Resource Pooling

[linhawaii]

Hello all,
Excuse me for posting in this forum, because I really have no experience in Project, however, I am the net admin for a company that I KNOW could be doing things easier. I need a litte guidance in telling them how.

We are a cabinet manufacturer. My scheduler(who happens to be my husband) uses Project to schedule jobs for installs. The scheduler uses Project and Excel to do his job.

Let me give you and example of a problem: If a contractor starts a job, they finish it also. Electrician is scheduled to start the job. You schedule the entire job (all the middle people), and then try to schedule the same electrian at the end of the job, but you find out that the electrian is busy...you have to start all over..

Can you view the resource pool in a Year format?

Thanks in advance,
Linda K.

 

[PDQBach]

1. Which version of Project? (Why is it that this information is inevitably missing?)

2. How many projects? How many resources in total? How many resources on one Project? How many tasks in a project? How long is a project? (Yes, the answers to these questions will help provide an answer to your stated question.)

 

[linhawaii]

PDQBach!!!....I was hoping you would be the one to reply to this. You really know your stuff when it comes to Project from all the posts I have read...(yes, I am making the effort to try and understand my users needs. I am hoping to be able to ask more intelligent questions in the future..)

Here are your answers:
Project 2000

2. How many projects? 200 Open - 125 Active at any time
How many resources in total? 40
How many resources on one Project? 1 to 10
How many tasks in a project? 1 to 10
How long is a project? 3 days to 2 months

What the manager of the department says he wants,is to be able to use the Calendar feature that is in Project to show him what is scheduled on a day to day basis.

To say this another way, let's try: There is one resource pool with 40 items. For each job there can be up to 10 resources in each job. How do you view mulitiple projects and their resources in one view?

Or: How do they view multiple projects in the calendar linking to one resource pool?

Thanks in advance...

Linda

 

[PDQBach]

You can make your life INFINITELY easier by putting all projects into a single file. With 200 projects and 10 tasks each, that's only 2000 tasks. A modest PC (mine is 256MB, and an old 1.7GHz processor) handles this with ease. In fairness, I don't have Word, or Lotus Notes open at the same time -- but even with them open, it wouldn't have a noticable impact.

If you want the ability to print projects out separately, click on the first task of a "project", click on Insert | Page Break ... and then in Print Preview you can decide which page(s) you actually need to print.

The trade off, of course, is that only one person can be updating the project plan at any given time. Look at your business operations requirements to determine who must open the plan to update it (as opposed to who is simply opening it to look at it).

If you genuinely must have multiple project files and genuinely must use a Resource Pool ... well, it's been a long time since I used resource pools because they were s-o-o-o s-s-l-l-o-o-w-w when the company I was at tried them out -- but we can talk about that later.

Before we go any further, look at the way you are doing things and tell me if you MUST have each project in a separate file along with a Resource Pool or if you can do everything in a single plan as I described above.

We will continue this conversation.

 

[PDQBach]

Hmmm ... our conversation may be briefer than I hoped. I thought I still had P98 and P2000. I don't. I'm going to have to "wing it" and hope that what I tell you about P2003 works under P2000.

 

[linhawaii]

PDQBach...Our scheduler is currently making a test project to try your suggestions.

He has some test data entered, but how in the Calendar can you view the details about the resources for that job? Ex: The days will show a cabinet reface, but who is doing the job won't show...

PDQBach...if you want call me direct any time. I am in Anaheim CA 714-678-2306...maybe I could hook you up with the Operations manager and scheduler to find out what it is they really want. Are you available for hire???

You have no idea how valuable your input is to us...I can't begin to thank you enough for your efforts..

Linda
lkahawaii@reborncabinets.com

 

[PDQBach]

Actually ... I *am* available for hire. In the interim, let's see what we can do before the taxi metre gets turned on and takes over.

Does it *have* to be in the Calendar view? There are several other views that might be useful.

For example:

View | Reports | doubleclick on Assignments | SINGLEclick on "Who Does What When".

Now you have to set up some params so the report will generate the info.

Click on the Edit button
Click on the Definition tab

1. Column
There are two entries
(a) If you enter 1 and choose day then you will get one day in each column.
(b) If you enter 2 and choose day then you will get two days in each column.
(c) If you enter 1 and choose month then you will get one month in each column.

I think you want 1 and Days.

By the way, here's a neat thing:
If you enter 1 and choose week then you will get one week in each column and the week begins on the day you choose in Tools | Options | Calendar | Week starts on.

2. Row
Choose Resources.
Next to that: choose "Work" if you want to see scheduled work; choose "Work Availability" if you want to see the obvious: time available for assigning tasks.

3. And Task assignments.
There should be a checkmark in that box.

4. Filter
Choose Date Range ...

Now, click on the Details tab.

1. Repeat first column on every page
This should be blank.

2. Choose a date format.

Now, click on the Sort tab.

1. Sort by
Choose Name.

2. Click on OK. This will take you back to the display showing the four Assignment reports. Click on the Select button.

You will be prompted for the first date in a date range. Enter the first of the month (mm/dd/yyyy) and click on OK.

You will be prompted for the second date in a date range. Enter the last of the month (mm/dd/yyyy) and click on OK.

I've saved the "stinker" until the end:

Project wants *desperately* to print the entire project -- even though you just specified start and end dates.

So ... as soon as you start Project (and have opened your project file) before you do anyting else you have to:

1. Click on File | Print and in the popup window go to the Timescale box. Click on the circle in front of Dates From: and then select the date range you REALLY want.

2. Click on Preview.

3. In the report preview, click on the button marked Close.

The dates you set in step 1 immediately above are "sticky". Now you can go through the steps at the beginning of this message to actually prepare the report

Hope this helps.