Tasks that require multiple resources at the same time

[steelerfan624]

I've got a task that requres a user to use a specific piece of hardware that is only available for a certain amount of time per day (say 4 hours). So, what I've done is created 2 resources.....one for the person, one for the hardware. I've set the availability for the hardware to be 4 hours per day.

If I set my task to be a duration of 20 hours, I would like to see 5 days as the duration. I'm not sure how to tell project that this task needs both resources at the same time. Can anyone suggest a good way to do this?

 

[JulieD]

Hi

not sure if this is the best solution but i would probably create a calendar
for the task (assign task calendar under task information / advanced tab)
for 4 hours per day (when the hardware is available) and assign the person &
hardware to the task.

hope this helps
Cheers
JulieD

I've got a task that requres a user to use a specific piece of hardware

that is only available for a certain amount of time per day (say 4 hours).
So, what I've done is created 2 resources.....one for the person, one for
the hardware. I've set the availability for the hardware to be 4 hours per
day.

If I set my task to be a duration of 20 hours, I would like to see 5 days

as the duration. I'm not sure how to tell project that this task needs both
resources at the same time. Can anyone suggest a good way to do this?

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

It IS the best solution, Julie.
But for a longish workaround through leveling, it is the ONLY solution.
Greetings,

 

[steelerfan624]

Julie, Jan,

Thank you for the response, this does help to a certain extent. The problem that arises now is that I would also like multiple people doing different tasks to share this same hardware.

In summary, the hardware is available to my team each day between 2:00 PM and 5:00 PM. I have two separate validations that need to use this hardware, and each validation is done by a different person. My fear is that if I just set the calendar for each task to be between 2:00 and 5:00 that it will schedule these tasks simultaneously, because we don't have a resource availability conflict. I can work around this by making one fo the tasks have a schedule of 2:00 - 3:30 and the other to have a schedule to be 3:30 - 5:00, and I would get close to the desired result.

There isn't any other way to make the availability of a specific resource constrain the schedule?

Thanks,
Dan

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

Yes, it is called Resource Leveling.
Look up the help to see whether that is what you need.
HTH
--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/index.htm
32-495-300 620

Julie, Jan,

Thank you for the response, this does help to a certain extent. The

problem that arises now is that I would also like multiple people doing
different tasks to share this same hardware.

In summary, the hardware is available to my team each day between 2:00 PM

and 5:00 PM. I have two separate validations that need to use this
hardware, and each validation is done by a different person. My fear is
that if I just set the calendar for each task to be between 2:00 and 5:00
that it will schedule these tasks simultaneously, because we don't have a
resource availability conflict. I can work around this by making one fo the
tasks have a schedule of 2:00 - 3:30 and the other to have a schedule to be
3:30 - 5:00, and I would get close to the desired result.

 

[steelerfan624]

Well, what resource should I level? Either I'm confused, or I'm not explaining this well.

Initially, I wanted to create a resource for a piece of hardware that was only available for a small length of time each day. Then, I wanted to assign a user and the piece of hardware to a task, and have project only schedule the user on the task when the piece of hardware is available (so, in summary, this task would require two resources at the same time). I was told that there wasn't really a way to do this, and the best thing to do would be to have the task calendar constrained to the time that the hardware was available. And this works fine, as long as there aren't multiple tasks that want to share the hardware. There isn't anything preventing Project from scheduling both tasks at the same time because it doesn't realize that they share a resource.

In your first thread, you wrote
Perhaps this is the leveling that you are referring to.

Can you give me a brief summary of this longish workaround?

Thanks,
Dan

 

[JulieD]

Hi

i would still also create a hardware resource and assign it to the task ...
the reason for using the task calendar was to get the duration & the spread
of days as you originally requested it and to ensure that when project
scheduled the task it scheduled the resource for when the task was to be
performed rather than scheduling the task when the (person) resource was
available.

then when you level project will move the task for when the hardware
resource is available taking into account the task calendar rules.

hope this clears it up for you

Cheers
JulieD

Well, what resource should I level? Either I'm confused, or I'm not explaining this well.

Initially, I wanted to create a resource for a piece of hardware that was

only available for a small length of time each day. Then, I wanted to
assign a user and the piece of hardware to a task, and have project only
schedule the user on the task when the piece of hardware is available (so,
in summary, this task would require two resources at the same time). I was
told that there wasn't really a way to do this, and the best thing to do
would be to have the task calendar constrained to the time that the hardware
was available. And this works fine, as long as there aren't multiple tasks
that want to share the hardware. There isn't anything preventing Project
from scheduling both tasks at the same time because it doesn't realize that
they share a resource.

