[P2007] - Material Resource Utilization

[godrid]

Hi,

I have a scenario whereby I need to track the usage of hardware resource
(e.g. Test Machine) which could be used across multiple projects. I would
like to include this hardware resource in my project plan so I could look
have an overall view of any contention of this resource. I setup the resource
as a material resource and assigned it to my project plan. When I check the
view assignments function of my material source in resource center, the start
and finish dates are empty and there is no gantt chart, all I see here is the
project that the resource is assigned to. Is it the correct way to handle
this type of resource?

I would want to show the list of project, task, planned start and end date
for this resource in a view, is there any other way to achieve that?

Regards
Godrid

 

[godrid]

I just found that there is a custom filter applied to my view so I could not
see the start, end and gantt chart information. Now I could view the
information correctly.

Regards,
Godrid

 

[paul conroy]

In some cases, material resources such as tools and machines are better off
being represented as work resources as you can't check the availability of
material resources.

 

[godrid]

Hi Paul,

Thanks, that seems to be the best way.

Regards
Godrid

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

Paul:

IMO, tools and machines are never "material" resources, unless they're
actually consumed by the task; a rare occurrence, indeed. Use Material type
only for "consumables." All resources that need to be scheduled must be
work-type resources. One of the fundamental shortcomings in Project, is that
there is no way to constrain machine and operator to force the scheduling
engine to always schedule them together. I hope someday that we'll see this
feature; I've been keeping it on the wish list since I became an MVP.

--

Gary L. Chefetz, MVP
MSProjectExperts
For Project Server Consulting: http://www.msprojectexperts.com
For Project Server FAQS: http://www.projectserverexperts.com