Rafael Says Let’s Challenge Mike.

Anoon



Mike is into nano-management, he is even a step ahead of micro-management. He does not believe you should be allowed to manage your jobs at your management style but only at his, he feels the urge to ban what does not fit his style.



As you can see I promote to allow more options than to ban them for convenience. Let the contractor’s decide if they want to go with manual leveling or computer aided leveling, both have their place into management.



New functionalities open your options, freedom is about options, don’t become a micro-manager. Empower all in your enterprise, don’t use the tools to steal away middle management authority while keeping responsibility on them, is absurd, you might be creating Micromanagement Zombies.







Many higher learning institutions are developing computer algorithms to solve real life constraints, this mean multiple sets of constraints at the same time, let’s challenge them to include these into our software. Traditional CPM is kind of outdated, Spider Project is taking the lead, no doubt about it.



Best regards,

Rafael

Anoon,
beat Mike in this thread and beat me and Spider in another http://www.planningplanet.com/forum/forum_post.asp?fid=1&Cat=1&Top=65251

You are almost right describing the way of work with Spider Project. Actually you need to do the following:
1) Create project WBS (you can also use templates),
2) Look at the Fragment Library and find there small projects that model your work packages (with some standard volumes of work),
3) Replace your work packages by these fragments in your schedule. During the replacement specify your real volumes and Spider will adjust fragments in your schedule,
4) For those work packages that do not have analogues in your Library create activities, link them and specify activity types and volumes of work,
5) Apply reference books. Resources (crews, skills) will be assigned, productivities will be defined, material requirements will be defined, costs will be defined,
6) If some activities are of the new types you shall enter the information manually but don’t forget to include it in the Reference-books for future projects.
7) Link activities of different fragments (work packages) with each other (internal links are already there),
8) Enter external constraints (start no earlier than, financing schedule, supply schedule, etc.),
9) Calculate resource constrained schedule and the budget and study results. If you are unhappy with the resource constrained schedule calculate the schedule without resource constraints and look at the activities that were delayed. You will also know the total delay and the best possible finish date with your resource assignments.
10) If the best finish date is still not satisfactory increase the number of resources in the crews that are assigned on critical activities. It can be done if you will just change the numbers in crew definitions. Recalculate your schedule and compare results. If scheduled date is satisfactory and levelled date not consider the options of using additional resources or different work calendars.
11) Look at the Resource Gantt Chart and find resources that are most busy. You will also see critical assignments - those who have no floats, or small float (you can specify the quantities). Decide if the number of these resources may be increased. Play what if until you will find a solution or suggest the best possible finish date with your resource restrictions.

We did not discuss risks but still project planner has a lot of work to do. Using Spider he will skip routine work and will be able to play a lot of different scenarios.
Please ask future questions on Spider in the other track.

Hi Rafael,
I will study your references before answering your questions in Spider track.

Best Regards,
Vladimir

Anoon,



Here we are supposed to beat Mike, the original issue was about use of lag and relationship types. Mike is a proponent of FS0 only, he means Finish to Start, zero lag relationships only. In order to do that he proposes a methodology he calls Bottom up. Our argument is that this cannot mimic true laddering with continuous feed and here Vladimir is very knowledgeable as Primavera product does not have this functionality. In order to Bottom-up your activities Mike methodology creates so many extra activities that make it unpractical. We also argue the validity as this is not equivalent to the use of lag.



My claim is that when you have continuous feed relationships you need SS an FF with equal lag between your activities, and that this is a genuine use of SS, FF and lag relationships. I also maintain that there are also other uses for this and the remaining types of relationships other than FS, these are SS, FS and FF with lag, being FS the least used or justified. I also recognize there are traps in the use of these but the lack of care or of knowledge for not falling into these traps do not justify the banning of these useful relationships.



Vladimir agrees that these relationships are useful and mentions the functionality of continuous fed relationships (he uses another term) that creates laddering with some additional functionality you cannot get by the mere combination of these relationships, he is correct.



Finally it came out the issue on resource leveling. When you do resource leveling the software loses track of true critical path and resource float. In this regard the only software that provides this functionality is Spider Project.



My people believe that losing track of your true critical path justifies the use of “soft relationships” and we have used this methodology with success because of the relative small size of our jobs (~400 to 600 activities). In the lack of this functionality we use an approach similar to Mikes. I believe this methodology would not be as easy to apply in jobs with thousands of activities as in order to “unlevel” the schedule and get your new “soft relationships” when compressing the schedule makes it a monumental task.



