Assign labor resources by teams in P6

Raymund,

the next step is project leveling because resources are always limited on Contractor side and the same crews will not be able to execute several activities in parallel. Contractors cannot afford to hire different numbers of people and machines each day or pay large money for resources idle time.

So there is a need to optimize resource requirements basing on the same information that people use for planning and scheduling (quantities, productivities, dependencies). If project model will answer to any what if question (like what if some resources will be added to certain crews, what if the project will use additional machine, etc.) then it is very useful decision making tool.

But if it is static (fixed durations that do not depend on productivity of assigned crews, resource constraints were not considered, etc.) then it is just the vision of the project planner and any changes that may be required are very time consuming (re-assigning resources, reconsidering fixed durations, etc.). In large models it is a huge work that is rarely done properly.

Sir Vlad,

As you said, a long duration construction schedule will be prepared for the entire project to Plan the required Resources. This is a big YES.

In the Contractor's Side For awarded Projects, My approach is, fix the duration according to Quantity then Assign the Crew (Composed of Estimated number of Roles).

Thank You.

Raymund,

In long projects we use rolling wave planning.

The period of detailed planning is usually between 3 and 6 months.

But if we have all necessary data (that is rare) we create the detailed model of the whole project. It helps to plan required resources and costs.

Sir Vlad,

Thanks for the Explanation. I understand it well.

For a 3-year Contract Project, those activities beyond the First Year or Second Year, how do you estimate the duration of a task? In this case we dont know if there are available Resource. You're saying the task duration is REsource driven.

Just asking.

Raymund,

in construction in most cases task duration depends on the number and productivity of assigned resources.

When resources are limited we don't know in advance who will do what. For example, we know that the task require an excavator to be done and task duration depends on assigned excavator productivity. If we have different excavators we don't know what excavators will be available at the moment when task execution can start. In this case we assign the role (skill) excavator and the software will select available machine and will calculate activity duration basing on the task volume of work and assigned excavator productivity.

This is how it works. We call it skill scheduling and it is used in detailed planning.

When we assign teams they may include roles (skills) though in most cases the teams (crews) consist of known resources that have certain productivities on assigned tasks.

Sir Vlad,

As I understand, In construction it is not advisable to assign Specific Resource. In Manufacturing, a big YES.

Also in Construction, Teams assigned to a fixed-duration task are compel to finish the task either less or greater than the target duration and either Team members are complete or not.

This is just my opinion as per my experience.

Regards,

Hi Raymund,

we are discussing creating and assigning resource teams that can include both specific resources and roles.

Assigned team productiviy may depend on the selection of specific resources that fit to assigned roles.

When the software calculates resource constrained schedule it selects specific resources that are available and have required skills and uses their productivities for calculating planned activity duration.

Sir Vlad,

Roles, if assigned into an activity, the Productivity Rate (Unit in hrs / Time) is encoded after assignment.

Resource, if assigned into an activity, the Productivity Rate (Unit in hrs / Time) is already known.

We are discussing a Team (Group of Resource / Roles) in General.

Regards,

Hi Raymund,

your current statement means that all resources have the same planned productivity. It contradicts to your previous statement that

"In Construction, there are no standard productivity rate for each Resource with similar roles. Therefore, REsources has to be assigned individually and not by Team."

But you are not always right. It is not rare when construction companies use machines that can do the same work but with different productivity (like excavators with different volumes of their buckets). They can do the same role but activity duration depends on the resource assignment.

Hello Sir Vlad,

To be honest, in construction schedule never a specific resources are assigned individually to activities rather its the roles. So assigning resource to multiple activities will not be an issue.

Regards,

Raymund,

when we assign crews we assign specific resources belonging to this crew.

These resources have certain productivities on different work types.

The crew can include not specific resource but role (skill) and in this case the software selects and assigns specific resource that is available and has required skill with his specific productivity.

In construction projects the same teams (crews) are used on multiple jobs and assigning the same resources each time one by one is time consuming and leads to errors.

Hope this is obvious.

Hi Alexandre,

The principle over the P6 Grouping of Resources as hierarchical is that individual resources has to be assigned individually because each resources has its own productivity rates and it differs to every similar Roles. In Construction, there are no standard productivity rate for each Resource with similar roles.

Therefore, REsources has to be assigned individually and not by Team.

Hope this will clarify.

Hi Raymond and Zoltan,

I know it is possible to create a "master resource" and "individual resources" in P6, for example :

ING (the master)

ING1, ING2, ING3 (the individuals)

When I assign the master resource to a task, P6 only assigns the master, not the individuals under master;

on the contrary, when working the same way with Powerproject, Tilos or Spiderproject, I can assign a "team", i.e. assiging the master ING will automatically make ING1, ING2 and ING3 being assigned to the task

Could you please explain how you can do that in P6?

Thank you,

Alexandre

Zoltan is correct. You can view Resources data individually or by Team.

yes you can create a resource all it what ever you want T1 and under that have the specific resources

Then T2 and under that the specific resouces

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Hello Hamza,

I do not think it is possible to create and assign teams of resources in P6.

Resource teams exist in AstaDev Powerproject and Spiderproject, not in P6.

Alexandre