Construction sites nowadays have no data shortage. Many project managers and contractors are practically drowning in data and aren’t equipped with the right tools to analyze and parse the data in ways that would profoundly impact any of their projects. The construction industry as a whole is aiming for ways to make contractors wise enough about data. Today, everything has changed because of business intelligence and data analytics implementation.
For this blog, we will tackle the data-driven approach, including the six key benefits it offers.
Diving Deeper into Construction Data
The increasing availability of analytical technology can help project managers in utilizing various drill-down charts and analytical reports. They need to gather statistics to break down multifaceted project data and predict the outcomes and behavior in real-time. Construction project managers use predictive information to create better decisions and keep the projects on budget and schedule. A data-driven analytics approach makes teams smarter in analyzing defined data and understanding specific trends and patterns.
Even executives are using this detailed analysis to determine further how resources and projects perform and what tactical decisions they can consider improving the success rate further. Using builder trends software, the success rate can also be improved. A higher chance of productivity will arise when a software tool like this is deployed.
A better understanding of construction data can help considerably boost profitability and productivity on current projects. Here are the six key benefits of data-driven analytics approach.
1. Improving Jobsite Productivity and Processes
With the implementation of a data-driven approach, contractors can improve workflows and smarter in finding ways to automate tasks, look for any efficiencies and cut costs. Analyzing and streamlining data collection from job sites has a tremendous positive impact on projects and handlers. Accurate analytics is more than just monitoring and tracking traditional cash flow and job costs. For instance, by having the data analyzed, anyone can see how much effort is being exerted in a day.
PMs used data and information to put the equipment and materials in the most logical locations to effectively cut down all the movement. Thus, doing so has saved a lot of time. Keeping a lot of time during work is also highly achievable using construction scheduling software. It offers a variety of features designed for better project management.
2. High-Quality of Deliverables
Handling new construction projects and supervising a new team can really be an overwhelming task. Many stakeholders, crew, approvers, budgets, expectations and outcomes to manage and think about. To handle all of this, the implementation of a data-driven approach is the answer. The method itself has become a critical aspect of modern project management. It is the project managers’ primary task to consider business practices and emerging construction trends to contribute to impactful positive changes.
As for PMs, they have to understand how analytics can minimize their workload and enhance their projects’ outcome. To be more aware of what they are doing and utilizing is essential. Quality of the project deliverables is one critical aspect to consider, for it is an ultimate measure of a project’s success. Analytics can help anyone in monitoring, planning and reviewing the quality of the project.
In addition, proper sorting of analytics is best accomplished using a crew schedule software. All data can be inputted, viewed, edited and updated. Because the software is cloud-based, all data can be access anywhere and anytime from everybody involved.
3. Reducing Risk and Improving Safety
All project leaders must track data correlated with safety issues. Safety inspections, injuries and other related data must be recorded. Going a step further in streamlining data can help PMs identify high-risk tasks and hazardous conditions. Determining if it can help avoid or prevent future incidents is essential for reducing risks for the business.
The implementation of construction crew management can also help lessen the possibilities of incidents. Using such a strategy, project leaders can monitor and assist every crew member. Tracking where they are, what tasks they do and how many hours they are working is easy using this software tool.
4. Winning More Work and Bidding Smarter
Tracking change orders, job costs, tools and equipment usage and job site productivity from the projects can lead to smart bidding and improved future work. While other companies have already implemented some versions, having more relevant and complete data can produce a much fuller picture of how the job will cost and what improvements can be made.
Scrutinizing data also ensures the bids are more precise for any of the future projects, while the efficiencies are also increasing from time to time. The on-budget delivery of projects will undoubtedly lead to a firmer reputation for the construction firms, resulting in helping anyone land even more work.
5. Analytics Transitioning to Predictive Analytics
Most of the existing trends on how you can plan better by analyzing and sorting data often lead to another trend – predictive analytics. Preferably, the project manager wasn’t only assessing what happened on specific projects after the fact. Usually, they want data to help them create wiser decisions based on different models of what will happen in the future. The gathered data can help in developing those models. There is an increase in artificial intelligence technology and machine learning in the construction industry, resulting in fueling the industry’s predictive models’ moves.
6. Seizing Projections and Initial Signals
Data is playing a crucial role in any organization. In utilizing analytics, executives and managers can determine some early signs of slippage for costs, budgets and timelines. Choosing it at early stage pushes project managers to take proactive actions.
Analytics has helped PMs to capture the work rate and it has been easier for them to predict whether a project will be finished on time. Moreover, insightful and more in-depth analytics can help project teams improve resource utilization and better predict costs and revenue. With analytics, any teams can push through a much broader view to offer profound insights into projections. With the builder software tool’s deployment, the team can communicate more consistently, tasks are appropriately scheduled and no one is left behind. Much greater productivity during work is expected upon using this tool.
Industry Preferences for Insights and Information
To see how construction data is being used already by the construction industry, let’s take a look first in the lifecycle: design-build-operate that profoundly describes construction projects today.
· Design – construction data, including building modeling, environmental data, social media relations, and stakeholder input, can be utilized to identify what should be built and where to construct it. Many industries used a data-driven analytics approach to know where to make its engineering facilities for optimal benefit. Picking out patterns and other probabilities for construction risks is easier when construction data is being put into use.
· Build – business activities can be further analyzed to identify the best phasing for construction activities. For instance, sensors from machines typically save necessary inputted data and it will be used on sites to display idle and active time. While the process is going on, it is way easier to conclude the best combination of leasing or buying such equipment.
· Operate – data extracted from sensors built into infrastructures and any other construction has made it possible to track each one at several levels of performance. This data might also be fed back into BIM (Building Information Modeling) systems to plan maintenance activities as required.
As data gets bigger, the necessity to boil it down to actionable basics gets larger too. A survey has found that:
· 57% prefer up-to-date, consistent project and financial information
· 48% prefer to get warning signs when unexpected situations occur
· 41% prefer forecasting, permitting them to be more prepare for worst-case building events
· 14% prefer online analytics to determine which factors are distressing profit and by how much
This particular approach offers lots of opportunities to improve each of the listed aspects further. The wide variety of inputs involved has allowed a better level of certainties about forecasts and status reports. The analytics enables us to provide more precise indications of dangerous levels before any alerts are generated. The approach offers insights that any of the traditional systems cannot offer.
The real and intense challenge here is what people do with the data. This is the very reason why more contractors hire construction professionals with long experience in business intelligence and data analytics. With these new construction project leaders, using powerful technologies like construction management software designed for construction, are at the edgiest of industry transformation.
Key Takeaways
The market for business intelligence and analytics is predicted to grow massively by 2021. Expect that there will be an increasing demand for millions of project managers by the year 2027, according to the Project Management Institute. Having both of the disciplines expand at a drastic rate makes a sense to utilize powerful tools intertwined into the company’s principle to make a much more sustainable competitive advantage.
