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Stop activity splitting over a non-working period

12 replies [Last post]
Wed, 2018-06-27 11:08
Al MacLeod
User offline. Last seen 1 year 33 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 14 Feb 2007
Posts: 22
Groups: Petro-Chem / Oil & Gas

Hi,

I have an activity 4hrs in duration that needs to be completed within one working period (08hrs - 17hrs). Currently I have it on a calendar with non-working time (17hrs - 08hrs). If the activity starts too late (say at 15hrs on day one) it is split over the non-working period and completed in the second day at 10hrs. How do I stop the activity starting on the first day and moving it so that it starts and finishes (08hrs to 12hrs) on the second day.

Thanks in advance for your help

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Replies

Wed, 2022-02-09 23:09
#1
David Kelly
User offline. Last seen 1 year 38 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 19 Oct 2004
Posts: 630
Groups: Petro-Chem / Oil & Gas
Gosh, Al, given that there is a four-year gap in this thread’s activities, does that count as ‘suspend/resume’? As we all know, P6’s mathematics isn’t very good. Indeed, it has the worst algorithms of any project management system I have used in a production environment. I specify ‘production environment’ because: 1) I have never used Microsoft Project in a production environment 2) I have tested ‘P6 Cloud’ I continue to be amazed that planners use a planning system that cannot control splitable activities. I had perfectly good control with Project 2 and K&H in the 1970s. But enough therapeutic ventilating. My current ‘best’ solution for this is to add a predecessor for each ‘un-splitable’ activity which is one hour long, and needs a dummy resource which is only available in your example from 08:00 to 09:00 and from 13:00 to 14:00. Then level. Four years ago, I thought I had a solution that placed the same dummy resource on only period one of the un-splitable activity, but the P6 levelling is incredibly unreliable if you have resource lag and duration specified in an activity. I got some lucky results, but just far too flaky to use. Of course, you can easily filter out the predecessors when printing. You will find entering the resource dictionary very time-consuming. It would be amusing to compare the cost of entering the resource dictionary at your current rate with the cost of Spider Project………
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Wed, 2022-02-09 23:06
#2
David Kelly
User offline. Last seen 1 year 38 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 19 Oct 2004
Posts: 630
Groups: Petro-Chem / Oil & Gas
Gosh, Al, given that there is a four-year gap in this thread’s activities, does that count as ‘suspend/resume’? As we all know, P6’s mathematics isn’t very good. Indeed, it has the worst algorithms of any project management system I have used in a production environment. I specify ‘production environment’ because: 1) I have never used Microsoft Project in a production environment 2) I have tested ‘P6 Cloud’ I continue to be amazed that planners use a planning system that cannot control splitable activities. I had perfectly good control with Project 2 and K&H in the 1970s. But enough therapeutic ventilating. My current ‘best’ solution for this is to add a predecessor for each ‘un-splitable’ activity which is one hour long, and needs a dummy resource which is only available in your example from 08:00 to 09:00 and from 13:00 to 14:00. Then level. Four years ago, I thought I had a solution that placed the same dummy resource on only period one of the un-splitable activity, but the P6 levelling is incredibly unreliable if you have resource lag and duration specified in an activity. I got some lucky results, but just far too flaky to use. Of course, you can easily filter out the predecessors when printing. You will find entering the resource dictionary very time-consuming. It would be amusing to compare the cost of entering the resource dictionary at your current rate with the cost of Spider Project………
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Wed, 2022-02-09 00:02
#3
Al MacLeod
User offline. Last seen 1 year 33 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 14 Feb 2007
Posts: 22
Groups: Petro-Chem / Oil & Gas

Hi David,

I have tried creating the calendar for a resource with the buffer time as non working. I have set the activity to resource dependant and levelled the resource.

When the activity starts at 12:00 it shows 2 hours work then 2 hours then next day. I need it to show all 4 hours then next day.

Is there something im missing?

