M
J
John
mark,
Very carefully, of course.
In its simplest form I would divide the construction into the basic
elements to build one house (i.e. site prep, foundation, walls, etc.).
Then under each element I would schedule 10 houses with appropriate
links between element tasks. Depending on how many crews you have you
may have to schedule each house's element in sequence (one crew per
element) or if you have more than one crew, you could parallel some
elements.
John
Project MVP
Very carefully, of course.
In its simplest form I would divide the construction into the basic
elements to build one house (i.e. site prep, foundation, walls, etc.).
Then under each element I would schedule 10 houses with appropriate
links between element tasks. Depending on how many crews you have you
may have to schedule each house's element in sequence (one crew per
element) or if you have more than one crew, you could parallel some
elements.
John
Project MVP
M
Mike Glen
Hi Mark,
Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup
I think I would create a schedule for one house and save it as project1.
Then Save As.. project2..etc until you have 10 projects. Then create a
Master project and insert all 10 projects. In this way, you will be able to
examine the progress of a single house or the combined effects.
FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can be seen at
this web address: http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm
Hope this helps - please let us know how you get on
Mike Glen
MS Project MVP
See http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc for Project Tutorials
Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup
I think I would create a schedule for one house and save it as project1.
Then Save As.. project2..etc until you have 10 projects. Then create a
Master project and insert all 10 projects. In this way, you will be able to
examine the progress of a single house or the combined effects.
FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can be seen at
this web address: http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm
Hope this helps - please let us know how you get on
Mike Glen
MS Project MVP
See http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc for Project Tutorials
M
mark
Mike,
Thank you for the response. I should have clarified the request for
scheduling a little more. I am familiar with the various with linking
various projects under a master project, however, an associate of mine is
working in an excel spreadsheet and we would like to use project to drive the
excel spreadsheet. I have read the various help responses and it appears
that it is possible, but not sure how to properly link the entire task or
edit without having to redo the entire schedule?
Thank you,
Mark
Thank you for the response. I should have clarified the request for
scheduling a little more. I am familiar with the various with linking
various projects under a master project, however, an associate of mine is
working in an excel spreadsheet and we would like to use project to drive the
excel spreadsheet. I have read the various help responses and it appears
that it is possible, but not sure how to properly link the entire task or
edit without having to redo the entire schedule?
Thank you,
Mark
D
davegb
Having done some training and consulting in the housing business, I'd
recommend you treat the 10 houses as one project, provided they all
are using the same resources. If it's a small subdivision, you
probably have one civil crew, a concrete sub (maybe the same as the
civil), a couple of framing crews, etc. So you start your schedule
with the land aquisition (if that's not done separately) and the
planning. That's right, plan to plan. The hiring of the subcontractors
is part of this. So you'd have 3 major phases, Design, Procurement and
Construction. When your civil design work is far enough along, you
start construction. The civil work is usually treated as a single
piece, not home by home. The rest of the construction is almost like a
manufacturing process. Foundation work, framing, roofing, plumbing,
electrical, dry wall, finishing. All done by however many crews you
have available, house by house. Other than small variations, depending
on the designs, the houses are usually pretty much alike.
Don't forget security. Depending on where you are, it can make or
break the project.
If the houses are being sold while still being designed or while under
construction, as most are these days, you need to account for the
buyer's involvement - design decisions, both interior and exterior,
walk-throughs, final approval, etc.
This would be somewhat different if they are custom builts or spec
houses, scattered over a city. Logistics becomes more of a problem and
has to be accounted for in your plan.
Hope this helps in your world.
recommend you treat the 10 houses as one project, provided they all
are using the same resources. If it's a small subdivision, you
probably have one civil crew, a concrete sub (maybe the same as the
civil), a couple of framing crews, etc. So you start your schedule
with the land aquisition (if that's not done separately) and the
planning. That's right, plan to plan. The hiring of the subcontractors
is part of this. So you'd have 3 major phases, Design, Procurement and
Construction. When your civil design work is far enough along, you
start construction. The civil work is usually treated as a single
piece, not home by home. The rest of the construction is almost like a
manufacturing process. Foundation work, framing, roofing, plumbing,
electrical, dry wall, finishing. All done by however many crews you
have available, house by house. Other than small variations, depending
on the designs, the houses are usually pretty much alike.
