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Can Percent Complete be Quantities?

14 replies [Last post]
Tue, 2004-10-19 05:04
Andrew W
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Groups: Petro-Chem / Oil & Gas
Hi all,

I am evaluating P3ec for our company. In order to update progress on an activity, we determine the percent complete based on a measurable qty e.g. 5 out of 10 = 50% complete. The qty could be bends, cuts, welds etc.

Currently we use spreadsheets to record the "Total Qty" and the "Qty Complete". The spreadsheet then calculates the percent complete which we then use to establish earned value. I would like to be able to enter these quantities directly into P3e/c and have it calculate the percent complete, thereby eliminating the need for the spreasheet.

Any suggestions on how can this be done?

Cheers.
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Replies

Fri, 2004-11-05 17:00
#1
Conrado Fajarillo
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Yes you can, but this is somewhat tricky.

1.Input the quantity on the Actual To Date in the Resources
2.Do global change
RCPT = QTD/BQ (Resource Percent Complete)
RCPT = RCPT*100 (Value in Percent Complete)
PCT = RCPT (Equate Percent Complete to Resource Percent Complete)
3.Earned Value will be directly calculated.
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Fri, 2004-11-05 16:58
#2
Conrado Fajarillo
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Yes you can, but this is somewhat tricky.

1.Input the quantity on the Actual To Date in the Resources
2.Do global change
RCPT = QTD/BQ (Resource Percent Complete)
RCPT = RCPT*100 (to make value in Percentage)
PCT = RCPT (Equate Percent Complete to Resource Percent Complete)
3.Earned Value will be automatically calculated.
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Sun, 2004-10-24 21:43
#3
Andrew W
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Bends & Welds were only simple examples so that non-petro-chemical people could understand the problem without getting into complexities.
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Fri, 2004-10-22 08:27
#4
Bernard Ertl
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Andrew,

How are you planning the work? Ie. Are you planning a separate, detailed task for each bend, weld, etc. or are you planning one higher level "summarized" task that encompasses multiple bends, welds, etc.?

If the former, perhaps there is some mechanism for tagging/summarizing the number of tasks complete vs. in progress? We have a feature for doing this in our ATC Professional system (which also shows the breakdown of effort/manhours for the tasks), but I don’t know how this might be done in P3 or P3e.

If the latter, I question the validity of the process unless you are assured that all bends, welds, etc. require equal effort. Executing (2) 30" welds on an overhead line should require much more effort than (4) 4" welds on the ground. Then of course, different metallurgies can compound the problem, so I’m trying to see where knowing that 2/10 welds are complete versus 4/10 welds complete would really offer you a meaningful metric.

Bernard Ertl
InterPlan Systems - ATC Professional Shutdown / Turnaround Management System
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Fri, 2004-10-22 04:24
#5
Shahzad Munawar
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Question is" Can Percent complete be quantities"

The answer is that measurement of Physical progress covers your quantity completion aspect. So based on this your qunatities completion can easily be determined.

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Fri, 2004-10-22 01:07
#6
Andrew W
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Thanks Kevin.

Yes it might have some limitations but its a great start. It might even address some of the issues I had when using a non-labour resource.
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Fri, 2004-10-22 00:31
#7
Kevin Button
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Andrew

I’ll have another go at this...

If you were thinking of User Defined fields for "Total Qty" and "Qty Complete" you might be able to achieve what you want using Global Change. Make the activity % complete type Physical and create a global change with the criteria as follows:

If Total Qty is greater than 0 AND Activity Status is not equal to Completed
Then
Physical % Complete = Qty Complete / Total Qty
Physical % Complete = Physical % Complete * 100

I found that doing this it is possible for an activity to be 120% complete when it doesn’t yet have an actual start date, so you will need to make sure you have a few checks in place.

KB
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Thu, 2004-10-21 20:22
#8
Andrew W
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Thanks guys.

Firstly my subject was meant to say "Can Percent Complete be calculated from Quantities?" Ooops. But my post should have explained the situation clearly enough.

Kevin, if I understand you correctly, this concept had been suggested to me but would require the use of non-labour units to differentiate physical qty (non-labour) from hours (labour). I was not keen on using a separate resource.

Alex, I gather that the SDK is suitable only for import/export. I thought it may be suitable for adding custom functionality. I gather customisation is done using an API. Is there a good source of info on either/both of these tools.

David, I have no experience with P3. Only Suretrack. My requirements are not based on any application but rather a process external to planning software that we have been using for years. I wish to incorporate the two processes.
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Thu, 2004-10-21 01:43
#9
David Kelly
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Somewhat surprised to see "[Uncalled-for snide comment deleted by Moderator.]" at the start of my reply to this post. As I have just joined the forum, I am not sure of the "rules" I was trying to relate the poster’s experience of P3e arithmetic to his possible experience of P3 3.1.

I am confused.
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Wed, 2004-10-20 23:55
#10
Alex Wong
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Andrew,

Well SDK can import almost anything to P3e including update resources.

Its simple, I had set up a excel spreadsheet to not only automatic insert project and activities but also loading and changing resource which linked with our progress database. Its very good. Or using API you can even do it in web.

Alex
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Wed, 2004-10-20 09:31
#11
David Kelly
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[Uncalled-for snide comment deleted by Moderator.] If you pose the question as "can I have the same as "Tools:options:Summarization:Resource units" The answer is NO.

There is no option to have % complete as Earned Units/ Budgeted units * 100.

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Tue, 2004-10-19 23:56
#12
Kevin Button
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Make your % complete type Units. When you update actual units your activity % complete becomes Actual Units / Forecast Total Units.
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Tue, 2004-10-19 21:32
#13
Andrew W
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Thanks for your reply, however, I am familiar with both concepts.

In order for us to enter % Complete, we need to calculate the Percent Complete (as Qty Complete/Total Qty) rather than just estimate it. An example would be to enter a Total Qty of 380 when planning and then say a Qty Complete of 26 when updating progress. I then want P3 to calculate the percent complete (6.8%) from these figures and then update the Activity % Complete with the calculated value.

I was thinking of User Defined fields for "Total Qty" and "Qty Complete" and use the SDK to perform the calculation and update the Activity % Complete. Can this be done with the SDK?

Steps are not ideal for our application.
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Tue, 2004-10-19 20:51
#14
Alex Wong
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Yes you can you quantity to measure activity progress
You have to load the activity with the physical resource then progress it with physical quantity and relate it with your activity physical %

or use steps which is also very simple to measure physical % with quantity especially with multipule items

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