Turner & Townsend Pioneering Predictive Analytics in Construction with Tableau - Seite 2

Like in other industries, specialist software is used for operational activities such as the day to day management of a programme. Spreadsheets often act as the glue that binds different operational systems together, particularly when it comes to management reporting. With ballooning data volumes and a new generation of smartphone wielding clients that have come to expect attractive, interactive information on demand, spreadsheets look increasingly anachronistic.

"Historically my team has explored, analysed and built reports using the ubiquitous spreadsheet package," continued Gage. "However Tableau is now my favoured option for this type of work. Connecting to a data source or blending multiple data sources is virtually instant and you can be finding interesting visual trends and patterns within minutes. We have found that we have started 'thinking in Tableau' in the kind of way that you might catch yourself thinking in French if learning that language. Suddenly spreadsheets seem slow and clunky. But the biggest difference is the visual impact our outputs now have with clients. Our clients are busy people and increasingly data savvy. They want to instantly see the exceptions and then drill in to route cause. Tableau enables them to interact with our outputs in this way. All they need is a browser or tablet and they can get real time answers to their questions."

Turner & Townsend operate in the capital programmes space and regardless of whether its property, infrastructure or natural resources, everything its clients are delivering has a location. Tableau's mapping function is of particular importance as it enables the company to quickly visualise cost, schedule, risk and other data types geographically. This helps their clients make sense with data much quicker. For example:

• Recent UK flooding caused water handling systems to overload, generating unusually high maintenance requirements. Visualising the sites geographically and comparing with historical trends enabled the impact of the abnormal weather conditions to be identified. This data can be used to build an algorithm that will predict the impact of future abnormal weather pattern using radar data to trigger location specific alerts.
• Visualising construction sites on a map allows users to can see potential conflicts that could result in project delays such as a new school being built whilst adjoining road improvements are being carried out. Reports or tables of numbers will not reveal this insight.

"Turner & Townsend is showing the construction industry a new way to make better-informed, faster decisions. There's no room for error with capital programmes, and making use of predictive analytics and visualisation allows the company to leave no stone unturned in their quest for exceptional performance," commented James Eiloart, VP, EMEA, Tableau Software.