Don't forget security. Depending on where you are, it can make or
break the project.
If the houses are being sold while still being designed or while under
construction, as most are these days, you need to account for the
buyer's involvement - design decisions, both interior and exterior,
walk-throughs, final approval, etc.
This would be somewhat different if they are custom builts or spec
houses, scattered over a city. Logistics becomes more of a problem and
has to be accounted for in your plan.
Hope this helps in your world.
M
mark
John,
Thank you for the response. I should have clarified the request for
scheduling a little more. I am familiar with the various with linking
various projects under a master project, however, an associate of mine is
working in an excel spreadsheet and we would like to use project to drive the
excel spreadsheet. I have read the various help responses and it appears
that it is possible, but not sure how to properly link the entire task or
edit without having to redo the entire schedule?
Thank you,
Mark
Thank you for the response. I should have clarified the request for
scheduling a little more. I am familiar with the various with linking
various projects under a master project, however, an associate of mine is
working in an excel spreadsheet and we would like to use project to drive the
excel spreadsheet. I have read the various help responses and it appears
that it is possible, but not sure how to properly link the entire task or
edit without having to redo the entire schedule?
Thank you,
Mark
J
John
mark said:
Mark,
There are many ways to link Project data to Excel. The best method
depends on what Project data you want to track in Excel. For example,
static data (e.g. start and finish dates, total cost, etc.) can be
exported to Excel using an export map. However, if you need to export
timesscaled data such as periodic cost, then you must use the "analyze
timescale data in Excel" utility, (versions of Project earlier than
2007), the Visual Reports feature of Project 2007, or a customized VBA
macro.
You can also create dynamic links between Project and Excel, but I don't
recommend it since their setup and maintenance requires experience and a
lot of discipline to avoid corruption.
Both Mike and I gave general suggestions for setting up the basic
schedule for the 10 houses. Dave gave a much more in-depth overview. If
I were you, I would set up a dialogue with Dave - perhaps he has a
template. If you need further clarification or help with the methods I
suggest for tying Project data to Excel, expand on your requirements and
we'll help you out.
John
Project MVP
M
mark
Dave,
Thank you for the advice. I too am in the construction industry and am very
familiar with the construction sequencing, however I was trying to build one
schedule that would drive an excel spreadsheet of ten homes, if there is such
a way?
So with that being said, I have since moved forward and developed a baseline
schedule with each task having sub-task (phases if you will). For now, I
believe this will get us started and I will continue to define the schedule
and possible links to excel worksheets.
Thank you,
Mark
Thank you for the advice. I too am in the construction industry and am very
familiar with the construction sequencing, however I was trying to build one
schedule that would drive an excel spreadsheet of ten homes, if there is such
a way?
So with that being said, I have since moved forward and developed a baseline
schedule with each task having sub-task (phases if you will). For now, I
believe this will get us started and I will continue to define the schedule
and possible links to excel worksheets.
Thank you,
Mark
D
davegb
I'm not sure what you mean by "one schedule" driving the XL
spreadsheet for 10 homes. Do you mean a schedule for a single home
somehow driving the spreadsheet for all 10? Or one schedule, like I
discussed above for the 10 homes, driving the spreadsheet?
As far as connecting to XL, you can link cell by cell, which I usually
don't recommend, or build a table strictly to export the data you
need. Of course, if one of the existing tables already has the data
you want to export, use that. Just copy the whole table, headers and
all, then paste it into XL. If you want it dynamincally linked, do a
copy in Project, then a "Paste Special" into XL and select "Paste
Link". This will give you a hot spreadsheet. Of course, you can't move
or rename either file without reestablishing the links. If you have
further questions, let me know.