T
Tim Glinatsis
Hey guys -
First, I'd like to thank the resident gurus for their time/effort in this
forum. I've been able to find the answer to just about every question I've
had...
....until now. This one's a little heavy, so bear with me. I think some
explanation is in order.
Here's the deal. I work for a large manufacturing company that's been around
quite a while. The company's been around for so long that we're still running
the original MACPAC for material management, and using a Labor Managment
System (LMS) from the same era.
LMS is what I'm concerned about, as it handles all
scheduling/budgeting/progressing/etc. for all activities in the company.
Because it's a mainframe system, its typical output is either visual (on the
screen, but in a fixed format) or on "green bar" hard copies. As Excel has
become more popular, our IT department has started creating .dbf's of the
reports - so that we can manipulate the data, to some degree.
All updates to schedule, cost, charging, etc. are input directly into the
mainframe, just as it's always been done...by hand. The system collects all
hours once/week, and updates progress at the same time. Thus, in management,
we see the actual results of the previous week each Tuesday; again, the
..dbf's would all be updated by the weekly routines.
Bottom line: I've got several Excel queries, VBA-bastardized macros, etc.
that strip and format the data that I need from these massive .dbf's. Now,
I'd like to have the results of my queries update directly into the Project
schedule I'm putting together. My areas have 6,000+ individual workpackages
- and though I let my foremen worry about their workpackages, I need to roll
it all up to strip the EVM data I'm interested in...and manually updating
6,000+ workpackages each week isn't something I'm keen on.
I've read that links are dangerous, and I've had some experience with their
volatility. If I leave file locations consistent, and am meticulous about
saving procedures, given the volume of records that we're talking about, is
it an option I should consider?
If I were to proceed with links, what would be the best way for me to have
the linked range automatically expan in the event of new rows in the source?
I'd prefer not to adjust the range manually, in Project, every time.
This situation, in general, is something that some of us have been wrestling
with for some time. Historically, we've used self-created Excel workbooks
that strip, manipulate and crunch the numbers to arrive at useful metrics. I
know Project can do this stuff better than I can...not to mention that it
will highlight the deficiencies in the existing plan.
I'd love an answer to my two specific questions, but I'd also love to hear
if anyone else has experience with a situation like this. Is this common?
Thanks for taking the time to read this...
First, I'd like to thank the resident gurus for their time/effort in this
forum. I've been able to find the answer to just about every question I've
had...
....until now. This one's a little heavy, so bear with me. I think some
explanation is in order.
Here's the deal. I work for a large manufacturing company that's been around
quite a while. The company's been around for so long that we're still running
the original MACPAC for material management, and using a Labor Managment
System (LMS) from the same era.
LMS is what I'm concerned about, as it handles all
scheduling/budgeting/progressing/etc. for all activities in the company.
Because it's a mainframe system, its typical output is either visual (on the
screen, but in a fixed format) or on "green bar" hard copies. As Excel has
become more popular, our IT department has started creating .dbf's of the
reports - so that we can manipulate the data, to some degree.
All updates to schedule, cost, charging, etc. are input directly into the
mainframe, just as it's always been done...by hand. The system collects all
hours once/week, and updates progress at the same time. Thus, in management,
we see the actual results of the previous week each Tuesday; again, the
..dbf's would all be updated by the weekly routines.
Bottom line: I've got several Excel queries, VBA-bastardized macros, etc.
that strip and format the data that I need from these massive .dbf's. Now,
I'd like to have the results of my queries update directly into the Project
schedule I'm putting together. My areas have 6,000+ individual workpackages
- and though I let my foremen worry about their workpackages, I need to roll
it all up to strip the EVM data I'm interested in...and manually updating
6,000+ workpackages each week isn't something I'm keen on.
I've read that links are dangerous, and I've had some experience with their
volatility. If I leave file locations consistent, and am meticulous about
saving procedures, given the volume of records that we're talking about, is
it an option I should consider?
If I were to proceed with links, what would be the best way for me to have
the linked range automatically expan in the event of new rows in the source?
I'd prefer not to adjust the range manually, in Project, every time.
This situation, in general, is something that some of us have been wrestling
with for some time. Historically, we've used self-created Excel workbooks
that strip, manipulate and crunch the numbers to arrive at useful metrics. I
know Project can do this stuff better than I can...not to mention that it
will highlight the deficiencies in the existing plan.
I'd love an answer to my two specific questions, but I'd also love to hear
if anyone else has experience with a situation like this. Is this common?
Thanks for taking the time to read this...