Mastery of vast sets of structured data represents the key to the world of Big Data - a realm where modern technology allows for the aggregation and analysis of vast amounts of information.
Big Data is an impressive amount of information that can include everything from freight elevator sensor data to construction site weather reports. When used correctly, Big Data becomes the basis for analytics, predictive modeling and decision making.
The application of Big Data in construction goes far beyond managing transaction records or weather forecasts. Big Data is transforming the construction industry in a myriad of ways:
- Investment Potential Analysis: Will use metrics from past projects to predict the profitability and payback of future projects.
- Predictive Maintenance: Uses historical data to predict equipment failures before they occur, reducing downtime.
- Supply Chain Optimization: Streamlines the delivery of materials and predicts supply chain disruptions.
- Energy Efficiency Analysis: Helps design buildings that consume less energy.
- Safety Monitoring: Uses wearables and sensors to monitor worker safety and environmental conditions on-site.
- Quality Control: Monitors construction processes in real-time to ensure compliance with standards and regulations.
- Workforce Management: Analyzes productivity and forecasts labor needs to optimize the allocation of human resources.
- Analyzing data from CAD (BIM): Enhances planning and management, providing insights to avoid design conflicts and maintenance issues.
IOT or data devices on a construction site can produce up to 1 Terabyte of data per day
In big data, a key skill is transforming data in various formats into a structured form, cleaning and preparing it for analytics, and being able to identify meaningful insights and formulate appropriate questions to visualise and analyse them.
Let's look at analytical and predictive examples on public datasets using big data tools.
