(1) Explain your problem, don't simply post "This isn't working". What were you doing when you faced the problem? What have you tried to resolve - did you look for a solution using "Search" ? Has it happened just once or several times?
(2) It's also good to get feedback when a solution is found, return to the original post to explain how it was resolved so that more people can also use the results.
Hello, All
Please help me with my below query:
In User preference my time units for time is set in days.
Activity A is having original duration of 28 days. This activity requires 24 technician perday for 28 days. So when i assign the technicain resource the budgeted units should be 24. ( bcoz the time units is set in day it will show 24d) .
Is this the right way ?
With above data when i see a histogram on resource usage profile with month as time scale do i need to take average?
Thank you guys for your help. Appreciate it.
Printer-friendly version
Send to friend
F A
I hope you have already the answer you was looking. I believe the following reference can help with the issue of Time Units.
https://tensix.com/2014/10/primavera-p6-time-units-an-important-user-preference/
About the Histograms it looks like resource usage will be the total assigned resource hours, if labor total man-hour so there shall be no option for "average" as is the case when displaying resource quantity in SureTrak. Because every day/hour the resource quantity can differ then the options for Max/Average exist on SureTrak when displaying Quantity.
Thanks for your patience, I hope the discussion added other issues that are good for all of us to know.
Best Regards,
Rafael
Johanes,
The following is a sample schedule with consumable resources used for spatial as well as consumable materials.
As you can see the assembling areas are spatial resources, if you have dozens of such jobs and some might be delayed due to design or credit issues if you are using preferential logic it can be a nightmare to make the adjustments. In such case it is better to model spatial resources on a portfolio of jobs where you can move/delay some jobs as well as detach those jobs already finished.
Not only spatial resources are handled without the use of artificial links but also pipe installation activities are alloed to be stopped when deliveries are lagging and resumed when necessary material deliveries arrive.
It is a simple job, in real jobs you might also need to model variable quantities and workload of the common renewable resources. Adjusting all this by manual methods is nuts.
Best Regards,
Rafael
Johanes,
Your example reminds me of Spatial Resources. Resources that cannot be modeled as regular renewable resources but can be modeled if using consumable resources with consumption and creation by activities. This can be done by using Spider functionality to model consumable resources.
http://www.pmknowledgecenter.com/node/104
Renewable resources are available on a period-by-period basis, i.e. the available amount is renewed from period to period (e.g. per hour, per day, ...). Only the total resource use at every time instant is constrained. Typical examples are manpower, machines, tools, equipment and space. As an example, skilled laborers are available to work each day on a project, although their availability is limited each day and may vary over time due to absence, sickness, vacations, etc.. Consequently, there is no general constraint placed on the number of days skilled labor may be used but instead they are renewed each period of the project
Consumable resources (or non-renewable) are not constrained on a periodic basis but rather have a limited consumption availability for the entire project. Typical examples are money, raw materials and energy. Usually, the overall project costs are limited and pre-defined in a total contract price. Their consumption is not renewed as is the case with renewable resources, but instead, these resources are consumed when used.
Spatial resources are required by a group of activities, rather than a single activity as renewable resources. The spatial resource is occupied from the first moment an activity from the group starts until the finish of all activities from that group. Examples are dry docks in a ship yard or a freezing machine in the Westerschelde tunnel(see www.westerscheldetunnel.nl). Spatial resources are rare in Construction Jobs but they do happen. One such resource are Flying Forms for elevated slabs that must remain on a building until finished, then it can move to the next. It can be worked around with use of preferential logic along with all the issues this might bring if for some reason one building is delayed and all preferential logic is changed, but it is usually manageable. On shop fabrication jobs spatial resources can be very common but the use of preferential logic can be a nightmare. Best Regards,Rafael
Kind of complicated for manual assignments as a good selection can vary as schedule progress so I will use Variable Quantity and Variable Workload within reasonable range. Doing so I got a 25% reduction in project duration and a 33.6% reduction on resource idle time.
At the job-site, in construction jobs variable quantity and variable workloads is common for some works such as Brick Installation. Do you believe a superintendent is going to delay a Brick Installation activity scheduled to be performed by 10 installers and because there are only 9 available he will wait until 10 are available? No, a good superintendent will use the schedule as if toilet paper and do better, unless you give him a better plan.
Our resource planning models must be as close/flexible or better as the jobsite managers can do.
