Seeking Insights on Tracking Equipment and Materials with Power BI on Construction Sites

[LCM-Master]

Hello fellow community members,

I hope this message finds you well. I am reaching out to our knowledgeable community to seek insights and advice on utilizing Power BI for effective equipment and material tracking on construction sites. We are eager to leverage the capabilities of Power BI to improve our construction site operations and streamline our logistical processes.

Specifically, we are interested in optimizing the tracking and management of equipment and materials at our construction sites. We believe that Power BI can provide valuable visualizations and analytics to enhance our understanding of equipment utilization, inventory levels, and logistical efficiency.

If any of you have experience or expertise in using Power BI for equipment and material tracking in construction environments, we would greatly appreciate your input. We are particularly interested in learning how Power BI can help us:

1. Monitor real-time equipment location and usage on construction sites.
2. Track inventory levels for materials and equipment.
3. Analyze data to identify potential bottlenecks or inefficiencies in the logistics process.
4. Optimize resource allocation and scheduling based on equipment availability.

Your insights, best practices, or any relevant resources would be immensely valuable to us in harnessing the power of Power BI for construction site equipment and material tracking. By sharing your experiences, you can contribute to the improvement of our operational efficiency and logistics management.

Thank you in advance for your assistance and valuable contributions. We eagerly await your insights and look forward to learning from your experiences.

Best regards,

[v-jialongy-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @LCM-Master 

Here are some steps and best practices you can follow to leverage Power BI for your needs:

1. Data Collection and Integration:

   Ensure that you have a system in place to collect real-time data from your construction sites.

   Integrate this data into Power BI by setting up data sources. Power BI can connect to various data sources, including Excel files, databases, and cloud services.

2. Real-time Equipment Location and Usage Monitoring:

   Use Power BI's real-time data streaming capabilities to monitor equipment location and usage.

   Create dashboards with maps to visualize the location of equipment and reports to show usage statistics.

3. Track Inventory Levels:

   Develop inventory reports that show current levels of materials and equipment.

   Set up alerts in Power BI to notify you when inventory levels fall below a certain threshold.

4. Analyze Logistics Data:

   Use Power BI's analytics tools to identify patterns and trends in your logistics data.

   Create visualizations that highlight potential bottlenecks or inefficiencies in the logistics process.

5. Optimize Resource Allocation and Scheduling:

   Build scheduling reports that take into account equipment availability and project timelines.

   Use Power BI's forecasting features to predict future equipment needs and optimize resource allocation.

For more detailed guidance on these steps, you can refer to the official Power BI documentation:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/fundamentals/power-bi-overview

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/connect-data/service-real-time-streaming

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/create-reports/service-set-data-alerts

^{Best Regards,}

^Jayleny

^{If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.}

[203522009]

Hi @LCM-Master, 

Actually present I'm also looking to solve the same problem in my construction site

Like tracking of equipment, monitoring equipment efficiency on daily, weekly and monthly basis. 

The idea im having is that we can collect daily targets, and achieved target from so and so location from site engineers on daily basis using Microsoft forms. As present we were doing it manually on papers and log sheets. 

Later we can link that Microsoft forms to power automate, then from power automate to power bi for data vusualization. In power bi we can make dax columns with predefined formulas to calculate effeciency and Respective charts. Whener site engineer fills the form we will be notifying and getting effeciency of each equipment working on site. And same like we can collect location too. 

The above solution is what I find to monitor realtime effeciency and utilization of equipments on daily basis. And weekly basis, monthly basis. 

Pthank you. 

Please reply back with your openion on this solution and suggestions to improve further. 

😊

[LCM-Master]

Dear CoreyP,

Thank you for your response and for sharing your insights on tracking equipment using Power BI. Your suggestions are greatly appreciated.

To answer your question, I can confirm that we have an Excel sheet for tracking the equipment that arrives on the construction site with a the delivery order. This sheet is updated daily and maintained by the warehouse personnel responsible for equipment tracking. I can also assure you that the quality of the data collected is very good and accurate.

I am aware of the importance of data engineering in this process. That's why I posted my question in the forum, seeking detailed answers or examples specifically related to this subject. I am particularly interested in understanding the back-end aspects of data management, while not neglecting the importance of front-end visualization. It would be really helpful if you could provide some examples of dashboards specifically tailored for this type of scenario.

Once again, thank you for your response and for your support.

Best regards,

[CoreyP]

Well, this is a question with extremely far reaching implications and scope. While you are correct, Power BI is an amazing tool which allows for creation of reports and dashboards visualizing data in meaningful ways and granting insightful analysis, it needs to be built on data. Based on your post, your focus right now should not so much be on front-end visualization and consumption, but the architecture and engineering of your data. 

• Where does your data come from? How is it collected?
• Where is it stored? How is it stored?
• What is the quality of the data?
• What real world processes are currently being, or can be captured to meet the requirements of the analysis needed?