varying number of resources per shift

[Pius Frei]

I am scheduling a project that will be executed in two shifts.

Any of the tasks can be performed by either the day shift or the night
shift. Incomplete tasks can be turned over from one shift to the next.
Several tasks are being peformed in parallel by the same resources (e.g.
millwrights).

Is there any way that I can specify a resource calendar with different
number of resources per shift (e.g. 6 day shift, 5 night shift)?

Creating different resources for day shift and night shift, as has been
suggested in other threads, will not work as I do not know up front which
tasks will be performed during day or night shift.

TIA

Pius Frei

 

[Rob Schneider]

Pius,

If I understand what you are trying todo, it is not how Project works.
Calenders are not there to specify how many resources are available in
"in a calendar". Calendars are only a specification of if the date is a
work day or not, and if a work day, how many hours in the day are
available for work. Then, you assign resources to a calendar so that
they take on the properties of availability for working from that calendar.

I also suspect, but not sure, that you may be thinking that Project will
be making the assignments of resources on tasks. It does not do that.
The person doing the planning assigns resources to tasks.

--rms

www.rmschneider.com

 

[Pius Frei]

Rob:

You are correct in that I assign the resources needed to complete a certain
task. The actual scheduling of the task depends on the logic (predecessors)
and not on a specified date. Therefore, I do not know upfront whether this
task will done during the day shift or during the night shift.

Also, many items with a relatively short duration have some flexibility when
they are being done. Typically, when I start a schedule, I allow them to
start as soon as possible, which results in a very uneven resource loading
(an very high demand in the beginning of the project and a low number towards
the end). Therefore, I use levelling to get a somewhat even resource loading
(btw, I can basically specify how many resources I will need without any real
constraint, a comfortable situation I know). However, after this levelling,
it may show me that ideally, i would need 6.5 resources, therefore, the idea
to specify 7 for the day shift and 6 for the night shift.

Any way in accomplishing this?

Pius Frei

 

[Rob Schneider]

Pius,

I'm having a hard time getting my head around your issue... what do you
mean by "which results in very uneven resource loading" and "a very high
demand in the beginning of the project and alow number towards the end".

What is the cause of this? Is this how you have scheduled a lot of
tasks (thus causing demand for resource?) at beginning and not end? When
you level, doesn't Project delay tasks to keep the peak resources
exactly as you prescribed?

--rms

www.rmschneider.com