Lately I have been amazed at the functionality Spider Project provides, some are difficult to realize and understand as our software is lacking many of these. So let beat Vladimir to explore these additional functionalities.



Best regards,

Rafael

Vladimir,



I don’t really believe that I can absorb what you are trying to say. I supposed my role here is just to hold you and let Mike and Rafael beat you up! Or is it Mike to be beaten up?



If what you are saying with "Spider" is true (considering that I’ve never seen or used it), I supposed your software will make the Planner the laziest worker in this world!



Or maybe it can get rid of the Planner’s or Quantity Surveyor’s jobs (I don’t want to use it of course).



As I understand from what you had said:



1. Different Skills - Defined and categorized with different productivity rates.



2. Crew - Composed of different Skills (Tailored for a specific activity)



3. Roles - Maybe with Skills and Names (I’m not sure)



4. Materials - I don’t know how you’ll define it?



All of the above are stored in a pool or a dictionary, and once you had laid out your activities, you’ll just pick from the pool the appropriate resource or crew and assign it to an activity or activities.



From there, the program will calculate durations for you? (considering that you just leave the original duration blank?).



And it will level resources as well considering that maybe some are in vacation?



Now, Mike and Rafael - all you are saying are obsolete!



cheers!

Hi Anoon.
in Spider Project we define the volumes of work to be done on activities, we define standard productivity rates (Spider Project creates reference-books for all norms), we define crews that are used on activities of different types (also may be standardised in the reference-books), we can also define skills when different resources may do the same work (though maybe with different productivities).
Then crews and roles are assigned and resource constrained schedule is calculated.
If you are not happy with the results you can change some crews (adding or replacing some resources as an example) and recalculate the schedule until you are satisfied.
The good thing that you can change the crew in one place (in the crews table) and everywhere where it used the crew will be new. It makes what if calculations easy to do.
And I mean recalculation of remaining durations because the volumes of remaining work may be changed.
If you assigned skills you don’t know what resources will be assigned before scheduling. Most productive resources may be busy on other activities or have vacations and Spider Project will assign those who are ready to work. In this case preliminary calculation of activity durations is useless.
Please clarify your question if I did not answer.

Best Regards,
Vladimir

Hi Vlad,



I refer to your post # 59 and if that his how Spider works ("activity durations are calculated during scheduling"), then I would say that I’ve never done like that (if there’s any schedule that I’ve made).



I presumed that you mean calculations of "original duration" and not remaining duration?



For me, if there’s an existing resource pool (maintained by a certain company for example), then maybe there is an existing "standard productivity rates" as well.



Now, if you had defined your activity or activities in a measurable manner, i.e. with measurable units, like m3; m2; lm; etc., I supposed you can also derive your resources or crew based from the existing "resource pool and rates" and from the activities that you had defined. This is what I meant for quantifying resources or crew.



I supposed as well that at first, you will always assign the average number (and never total or peak). So what’s the main reason of leveling resources when you had already known the average number (and that is supposed to be your budget)?



I also believed that your last paragraph (post # 59) answers the question.



"Resource Leveling" only boils down to "Profit Evaluation"





Rafael,



I never expected that you knew "sabong" as well. Well, maybe because your ancestors brought it to us. Don’t tell us that you’re also playing that? No wonder why you are well versed in "contracts".



cheers!

I really dont know what is going on here.



The thread start with raffy challenging mike



then how come



raffy want mike to help him beat up vladimir.



something wrong with raffy involvement in the pacquaia vs cotto bout



so strange this plannet.



Planning planet.



Thank you,

Scarlett

Vladimir,



It can be a very interesting thread as it will not be limited to a single issue. I will throw my best punches at you; will even throw a kick but no low blows, only relevant functionality. Multiple activities in a single bar is kind of borderline to me but the linear projects report is not, it is at the side of relevant functionality.



Hope it will reveal our needs and frustrations with available software.



I got a few ideas on where to get you. Don’t worry yet, true resource smoothing is something we do not use in construction jobs, I will not ask for it. I am curious about financial constraints, kind of novel to me, not to mention into multi constraint analysis.



Genetic Algorithms to tackle multi constraint optimization to me sound like science fiction, but I don’t care, just give me the functionality.



Mike,



You can hold him while I beat him; I just promised no low blows but mentioned nothing about holding him.



