Hi All,
First, great job to the developers of Spider Project; I havent used yet all its features but really looks very interesting. I have started using the demo version of Spider Project to ensure that it covers all the aspects I am looking for in this software before purchasing it.
For your information, the key elements I am looking for is to estimate manpower and equipment based on fix volumes of quantities (Fix Quantities) to be executed and based on a fix performance (Fix Productivity). The overall project duration is fixed but the time allocated for each activity is flexible. Therefore, I would like the program to optimize when the different activities are executed and with how much manpower in order to meet the total project duration and to have a level the manpower and equipment as best as possible.
Having said that, please find next the questions I have at this moment:
- Are Teams and Multiresources the same? I have read carefully the definition and cant see the difference. All the activities I am modelling are being executed by teams consisting on different resources (i2x labor + 1x technician + 1x machine) and they have to work together. Meaning that a team will execute 10 units per hour (for example) and all the members of the team need to work together at the same time in order to execute 10 units per hour. I am using multiresources since I think is what best fits my model. Please, let me know your thoughts.
- How can I let Spider to define the Quantities of each multiresource used based on a fix productivity, fix activities' quantity and fix total project duration? I am using DPH type "Productivity" since I believe this is the type I need to fix in order to let Spider optimize the quantites of multiresources. However, I note that the quantities of multiresources never change and Spider always keeps the values I set before running the calculation. As I mentioned before, I would like Spider to define the total quantites of each multiresources working on parallel in order to change the time duration of each activity to a lower or higher duration, so that the target finish date of the project is achieved and that the manpower and equipment levelling is optimized.
- How can I set a finish target date for the project? I am defining it on Project->Properties but it seems I am doing something wrong since it is not working. Please keep in mind that in my model I want to set a global end date for the whole project but keep each activity timelines flexible in order to be defined by Spider together with the quantity of multiresources.
- How does Spider define when the activity will take place? In my model, I am defining links for all the activities, so that most of the activities have two links. One link is to start with a lag of X days after another activity has started or finished and another link to finish with a laf of Y days after another activity has started or finished. This type of linking results on a window of time where the activity can be executed. If this time window is larger than what the activity requires (even considering a single multiresource/team to execute it) then I note that Spider tries to push the activity as late as possible. Is this the usual routine of Spider? or is just some coincidence of my model? In my case, I would like Spider to define when the activity will take place within the the time window available. To do so, I guess I would need to link the activities using start no sooner than X milestone and end to later than Y milestone. Is that possible?
I have uploaded the model I have created using the demo of Spider in the following link
Thanks in advance for your support!
Best,
Ignacio