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Dear All,
Hope you are doing great!
I have few queries related to resource loading:
1. Let's say there is an activity (duration 1 day) which required 10 welders and 5 helpers. So how to assign resources to the activites. Do I have to define 10 welders and 5 fitter in the resources tab? What I did was I defined 1 welder and 1 fitter as labor resource and then mannually entered budgetted workhours corresponding to 10 welder (10 nos. x 10 hrs/day = 100 hrs) and 5 fitters (50 hrs) respectively. But if I see the manpower allocation, it shows welder and fitter are overallocated which is obvious. So what is the better way of doing this?
2. Is there is any option in P6 which allow to enter construction qunatities (for construction activities)...example Piping Erection (Scope 10000 IM, Act: 2500 IM).
3. Is there is any option in P6 where we can define the productivity so that P6 itself calculate the required Workhours/ Manpower.
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1st you create a resource
then you assign the resource to that activitiy
then you assign the budgeted units to the resource CY, LF, Ea, SF etc
Hi Raymund,
The length of our posts became too large. So I put only last questions and explanations.
Yes, of course and so the work shall be planned for certain height, location and nationality (project data) with certain assumptions about the weather conditions. Uncertainty is modeled using risk simulation.
In any case we shall plan the works basing on specific project conditions and capabilities of available resources.
Now you suggested: To assign a resource in order to calculate the duration, use a Labor resource (hrs/day) and Equipment resource (hrs/day). Changing the numbers of available will change the Daily Output as well as the duration.
I don’t understand your proposal. Yes, Excavators and Labor may be assigned but activity duration will not change because it depends on assigned “volume” only, isn’t it?
I don’t agree. If you are right there will not be the need for project control. I never met the project where everything was done strictly as planned initially.
An activity with assigned “volume” shall be resource dependent and so there is another problem: is it possible that P6 will schedule different resources (volume, excavators, labor) to work at different time periods as the result of resource leveling? What can be done to avoid this?
My question was about this: is it necessary to change quantities of all assigned materials manually or P6 will adjust the required materials automatically if the “volume” changed.
Hi Sir Vlad,
Herewith are my opinions as underlined:
Do I understand correctly that assigning resources I shall calculate their total productivity (manually)
How do you know the Productivity of a crew for a given activity? Scheduler can use the RS Means if you don’t have an experience at Project Site.
I do not use RS Means but know productivities of resources that were assigned to the task (quantities per hour). If the volume of work is known then activity duration may be calculated by dividing this volume by total productivity of assigned resources. I know my resources capabilities better than RS Means.
In construction, there is no standard productivity rate (thanks to Weather, Heights, Nationality, Location, etc..,)
create dummy material and set budgeted units/time for this material
it is not a dummy, it is the material required to complete the task. And of course the Qty per day of their daily output.
An example: earthwork. Are cubic meters of earth that shall be excavated the materials required to complete the task? Qty per day (I prefer per hour) depends on assigned excavators productivities. Adding, removing or changing an excavator automatically change Qty per day.
In construction, duration in hours is rarely used. Excavation is measured as Cubic meters. To assign a resource in order to calculate the duration, use a Labor resource (hrs/day) and Equipment resource (hrs/day). Changing the numbers of available will change the Daily Output as well as the duration.
With any change in resource assignment I shall recalculate crew productivity (manually) and change assigned budgeted units/time.
Why change?
Resource crew productivity may change for many reasons. Somebody may become ill, I may want to add some resources to accelerate the work. The work may start when some resources became available and then others may become available and join. There are many reasons why the crews may change.
In construction, usually the planned duration is fixed. Whatever happens, the activity shall be done within the estimated duration.
I shall create and assign dummy resources for all activities which duration depends on assigned resource productivity.
You assign the Resources that is needed to complete the Task, it is not a dummy. In levelling of Resources, the activity is dependent on the Resource that are limited in availability. It will schedule the activities based on priorities.
By dummy resources I meant volumes of work that rarely represent certain materials. Even for concreting you will need 1.02 cubic meters of concrete for each cubic meter of concreting volume.
Activity Quantity is different from Actual Quantity delivered. Actual quantity delivered includes wastage quantity but in the end the executed quantity is the same as activity quantity.
Material consumption is usually defined as the amount per activity volume unit
BTW, I understand your term volume is equal to quantity? Why Amount?, It should be the Quantity in m² or m³ or LM or ea, etc per activity.
OK, my English is not perfect.
Nobody is perfect.
If the volume will change what happens with material resource assignment on the same activities?
If any changes in the quantity, of course the duration will change or the Daily Output shall be changed and or the number of Manpower shall be changed. P6 will adjust the duration or the required daily output.
If material Volume quantity will change what happens with other materials that are required on the same activity? Are you sure that P6 will adjust the quantities of other materials as well?
If the material Quantity will change, it needs to manually change the quantity in P6, the P6 will adjust the duration or the required daily output.
Shall the user recalculate the required amounts and re-assign them all (manually) or P6 can help?
Just change the Volume or the Quantity and everything will be adjusted by P6.
Try it! Suppose that activity volume is 10 and activity consumes material A (20 pieces) and material B (50 pieces). Change activity volume (dummy material) to 50 and look if P6 will automatically change materials A and B consumption to 100 and 250. I doubt it.
I’m sorry I don’t get it. An activity “Lean Concrete” of 10 cu.m. is loaded with a resources such as: Material resource A. Concrete (10 cu.m,) B. Plywood (4 sqm) C. Timber – 100mm x 100mm x 10m (4pcs), Labor Resource A. Carpenter (2 x 8hrs) B. Helper (1 x 8hrs), Equipment resource (Tools).
In the above example, if the engineer ordered the Ready Mixed Concrete of 10.2 cu.m and the carpenter consumed 5 sqm of plywood, then is the “Lean concrete” quantity will change? NO, it shall be be the same as the 10 cu.m. But if the “Lean concrete” quantity will change to 20 cu.m, then everything shall be affected.
P6 permits to assign resource curves. What happens with other resource assignments if volume curve is defined?
I use resource curve for an Estimates ONLY whenever I have an activity longer than 30 days.
You are right, they do not have sense for detailed planning.
Thanks.
Hi Raymund,
My answers are below.
Do I understand correctly that assigning resources I shall calculate their total productivity (manually)
How do you know the Productivity of a crew for a given activity? Scheduler can use the RS Means if you don’t have an experience at Project Site.
I do not use RS Means but know productivities of resources that were assigned to the task (quantities per hour). If the volume of work is known then activity duration may be calculated by dividing this volume by total productivity of assigned resources. I know my resources capabilities better than RS Means.
create dummy material and set budgeted units/time for this material
it is not a dummy, it is the material required to complete the task. And of course the Qty per day of their daily output.
An example: earthwork. Are cubic meters of earth that shall be excavated the materials required to complete the task? Qty per day (I prefer per hour) depends on assigned excavators productivities. Adding, removing or changing an excavator automatically change Qty per day.
With any change in resource assignment I shall recalculate crew productivity (manually) and change assigned budgeted units/time.
Why change?
Resource crew productivity may change for many reasons. Somebody may become ill, I may want to add some resources to accelerate the work. The work may start when some resources became available and then others may become available and join. There are many reasons why the crews may change.
I shall create and assign dummy resources for all activities which duration depends on assigned resource productivity.
You assign the Resources that is needed to complete the Task, it is not a dummy. In levelling of Resources, the activity is dependent on the Resource that are limited in availability. It will schedule the activities based on priorities.
By dummy resources I meant volumes of work that rarely represent certain materials. Even for concreting you will need 1.02 cubic meters of concrete for each cubic meter of concreting volume.
Material consumption is usually defined as the amount per activity volume unit
BTW, I understand your term volume is equal to quantity? Why Amount?, It should be the Quantity in m² or m³ or LM or ea, etc per activity.
OK, my English is not perfect.
If the volume will change what happens with material resource assignment on the same activities?
If any changes in the quantity, of course the duration will change or the Daily Output shall be changed and or the number of Manpower shall be changed. P6 will adjust the duration or the required daily output.
If material Volume quantity will change what happens with other materials that are required on the same activity? Are you sure that P6 will adjust the quantities of other materials as well?
Shall the user recalculate the required amounts and re-assign them all (manually) or P6 can help?
Just change the Volume or the Quantity and everything will be adjusted by P6.
Try it! Suppose that activity volume is 10 and activity consumes material A (20 pieces) and material B (50 pieces). Change activity volume (dummy material) to 50 and look if P6 will automatically change materials A and B consumption to 100 and 250. I doubt it.
P6 permits to assign resource curves. What happens with other resource assignments if volume curve is defined?
I use resource curve for an Estimates ONLY whenever I have an activity longer than 30 days.
You are right, they do not have sense for detailed planning.
Sir Vlad,
Do I understand correctly that assigning resources I shall calculate their total productivity (manually)
How do you know the Productivity of a crew for a given activity? Scheduler can use the RS Means if you don’t have an experience at Project Site.
create dummy material and set budgeted units/time for this material
it is not a dummy, it is the material required to complete the task. And of course the Qty per day of their daily output.
With any change in resource assignment I shall recalculate crew productivity (manually) and change assigned budgeted units/time.
Why change?
I shall create and assign dummy resources for all activities which duration depends on assigned resource productivity.
You assign the Resources that is needed to complete the Task, it is not a dummy. In levelling of Resources, the activity is dependent on the Resource that are limited in availability. It will schedule the activities based on priorities.
Material consumption is usually defined as the amount per activity volume unit
BTW, I understand your term volume is equal to quantity? Why Amount?, It should be the Quantity in m² or m³ or LM or ea, etc per activity.
If the volume will change what happens with material resource assignment on the same activities?
If any changes in the quantity, of course the duration will change or the Daily Output shall be changed and or the number of Manpower shall be changed. P6 will adjust the duration or the required daily output.
Shall the user recalculate the required amounts and re-assign them all (manually) or P6 can help?
Just change the Volume or the Quantity and everything will be adjusted by P6.
P6 permits to assign resource curves. What happens with other resource assignments if volume curve is defined?
I use resource curve for an Estimates ONLY whenever I have an activity longer than 30 days.
Hi Raymund,
Do I understand correctly that assigning resources I shall calculate their total productivity (manually), create dummy material and set budgeted units/time for this material? With any change in resource assignment I shall recalculate crew productivity (manually) and change assigned budgeted units/time. I shall create and assign dummy resources for all activities which duration depends on assigned resource productivity.
Material consumption is usually defined as the amount per activity volume unit. If it is possible to link required materials with the dummy resource that represents activity volume? If the volume will change what happens with material resource assignment on the same activities? Shall the user recalculate the required amounts and re-assign them all (manually) or P6 can help?
P6 permits to assign resource curves. What happens with other resource assignments if volume curve is defined?
Sir Rafael,
IN P6, the productivity rate is the Budgeted Units/Time (Quantity per day). In RS Means it is the Daily Output (DO).
If duration Type is sets to Fixed Units/Time then P6 will calculate the Duration based on the Productivity rate.
It is a very easy and simple to do.
Thanks.
Raymund,
Usually the availability of materials resources is not supplied at a given uniform rate but at multiple discontinuous deliveries, once available the rate of installation is determined by the resources production rate, using a reduced rate is not efficient, once depleted installation stops and resume when replenished in discrete deliveries.
In my last post I already provided an example, so simple it consists of a single activity, a single material resource and two renewable resources. How you model such scenario if using P6?
If all required material is delivered in a single delivery what is the reasoning behind the availability (units/time)?
Same as Vladimir I still did not understand where shall I enter resource productivity that determines activity duration.
Best Regards,
Rafael
Thanks for the Info Sir Rafael,
In P6, the Resources To be assigned in any Activities shall be as follows:
1. Labor Resource - You can level resources based on availability of the Manpower. Unit/Time (hrs/day)
2. Material Resource - You can level resources based on the availability of the Materials. Unit/Time (Sqm/day, mtrs/day, cu.m/day, etc)
3. Equipment Resource - You can level resources based on the availability of the Equipment. Unit/Time (hrs/day)
You can Opt to level resources whichever is with limited availability.
They are generic renewable resources.
Resource types: Renewable and consumable resources
Renewable resources are available on a period-by-period basis, i.e. the available amount is renewed from period to period (e.g. per hour, per day, ...). Only the total resource use at every time instant is constrained. Typical examples are manpower, machines, tools, equipment and space.
For purpose of the illustration it does not matter if manpower (labor), machines, tools, equipment or space.
They are not materials, also known as renewable materials; they are not financial resources either. In any case P6 cannot level materials and financial resources; it is limited to showing the amount no matter if over-allocated/depleted.
While most software do not recognize the existence of financial resources these are not always unlimited and in many cases can drive your schedule. Same as materials, if financial resources become depleted some activities might be delayed until replenished.
Sir Rafael,
Can you clarify from your example what is Resource A, Resource B? Are these the humans who will perform the task?
As I understand a Resource is made up of Labor, Materials and Equipment.
Please clarify. Thanks.
Zoltan, I still did not understand where shall I enter resource productivity that determines activity duration.
Do I understand correctly that I shall create special materials for all kinds of volumes?
To say production rates do matter and not being able to disclose them in a clear and transparent way makes no sense.
To show it is functional should be easy; just show how by changing resource quantity the activity duration is adjusted, show how by changing individual resource production rates the activity duration is adjusted, show how by changing both resource quantity and individual resource production rates the activity duration is adjusted. If functional you should be able to do it very easily without cumbersome tweaking of parameters that make not much sense.
So easy!
If doing weld jobs you should know not all welders are created equal. If you compare an apprentice to an experienced welder you should expect a significant difference in their production rates. Even when comparing among experienced welders their production rates vary.
https://www.canadianmetalworking.com/blog/business-welding-welder-performance-examining-fine-points
1. yes add a resource and its TYPE is Material and make the Unit of measure what ever it is Liner Ft, Cubic Yards etc
2. If you want the units to drive the duration make the activitiy TYPE Resource dependent
3. the productivity for the welder could be LF of welds or # of Welds. DO you know how many welds can be doen on a typical day ?
4. once again if you want the units to drive the duration make the activitiy TYPE Resource dependent
I would expect to be able to make any change to volume of work, resource quantity and/or resource production rate in a meaningful and transparent way and get the activity duration that corresponds to these changes at a click of the mouse. Otherwise the functionality is poor/lacking and useless for more advanced use.
Hi Zoltan,
did I understand correctly that you suggested to add the material called Volume and assign certain amount of this material to activity? Then make an activity type resource dependent.
Where and how did you define resource (welder) productivity?
How activity duration will be calculated in your proposal?
1. have you set the over allocation limit to 10 hours per day not 8 ?
or set the limit to the known number of welders that you have on site.
2. yes add a resource and instead of a labor type make the resource type a material resource and then assign the quantity of the commodity to that resource.
3. Yes change the duration tyep to resource dependent and or change the duration type to Fixed Units
Email: PPadmin@planningplanet.com
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