Your company is constantly producing data. Every project you do, every e-mail you get from the general contractors or your clients carries information that is valuable for your future works. If you collect the data but you are incapable of using them to increase the productivity, employee satisfaction; this post will help you to understand data-driven decision making strategies.
Characteristics of a Data-Driven Construction Company
1- Data Collection
Data does not mean merely numbers. In a construction company, you must collect data as drawings, images, videos or communication chains. They are as important as the quantitative data.
Your data must be accurate, up to date and trustworthy since it will affect the future decisions you will make.
2- Data Accessibility
Your data should be systematically stored with a proper tool. It is important to categorize the data and make it easy to be understood by the user. Thus, each employee will have access to the data and may add necessary information.
3- Digitalizing and Automating The Process
Manual work is open to mistakes. Digitalizing your process will help you to collect more accurate data and it will also speed up the work that data collection requires.
4- Decision Making Strategy
Sometimes the amount of data is overwhelming. You must take a step back and prepare a strategy to use the collected data for your companies benefit. You can use the data to understand issues before they become a real problem with a correct strategy.
5- Continuous Improvement
Data-driven decision making process is not something you ultimately achieve and stop working on it. It is a continuous process. You must always adjust and tweak the data and make changes in your strategy. You must follow your competitors, clients needs and use your own data to improve your own process.
Data-Driven Construction Strategies
1- Prefabrication
On site fabrication of the materials are rely on some environmental factors and as a result it may exceed the expected time or budget. Using the project data will effectively help you to start prefabricating the materials and specify a strategy to carry them to the job site. You will not be able to complete the fabrication of all materials off site. However, using the project data effectively on this issue will save you time and money especially for large projects.
2- Standardization
Standardization is crucial for optimizing the workflow. You can use the data you collected from your company to understand the bottlenecks and set up a good procedure for your future projects.
Standardization of your process will help you to collect better data as well. In the long term, they will help you to reduce the inefficiencies and speed things up.
3- Collaborative Technology
Both quantitative and qualitative data are important for a construction company. Collaborative technology is especially important for the qualitative data type such as communication chains, reports etc. You can store them one central location which is available for everyone so that they can contribute. And, you can integrate quantitative data to the insights you get from the collaborative technology tool. With this, it is less likely to see unexpected issues in your projects.
You can read more about this topic on Digital Builder Autodesk's Construction Blog
Published by Sıla Keskin
