resource and materials planning

[material bob]

Can project keep track of inventory issues? A very basic example:

Assume I have a stock of 100 steel pillars. A project requires 50 of these
pillars for
a certain task on the first of januari. Another task is the removal of these
pillars. This task is to be completed on the first of april, from this date
on these pillars should be added to my stock, totalling it to 100 pieces
again. Can this automatically be done? Because the next project which starts
on the fifth of april requires 60 pillars....

In other words: can project keep an active track of my resources? And if the
first project is delayed by a month, will I get a message telling me the next
project has too little resources?

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Bob,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

Sorry, no You will need some inventory control program for that.

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

 

[material bob]

What if I treat the materials like personnel and assign them to the projects.
I should be able to see when the materials are available for usage by setting
an end date. And if 50 tons of my 100 tons of stock are allocated I could use
50% allocation? Or am I mistaken again?

I'm really really new to MSproject, and I can only use a limited part of my
time for getting familiar with it... So thanks for helping me out here

 

[Mike Glen]

HI Bob,

This might work: In the Resource Sheet, create a new resource "Steel
Pillars". Enter it as a resource Type: Work and make the Max. Units 100.
Now, for each task requiring the pillars, change the Task Type to Fixed
Units and Uncheck Effort Driven. Now enter Units as the number of pillars
required for that task.

You might like to have a look at my series on Microsoft Project in the
TechTrax ezine, particularly #5 & 10 on Resources, at this site:
http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc or this:
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMFrame.asp?CMD=ArticleSearch&AUTH=23
(Perhaps you'd care to rate the article before leaving the site,
Thanks.)

FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can be seen at
this web address: <http://www.mvps.org/project/>

Hope this helps - please let us know how you get on

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP