritising BIM-enabled asset information management for building maintenance in China

Reliable asset information is essential for building maintenance, yet operational building information modelling (BIM) research frequently approaches implementation as a technology-adoption problem or evaluates implementation factors independently, leaving the interdependence among information governance, digital systems and maintenance workflows insufficiently addressed. This study develops a network-based prioritisation framework for BIM-enabled asset information management in China’s building maintenance sector. Twenty-four literature-derived candidate enablers were refined through a two-round Delphi study with 29 experts, resulting in 22 validated enablers. A modular analytic network process survey subsequently produced 183 valid expert records. The three domains received comparatively balanced weights: asset management governance and organisational readiness (0.369), asset information systems and interoperability (0.319), and maintenance workflow capability and value realisation (0.312). Change management readiness and strategy ranked first (0.1165), followed by BIM–asset-management-system interoperability (0.1066), maintenance approval-workflow efficiency (0.0949), whole-life value and return on investment demonstrability (0.0858) and executive sponsorship (0.0786). Together, these five enablers accounted for 48.24% of the total priority weight. Bootstrap, sensitivity and Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory analyses supported the stability of the leading priority structure. The findings conceptualise operational BIM as a socio-technical asset information management capability rather than a standalone technology-adoption exercise and provide a staged implementation pathway for building owners and maintenance organisations.