use MS Project for Production Shop Job scheduling?

[Dwayne]

What a great Forum! I have a rather longish question, which is rather
large in scope. I need to know if what I intend to do with Project is
practical. I have limited experience with Project, so please bare with
me, here is an Overview of what I want to accomplish:

I want to use MS Project to schedule individual jobs, tracking job
functions as resources. That is, to clarify: if I specify that each
week there are 800 hours of Welding available (20 men X 40hours), and
say 800 hours a week for Fitting, then so many hours for general
labour, and so on. Then as new 'jobs' (tasks) are added each with its
own requirement for resource allocation, as the hours for the job are
scheduled they are subtracted from the total available hours for that
job function (resource) each week. That is if I have 800 hours of
welding available in a given week, and I schedule 200 hours for one job
(task) then my total available for the week goes down to 600. Also,
when the available hours drop into a negative (overtime) I want to be
able to track that as well. I also want to be able to track if a job
has been under scheduled, or overbooked with hours. I have been using
Excel for this, with A LOT of macros that I built in, but I am starting
to realize the limitations of using Excel, although a great program I
assume, given the name of the program: Project can do this more
intrinsically. I have used Gantt Charts in Project but that was years
ago.

 

[Rod Gill]

Hi,
Project is designed to schedule projects. A project has a known start and
end point. You want to schedule production work which of course is ongoing?
If so, then Project is not the best tool. Problem is that you could probably
make it do what you want after a lot of trial and error, but when you're
away anyone else touching it would quickly create chaos!!

I recommend a purpose written production package that can be used by more
than one user.

--

Rod Gill
Project MVP

NEW!! Project VBA Book, for details visit: http://www.projectvbabook.com

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

Dwayne:

I'll offer another opinion that maybe Project is the right tools for this,
particularly if you use Project Server. We deploy Project Server in
semi-custom manufacturing scenarios all the time. I guess the question is
what is the nature of your scheduling requirements/

 

[davegb]

What a great Forum! I have a rather longish question, which is rather
large in scope. I need to know if what I intend to do with Project is
practical. I have limited experience with Project, so please bare with
me, here is an Overview of what I want to accomplish:

I want to use MS Project to schedule individual jobs, tracking job
functions as resources. That is, to clarify: if I specify that each
week there are 800 hours of Welding available (20 men X 40hours), and
say 800 hours a week for Fitting, then so many hours for general
labour, and so on. Then as new 'jobs' (tasks) are added each with its
own requirement for resource allocation, as the hours for the job are
scheduled they are subtracted from the total available hours for that
job function (resource) each week. That is if I have 800 hours of
welding available in a given week, and I schedule 200 hours for one job
(task) then my total available for the week goes down to 600. Also,
when the available hours drop into a negative (overtime) I want to be
able to track that as well. I also want to be able to track if a job
has been under scheduled, or overbooked with hours. I have been using
Excel for this, with A LOT of macros that I built in, but I am starting
to realize the limitations of using Excel, although a great program I
assume, given the name of the program: Project can do this more
intrinsically. I have used Gantt Charts in Project but that was years
ago.

I agree with with Rod, Project is not well-suited to production
scheduling. It can be adapted, but it will always be a kludge. I know
there is Production Scheduling out there much better suited to your
needs. Project is basically designed to do CPM scheduling of Projects,
which have a finite duration by definition. You'll always be fighting
the software. Production Scheduling software will probably cost you
more initially, but will save you money in the long run.