Constraining resources

[Schalkje]

I'm looking for a method to implement constraining resources using Project
2007.

I know of a solution from an oil company, using beds as a resource. Beds are
added by a macro in Project Professional, at each task, equal to the number
of resources.
This way the beds (a fixed number of beds are available on an oil platform)
can be used in the leveling process, assuring that there are never more
people on the platform than there are beds available.
One important restriction of this solution is that you have to use fixed
duration, to make it usefull.

I’m currently doing an implementation for an oilplatform. And we want to use
available beds as a constraining resource on the leveling process.
But we want to use “fixed work†as a planning principle.

Thanks,
Jeroen Schalken

 

[Rod Gill]

Beds would work only if everyone can do any task. I doubt that. Instead of
beds simply review total hours per week required (from usage view).

If you have 50 beds, then hours per week available is 50*40=2000hrs per 40h
week. On an oil rig I suspect working hours are much longer than 40, more
like 60?

I think fixed duration is a mistake as you need accurate estimates of effort
needed and then resource available. Given limited beds and effort that can
only change if you reduce scope or add more efficient tools or resources, it
will take the time it will take
--

Rod Gill
Microsoft MVP for Project

Author of the only book on Project VBA, see:
http://www.projectvbabook.com

I'm looking for a method to implement constraining resources using Project
2007.

I know of a solution from an oil company, using beds as a resource. Beds
are
added by a macro in Project Professional, at each task, equal to the
number
of resources.
This way the beds (a fixed number of beds are available on an oil
platform)
can be used in the leveling process, assuring that there are never more
people on the platform than there are beds available.
One important restriction of this solution is that you have to use fixed
duration, to make it usefull.

I’m currently doing an implementation for an oilplatform. And we want to
use
available beds as a constraining resource on the leveling process.
But we want to use “fixed work†as a planning principle.

Thanks,
Jeroen Schalken

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signature database 4594 (20091111) __________

The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.

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[Schalkje]

Thanks Rod for the idea, it gives us something to think about.

It doesn't fit our situation entirely:
We have a project (actually master-project constraind) that there can't be
more than a fixed number of people at the platform at a certain moment.
To summarize: when 8 people have a task of 1 hour on a day; they still need
8 beds at night (not the one).


We are thinking of simular situations, maybe this is one:
Doing project planning and having a limited amout of one tool (e.g. a drill)
and you need that tool with a lot of the tasks.

Thanks,
Jeroen

 

[Rod Gill]

You need to separate your resources by skill and level by skill and total
beds. Fixed duration will still not help here. Where there is only one
resource (drill) and it's needed for a number of tasks, if it can't
multi-task or it has a significant setup time when swapping between tasks,
then each task should be linked.

How does a drill use up a bed?!!

--

Rod Gill
Microsoft MVP for Project

Author of the only book on Project VBA, see:
http://www.projectvbabook.com

Thanks Rod for the idea, it gives us something to think about.

It doesn't fit our situation entirely:
We have a project (actually master-project constraind) that there can't be
more than a fixed number of people at the platform at a certain moment.
To summarize: when 8 people have a task of 1 hour on a day; they still
need
8 beds at night (not the one).


We are thinking of simular situations, maybe this is one:
Doing project planning and having a limited amout of one tool (e.g. a
drill)
and you need that tool with a lot of the tasks.

Thanks,
Jeroen






__________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus
signature database 4594 (20091111) __________

The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.

http://www.eset.com

__________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature database 4594 (20091111) __________

The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.

http://www.eset.com

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

Put the tasks where you want to assign beds as a resource to Fixed duration,
not effort driven.
Then reset to fixed work.

