In the construction industry, the heaviest cost is sometimes the one that you don't see.

In the public works sector, the situation is particularly tense, as highlighted in the latest monthly economic report by the French National Federation of Public Works: activity volumes declined by 7,1% in the first five months of 2026, while order intake plummeted by 21,4%. Therefore, every piece of equipment available and every hour of work saved can make a difference. It is in this context that Samsara published its latest report on the state of Connected Operations, focusing on theft and loss of assets and entitled “Quantifying the Hidden Cost of Invisible Assets.” Based on a survey of over 1.500 financial executives in asset-intensive sectors, including construction, this study sheds light on an often-overlooked issue: equipment visibility.

A construction company can have the best equipment, the best teams, and a well-oiled machine. Sometimes, the absence of just one piece of equipment is enough to disrupt a workday. A specialized tool left on another site, a generator that can't be located, a technical part that's no longer where it should be: these situations seem minor when isolated. But when repeated across dozens, or even hundreds, of sites, they end up having a significant impact on productivity.

Because the real cost lies not only in the loss of equipment. It is also measured in lost hours, delayed interventions and immobilized production capacity.

When a piece of equipment disappears, the entire construction site slows down.

In the construction industry, equipment rarely stays still. It moves between branches, depots, vehicles, and construction sites. It changes hands, teams, and accompanies various projects. This mobility is essential to the sector's operation, but it also makes tracking more complex.

For a long time, the issue was primarily one of protection against theft. Today, the subject is broader. A large part of the losses comes less from a spectacular theft than from a series of small, everyday disappearances: a tool that doesn't return, a machine moved without being registered, equipment stored in the wrong place.

Samsara's report shows that this phenomenon represents a major operational cost for companies that do not have a tracking solution. Moreover, the losses are not limited to heavy equipment. On the contrary, 72% of the operational costs related to missing assets come from small equipment: tools, sensors, generators, or specialized parts.

This is a crucial point for the construction industry. The image of stolen construction equipment is familiar to everyone. But in the reality of daily operations, it's often the less visible equipment that most disrupts the work of the teams. A stolen excavator is immediately identified as a major incident. An incomplete toolbox, a missing measuring station, or a missing pump may seem less important at first. Yet, these situations are becoming increasingly common and ultimately lead to considerable losses.

The hidden cost of the missing equipment

When a piece of equipment disappears, the reflex is often to look only at its purchase price. This is a miscalculation.

The real cost also includes the time spent searching for it, the teams tied up, the emergency rentals or the delays that affect the schedule of a construction site.

A site manager who spends an hour searching for equipment isn't just facing a logistical problem. He's losing time that he could be spending on monitoring the work. A worker waiting for a tool available elsewhere isn't productive during that time. A company that urgently rents equipment it's already purchased is unnecessarily tying up resources.

These costs exist, but they are rarely grouped together. They disappear into different budget items and therefore remain difficult to measure.

The consequences are already visible on the ground. In France, as the Samsara report shows, nearly two out of three managers report that a missing piece of critical equipment caused a significant shutdown or delay in the past year. What was once perceived as an isolated incident is becoming a recurring factor disrupting operations. The issue is therefore no longer limited to site safety; it directly impacts business continuity.

Another worrying finding of the report: in companies without asset tracking, searching for equipment becomes a regular activity. In some organizations, employees can spend more than ten hours a week on this. Over a year, this represents several weeks of lost work simply to locate equipment.

In a sector already facing a labor shortage, devoting human time to searching for equipment is a luxury that companies can hardly afford.

The construction industry must shift from a replacement-based approach to a control-based approach.

Faced with these difficulties, the solution cannot simply be to buy more equipment. The construction industry already invests heavily in its equipment. The Samsara report also shows that, for companies lacking a tracking system, up to 25% of budgets allocated to new equipment are used to replace lost or stolen assets. In a context where investments are scrutinized more closely and every expense must be justified, making better use of existing resources often becomes the primary driver of productivity. The challenge now is to make better use of those that already exist.

Knowing where your assets are located helps you avoid unnecessary purchases. Before ordering new equipment, a company can check if it already has it available at another worksite or branch.

Locating equipment quickly is only part of the problem. When a company knows what equipment it has and where it is located, it can more easily prepare its projects, avoid unnecessary transfers between branches or sites, and reduce emergency purchases. A better understanding of its equipment inventory primarily allows for better operational planning.

The construction industry didn't wait for this to accelerate its digital transformation. Equipment is becoming increasingly connected. BIM is gradually becoming the standard on projects. Drones are now part of the daily routine on many construction sites. However, tracking equipment as it moves from a vehicle to a depot, from one site to another, or from one team to the next often remains a much more manual process.

The difference won't lie solely in the quality or quantity of available equipment. It will also depend on companies' ability to deploy it in the right place, at the right time, without wasting time or unnecessarily taking up space. In a sector where schedules are increasingly tight, this visibility goes far beyond a simple inventory: it directly contributes to the successful execution of projects.

The construction site of the future will be connected. But before it can be more automated or smarter, it must first be able to know where the resources that make it move forward are located.

Opinion piece by Aimée Guitard Laffite, Mid-Market Manager at Samsara ( LinkedIn ).