Best regards,

Rafael

Hi Rafael,

Spider Project has many advanced features and we discussed only very small part of them. Yes, Spider Project can schedule projects taking into account resource, supply, financing and space limitations. It includes skill scheduling, it simulates working in shifts, it includes variable resource assignments, it works with activity physical volumes of work, it permits to create and to use corporate databases of different norms, it keeps project archives and produces trend analysis, and many other features that you will not find in other software packages.

Actually I don’t know Spider limitations. We can open new thread Let’s challenge Spider. Maybe somebody will find something that Spider cannot do?

Best Regards,

Vladimir

Vladimir



What about space limitations when scheduling your activities, this cannot be modeled with the resource allocation functionality within our software? This got to be very relevant in offshore work similar to the shipyards.



Hit them hard, I still have the hope that eventually they will get it, even if by brute force, by repetition. Then they will ask for software with such functionality.



Mike,



LOL and a few more LOLs, thanks, some fun is always welcomed.



As you most probably noticed some of us do what you do with regard of resource leveling. It has worked fine for me but I wonder how difficult it got to be in large jobs when you get falling behind and got to release a multitude of the soft relationships, even when in time most probably the changing nature of resource relationships can make the resource leveling algorithms more efficient. To be able to compare both on the spot would be good. Under these circumstances, when using resource leveling, resource critical path is a must have otherwise is crazy.



Best regards,

Rafael

Hi Anoon,

of course we start with determining WBS and activities, and yes, we define the volumes (quantities) of work that shall be done on each activity. I don’t understand what did you mean by quantifying resources or crews. But assigning resources we define their productivities (volume of work that can be done in one hour). Basing on this activity durations are calculated during scheduling. Resources also have costs, may consume materials and all this shall be set.



The answer to your third question shall be calculated. It is easy to play what if scenarios and to compare project costs in both cases. If standby is profitable then select standby, if not – recall the crew.



Best Regards,

Vladimir

Mike,



What happens when you do not have floor no 13? A lot of frogs!



Anoon



Anon now you are 50%/50% you still have time to get on my side 100%. About Cotto and Pacquiau let’s hope it will be a great fight and not like many that end up being a disappointment, I hope both can give us a good Sabong.



Best regards,

Rafael

Mike,



If you have 3 activities that you can work in parallel with no physical restriction to prevent it but you have a limit on resources, say the same crew to be assigned to the 3 activities, then the use of “soft logic” using “SF0 soft relationships” will solve the issue.



Because any of the three can be worked in tandem, on the sequence of your choice, the FS0 relationship is very soft indeed. SF0 can be as soft as you want it to be; usually the soft logic ties are FS0 links.



There is a misconception that soft logic refers only to resources, it can be space, safety, even culture (don’t ask me about culture I just read it somewhere).



Just Google for “scheduling soft logic” and try other key words such as “basics of cpm scheduling”.



Best regards,

Rafael

Hi Rafael,



Sorry Mike, I made a mistake, I mean I’m 50% with you and 50% with Rafael (as long as he’ll bet in favor of Pacqiao).



By the way, what do you mean by "soft logic" and "hard logic"? is there a medium logic as well?



I supposed nobody understands this soft or hard logics in the field, can you present your schedule to your management and say, oh! in this case, I use 50% soft logic and 25% each for both medium and hard logics?



Rafael, think again please!???



cheers!

Mike



Some of our specs specifically prohibit the use of “soft logic” of any kind; maybe they consider it a float suppression technique. In such cases you have no other option than to use resource leveling or keep a separate schedule to manage your work.



What really surprises me is that they force you to use resource leveling within outdated and rubbish software as Primavera or Asta PowerProject, software without the functionality to show true critical path under limited resource constraining (resource leveling).



If you are not to be allowed to use “soft logic” then only Spider Project should be specified, is the only software I know that can show you true critical path under resource leveling. If you are allowed to use "soft logic" then Asta PowerProjet is a better option to Primavera products as it provides you to categorize relationships and in this way you can easily distinguish "soft" from "hard" logic.



I understand there is some incompatibility with combining the use of “soft logic” and resource leveling, but the contractor should be allowed to choose his own preference. I accept that because of the heuristic nature of resource leveling algorithms these will not necessarily always yield the optimum solution, “soft logic” also will not. There is no such thing as a perfect plan.



I am against specifications that prohibit the use of “soft logic”, it is your plan, as long as it is reasonable you should be allowed to present it and use it.



Best regards,

Rafael

Mike,



I supposed nobody wants to challenge you anymore as regards resource levelling and your finish-to-start 0 lag relationship. With my limited knowledge (if any), I’m 100% with you.