(When afterwards you change the tasks' duration you may end up needing 7,42
beds for instance )

HTH

--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf

 

[Steve House]

I should point out that "fixed work" isn't a planning principle or
constraint and arbitrarily saying "we only use fixed work" really makes no
sense (no offense intended). It's not a principle but rather a control, a
tool you the planner can use to insure Project recalculates the proper
parameter when you edit a resource assignment. A task's type can change
many times during the process of building a project plan, depending on what
term you're editing at the moment and the reason for the edit. It is not
something to be decided by policy and then locked in granite

The *only* function Task Type has is to control what happens to the three
task parameters of Work, Units, and Duration when on of those variables is
*edited* on an *existing* resource assignment. W=D*U . Within that
identity, one term is the independent variable, a second the dependent
variable, and the third is the constant term, a classic linear equation of
the form Y=mX+b where b=0. When you designate a task type, you are defining
the term that takes the place of "m" for that particualr edit. When you
edit one of the terms, you have chosen that to be your independent variable.
The default is Fixed Units so if you edit Duration, Work will change and if
you edit Work, Duration will change, If you edit Units on a Fixed Units
task it will happlily accept your input, behaving as if the task was Fixed
Work and recomputing Duration.

 

[Prasad]

Jeroen,

It seems the set of tasks in progress at any particular time is
limited by the number of beds. I view it as a multi-constraint
scheduling problem where tasks require two or more distinct resources.
You have to do a lot of laborious, time-consuming resource leveling
for such scheduling if you prefer to use any software that cannot
perform dependable automatic resource leveling. Moreover, you have to
repeat such manual effort whenever the actual progress significantly
deviates from the schedule.

Regards,
Prasad

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

MS Project's leveling is dependable you know

--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf

 

[Prasad]

Hi,

MS Project's leveling is dependable you know

You mean automatic resource leveling that can eliminate the need for
manual leveling effort?

Prasad

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Yes. It is dependable and predictable... but there are certain precautions
if tyou want to use it at its best.
For instance don't try to do half of the work manually by splitting a person
into tasks @30%, tasks@55% and so on.
Try to limit assignment units to 100% and let leveling doe the shifting of
the tasks.
Hope this helps,

--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf

Hi,

MS Project's leveling is dependable you know

You mean automatic resource leveling that can eliminate the need for
manual leveling effort?

Prasad

 

[Prasad]

Yes. It is dependable and predictable... but there are certain precautions
if tyou want to use it at its best.
For instance don't try to do half of the work manually by splitting a person
into tasks @30%, tasks@55% and so on.
Try to limit assignment units to 100% and let leveling doe the shifting of
the tasks.
Hope this helps,

Jan,

Thanks. To learn the option "automatic resource leveling" in Project,
I tried to schedule just 3 tasks with the following information:

Task Duration Resources
(Hours) (Needed)
T1 1 M1, R1
T2 5 M2, R2
T3 4 M1, R2

where M1 and M2 are two machines and R1 and R2 are two skilled
workers. There are no dependency relations among tasks. Assume that
all the four resources are continuously available for 9 hours and all
resource assignments are 100%.. I failed to get a good schedule using
the resource leveling option. I do not know how to make right choices
in the dialog box for resource leveling. I would appreciate if you
could show me how to make proper choices for getting a meaningful
schedule in this small example.

Since all resource assignments to tasks are normally 100% in
production scheduling, production schedulers should be able to avoid
manual resource leveling in Project with the help of this option.
Without the knowledge of automatic resource leveling option in
Project, some of those people must be wasting their time with time-
consuming, laborious leveling exercise.

Regards,
Prasad

 

[Paul Billings]

R2 seems to be the bottleneck, and the project will require a minimum
of 9 hrs as a result. The defaults settings give a total duration of
9 hours for me; however, it does schedule m1 and r2 at different times
for task 3. (This can be seen in the Task Usage view among other
places.) There are many situations where that is desirable -- how is
MSP supposed to know that they have to work at the same time?

For those cases requiring simultaneous work by the resources, there
two places you can configure. If you want to make this specification
across all tasks, just make sure the "Leveling can adjust individual
assignments on a task" is NOT checked in the Leveling dialog. With
that setting, M1 is delayed until R2 is available (after completing
task 2).

I prefer to leave that "Leveling can adjust..." setting enabled and
control the simultaneous constraint on a per-task basis. Simply
insert the "Level Assignments" field and set it to "No" for the
specific tasks requiring simultaneous work.

Paul