Resources

What is the reason for assining a primary Resource? If i am assigning 5 resources on an activity is it really necessary to assign one resource as a primary resource? what impact does it have if i dont assign a primary resource?

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Ferdinand Ancheta 👤 Member for 18 years 7 months

Hi,

Can you please advise how can i check if the existing resources in P6 database is assigned to a project including the project details? My purpose is to get rid of it and clean my resource database wherein those existing resources that are not assigned to any projects should be modified or deleted. Many Thanks.

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Vladimir Liberzon 👤 Member for 25 years 4 months

Mike, I don't agree.

It depends on what resources have higher total productivity.

You can send more trucks if you have them instead of keeping some of them idle or you can use more excavators instead of keeping some of them idle. Depends on the existing resource limitations.

And, by the way, trucks also may have different capacities.

Vladimir

M
Mike Testro 👤 Member for 20 years 6 months

Hi Vladimir

Sorry to nit-pick but in my experience the driving resource in an earthmoving operation is the haul and disposal resource.

Once you have calculated how much can be hauled away in one hour by reference to variables such as Distance > Payload > Ground speed > tip and load time > number of vehicles - then you find the excavators that can match that capacity with a buffer of 80%.

I am trying to think of a situation where there is more than one driving resource on any activity and since they would have to have equal productivity I am not having any success.

Best regards

Mike Testro

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Vladimir Liberzon 👤 Member for 25 years 4 months

Imagine that excavators with different capacities/productivities were assigned to the same earth moving activity.

Both are driving and activity duration is defined by their total productivity.

So the statement that only one assigned resource is driving is true for some activities but wrong for other activities.

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Leo Man 👤 Member for 14 years

I never used this primary resource.

My understanding is that if you need to calculate duration based on the rate of one resource you should use this. 

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Mike Testro 👤 Member for 20 years 6 months

Hi Ronald

I agree that I do not use P6 and I welcome any valid correction.

However I answered the question as I understood it.

When modelling a group of resources assigned to a task it is advisable to allocate one of them as the driving resource in respect of productivity.

If this is not the "Primary" resource in P6 then please tell me what is it called - if it exists?

Best regards

Mike T.

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Joshua Dhinagar 👤 Member for 14 years 2 months

Hi All,

Can you guide me on the resources allocation in the primavera, where i need the resources in the form of Numbers rather than the Hours. Basically the project which i am working involves around 4500 Labours and having 45 Buildings for a duration of 2 years. In MSP we have the feature of assinging number of people required for a Particular Job (For Eg. 10 Masons, 15 Helpers, 5 Carpenters and 5 Barbenders), this linked with the Ovell schedule will provide the Actual Labour Required in Numbers for the project Month Wise or week wise or day wise. But in Primavera it only gives in hour basis. Is there any possibility of getting the same in Primavera P6.

 

Regards

Joshua Dhinagar

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Ronald Winter 👤 Member for 23 years 5 months

Mike, you really need to use the software before you can reliably give advice about its components.  A P6 Primary Resource has nothing to do with being the driving resource.  According to the P6 Help File:

   The Project Management module allows you to assign primary resources to activities. An activity's primary resource is typically the resource who is responsible for coordinating an activity's work. Using P6 Progress Reporter, the primary resource also updates the activity's start date, finish date, and expected end date. In addition, if an activity has any material resources, the primary resource may also be responsible for reporting the material resource's units as well. With the exception of material resources, all other resources are responsible for reporting their own hours for assigned activities.

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Hlamalani Baloyi 👤 Member for 14 years 4 months

This is such an important topic,

 

I am currently struggling with the resources (500+) on my program, the company has decided to hire a Primavera resource specialist, this is basically to convert my resource levelling from manual to automatic.

 

I thank all of you.

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Rafael Davila 👤 Member for 22 years 3 months

Raymund,

Can you display the output using your software to see the actual duration of the activity if starting on the different days of the week, say for Monday and for Friday?

Just use the same model and place a constraint or a predecessor for the activity to start on different days of the week.

They are not the same crew, but two teams/crews, each team/crew member must work together but both teams can work on same or different days on the activity. The resources of each team are meeting resources but not the teams. Each team has a different productivity.

It is a very simple problem of just 2 teams, as Mike said you are simply using resource modeling to calculate durations same as if by hand using the spreadsheet. Photobucket

A single activity, cannot be more simple.

Another common example can be the use of earth moving trucks to be assigned on different activities as needed but with the software automatically looking for an assignment that can change  and be optimum (or near optimum) as the activities move. Optimum meaning shortest job duration. Even better when you combine this with the fact that on rainy season the productivity is not the same than on dry season, easy to model on a good CPM software but almost impossible to track if using limited functionality software that require constant manual adjustments.

Regards,

Rafael

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Ronaldo Zurbano 👤 Member for 14 years 2 months

Good day!

Hi! I would like to know how to export in excel file the percentage plan weekly or monthly from P6 schedule?

Thank you!

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Raymund de Laza 👤 Member for 16 years 6 months

Rafael,

The pair of Electrician & Helper as mentioned by Mike is a crew to which they will work together for a single activity related to Electrical works. Hence Electrician should be the Primary Resource.

An activity's primary resource is typically the resource who is responsible for coordinating an activity's work.

Further, a carpenter, steel fixer and helper when working together to construct a column, I suggest that the carpenter will be the Primary Resource.

 

Regards,

R
Rafael Davila 👤 Member for 22 years 3 months

Mike,

If you have 1 electrician and one helper and this pair (Pair 1) can do 100 units per day and can work only on Monday to Wednesday. You also have another electrician and one helper that can do 70 units per day and this pair (Pair 2) can work from Tuesdays to Friday.

The total work for the activity is 440 units, depending on what day of the week the activity starts the duration will be either~ 3 days up to 4 days.

  M T W T F     M T W T F      
Pair 1 100 100 100         100 100 100          
Pair 2   80 80 80 80       80 80 80 80      
Both 100 180 180 80 80     100 180 180 80 80      
                               
  100 180 180                     460 ~3 days
    180 180 80                   440 3 days
      180 80 80     100           440 4 days
        80 80     100 180         440 4 days
          80     100 180 180       540 ~4 days

Which is the primary resource/pair?

Best regards,

Rafael

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Mike Testro 👤 Member for 20 years 6 months

Hi Hlamalani

The primary resource is the one that drives productivity.

If you have two resources - say 1 Electrician and 1 Helper alocated to one task it is the output of the electrician who will drive the productivity in resource modelling.

If you are not using resource modelling to calculate durations then you do not need to select a primary resource.

Best regards

Mike Testro

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