EXPLORING THE CHALLENGES OF IMPLEMENTING DIGITAL TWIN IN FACILITIES MANAGEMENT IN MALAYSIA
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33736/jcest.9008.2026Keywords:
Digital Twin, Facilities Management, Challenges, Implementation, MalaysiaAbstract
Digital twin technology in facilities management (FM) provides substantial advantages, including predictive maintenance, real-time asset monitoring, and improved decision-making. Nevertheless, the implementation of digital twins in Malaysia's facilities management sector remains constrained, mainly due to various implementation challenges. This study aims to explore these problems using a quantitative analysis derived from a survey of FM managers in Klang Valley, Malaysia. A total of 49 questionnaires received were analysed using descriptive analysis in SPSS version 23. The results identified key challenges, including the digital twin’s technology limitation, high hardware and software costs, and financial limitations. Addressing these issues is critical for successfully adopting digital twin technology, which can ultimately enhance FM practices in Malaysia.
References
International Organization for Standardization, “Facility management–vocabulary (ISO 41011: 2017),” https://bit.ly/2MEuxRY.
Wetzel, E.M., & Thabet, W.Y. (2015). The use of a BIM-based framework to support safe facility management processes. Autom Constr, vol. 60, pp. 12–24. https://doi.10.1016/j.autcon.2015.09.004
Demian, P. & Walters, D. (2014). The advantages of information management through building information modelling. Construction Management and Economics, vol. 32, no. 12, pp. 1153–1165. https://doi. 10.1080/01446193.2013.777754
Zhao, J., Feng, H., Chen, Q., & Garcia de Soto, B. (2022). Developing a conceptual framework for the application of digital twin technologies to revamp building operation and maintenance processes. Journal of Building Engineering, vol. 49, no. January, p. 104028. https://doi.10.1016/j.jobe.2022.104028
Heaton, J., Parlikad, A. K., & Schooling, J. (2019). Design and development of BIM models to support operations and maintenance. Comput Ind, vol. 111, pp. 172–186. https://doi.10.1016/j.compind.2019.08.001
Piaseckienė, G. (2022). Dimensions of BIM in Literature: Review and Analysis. Mokslas - Lietuvos ateitis, vol. 14, pp. 1–11. https://doi.10.3846/mla.2022.16071
Mateev, M. (2020). Industry 4.0 and the digital twin for building industry. International Scientific Journal Industry 4.0, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 29–32. https://stumejournals.com/journals/i4/2020/1/29.full.pdf
Hakimi, O., Liu, H., & Abudayyeh, O. (2024). Digital twin-enabled smart facility management: A bibliometric review. Frontiers of Engineering Management. Vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 32–49. https://doi.10.1007/s42524-023-0254-4
Shahzad, M., Shafiq, M.T., Douglas, D., & Kassem, M. (2022). Digital twins in built environments: An investigation of the characteristics, applications, and challenges. Buildings, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 1–19. https://doi. 10.3390/buildings12020120
Shuhaimi, A.M., Mohamed Yusof, L., & Rahman, R. A. (2024). Drivers, Capabilities, and challenges for adopting digital twin in facility management: A profound qualitative investigation. Planning Malaysia, vol. 22. https://doi.10.21837/pm.v22i32.1528
International Facilities Management Association, “What is facility management?”
