Lean & MS-Project : how to introduce variance in a planning ?

[exsyfg]

Hi all,

We've introduced the lean-concept within our company, and now we are in
the stage were we need to adapt our way of planning work for our group
:

You need to take into account that :

- The ideal time to execute task A = 1 md (the average of a senior
system engineer)
- The real time to execute task A could be 1 to 3 md following the
experience of the guy executing the task

How can we put something like this into ms project ?

Working with 'work' and 'duration' doesn't solve my problem, as i.e. :

- if i change the duration to 3 md
- MS project does not increase the work for the guy, to occupy him 3
days, but spreads the 1 md over 3 md, giving the guy the opportunity to
do something else
- overload = guaranteed this way.

Is there somebody over here that has idea's on how to tackle this
within MS-Project ?

The aim is to measure the variance between people, and the progress
made during time.

All help really appreciated !

Kind regards,
Franky.

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

You could try the Goldratt recipe.
You base your planning on 1 md and introduce a buffer at the end of a plan
(or at an important milestone).
So you keep the pressure up and manage the total buffer NOT the task budffer
which the guy would run away anyhow.
HTH

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

 

[exsyfg]

Hi Jan,

That would indeed be a nice approach for bigger projects, but in a
group of mainframe system engineering, you also have smaller tasks
planned, even of 1 'line' ...

Also i would like to do this :

- systematically on all tasks
- different following the individual (individual variability)

Any further ideas ?

BTW : i think we met already in the past (I'm secretary of GSE z/OS
Systems Workgroup)

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

So what?
I only advise you to add the contractual end date in a MFO milestone.
The contingency on individual tasks can be seen as the Total slack (even if
they only last a minute
I see about 25 customers a year so forgive me for not remembering what GSE
is ???


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

 

[exsyfg]

Hi Jan,

If you do it the way you propose, then i think you still have a
side-effect : you are over allocating the people, not ?

Greets,
Franky.

PS : It means IBM Guide Share Europe GSE ;-)

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

Well yes, I've met with even more IBMers (28 years!) than customers after my
IBM life

Tothe point: you can (should?) use Resource leveling when overallocation
gbecomes a problem.
With other loading schemes you have the risk of overallocation as well (when
several tasks are planned to be simultaneous)

Greetings,

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