SM PUM,

Seems we are already over the filter issue and getting into the strategies.

The most common way to manually solve resource allocation is by creating what some people call sof-links, links that are not logic links but used to delay an activity after another that uses same competing resources.

Of course if you start with an overloaded single activity on some time window you first got to solve the individual activity no matter if critical or not. When we talk about resource leveling is about a step ahead, when you have many activities competing at the same time for common resources and there are enough resources for each activity to occur independently as if no other activity is competing for the same resources.

It is suggested that you shall not mix software resource leveling with manual resource leveling. If you opt to use sof-links place a marker or reminder somewhere as you might need latter on to release the link.

One other option it occurs to me is by using skills you can make use of  available idle resources. The challenge is how you will account within your software for less productive resources if their productivity drive the activity duration, at times this can be done and is not difficult. The good thing is that with most labor resource cases the difference is negligible if skills are close. Only in some resources like a 20cm truck versus a 10cm truck you will have the issue.

At other times where the combination of resources and production is complex you have to manually enter the change in productivity as you change resource composition.

Remember that resource leveling is also useful to smooth peaks in resource demand, merely making more resources available is not necessarily a good option.

Shareef,

Because resource availability can change with time as it is the case for Resource B as shown in the following figure, the custom filter can become complicated, it is far better to use functionality programmed within the software to execute such filter.

Regards,

Rafael

I believe it can be done in P6 but cumbersome as with Spider or any other software. I use the pre-defined filter available within Spider for this particular need and use custom filters on last resort.

By selecting on the histogram to display activities with certain resource you are not filtering for over allocations, if the resource is assigned to thousands activities it will display thousand activities no matter if over allocated or not. If you combine this with a simple filter for activities occurring within a date range most probably it can do the trick. Do not rule out this approach seems good.

I am sure eventually you will find a practical way that fits your needs among the several options available.

PUM,

I understand, a couple of years ago we used SureTrak and the results were so unpredictable that at that time we always ended up performing manual resource leveling, the software results were kind of random, we had no control on activity prioritization at a secondary level but only on higher level variables.

I do not use P6 and do not know how its resource leveling works, maybe as bad as SureTrak, maybe not. Yes it shall be your decision which method to use, you know your software better than I do. Now I do not believe you are just avoiding it, your firm response tells me you have solid reasons.

Manual resource leveling is still done by many, therefore many should be able to sort out the filter if it is not already pre-defined.

It occurs to me that maybe at the resource usage table you can define user fields and perhaps with a global change using some formula you can mark or highlight with some value [say 1] the overload occurrences for a specific date, mimicking what Spider does or what you would manually do, and then filter for this value in the Gantt Chart Table. I know P6 works differently but perhaps this you can do the way P6 works.

Good luck.

Best regards,

Rafael

PUM

I am sure you will find a solution but in case you want to venture to define the filter yourself perhaps you can learn from Spider Filter.

If you follow my comments you will notice that one of the preliminary steps to apply the filter is to specify the time of interest as over allocation might happen at different time windows. Your solution in one time window might change the other windows status so their over allocations should be solved in sequence.

Hope the hint above can be of use in the case you do not get a pre-defined filter. Of course if someone have any ideas or his own filter this can be better than starting from scratch.

We always solve resource leveling issues as our schedules are also part of the contract, an overloaded schedule is technically an impossible schedule and can be questioned latter on during a claim.

After you find your filter it would be interesting debating the strategies independent of the software. There are many possible strategies but to be in control the very first need is the filter you are asking for. I cannot imagine in a large network looking manually for these activities every time the schedule moves and over allocations changes. I advocate for software resource leveling but at times it consumes too much float and puts at risk the target finish, in such cases as well as when resource loading activity types such as hammocks that to not resource level some involvement by the planner and scheduler is in order.

It seems like you perform all resource leveling manually using "soft links" instead of using the software algorithm(s) and I wonder why if this is the case? I can understand this if using old software that cannot give you some control in your activities and phase prioritization as older software were limited in this regard.

Best regards,

Rafael

Filtering for activities with overloaded resources shall be an easy task but it depends on your software.

If you use Spider Project the filter is already predefined, look at the following figure.

Just select your WBS of interest, can be the whole job, click on the allocated resources bar at time value of interest [ I clicked at 11/28/2011 in this case], on the dialog box/window select the resource and click Filter Activities.