Equipment

[Bob]

I am using Project 2007 and have a program where the product moves through
different stations on its path final completion that I would like to track
(electrical, mechanical, coating, etc.). At each station there are various
staff members that will be used to complete that section of work. However
each time I imput the station as a resource, it counts it as an additional
staff member which throws off my costs and task hours. This is a similar
question to those asking about assigning equipment as a resource that I saw
on the post page. Has anything been done or discovered that would allow me
to track the stations of the program. I want to show on a high level how the
product moves throughout the stations (not just those individual staff
members that work on it).

 

[Jim Aksel]

I think you need to make the stations as tasks: "Apply Primer", "Install
Electrical" and these would be subtasks under your main task. Maybe
something like this, numbers in parenthesis() indicate level of indenture:

(1) Fabricate Widget #1
(2) Perform Welding
(2) Perform Painting
(2) Install Electrical
(1) Fabricate Widget #2
etc.

If yo want to track the usage of the stations, what I would do is create a
text box, say Text1 and input Widget#1 in that column for all Widget#1
tasks, Widget#2 for all Widget#2 tasks.

Use custom grouping (Project/Group By/Customize Group By...) Select the
Task Name as the grouping function, ignore the summary tasks. This grouping
will then show you something like this:

Welding xxx
Welding xxxx
Welding xxxx
But the text column (Text1) will show you which Widget is in the station at
that time.
--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim Aksel, MVP

Check out my blog for more information:
http://www.msprojectblog.com

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

A solution that worked for one of my customers is to forget about Work and
Use Cost instead.
Then if you use hours as the currency unit, you can give human resoruces a
unit cost of 1 H/Hr, and machinery a cost of 0 H/Hr.
That solves it - if you're not using Cost fields for real cost (in Europe
practically nobody really uses Cost in Project)

HTH
--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
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