Atkin, B., & Brooks, A. (2021). Total facility management. 5th edition. John Wiley & Sons
Abu Bakar, Z., & Kamaruzzaman, S. N. (2023). Assessing key technology for facilities management in Malaysia. Journal of Surveying, Construction and Property, vol. 14, no. 1. https://ejournal.um.edu.my/index.php/JSCP/index
Hou, H., Ho, D. C. W., & Yau, Y. (2024). Smart tools to facilitate digitalisation of facilities management service delivery: stakeholders’ perspectives. Facilities, vol. 42, no. 1–2, pp. 27–50, https://doi.10.1108/F-05-2022-0072
Deng, M., Menassa, C. C., & Kamat, V. R. (2021). From BIM to digital twins: a systematic review of the evolution of intelligent building representations in the AEC-FM industry. Journal of Information Technology in Construction, vol. 26, pp. 58–83. https://doi.10.36680/j.itcon.2021.005
Harode, A., Thabet, W., & Dongre, P. (2023). A tool-based system architecture for a digital twin: a case study in a healthcare facility. Journal of Information Technology in Construction, vol. 28, pp. 107–137. https://doi.10.36680/j.itcon.2023.006
Bortolini, R., Rodrigues, R., Alavi, H., Vecchia, L.F.D., & Forcada, N. (2022). Digital Twins’ Applications for Building Energy Efficiency: A Review. Energies (Basel), vol. 15, no. 19, p. 7002. https://doi. 10.3390/en15197002
Peng, Y., Zhang, M., Yu, F., Xu, J., & Gao, S. (2020). Digital Twin Hospital Buildings: An Exemplary Case Study through Continuous Lifecycle Integration. Advances in Civil Engineering, vol. 2020, no. 1, https://doi. 10.1155/2020/8846667
Hosamo, H. H., Imran, A., Cardenas-Cartagena, J., Svennevig, P.R., Svidt, K., & Nielsen, H.K. (2022). A review of the digital twin technology in the AEC‐FM industry. Advances in Civil Engineering, no. 1. https://doi.10.1155/2022/2185170
Li, Q., Li, Z., Tang, X., Yang, H., & Song, Y. (2023). Demonstration and validation of the digital twin technology for a regional multi-energy system. International Conference on Computer, Artificial Intelligence, and Control Engineering. p. 66. https://doi.10.1117/12.2680880
Elyasi, N., Bellini, A., & Klungseth, N. J. (2023). Digital transformation in facility management: An analysis of the challenges and benefits of implementing digital twins in the use phase of a building. IOP Conf Ser Earth Environ Sci, vol. 1176, no. 1, p. 012001. https://doi.10.1088/1755-1315/1176/1/012001
Akanmu, A. A., Anumba, C. J., & Ogunseiju, O.O. (2021). Towards next generation cyber-physical systems and digital twins for construction. Journal of Information Technology in Construction, vol. 26, pp. 505–525. https://doi.10.36680/j.itcon.2021.027
Liljaniemi, A., & Paavilainen, H. (2020). Using digital twin technology in engineering education – course concept to explore benefits and barriers. Open Engineering, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 377–385. https://doi.10.1515/eng-2020-0040
Perno, M., Hvam, L., & Haug, A. (2022). Implementation of digital twins in the process industry: A systematic literature review of enablers and barriers. Comput Ind, vol. 134, p. 103558. https://doi.10.1016/j.compind.2021.103558
Park, J.S., Lee, D.G., Jimenez, J.A., Lee, S.J., & Kim, J.W. (2023). Human-Focused Digital Twin Applications for Occupational Safety and Health in Workplaces: A Brief Survey and Research Directions. Applied Sciences, vol. 13, no. 7, p. 4598. https://doi.10.3390/app13074598
Sousa, B., Arieiro, M., Pereira, V., Correia, J., Lourenço, N., & Cruz, T. (2021). Elegant: Security of Critical Infrastructures with Digital Twins. IEEE Access, vol. 9, pp. 107574–107588. https://doi.10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3100708
Banyai, K., & Kovacs, L. (2023). Identification of influence of digital twin technologies on production systems: a return on investment-based approach. Eastern-European Journal of Enterprise Technologies, vol. 4, no. 13 (124), pp. 66–78. https://doi.10.15587/1729-4061.2023.283876
Rasheed, A., San, O., & Kvamsdal, T. (2020). Digital Twin: Values, Challenges and Enablers From a Modeling Perspective. IEEE Access, vol. 8, pp. 21980–22012. https://doi.10.1109/ACCESS.2020.2970143
Liu, Z., Meng, X., Xing, Z., & Jiang, A. (2021). Digital Twin-Based Safety Risk Coupling of Prefabricated Building Hoisting. Sensors, vol. 21, no. 11, p. 3583. https://doi.10.3390/s21113583
Wang, J. et al. (2023). Research on coal mine safety management based on digital twin. Heliyon, vol. 9, no. 3, p. e13608. https://doi.10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e13608
Lu, Y., Liu, C., Wang, K.I.K., Huang, H., & Xu, X. (2020). Digital Twin-driven smart manufacturing: Connotation, reference model, applications and research issues. Robot Comput Integr Manuf, vol. 61, p. 101837. https://doi.10.1016/j.rcim.2019.101837