Now, why you will do "resource levelling"? It is one of the many ways to make Profit.



Another question: How are you going to budget your "resource pool" say on a yearly basis (regardless if your company is big or small)?



Isn’t it still on a project basis? If you got project, you need resources; if you don’t have project, are you gonna get rid of your resources? Or sustain until your capital gets drained?



cheers!

Vladimir,



I agree with what you said.



When you are making a Plan or Schedule:



1. Isn’t it first you need to determine the activities?

2. For me, second would be quantifying the works or activities (with measurable units as possible).

3. Third would be determination of "Resources" to work on each activity that you had defined (if so).



Questions:



1. How can you level resources on Lump Sum activities (supposing its not possible to assign measurable unit on it)? - Assuming you are using a program or software.



2. Assuming you have a "resource pool" (as Rafael said), isn’t it evident that you can quantify a certain resource or crew in the first place before you can assign it to a specific activity that you had defined?



3. Now, supposing your project is offshore and you had scheduled a specific crew to work for two months straight, and mobilization/demobilization is not cheap, are you going to recall the crew once you had anticipated a delay for two weeks to happen and your crew would be on a standby mode?



I believe the answer is obvious, what I’m trying to say (if you’ll just allow me) is that,...anybody knows...???



cheers!

About levelling.



Proper levelling will supply you with the information about the minimal number of different resources necessary to finish the work in three months, when and what number of resources shall work, what materials are needed and when, if material supply has some limitations how to organize the work taking into account these limitations, etc.

Usually organization resources are limited and resource levelling shows how to do the work with the limited resources that you have, what order of activity execution to select to minimize project duration.



Regards,

Vladimir

Anoon,



We know about the disaster and wish your country well; we also know Filipinos are social people and even in adversity find a way to enjoy the little good things in life.



I will make a toast to the winner with my Empire State shot glass, one of my favorites in my collection, after the Mexican shot glass, the count is easy, just one.



Scarlet,



It is a deal, you are free to increase the odds.



Best regards,

Rafael

I bet for Pacquiao.



50 USD if he will fail to win against cotto may go to your favorite foundation for the needy.



50 USD to 0.



Thank you,

Scarlett

Rafael,



I agree, "there are no fixed rules". Pacquiao is an example of it. Now I suggest that you place your bet in favor of Pacqiao.



A little history...he worked as a construction worker (peon), before he has established his name in boxing, so construction works made up his endurance.



I supposed he doesn’t know anything about scheduling softwares, but I’m sure that he knew how to make 30 million dollars in 30 minutes.



Now, the disaster that hits Manila adds to his inspiration.



Think about it, you still have time...



cheers!

Anoon



There are not fixed rules, it depends on the particular needs of your work, the scale or granularity required to efficiently manage your schedule.



For your particular example, in our jobs the construction of the electrical substation building would require a small activity count but the masons would be taken from a pool of masons that might be scheduled to do work on other areas. Resource constraining helps you detect and avoid conflicts in scheduling activities when there is a shortage of resources.



If your company is doing just the substation building whether you use or not resource constraining the duration of the job will be driven not only by sequential logic but also by the assigned resources. Even after all this B.S. I would not take the time to model resource leveling in such a job and hire jack of all trades, expert in none but that can handle multiple trades.



The rule is, there are no fixed rules.



Best regards,

Rafael



.... Pacquiau, Cotto time is nearing.

Dear All,



I cannot imagine (forgive me I don’t really have an imagination) where this "resource leveling" necessary? Is it only for huge or big projects, or including the smaller ones?



For example: A small company got a contract to build a small electrical substation building and hired tradesmen as follows:



1. Steel Fixers - 6 no.

2. Carpenters - 6 no.

3. Masons - 6 no.



The company scheduled to complete construction in three months, do the company needs to level the resources mentioned above so that it can terminate 3 carpenters after a month? Or it will retain them for the next two months? How does a small company do his budget?



I believe the same will apply to big companies having smaller jobs but with higher quantities in different locations. For example, a thousand small substations in a thousand different locations.



cheers!

Vladimir



SureTrak was about 400US$ street price a few years ago when we got our licenses. Now it is about 800US$ the same version, just Google it. We got to love Primavera, with time vintage cars cost more, why not vintage software?



Best regards,

Rafael

Spider Project is more expensive but it saves a lot of money to its customers. Actually it is a range of products from rather cheap Lite version (450 Euro) to expensive Spider Project Professional (€2800).