 

[steelerfan624]

I tried that with the following steps, and here's what I found.

Here's an example....
Person A and Person B work typical hours (8:00 - 5:00)
Equipment C is only available from say 2:00 - 4:00
Task 1 is a duration of 4 hours and requires Person A and Equipment C
Task 2 is a duration of 4 hours and requires Person B and equipment C

I set the Calendars for Task 1, Task 2, and Equiment C to all be the same (2:00 - 4:00 on weekdays.)

I have Leveling set to Automatic, Day by Day

I resource Task 1 with Person A and Equipment C.
(It sets Person A and Equipment C to 2h on two consecutive days (Day 1 and Day 2), which is exactly what I want)

Now, I resource Task 2 with Person B and Equipment C.
(It schedules Equipment C for two hours on days 3 and 4, which is what I would expect. However, Person B gets scheduled for 2 hours on days 1 and 2. This isn't correct, because the equipment isn't available for person B to use on these two days.)

This isn't that catastrophic, because to does make the length of the schedule correct, and the hours worked on the project are correct. Maybe that's where my mental block was. The only problem is that the task usage sheet shows the hours on different days.

Thanks for your help,
Dan

 

[JulieD]

Hi Dan

not sure if this will help - but in tools / level resources
untick Levelling can adjust individual assignments on a task

i don't use automatic levelling so i'm not sure if it will work for you, but
it does when i do manual levelling.

Cheers
JulieD

I tried that with the following steps, and here's what I found.

Here's an example....
Person A and Person B work typical hours (8:00 - 5:00)
Equipment C is only available from say 2:00 - 4:00
Task 1 is a duration of 4 hours and requires Person A and Equipment C
Task 2 is a duration of 4 hours and requires Person B and equipment C

I set the Calendars for Task 1, Task 2, and Equiment C to all be the same (2:00 - 4:00 on weekdays.)

I have Leveling set to Automatic, Day by Day

I resource Task 1 with Person A and Equipment C.
(It sets Person A and Equipment C to 2h on two consecutive days (Day 1 and

Day 2), which is exactly what I want)

Now, I resource Task 2 with Person B and Equipment C.
(It schedules Equipment C for two hours on days 3 and 4, which is what I

would expect. However, Person B gets scheduled for 2 hours on days 1 and 2.
This isn't correct, because the equipment isn't available for person B to
use on these two days.)

This isn't that catastrophic, because to does make the length of the

schedule correct, and the hours worked on the project are correct. Maybe
that's where my mental block was. The only problem is that the task usage
sheet shows the hours on different days.

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Dan,

Try setting the levelling to hour by hour, as a day by day setting will
ignore levelling anything less than a day.

FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can be seen at
this web address: <http://www.mvps.org/project/>

Hope this helps - please let us know how you get on )

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP

I tried that with the following steps, and here's what I found.

Here's an example....
Person A and Person B work typical hours (8:00 - 5:00)
Equipment C is only available from say 2:00 - 4:00
Task 1 is a duration of 4 hours and requires Person A and Equipment C
Task 2 is a duration of 4 hours and requires Person B and equipment C

I set the Calendars for Task 1, Task 2, and Equiment C to all be the same (2:00 - 4:00 on weekdays.)

I have Leveling set to Automatic, Day by Day

I resource Task 1 with Person A and Equipment C.
(It sets Person A and Equipment C to 2h on two consecutive days (Day 1 and

Day 2), which is exactly what I want)

Now, I resource Task 2 with Person B and Equipment C.
(It schedules Equipment C for two hours on days 3 and 4, which is what I

would expect. However, Person B gets scheduled for 2 hours on days 1 and 2.
This isn't correct, because the equipment isn't available for person B to
use on these two days.)

This isn't that catastrophic, because to does make the length of the

schedule correct, and the hours worked on the project are correct. Maybe
that's where my mental block was. The only problem is that the task usage
sheet shows the hours on different days.

 

[Tom S]

It would seem that it should be mentioned that when mixing equipment and
human resources and treating both as work, that some unexpected things can
happen such as adding an additional piece of equipment and seeing the
duration going down. Since Microsoft does not have a good way to really
handle this, any ideas? I have seen others use the equipment as Material
"Type" instead of Work, but you lose alot of availability and allocation
information when you do this.

Please advise or comment.

Thanks.
Tom

 

[Steve House]

Material would allow you to list the name but machines and tools are not
material resources. Materials are the conumables - fuel, bricks, etc - that
are used up by the task. Tools are, unfortunately, work resources.
Steve House [MVP]