Varghese, S.A., Dehlaghi Ghadim, A., Balador, A., Alimadadi, Z., & Papadimitratos, P. (2022). Digital Twin-based Intrusion Detection for Industrial Control Systems. IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications Workshops and other Affiliated Events (PerCom Workshops), pp. 611–617. https://doi.10.1109/PerComWorkshops53856.2022.9767492
Gehrmann, C., & Gunnarsson, M. (2020). A Digital Twin Based Industrial Automation and Control System Security Architecture. IEEE Trans Industr Inform, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 669–680. https://doi.10.1109/TII.2019.2938885
Moncrief, W.C., Reisinger, H., & Baldauf, A. (1999). Examining motivations to refuse in industrial mail surveys. International Journal of Market Research, vol. 41, no. 3, p. 345. https://doi.org/10.1177/147078539904100302
Hager, M.A., Wilson, S., Pollak, T.H., & Rooney, P.M. (2003). Response rates for mail surveys of nonprofit organizations: A review and empirical test. Nonprofit Voluntary Sector Quarterly, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 252–267. https://doi.10.1177/0899764003251617
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 UNIMAS Publisher

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Upon acceptance of an article, the corresponding author on behalf of all authors will be asked to complete and upload the Copyright Transfer Form (refer to Copyright Issues for more information on this) alongside the electronic proof file.
Copyright Transfer Statement for Journal
1) In signing this statement, the author(s) grant UNIMAS Publisher an exclusive license to publish their original research papers. The author(s) also grant UNIMAS Publisher permission to reproduce, recreate, translate, extract or summarize, and to distribute and display in any forms, formats, and media. The author(s) can reuse their papers in their future printed work without first requiring permission from UNIMAS Publisher, provided that the author(s) acknowledge and refer the publication in the Journal.
2) For open-access articles, the author(s) agree that their articles published under UNIMAS Publisher are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, for non-commercial purposes, provided the original work of the author(s) is properly cited.
3) For subscription articles, the author(s) agree that UNIMAS Publisher holds the copyright or an exclusive license to publish. Readers or users may view, download, print, and copy the content, for academic purposes, subject to the following conditions of use: (a) any reuse of materials is subjected to permission from UNIMAS Publisher; (b) archived materials may only be used for academic research; (c) archived materials may not be used for commercial purposes, which include but not limited to monetary compensation by means of sale, resale, license, transfer of copyright, loan, etc.; and (d) archived materials may not be re-published in any part, either in print or online.
4) The author(s) are responsible to ensure their submitted work is original and does not infringe any existing copyright, trademark, patent, statutory right, or propriety right of others. The corresponding author has obtained permission from all co-authors prior to submission to the journal. Upon submission of the manuscript, the author(s) agree that no similar work has been or will be submitted or published elsewhere in any language. If the submitted manuscript includes materials from others, the authors have obtained permission from the copyright owners.
5) In signing this statement, the author(s) declare that the researches which they have conducted comply with the current laws of the respective country and UNIMAS Journal Publication Ethics Policy. Any experimentation or research involving humans or the use of animal samples must obtain approval from the Human or Animal Ethics Committee in their respective institutions. The author(s) agree and understand that UNIMAS Publisher is not responsible for any compensational claims or failure caused by the author(s) in fulfilling the above-mentioned requirements. The author(s) must accept the responsibility for releasing their materials upon request by Chief Editor or UNIMAS Publisher.
6) The author(s) should have participated sufficiently in the work and ensured the appropriateness of the content of the article. The author(s) should also agree that they have no commercial attachments (e.g. patent or license arrangement, equity interest, consultancies, etc.) that might pose any conflict of interest with the submitted manuscript. The author(s) also agree to make any relevant materials and data available upon request by the editor(s) or UNIMAS Publisher.