Your partial workload selection might allow for some activities work in parallel, depending on the particular scenario may be better than if at 100% workload but it is still a poor choice.
Are you planning for these girls play Jacks on their idle time?
Why not figure out a better quantity and workload assignment that will result in less idle time while at the same time reduce schedule duration?
It is too complicated for me, so why not let the computer do it for us under feasible rules?
Hi Johannes,
a picture below shows one way of setting resource assignment prameters.
Another way- just enter or change the data in the corresponding columns in the Gannt Chart shown in the screenshot presented by Rafael.
We do not call Skill a group of identical resources when it is not necessary to assign named resources. Usually skills are used when different resources may do the same job though with different productivity (like skilled and unskilled technicians, different types of excavators, different trucks, etc.). Rafael suggested to discuss skills in the separate discussion.
Best Regards,
Vladimir
After you figure it out, I would like to explore what P6 Roles means as I suspect it is just a label that cannot model true skill replacement. Skills I use frequently when the resources on a Skill have different production rates.
Thank you Johanness,
but I expected to get the report on required resource quantities, not hours. When resources are used part time hours do not tell what quantities are required.
In my example there are five technicians, so the CC case is what expected. I meant resource availability of 5 persons with 8 hours work day, but 6 is OK. But number of hours at your histogram does not fit to the data that you used. If two activities are done in parallel then total workload may be 5*2+3*4=22 or 5*2+4*2.5=20 h/d. At your histogram I see 30h/d. The last day may require 10 or 12 work hours, less than at your histogram. Why?
So please get a report on required technicians quantity by days.
Thank you and Best Regards,
Vladimir
Hi Vladimir
Yes,you are correct some of the recourses where not correct.I have amended the project and included the updated CC Screenshot.
Regards Johannes
Hi Vladimir and other members
I have modeled the project with 3 activities - one that needs 5 technicians with 2 hours per day workload. second that requires 3 technicians with 4 hours per day workload, third that requires 4 technicians with 2.5 hours per day workload. Activity durations are 5 days, 3 days and 3 days, no dependencies.
As expected , when the recourse availability is higher than the recourse requirement the software will not level. However when the recourse availability is less than the recourse requirements the recourses can be leveled.
So, I have ran both instances and hereunder you see the results.
Screenshot CC rev is the leveled version.
Regards
Johannes
Thank you Iohannes!
If I understood correctly it is necessary to assign the same resource many times with the required hours and then the software will understand that these resources are different when leveling and reporting.
So with these assignments P6 will provide right report on required resource quantities and if there are other activities that require less than 6 hours of skilled techicians work time the software will schedule them in parallel if only 5 skilled technicians are available.
Is this correct? If yes please post the screenshot of the leveled project with 3 activities - one that needs 5 technicians with 2 hours per day workload. second that requires 3 technicians with 4 hours per day workload, third that requires 4 technicians with 2.5 hours per day workload. Activity durations are 5 days, 3 days and 3 days, no dependencies. And please show resource quantity histogram generated by P6.
Best Regards,
Vladimir
Hi Vladimir
Did I understand correctly that your software can assign both quantity and workload for roles? Like an activity duration is 10 days and it requires twelve workers with certain skill for 25% of their work time? Please explain how it can be done.
Hereunder is an screenshot how this can be done.
Regards Johannes
Vladimir,
My reference was old P3 and SureTrack not such thing as MSP and P6 I am still wondering what good they are for.
Best Regards,
Rafael
Rafael, P6 is not unique, most other PM packages including MS Project do not plan resource quantities.
With partial resource assignments not only resource leveling is not reliable, resource requirements are not known also.
Hi Johannes,
if named resources have unique skills required on specific tasks then it is natural to assign concrete resources.
If many resources have the same skill it is natural to assign required quantity of unnamed resources or "roles". But when roles are assigned it is necessary to select named resources that have required skill. If the software does not do it then it is hard manual work that may lead to not optimal assignments and besides this selection shall be repeated with each project update.
I am used to plan projects that use hundreds and thousands labor resources. For me it is hard to imagine that each person shall be reassigned manually with each project update.
Did I understand correctly that your software can assign both quantity and workload for roles? Like an activity duration is 10 days and it requires twelve workers with certain skill for 25% of their work time? Please explain how it can be done.