Lite version is rather functional (resource constrained schedule optimization, any number of cost components, trend analysis, etc.) but it does not include unique advanced features like material levelling, risk simulation, simulating working in shifts, portfolio management, etc.

We usually recommend Lite version to IT people. Construction projects are more complex and require more advanced tools (Desktop or Prof versions).



But Spider Project is cheap because our customers get Spider Viewer (special version that does not permit to change project data but produces any analysis and reports) for free and can install it on any number of machines. So there are a lot of people who have an access to project data even if only one license was bought.

It improves project management culture in the organization and we are interested in the proper use of our software.



Best Regards,

Vladimir

Vladimir



An ability to place multiple activities on the same line I do not consider it as the serious advantage of some software, is kind of a gizmo I like for convenience in report presentations for multistory buildings schedules, is a matter of convenience.



But the functionality for True Critical Path that Spider Project has, this is a must have, not being able to see driving logic (relationships and resources) is crazy.



I do not believe in manual resource leveling but with our software lacking the functionality for true Critical Path we have no other option than use soft dependencies to mimic true critical path. And yes we know resource driving relationships move, appear and disappear as the schedule moves. Soft dependencies are far from perfect, very far, we know.



Most of our contractors are small and not in the opulence as the big players, a few P3 licenses and the service contract for a few years would buy you a backhoe, we use SureTrak because of its price and compatibility with P3 and also because it is commonly specified or accepted as a substitute to P3. For your knowledge SureTrak was priced for about 400US$, street price on the internet, until Primavera/Oracle decided to raise the price of a product they no longer update.



Best regards,

Rafael

Hi Rafael.

You got it right.

Each area has limited space and starting to work in the area resources consume space material and finishing the work in the area they release space. If the remaining space is not sufficient activities and resources that require this space are delayed.



If you will compare current and "old" PM software you will find that new releases have a lot of whistles but the same or even less powerful engines. I hope that you and Mike will pardon me but I cannot understand why an ability to place multiple activities on the same line can be discussed as the serious advantage of some software. Yes, it is nice. But we estimate the software by the schedules it produces. If the schedules are shorter the software is better because it saves money and time. But it works for those who believes in resource levelling. And I don’t believe in manual levelling. At least it will be far from optimal and very time consuming.



Best Regards,

Vladimir

Vladimir



Let’s see if I got it. I can assign to each activity, to be performed within a limited area, a "space" material resource for this area, for other areas a different "space" material resource and in this way I can perform my multiple constraining for all "space" material resources and other resource types.



Quite ahead of what we are using!!! Our software has very limited capabilities with regard to multiple constraining. Some of these are performed independently of each other so you do not get the simultaneous constraining for all constraint sets with all the implications this mean. About financial constraints none is considered.



My son has a phone that can receive e-mails with a touch screen that rotates the image as needed, to me still a toy, a gizmo, we embrace this futile technology but for serious work we are still thinking in CPM of the 60’s.



Best regards,

Rafael

Hi Rafael,

sorry for the late reply. At the moment I train our customers in Germany and have some problems with Internet access.



You asked:

Can Spider Project handle multi-constraint scheduling?

I have particular interest in the modeling of time-space conflict problem.



Yes, of course. Though these constraints are rarely used in pure construction projects they are necessary for planning works at the shipyards and similar kind of construction.

Spider Project simulates material supply and material consumption. Spider Project levelling options include taking into account material and financial constraints. So activities that require materials that are not available are delayed. Space can be simulated as material. Construction crew (or ship part) require space (assigned as the special material) and finishing the work it releases space that may be used by other crews (parts). Very simple.



Spider Project Demo includes an example of material levelling. Construction project in Demo has limited wall frames and some activities are delayed until necessary frames were released if to run resource constrained scheduling. So I do not need to prove, just look at the sample project in Spider Demo.



Best Regards,

Vladimir

Mike



If you are referring to bed wards then after a few rooms you would get to the top of the learning curve and be able to adapt your schedule, on the other hand if work was to be done at areas with multiple room uses, each with different available work space, different trades requirements this would have been quite a challenge, no time for learning curve, you had to make it at first try on every room, a scheduling job only for very experienced planners.



In my sample question you had the whole wing available but trade coordination and limit of space still a challenge.



Best regards,

Rafael

Mike,



1) Are you talking about too many tradesmen working in the same workface? – Yes, several crews working at the same time on the same limited space.

