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Leveling Schmeveling

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Lawrence Cuozzo
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All this talk about resource leveling, blah, blah, blah. Suppose you have UNLIMITED resources as we do here in New York with all the unions, etc. If I need more workers, I just go down to the union hall and get some. Whenever I’ve asked a Contractor to increase his manpower I never heard back "Oh, I’m sorry, I can’t." So then, does the evil Primavera treatment of resource leveling become a non-issue? For me it does.

Replies

Lawrence Cuozzo
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Hi Mike -

Exactly. Whenever the Contractor has people ready to perform the work and at the last minute the track outage or access is cancelled or... they don’t get their contractually-guaranteed time on the tracks, we wind up paying for "lost" or "idle" time. This is usually reconciled monthly using nothing more than a spreadsheet with the formula being: Lost Time x # of Workers x Hourly rate. Over the course of a year, it can add up to a sizeable amount.

The Contractor’s entitlement to lost time is a relatively new Contract provision and makes this type of project more attractive to potential bidders. Of course, the Contract always states that track outages are at the discretion of the owner and the railroad operation comes first, blah, blah blah. Last year I worked on a project where the NY Yankees getting into the World Series caused the Contractor’s on-track time to be diminished and he was compensated accordingly.

Best regards,

Lawrence
Mike Testro
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Hi Lawrence

The oposite side of the coin is where the contractor employs a set number of skilled workers and has to keep them deployed economically.

If the possessions are not granted then wages are lost.

You need the optimum resource model to calculate the loss although this can be done on a spreadsheet just as easily as the planning software.

Best regards

Mike Testro
Lawrence Cuozzo
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Hi Valdimir,

Of course I offered a different point of view. There are many discussions on PP regarding resources and the importance of managing them correctly. My "different point of view" is that (with regard to their loading into he CPM) they are not important to EVERYONE. I agree that for some people/projects they are very important.

As far as "10 workers on one square foot", I leave that to the Contractor’s foreman, who knows better than I do how to manage his labor. Obviously, if a Contractor is working in a small signal relay room, he is not going to be able to use 10 men to speed up the wiring of the room. Once again, all that I am saying is that FOR SOME OF US, managing resources through the CPM is not always a must.

Pretty good regards,

Lawrence
Hi Lawrence,
you did not offer a different point of view about resources, you just told us that there are some projects where resources are unlimited. I almost agree. But I still think that you have limited space and will not use 10 workers on one square foot.
You still create reasonable schedules taking into account existing limitations using the software or just common sense.
Best Regards,
Vladimir
Lawrence Cuozzo
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Hi Mike -

You are spot on with your assessment. I agree with what you say about the Critical Path as it is totally driven by access and outages. Eventually, the schedule deteriorates into a bar chart. The Critical Path can be estimated as going throught the area with the most difficult work, but really, it has no meaning. You basically have to do the work whenever you can get access and throw all the workers (cats)into the area to get it done before the tracks/area goes back into service. The subways system in New York does not like to delay service for any reason, even if it is in the interest of capital improvements that ultimately result in better service.

My reason for starting this thread was simply to offer a different point of view about resources.

Best regards,

Lawrence
Mike Testro
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Hi Lawrence

Now that I know you are working in Subway Projects with track outages everything becomes crystal clear.

My experience of these programmes is that there is no definable Critical Path - when you have a workfront possession you have to fill it with available qualified labour.

I described the process as "herding cats".

In the UK such contractors have a core of direct employed workers who have to be gainfully employed for at least 80% of the time.

In such circumstances resource levelling is a waste of time - but you are in a unique environment.

Best regards

Mike Testro.
Lawrence Cuozzo
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The reason I brought this up was to indicate that not everyone is affected by the way P6/P3 handles resources. Of course, if you are limited, then it is important. Most of the projects I work on (from the owner’s side) rely heavily on the Contractor’s foreman/superintendent to adequately man the project. These guys are great (the major contractors anyway) at estimating what they need and carrying out the plan. For the most part, they are not interested in the schedule and rarely look at one. Yet somehow, the job gets done. I’m just saying that for SOME of us, the way Primavera handles resources is not an issue. I am more constrained by access to work areas and having to rely on support from in-house railroad personnel to open rooms, protect the Contractor’s workers and give me track outages when I need them.
Mike Testro
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Hi Vladimir

I was just smoking out Lawrence - let us see how he resonds.

Best regards

Mike T.
Hi Mike,
I know. But it was suggested to accept the schedule that does not know that the number of cranes is restricted.
At some tight locations even three cranes is a luxury.
Best Regards,
Vladimir
Mike Testro
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Hi Vladimir

If a site needs 3 cranes then 10 is over resourcing.

Hi Lawrence

If you have the luxury of unlimited labour resource input you still have to consider the optimum resource deployment for each work front.

Unless you have a detailed resourced programme you will never know - Who has to do What When Where.

By just recruiting labour whenever for whatever you will nevr reach optimum productivity.

Best regards

Mike Testro
Lawrence,
not everybody is that rich and can install ten cranes on the single construction site.
Best Regards,
Vladimir