Thanks

Al

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Sat, 2018-06-30 17:21
#4
Vladimir Liberzon
User offline. Last seen 17 weeks 3 days ago. Offline
Joined: 5 Feb 2001
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Groups: Accreditation Editors, Board of Advisors, Civil Engineering, GPCCAR Editors, Petro-Chem / Oil & Gas, Regional Representatives, Spider Project Team, TURNAROUND & SHUTDOWN (T/A & S/D)

Thank you David!

I am really interested in the solutions that you suggest.

And please explain why your initial proposal works despite the time after 13:00 is non-working for assigned resource.

By the way in Spider Project an activity is splittable if assigned resource may be temporarily moved to activity with higher priority or if splitting improves project schedule. An activity is continious if it shall finish before work day end. So splittable (or not) and continuous (or not) are different activity properties.

 

Best Regards,

VL

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Fri, 2018-06-29 17:29
#5
David Kelly
User offline. Last seen 1 year 38 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 19 Oct 2004
Posts: 630
Groups: Petro-Chem / Oil & Gas

Vladimir,

 

Not forgotten. My leveling solution does work, but I may have found a simpler one. It's still ugly compared to being able to define an activity as "un-splittable". I shall revert after this wonderful week-end. Glasgow where I currently live is hotter and sunnier than it has been for more than a hunderd years.

D

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Thu, 2018-06-28 14:25
#6
David Kelly
User offline. Last seen 1 year 38 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 19 Oct 2004
Posts: 630
Groups: Petro-Chem / Oil & Gas

Vladimir,

Let me use my fingers to count on. This is an important skill for Primavera users.

My fingers have let me down, I can't map 12:59hrs to a finger. I shall start P6........

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Thu, 2018-06-28 14:29
#7
Vladimir Liberzon
User offline. Last seen 17 weeks 3 days ago. Offline
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Groups: Accreditation Editors, Board of Advisors, Civil Engineering, GPCCAR Editors, Petro-Chem / Oil & Gas, Regional Representatives, Spider Project Team, TURNAROUND & SHUTDOWN (T/A & S/D)

David,

an activity can be scheduled to start on 12:00 and to finish on 16:00. With your solution an activity will be delayed and will start only on 08:00 next day. This delay is not required.

I expect that P6 does not plan activity execution on resource non-working time (after 13:00) but let me know if I am wrong. There are many amazing features in P6.

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Thu, 2018-06-28 10:23
#8
David Kelly
User offline. Last seen 1 year 38 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 19 Oct 2004
Posts: 630
Groups: Petro-Chem / Oil & Gas

Al,

 

 

The activities must start between 08:00 and 13:00 in order to complete the same day. So this is a "resource levelling" task.

You need a dummy resource that is only available for those hours of the day, and you level (perhaps ONLY this resource if you do not normally level) against an avvailability that only runs from 08:00 to 13:00.

Ugly, but it works.

Have fun.

david

 

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Wed, 2018-06-27 17:41
#9
Zoltan Palffy
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then make seperate activities 

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Wed, 2018-06-27 17:08
#10
Vladimir Liberzon
User offline. Last seen 17 weeks 3 days ago. Offline
Joined: 5 Feb 2001
Posts: 2748
Groups: Accreditation Editors, Board of Advisors, Civil Engineering, GPCCAR Editors, Petro-Chem / Oil & Gas, Regional Representatives, Spider Project Team, TURNAROUND & SHUTDOWN (T/A & S/D)

This functionality exists only in Spider Project.

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Wed, 2018-06-27 16:24
#11
Al MacLeod
User offline. Last seen 1 year 33 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 14 Feb 2007
Posts: 22
Groups: Petro-Chem / Oil & Gas

Hi,

Suspend and resume only work when you are progressing an activity. I want to be able to schedule my plan and see the activities in the future in the correct working periods and not split. I have a series of these activities that i do not want split.

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Wed, 2018-06-27 14:21
#12
Zoltan Palffy
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use Suspend and resume 

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