Construction is a time-consuming, resource-intensive, costly process. Irrespective of the size of construction projects, managing them can be challenging. Luckily there’s one tool that can streamline any construction process: big data.

Big data is a technology that can be defined as a software tool for managing, processing, and analysing a vast data set to extract trends, predict risks, create better strategies, and make better decisions. Construction companies can boost productivity, leverage predictability, maintain a safe workforce, and eliminate waste by unleashing the power of big data.

Ecommerce, airlines, healthcare service providers, banks, and many other sectors from different industries have already started to leverage their big data for making accurate predictions, mitigating risks, enhancing operations, etc. The construction industry is not far behind in this race. A growing number of construction companies are working with big data analysis tools for several reasons, ranging from estimating budgets to boosting sales and managing finances. Construction data analysis is shaping the construction industry in several ways. This post aims to highlight a few of them.

Big Data for Managing Projects and Tracking Progress

Data regarding labours, suppliers, weather, resource availability, raw materials, equipment handling, etc., can play a significant role in phasing construction activities. Using a big data analytics tool, you can access geolocation information of construction equipment which will allow you to avoid downtime, improve logistics, etc. Big data users can even determine the most efficient fuel consumption, keeping projects’ costs and ecological impacts in mind.

Temperature, humidity, and other climatic conditions can also be analysed using a data analysis tool to determine how they will affect the project. Based on your findings and data-driven prediction, you can alert your team and be prepared for sudden changes. So, it is clearly visible that big data has made project management and progress tracking easier than ever before.

Big Data for Better Planning

Companies with the proper construction industry analysis tool can easily:

1. Evaluate subcontractor’s efficiency
2. Check suppliers’ background
3. Determine the reliability of the potential partner
4. Analyse risk and figure out its key element

Your access to big data will enable you to make efficient decisions in every step of the construction process. Construction industry data analytics can also be your secret behind successful simulations. Since data analysis makes prediction easier, you can always be prepared for unforeseen problems. While the most experienced managers can fail to recognise the real-world limitations of a project, novices even with elementary data analysing knowledge, can easily reduce the probability of occurring unexpected problems. Regardless of your experience and expertise in construction, big data will empower you to make better plans every time.

Big Data for Budgeting

Making better decisions, tracking your progress, and improving your forecasting abilities are not the only benefits that you can achieve from big data analysis. Besides, it can also help you with accurate cost estimation. Wondering how? Well, you can predict material needs, labour requirements, project operation costs, and other aspects of the project precisely by analysing a big pool of construction intelligence. Therefore, making an accurate budget will become easier for you, which is often described as one of the most challenging groundwork tasks in any construction process. Furthermore, big data also empowers managers to respond swiftly to changes in:

1. Economic conditions
2. International prices of raw materials
3. Demand signals
4. Local labour market
5. Supply bottlenecks etc.

It means you can also make changes in your budget whenever needed with the help of big data analysis. 

We hope that now you have understood how big data is shaping the construction industry. From better planning to budgeting and forecasting to predicting risk, big data can make every step of your construction process easier.

PROJECT INTEL, the #1 real-time construction data analysis platform leverages the power of big data to help users make the most of data regarding 4,521 90 updated projects and 536 new projects. Our construction business intelligence can help you identify risks, formulate strategy, evaluate growth potential, and generate sales leads. Schedule your free trial now and discover the true potential of PROJECT INTEL.