Calculating Start / Finish Dates Correctly

[Martin]

I would appreciate some help with a project. I'm using Project 2003.

Some of the tasks in the WBS need to be tracked with a 5 day per week /
8 hours a day calendar. Other tasks need to be tracked with a 24 hr per
day / 7 day a week calendar.

I set up the calendar to be 5 days per week / 8 hours per day. This
works best for 70% of the tasks. For example if the tasks will take 10
day of work to complete, I enter 10d in the duration and the start to
finish time is a total of 14 days; which includes 4 week end days when
no work will be accomplished. This is correct.

However, 30% of the tasks are the kind that will be accomplished on a
24 hour per day / 7 day a week schedule. For example some of these
tasks will take 72 hours (3 days at 24 hrs per day) for the 24 / 7 shop
floor to fabricate. If I enter 3 days the start to finish time will add
in weekend time, which is not correct. If I enter 72 hours, the start
to finish time is 9 days plus weekends.

There are probably several ways to resolve this problem in Project.
Many projects must have this kind of situation. I'd appreciate some
recommendations about the best way to deal with this situation.

Thanks,
Martin

 

[St Dilbert]

All calendars in MS Project can be applied as project calendar (which
is then default for resources and task) or as task calendar or as
resource calendar.

Now since you already chose the 5 days per week / 8 hours per day as
project calendar, this is fine as default for the majority of your
tasks.

If you want non-default for your 30% of tasks you can set the "24 h"
calendar in the task-infomation dialogue, tab "advanced".
To make sure the task is really scheduled with work going on around the
clock, you need to make sure that the resources assigned also are
available around the clock (by giving them resource calendars, probably
in several shifts that overall cover 24 hours) or you just check the
option "scheduling ignores resource calendars".

The latter option is way simpler to use, but may very well surprise the
resources assigned (especially if those are human resources ;-)....)

 

[JulieS]

Hi Martin,

For the 30% of tasks that need to follow the 24 hours/7 day per week
schedule, you could assign the "24 Hours" calendar as a task calendar.
(The 24 Hours calendar is usually one of the base calendars in projects
based upon the default template.)

Double click on the task to show the task information dialog box. On
the Advanced tab, select the 24-hours calendar from the Calendar drop
down.

To apply the same calendar to multiple tasks: select the multiple tasks
and then click on the Task Information button on the Standard toolbar to
display the Multiple Task Information dialog box, click on the advanced
tab and select the 24 Hours calendar.

The challenge will be how you input the duration. Assuming you have
left the default definition of day at 8 hours (Tools > Options, Calendar
tab), a "3 day" duration task will mean 3 eight hour periods of time.
If the task is using the 24 Hours calendar the finish date/time will
show 24 hours after the start date/time. If you enter 72 hours
duration, the finish will be 72 hours after the start date/time.

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie
Project MVP

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for the FAQs and additional information
about Microsoft Project

 

[Martin]

Thanks for the replies. The information was very helpful.

Here's what I plan to do.

First, set up the Project (Standard) calendar for 5 days / 8 hours.
This will be used for 70% of the tasks.

Second, for the remainng 30% of the tasks that are processed in a 24 x
7 operation, set up a Resource calendar. (The culture of the shop
floor is to forecast in 24 hours days; i.e., if an item can be
fabricated in 3 days it means it will take nine 8 hr shifts.) This
Resource calendar will be a 7-day a week calendar with the hours set to
8:00 a.m. to 12:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. It will not be a 24 hr
(per day) calendar. By making it a 8 hr / day calendar, the 3x problem
of a 24 hr calendar will be eliminated.

The shop floor forecast, in shop floor days, can be directly enter in
the duration colulmn without have to convert.

Do you see any problems with this approach?

Thanks,

 

[Martin]

Thanks for the replies. The information was very helpful.

Here's what I plan to do.

First, set up the Project (Standard) calendar for 5 days / 8 hours.
This will be used for 70% of the tasks.

Second, for the remainng 30% of the tasks that are processed in a 24 x
7 operation, set up a Resource calendar. (The culture of the shop
floor is to forecast in 24 hours days; i.e., if an item can be
fabricated in 3 days it means it will take nine 8 hr shifts.) This
Resource calendar will be a 7-day a week calendar with the hours set to
8:00 a.m. to 12:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. It will not be a 24 hr
(per day) calendar. By making it a 8 hr / day calendar, the 3x problem
of a 24 hr calendar will be eliminated.

The shop floor forecast, in shop floor days, can be directly enter in
the duration colulmn without have to convert.

Do you see any problems with this approach?

Thanks,

 

[Martin]

Thanks for the replies. The information was very helpful.

Here's what I plan to do.

First, set up the Project (Standard) calendar for 5 days / 8 hours.
This will be used for 70% of the tasks.

Second, for the remainng 30% of the tasks that are processed in a 24 x
7 operation, set up a Resource calendar. (The culture of the shop
floor is to forecast in 24 hours days; i.e., if an item can be
fabricated in 3 days it means it will take nine 8 hr shifts.) This
Resource calendar will be a 7-day a week calendar with the hours set to
8:00 a.m. to 12:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. It will not be a 24 hr
(per day) calendar. By making it a 8 hr / day calendar, the 3x problem
of a 24 hr calendar will be eliminated.

The shop floor forecast, in shop floor days, can be directly enter in
the duration colulmn without have to convert.

Do you see any problems with this approach?

Thanks,

 

[Martin]

Thanks for the replies. The information was very helpful.

Here's what I plan to do.

First, set up the Project (Standard) calendar for 5 days / 8 hours.
This will be used for 70% of the tasks.

Second, for the remainng 30% of the tasks that are processed in a 24 x
7 operation, set up a Resource calendar. (The culture of the shop
floor is to forecast in 24 hours days; i.e., if an item can be
fabricated in 3 days it means it will take nine 8 hr shifts.) This
Resource calendar will be a 7-day a week calendar with the hours set to
8:00 a.m. to 12:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. It will not be a 24 hr
(per day) calendar. By making it a 8 hr / day calendar, the 3x problem
of a 24 hr calendar will be eliminated.

The shop floor forecast, in shop floor days, can be directly enter in
the duration colulmn without have to convert.

Do you see any problems with this approach?

Thanks,

 

[JulieS]

Hi Martin,

You're welcome for the assistance and thanks for the feedback.

On the surface I don't see any problem with the 8 hour per day 7 days
per week calendar other than it doesn't allow the work to continue after
5:00 pm at night. In an earlier post you said that some tasks could
occur 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. Do you intend to create other
base calendars second and third shift?

I understand that the 3 day duration will suffice for the shop floor but
the amount of work will be wildly off. If a 3 day task on the shop
floor means nine 8 hour shifts with one resource assigned at 100% that
would be 72 hours of work. In your scenario with a 3 day duration and
one resource assigned at 100%, it would only be 24 hours of work.

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie
Project MVP

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for the FAQs and additional information
about Microsoft Project