2) You do not need fancy algorithms to work out how the two resources can be planned to work in conjunction. – Yes, it is an advanced operations research question that is solved using fancy algorithms or by modeling all possible outcomes.

3) It would seem that the rebar fixers are the driving resource and the conduit fixers are on standby to come in when the opportunity arises. – is not as simple as that, it is a multiple constraints issue where resources are analyzed in conjunction of other constraint sets, space is a constraint set (type) different to resources that cannot be analyzed in conjunction using our old software, our scheduling tools and techniques are fragmented and designed to deal with a limited set of construction constraints.

4) The issue cannot be solved by considering available space as a resource, but as a different set of constraints.



Assume you are to retrofit a floor in a hospital, there are 60 rooms of different sizes and different activities to be performed on each room with many trades working at the same time; assume you have somewhat limited resources and at the same time a space constraint that varies from room to room. How to model this into a CPM to obtain the best on near to best plan would be a common question.



Many of us use resource leveling, a few true resource smoothing (not available in P3) without knowing the workings of the sophisticated algorithms, we don’t have to; all we need are the tools.



Best regards,

Rafael

Hi Mike,



You said you only use hours as your "resource". And you are modeling it based on costs? (i’m not sure, maybe i’m refering to the other thread).



Since this thread is a challenge to you, I hope you won’t mind if I’m trying to dig-up the consistency of your statements (regardless of the threads).



You also said you can use several calendars provided the relationship is nailed to finish-to-start (FS). This I intend to agree.



Now the questions:



1.What do you think is the driving calendar, is it the task calendar or the resource calendar(s) (if you got day shift and night shift)?



2. Or do you need to assign a task calendar for a task that need several shifts? Or you are going to use only resource calendars?



if you just don’t mind answering



cheers!

Mike



“A clear advantage of using GA over other methods is potential to locate global optimum or near global optimum solution without a necessity to search for all solution spaces.

Moreover, the processing time only increased as the square of the project size and not exponentially.”



Exponential functions look somewhat similar to polinomial functions you have seen before, in that they involve exponents, but there is a big difference, in that the variable is now the power, rather than the base. Previously, you have dealt with such functions as f(x) = x2, where the variable x was the base and the number 2 was the power. In the case of exponentials, however, you will be dealing with functions such as g(x) = 2x, where the base is the fixed number, and the power is the variable.



This is not a “Brute Force Method” that looks for all possible combinations and then picks up the solution but an algorithm that converges to the solution or near optimal solution substantially faster.



Our software are not keeping up with the available knowledge, our software developers are incapable of handling these solutions to solve real life problems. The issue on limitation on space is quite common, but how can you model this using available resource constraining functionality within our software? We got to stop thinking like if 50 years ago.



Spider Project is ahead, I want to see by how much.



Best regards,

Rafael

Mike



Easy, the principles of “survival of the fittest”, just give me the tools, whatever as long as it is close to the optimum, the same goes with Resource Critical Path.



The author most probably figure it out from observation on the required iterations as project size increased (I understand relevant activities count).



I just want to see with what does Vladimir is going to throw at us, if he says and can prove Spider Project can handle this then we should ban him for 30 years until our software developers can catch up.



Best regards,

Rafael

Vladimir



Can Spider Project handle multi-constraint scheduling?



I have particular interest in the modeling of time-space conflict problem.



With increasing pressure for shorter delivery schedules, general contractors must increase the amount of work done per time unit by increasing the resources utilized by activities and by scheduling more activities concurrently. Since space is limited at many construction sites, an increase in space occupation per unit time can result in time-space conflict in which one activity’s space requirements interfere with those of another activity or with work-in-place.



The following is a reference to the above issue.



Everyone piles in to get something done



Best regards,

Rafael



… at some point Spider Project will be under check mate. LOL

Thanks Mike,



I’m Ok (my family too), but I’m away (you know, trying to make money).



Point 1 - I believe it’s not a scramble. You schedule the crew on a daily basis, so if the works happen a day or a period before concrete placement, it’s natural that you need the skilled workers at the same time (regardless of the sequencing that you made in your plan). Nobody is scheduling on a minute basis at site.



Point 2 - For electrical conduits (i.e for floor mounted fixtures), workers will always tie the conduits and boxes on top layer bars to expose the boxes easily once they do the concrete chipping works.



By the way, I don’t load resources in my schedule. I only do it in my resume (to impress the probable employers that I really know resource scheduling).



I also don’t have any idea about resource leveling.



cheers!