Website Upgrade Incoming - we're working on a new look (and speed!) standby while we deliver the project

Tips on using this forum..

(1) Explain your problem, don't simply post "This isn't working". What were you doing when you faced the problem? What have you tried to resolve - did you look for a solution using "Search" ? Has it happened just once or several times?

(2) It's also good to get feedback when a solution is found, return to the original post to explain how it was resolved so that more people can also use the results.

scheduling an activity

11 replies [Last post]
Fri, 2005-02-18 07:42
Maria Joane Pagun...
User offline. Last seen 8 years 39 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 26 Apr 2004
Posts: 7
Groups: Building Information Modelling, Civil Engineering, Pinoy Planning Planet Community
Hi to all,

I’d like to know how to divide the duration of an activity without dividing this activity into sub-activities.

Say for example:

Activity A has to be finished in 12 months’ time. Say, January - December. But due to the anticipated negative weather conditions from June to August, we are planning to stop operations on these months.

My question is: how can I schedule this activity showing its duration from January to May, stop work from June to August, then continue/finish the activity from September to March? Thereby retaining the 12 months duration, without dividing Activity A into Activity A.1,A.2 & A.3.

Hope somebody out there could enlighten with this.

Thank you very much.

Joane
Top

Replies

Fri, 2005-02-18 10:42
#1
Philip Jonker
User offline. Last seen 16 years 34 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 7 Nov 2004
Posts: 852
Groups: None
You are welcome, if there is more questions just ask
Top
Fri, 2005-02-18 10:35
#2
Alfon Lyndon Joson
User offline. Last seen 8 years 19 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 28 Mar 2004
Posts: 35
Groups: None
Ok Philip, thanks a lot, you’ve been a big help.
I’ll incorporate your suggestions on my planning.
For sure I’ll still have a lot more questions to be asked. This is all for now.

till next time sir.

Goodnight!!

Joane
Top
Fri, 2005-02-18 09:59
#3
Philip Jonker
User offline. Last seen 16 years 34 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 7 Nov 2004
Posts: 852
Groups: None
Hi Guys,

Your latest posts came through while I was typing, not one of my strong points. Sometimes you don’t see the wood for the trees. Joane, you can of course use both the calendar and resources solutions in a combination to get the best effect.

Your question about the resource solution. Let me give an example. I have 27 substations to build (just the building works), however, I do not want to to put 27 times 50 activities into the program, I will do a micro schedule on one substation, and work out the duration for each resource, Lets say excavator, steelfixer, shutterhands, etc, and the I will create one activity for each substation building, with off-sets. You must remember the object/s of plannintg, is to work out the time it will take to do a job, and the necessary resources. If you go to the resource menu, you can set lags and periods for the specific activity. in other words, if the activity has a duration of ten days, the first action, excavation will hav an offset of zero, ans a duration of two, the second action say steel fixer, will heve an offset of two days and a durations of 1, the third shutterhand will have an offset of 3 days and a duration of 2days, and so forth. This is what is called level three planning, but it still allows youu to create accurate histograms, You could even take it to level one, but I still prefer the level 4 stuff.

Regards

Philip
Top
Fri, 2005-02-18 09:44
#4
Maria Joane Pagun...
User offline. Last seen 8 years 39 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 26 Apr 2004
Posts: 7
Groups: Building Information Modelling, Civil Engineering, Pinoy Planning Planet Community
Ok Philip,

I am now considering the calendar option, but I want to concentrate only to certain activities. Please correct me if Im wrong, but if I change my calendar and indicate the non-work periods in it, the entire schedule will be stretched as well. Can we edit the calendar of a certain activity without affecting the durations of the other activities?

Thank you very much!!

Joane
Top
Fri, 2005-02-18 09:37
#5
Maria Joane Pagun...
User offline. Last seen 8 years 39 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 26 Apr 2004
Posts: 7
Groups: Building Information Modelling, Civil Engineering, Pinoy Planning Planet Community
Yes Steven,

I think that would be another option for me, but please elaborate further on how to assign a calendar to an activity.

Will this not affect(lengthen) the entire schedule of the my baseline? coz, we are also confining our schedule up to a certain duration only.

If my querries are very shallow, please bear with me as I am only using P3 for a only a little over a month now.

Thank you very much!

Joane
Top
Fri, 2005-02-18 09:36
#6
Philip Jonker
User offline. Last seen 16 years 34 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 7 Nov 2004
Posts: 852
Groups: None
Hi Joane,

To get to suspend, open View/activity form, then click on date, and you will see a box, suspend, as I mentioned in my previous posting, this activity must be in progress to suspend it, therefore it is useless to you until the project have started. The other solution is to create a calendar with non-working (holidays) duting the period when there will be no work, and applying this calendar to the particular period you don’t want to work.

Regards

Philip
Top
Fri, 2005-02-18 09:33
#7
Maria Joane Pagun...
User offline. Last seen 8 years 39 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 26 Apr 2004
Posts: 7
Groups: Building Information Modelling, Civil Engineering, Pinoy Planning Planet Community
Hi Philip,

Yes I have resource loading in my baseline schedule. In fact, our project is equipment intensive and is located on an island, therefore, I have the availability of equipment & materials, as well as the weather conditions to consider.

Can you elaborate further on your suggestion about resources and off-sets??

Thank you very!!

Joane
Top
Fri, 2005-02-18 09:30
#8
Steven Oliver
User offline. Last seen 12 years 35 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 8 Nov 2002
Posts: 313
Groups: None
Not a problem with baseline. Recognising Philips correction about the in progress bit, as an alternative, you could create a calender for the activity with the non-working months.


HTH

Top
Fri, 2005-02-18 09:24
#9
Maria Joane Pagun...
User offline. Last seen 8 years 39 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 26 Apr 2004
Posts: 7
Groups: Building Information Modelling, Civil Engineering, Pinoy Planning Planet Community
Hi Steven,

thanks for the info, but what I want to know is if i can have this kind of schedule on my baseline schedule because we are still in the planning stage and not yet in the implementation stage. if you could further enlighten me with this matter, it would greatly be appreciated.

thank you very much!!

Joane
Top
Fri, 2005-02-18 09:13
#10
Philip Jonker
User offline. Last seen 16 years 34 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 7 Nov 2004
Posts: 852
Groups: None
Hi Maria,

The suspend solution is one option, however, it only allows you to suspend once, and only if the activity is in progress. The second solution is that if the activity is resourced, is to use off-sets, this will allow you to use a single resourcee, or multiple resources, and you can dictate the time periods. Sometimes this is the best way to overcome this problem. You can also use a non-existant resources, for the periods of inactivity.

Regards

Philip
Top
Fri, 2005-02-18 09:02
#11
Steven Oliver
User offline. Last seen 12 years 35 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 8 Nov 2002
Posts: 313
Groups: None
Have a look at suspend/resume.


HTH


Top