I know how to assign skills (roles) and resource quantity and workload if to use Spider Project. But it will not help if your software does not have required functionality.
Vladimir,
Is there the possibility that in P6 resource assignments are not entered by a combination of resource quantity and hours per day but only by total required hours? It is hard to believe.
It would be awkward and very different to how most other software works. Maybe this is one of the reasons for many P6 users not resource level their jobs, some might not even resource load their schedules.
Then what happens if:
The two activities if performed in parallel will require a total of [2x6x10] + [1x4x10] = 160 man-hours.
If there are 2 Technicians available to work 8 hours per day for the 10 days we have an availability of 2x8x10 = 160 man-hours. If the software only considers total man-hours it could schedule the activities in parallel, something that is not feasible. This would make the partial assignments by P6 very unreliable.
There must be a way to tell what the resource assignment is not only by means of total hours but by a combination of hours and resource quantity. It shall be easy and no need to calculate man-hours, the software can do it.
Best Regards,
Rafael
Hi Vladimir
Named resources are an efficient method to assign recourse to activities. For example in engineering and in pre-and commissioning activities. Specific skills are then important.
If many recourses are required for the same trade, say welders , you can use Roles or just an recourse.
Suggest that you model the correct answer so that we all can learn.
Regards Johannes
Hi Raphael
I suggest to use the resource tab to assign recourses. You may select the two columns as displayed or see the recourse assignments window.
A Labor is set to have a maximum Working Unit hours per Time. In order for the REsouce levelling will function.
Any Labor can be assigned to be scheduled to work at any number of Task.
Any Labor that is assigned to the Project shall have its own calendar if they are partially working with any Task.
Because I do not have P6 I downloaded the following image from the Web to see if it is possible to define quantity and workload per assignment line.
Lets assume calendars are compatible and therefore the activity calendar is 16 hr/day as well as the remaining resource calendars. Then based on budgeted units and units/day.
If activity duration is 10 days:
I am missing the column where you assign the resource quantities; 1EA ELEC, 2EA MEC, 2EA PLUM. Can you display and input values on such column?
For a crane to be assigned 5 minutes per day it would be:
So to assign 48 technicians with 50% workload you suggest to create 96 resources Technician 1, ..., Technician 96?
And what to do if at another jobs I will need Technicians with 20% workload, create five time more Technicians with different numbers?
How to level resources when all of them are artificial?
And I will need a report on the number of Technicians that will work at any period (histogram of table). What do you propose?
Hi Vladimir
I have now modeled two technicians named Vlad#1 and Vlad #2 and these have been partial assigned.
Regards Johannes
Thank you Iohannes, but the question was different.
I have resource Technicians, many of them, and want to assign two units of resource Technicians with 50% workload.
How to do this so that the software will not interpret this as assigning one Technician with 100% workload?
In other words how to assign both quantity and workload?
Thank you Iohannes, but the question was different.
I have resource Technicians, many of them, and want to assign two units of resource Technicians with 50% workload.
How to do this so that the software will not interpret this as assigning one Technician with 100% workload?
In other words how to assign both quantity and workload?
To know our assignments in detail when using partial workloads at times we use Skills, then we will know which specific resource was assigned and how many hours per day. What Vladimir is asking you must know in detail as to manage/distribute your resources at the jobsite even when we are talking of a simple scenario.
We do not use actual names but a generic name for each resource within a skill and the field supervisor assign a specific person. Say Engineer 1 is Vladimir, Engineer 2 is Rafael.
This becomes a must when using more complex assignments such as variable quantity, variable workloads and different productivity for each resource, something P6 cannot do. In this case the Gantt display for resources will not be enough but the reports are easy to generate, easier if you create report templates.
If you do not want to use skills assignment as to allow the software to assign the resource based on need, availability, productivity ... then you can still use named resource assignments if need be.
Raymund, everything is from the beginning or planned (as I wrote in one of my previous posts).
I suggested some examples - tower crane is involved in many activities in parallel if your schedule is not developed in minutes.
There are jobs that do require resource full time and the rest may be used on other activities. It shall be taken into account when the project is planned.
And my question is more concrete: how to distinguish between two resource units assigned for 50% of their time and one resource unit assigned for 100%?
If I want to know the quantity of resources required to do the job I need not only hours required.
Vladimir,
I understand your point.
