(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.
Dear Planners,
As i know and i use, direct crew is the person who is directly giving progress to activity (carpenter doing formwork, rebar crew, piping crew etc). and indirect crew is person who is helping that activity (to direct crew) to give progress (scafholder, crane operator, manlift operator etc.)
I have a question. Think that, we have piping works at +10.00 high. You can execute this work in 2 ways; 1st you can install scaffhold 2nd you can use manlift(?). If we use scaffhold we can execute work more faster and less direct crew will work. The question is this; if indirect crew is helping direct crew to execute the activity like scaffhold and etc, do you assume indirect mh while you are calculating performance factor?
Exampe: 1000 meter small bore piping total [estimated unit manhour is 5 mh/m]
400 meters installed with 25 direct crew and 10 indirect crew in 8 days [10 hours per day work ]
Earned manhour is : 400 x 5 = 2000 mh.
Spent is : 25 x 10 x 8 [direct] + 10 x 10 x 8 [indirect] = 2000 + 800 = 2800 mh.
Performance factor : 2000 / 2800 = 0.71. Do you calculate like this or you do not calculate indirect hours?
Printer-friendly version
Send to friend
- "For instance one PM says that the Surveyors will be considered as direct labour while other one says they are Planned as Indirect Manpower in ETC. Can any one help me to find out the solution?or Is there any hard & fast for such kind of disputes"
If the activity can progress without the resource then it is "indirect", an example can be the job accountant and clerk but if the activity stops if the resource is not available then it is a "direct resource" as per what I understand of your definitions.
Sometimes resources are needed on a partial allocation but some schedulers do not know how to model this and perhaps it might be software functionality is too limited. This type of assignemnt is known as partial workload, more advanced software such as Spider can model fixed as well as variable workloads.
Lets take for example a couple tower cranes and crane operators on a mid-rise building. Usually there is space for a couple of cranes to be installed but no more. The activities that require some use of the crane will be competing for the few available cranes and if you do not consider this on your model then the software might schedule too many activities in parallel that cannot be handled with only two cranes.
Rockzy,
The software shall not limit you with regard to the level of detail, still KISS is valid, excessive detail can get you lost same as lack of it. How much, depends on your particular job needs.
In any case resource loading your activities one by one instead of loading your crews with a single assignment is insane, if your software does not provide functionality to assign all resources members of a crew at a single assignment without loosing the details then your software is insane, not you.
Do you use crews? Do you change composition of crews every day as if members are "call girls"?
On the field we keep crew composition as it moves though activities and only make adjustments on crew composition when needed for long periods. It is wrong modeling when you assign ideal crews on the model that vary with each activity when in reality your true plan is to keep the composition of the crew for longer periods of time spanning several activities.
Regards,
Rafael
where did the KISS expression go? I can't imagine doing it that way for thousands of activities.. but of course being very detailed may help... or maybe not... :-)
cheers,
The Rock
Direct Manpower are those actually do the work, while the Indirect Manpower are those who do the supporting role to get the job done mostly those doing the supervision, administration, logistics, etc. When charging certain manhours to a certain job of course all manpower involved to get it done should be included (Direct+Indirect Labor), same true with the cost (Direct +Indirect Cost).
Keep on planning....
Ronald
Hi Rafael
Good to see your frog chorus back in circulation - it seems that only a few know the words.
How many frogs does it take to tile a bathroom?
It depends on how thin you slice them.
Best regards
Mike T.
Hi Rafael
Thanx for the precious advise.
Tanveer,
You can define and assign inhouse resources as well as outsourced resources to a direct crew same as to an indirect crew as defined by Aytek. It is a matter of your needs. If you need to track both, then let it be. Why not having the best of both worlds?
Regards,
Rafael
Hi Rafael
Howz evry thing with u. well as far as the manhour calculation is concerned i am agreed wth you but the direct n indirect man power has some what different concept to me. I believe the direct manpower is the contractors own employees and the indirect manpower is the manpower that the contractor hire from some other manpower supplier. plewase advise thanx
Why not splitting the activity into 2 for each work day, say at a rate of 20m per day, this will get you a lot of frogs? Maybe you do not even need to split the activity and merely by assigning partial workloads to the resources your resource leveling and scheduling needs will be solved.
Maybe the contractor is using wheeled scaffolds you have to reassemble to move around.
If you change methodology without changing budgeted indirect hours then most probably performance factor will become meaningless.
Hi Aytek
If your piping progress depends on scaffolding progress then there should be two distinct task bars for each piece of work.
Split the task into 400m chunks and set the logic so that the scaffolders go first and then leapfrog to the next section.
Pipe fixers follow in sequence - always using FS links with no lags.
You should then be able to pinpoiut precisely when your permanent supprt structure is in place so that you can strike the scaffold.
Testing and lagging then follows.
Best regards
Mike Testro
Good estimates, good modeling and tracking shall include all. If your 2000 budget included a budget for direct + indirect hours then the performance factor shall include both. If your 2000 budget only included indirect then your performance factor shall be based only on direct hours and a separate performance factor for indirect hours shall be tracked. If you are interested on both, as you should, then the ratio of indirect hours to total hours can also be a relevant metrics to follow.
For your knowledge, we usually we do not go into such granularity in our reports and follow earned value at the activity level instead of at the activity resource level. Of course, any software can give you the information when posting period performance for your resources. How you consolidate the data and report on it is a matter of your reporting needs.
No doubt the tracking of individual resources can identify wrong assumptions in our models or perhaps a change in strategy for activity performance. By merely changing a dominant driving resource such as a piece of machinery might have the effect on invalidating the budgeted amounts unless your budget was adjusted to account for the change in strategy, your monitoring and reporting shall take this into account. By using different baselines you shall keep focus.
Regards, Rafael
Email: PPadmin@planningplanet.com
Replies