Planning a task that requires two resources simultaneously

[DanG]

I asked a similar question about 18 months ago, but found no solution, so I'm
trying again... The project has:

- one machine that operates 24 hours/day
- two people, each working 8 hours/day
- two tasks, each of which is 48 hours long, with a Start-Start relationship
- each task can only have use the machine for 6 hours each day
- each task requires BOTH one person and the machine or no work can be done

How can I set this up to accurately plan the tasks with the correct amount
work for all resources and correct durations for both tasks?

It seems as though some kind of logical AND is needed for the resources, but
I don't know how to achieve that.

Thanks,
DanG

 

[JulieS]

Hi DanG,

One of the limitations of project is there is no method to require resources
to work together -- so I'm afraid there is no "AND" when it comes to resource
assignments.

Without understanding your scenario more fully it is tough to make specific
suggestions about how to possibly the arrange the schedule using task
calendars.

(At best, it will be a manual process) -- but you need to figure out:
Is the 48 hours work or duration?
What 6 hours per day can the machine be used?
Where do those 6 hours per day overlap with the resource?

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie

 

[Darlene]

Would setting it up as a Resource Group rather than individual resources
work? Then he could assign the tasks to the group rather than individuals.

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

The only "and" of this kind which exists in Project is in Resource Leveling
where a task has a property called "Level Assignments". When this is "No"
Lebvveling will keep both resoruces together.
Apart from that, I can see no easy way to satisfy the other requirements

HTH

 

[DanG]

Hi Julie,

Thanks for the prompt reply. I suspected that might be the answer, but was
hoping to be wrong. This is a critical weakness in the application for my
company. Most of our projects rely on work that is done by engineers working
with expensive equipment. No work can be done without both present, and they
have different (and limited availability). This is true for many project
tasks, so manually planning and managing the work is too inefficient to be a
viable workaround.

We want to use Project to understand the planned and actual utilization of
the equipment, and create realistic schedules based on the equipment's
limited availability. It seems that's impossible.

Thanks again for the reply.

Best Regards,

DanG

 

[DanG]

Hi Darlene,

Thanks for the reply. I looked at resource groups, but don't think Resource
Groups will work because the machine/equipment would have to belong to
multiple groups (each combination of machine and engineer would need to be
its own group). Also, I think I'd still have the same problem of the task
applying the wrong number of hours for the different resources, and finishing
the tasks early; Project would let the equipment work by itself to finish the
tasks.

Thanks again for the reply!
DanG

 

[DanG]

Hi Jan,

Thanks for the reply. Turning off leveling would protect the resources from
having the assigned work change, which definitely would help prevent
automated adjustments that 'break' the manual assignment of work for each of
the resources, but it wouldn't address the root problem of having to manually
create the assignments by task and resource for each day in the first place.

I agree, it seems there's no solution for this problem.

Thanks again,

DanG

 

[JulieS]

Hi DanG,

You're most welcome and thanks for the feedback. Sorry there wasn't a
better answer.

Julie
Project MVP

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