A person will work for a day on 8 hrs and he is assigned to 2 Tasks (Task 1 and Task 2), 4 hrs each task per day.
Task 1 that requires 16 hrs or 2 days t be completed is assigned to the TEchnician while the TEchnician can allot only 4 hrs of his time to the Task 1 per day.
Please clarify this point:
1. From the beginning or in Planning stage prior to Commence of work, you already knows that the TEchnician will only work 4 hrs in Task 1?
2. From the beginning or in Planning stage prior to Commence of work, you assigned Technician to work full time 8hrs in Task 1 but during execution he was able to allot only 4 hrs of his time per day?
As Rafael suggest, the duration type will be used for the purpose.
Regards,
I thought you could assign the same resource on several assignment lines each line with different quantity and different units/time [after making this column visible] and that it would work as expected. Still, one thing is being able to set the lines, another is that it works as expected.
Please take a look at the following scenario: There are 3 ea resources A available and no links between activities.
No surprise at all if P6 cannot even do the basics! It is worst than I thought. Still it is hard to believe P6 cannot handle such simple assignment.
Rafael, Units/Time does not model partial assignments correctly.
It does not distinguish between one unit with 100% workload, two units with 50% workload, four units with 25% workload.
I would like to know how to assign two resource units with 50% workload in P6 or MSP.
As far as I recall unit/time can be considered similar to partial workload. It might work on simple models as it assumes an hour represents one unit of work no matter if the resource is a production resource or not and that all resources production ratios are the same. Of limited use, error prone and awkward.
The only option for activity Duration Type I found reliable was Fixed Duration and Units/Time as switching Duration Type can be misleading, it can be modified at the activity level so the rule is applied to all assignments. So I suggest using this option. Then at the Activity Box select Resource/Assignment Tab, select the resource and change the value for unit/time. It is possible the Units/Time column is not visible so you might need to make it visible in order to apply the partial workload in hours/day.
Maybe P6 can model partial assignments but not individual resource production rates, volume of work and true teams/shifts. As far as I recall modeling of shifts was unreliable, so much that many suggested to split the activity, a poor and unreliable workaround.
As I do not have P6 I will depend on your comments to know if I am missing something, please feel free to make your comments.
Raymund,
my technicians shall work as planned. 50% of their work time they will do this job and 50% will spend on another job that planned to be done in parallel. They have 8 hours work day but can devote only 4 hours to each of these jobs.
This situation is not rare. Tower crane serves to many jobs that are performed in parallel on the construction site, Maintenance takes time too and specialists that are involved in projects part of their time spend on maintenance tasks. There is a lot of examples of partial resource workload on project activities.
Vladimir,
Your technicians did not work as planned, therefore the Task will be delayed. The actual units shall be encoded and that the remaining Units shall be reschedule, which is the cause of the delay.
No Raymund,
my technicians have 8 hours work day but 50% of their work time they do other jobs.
With 4 hours work day other jobs will be delayed and they will be paid less money. This is not a solution.
Hello Vladimir,
Yes you need a 48 person to do the Job with 4 hrs each person. It can be a Shifting of 4 hrs. A separate Calendar for each Person with 4 hrs work shall be created.
Hi Raymund,
what if my technicians can spend on this job only 50% of their work time and so I need 48 people to do the job?
Can you suggest any way to set this?
Hi,
24 Person will work individually for 8 hrs per day = 192 Man-Hours/ day = 24 Man-Day
28 Days x 192 Hrs/day = 5376 Man-Hours to complete the Task
This is the Budgeted Labor Units to Complete the Task in 28 Days using a 24 Technician working 8 hrs/ day/ Technician.
Hi F A,
it looks like your software does not understand if you assigned 24 resource units for 28 days with 100% workload or 28 resource units with 85.7% workload, or 48 resource units with 50% workload, etc. So it will not provide you with correct information on resource requirements.
Hi F A
Are you paying them by the hour or by the day?
That wil determine what your cost unit should be.
Best regards
Mike Testro
Hello Raymund,
Thanks for your reply.
As i mentioned 24 technician need to work for 28 days. so should the budget units be set to 24(192hrs) or 24x28=672 ( 192x28=5376hrs).
Thank you.
Hi,
That reads as 24 Man-Day, If units is set to Hours then 24 x 8hrs/day = 192 Man-Hours.
Email: PPadmin@planningplanet.com
Replies