Resources

Dean,
What is your Max Unit/Hr per crew? You may over allocate your resource assignment and that prevents P6 to level the resource. You can check the log files created if leveling was done or an activity was not level. It normally happens it duration was change but duration settings was Fixed duration and Unit or Fixed Unit.

Hi Rodel,

Thanks for the fast reply!

I checked the log and yes you’re right, this activity in the second scenario was not levelled by P6.

The activities duration type are fixed units/time.

Do you know of a resourcing solution in which I can have a resource of a pipe gang, but have the software not treat it as the SAME pipe gang throughout the programme, i.e. use it as a kind of label and container for money, which will also reduce the activity time if I assign more than one gang to the activity. For instance, if I have an activity that is 20 days long with one gang, it would be 10 days if I assigned a second instance of the same gang. I am not defining my gang as four unique people (who can’t be in 2 places at once) but as a generic gang consisting of any four men. I suspect this is a job for ROLES?

As for my initial problem, is my solution to just increase the max units/time?

Thanks again,
Dean.

Dean,
Your settings drive the way resource assignment reacts in P6. If you don’t want the duration change if you add more than one resource you have to change the settings in resource assignment calculation.

Select Edit-> Users Preferences-> Calculation tab-> Resource Assignment. Select or tick Preserve the Units, Duration, and Unit/Time for existing assignment. Selecting this option will allow you multiple resources without reducing the duration or resetting Unit/Time

In regards to your initial problem, yes you must increase max unit/time.
Best Regards,
Rodel

Rodel,

But what if I want to assign more resources, i.e. another pipe gang, so that the activity gets done quicker? This, under my current settings, IS what happens, as I expect.

I am describing two different problems here, which may be confusing. The first one, I think you solved in your first reply.

My second question was regarding using resources as a kind of label and money container.

I have two pipes to lay, but they are not related to each other except that they are on the same project. They COULD both be layed at the same time if need be.

I have created a resource of a four man pipe gang which costs 1000/d. What I want to do is assign this resource to both activities, but NOT have the effect of one activity now having to wait for another, after levelling. In my mind, the gang is an entity with a value and NOT four specific people.

If I assign another instance of the resource to the first activity, I want the activity to reduce in duration accordingly, to signify that more men (i.e. eight) are now working on the activity. The activity is now half the duration but the same cost as originally because twice the resource is now assigned. This will have the effect of calculating the cost AND reducing the time of the activity, which is exactly what I wanted.

However, any other activity that is also using this resource, assumes it is the same four people as before, and as they can’t be on both jobs at the same time, the activity is held until the first is finished. This is NOT the desired effect as the activities are not inter-dependant. They COULD happen together and the only thing stopping them is this resource. What I want the programme to show is ONLY that I have assigned ANOTHER four man gang SIMILAR to the previous one, with the relevant expense to the activity.

I don’t know if I made that any clearer, as it’s very hard to explain in text.

Regards,
Dean.

Hi Rodel,

I just tried ROLES and this is my solution. This has exactly the effect I was looking for. Instead of assigning a resource of a four man gang, which is specific, I assigned a role of a four man gang, which is generic. If I assign 2 roles, it is the equivalent of assigning 2 gangs to the task and the duration is reduced.

Thanks for your help on solving my first problem.

Regards,
Dean.