Available (Free) Partial Workload Distribution

Macus,

It is always good to hear from you.

It just occurred to me that by expanding the equal resources into a separate one, each under a common skill, then you can see how they were distributed and what is available. Take a look at the following print screen.

Perhaps this (convert resource to skill) can be automated so you can see the detail when needed. Latter on you can opt to name the individual resource and assign priorities for skill assignments. In this way each person will know his assigned distribution.

Or maybe the conversion can be to "partial workload resource", if you convert a resource to partial workload type then for the amount specified a separate line will be available for each unit on the resource table and to reduce the amount you would have to delete the specific existing unit line. This might be a better alternative because you cannot add a skill  into another skill, in this way you can add the resource into as many skills you want and still be able to see the partial workload assignment distribution. Unfortunately for the moment this option is not available.

Comments will be welcomed, especially if I am in error, please let me know.

Best Regards,

Rafael

Rafael,

we did not meet a case when skills inside the skill is required. Sometimes it is necessary to assign several skills.

If you need an information about any resource unit they shall be named. In this case you will not assign three workers, you will assign skill consisting of all workers that have necessary qualification and input the total number of workers (3) that shall be selected from skill set.

Resources that were assigned can have variable workload like resource B in the example below:

Vladimir,

You said; "If you need an information about any resource unit they shall be named."

This is what I already found but I was thinking in a step ahead, when you initially set up your schedule with some resources having an availability above one resource with partial assignments, it is faster but latter on you need to see the details.

About skills within skills I believe it can create issues with circular references among skills, that is why I was thinking about some other way to have the details before naming the resources.

Perhaps by requiring that resources with availability more than one be defined as partial assignment resources before you can assign them with partial workloads ( or maybe the software can do it automatically ).

In this way I can have 10 carpenters working at the same time on several activities on partial workload assignments and be able to see the details, but also these carpenters can still be assigned several skills.

I want to see the details to see what is available and with this information have some control on how I will adress partial assigment issues.

Best regards,

Rafael

Rafael,

I am afraid that do not understand your proposal.

At the moment you can create and assign resource skills even before you created resources.

At any moment you cah define the resources that have necessary skills and selecting Update content you will fill the skill assignments everywhere in your project.

One of the ways - create resource Carpenter, skill Carpenter where this resource belongs, and assign this skill to carpenter's work. Later you may replace resource Carpenter with individual resources in the skill set. All assignments of Carpenter skill will be automatically updated if you will select Update content option.

Best Regards,

Vladimir

If at some time in future you may want to get the report on each resource unit then don't assign three carpenters - assign skill Carpenter with the quantity 3. It does not matter if assignments are partial or not. In this case you will be able to replace resource Carpenters with the named carpenters very easily if necessary. It is enough to fill skills with the named resources in the Skills table and everywhere in your project Spider will select and assign certain names.

Vladimir,

Do you mean that if there is a possibility all my resources will at some point be assigned with partial workloads I shall start defining them as skills? At the expense of losing some functionality for skill assignments.

And load my activities using only skills?

And in this way I will have the details if in the future is needed.

My proposal is the following.

1. Make all resources by default non partial workload resources.
2. If you want to assign partial workload to any resource it will have to be converted into a partial workload resource. By doing so the software will expand the resource worksheet to accommodate as many child resources as needed.
3. The child resources will inherit all details from the parent resource such as calendars but these , or only some, can be now edited one by one.
4. The software will assign a code using a suffix to the parent resource code, same will happen to the name you will be able to edit latter on.
5. When you assign a partial workload resource ( Parent Resource) you will be assigning these as if a skill composed only of the Child Resources.
6. Workload resources can be assigned to skills because they are not defined as skills under the skills table.

Hope you get the idea and if make sense be able to improve on it. Look at it as a way to transmit the need but not necessarily as the solution.

Cannot live without partial assignments, this is how we assign 50% of our resources at the jobsite, the remaining we assign 100% to a single activity at any given time.

Best Regards,
Rafael

Yes but what if for some activities a Carpenter or a Carpenter Helper or a Finish Carpenter or a Finish Carpenter Helper can do the job.

We call Carpenter those who work the forms, and a Finish Carpenter those skilled to work on the installation of doors and millwork.

They all will still be needed to belong to another skill that will be composed of all these skills, skills within skills !!!

Please take another look to my previous posting as I was editing it while you answered.

If some skill consists of Carpenters and Finishing Carpenters then you will include both named carpenters and finishing carpenters in this one skill. There is no need for hierarchy.

Got it. This solves all my issues, no need for hierarchy for a few isolated cases, and even if not so isolated the partial work assigments and especially the variable partial works assigment is worth it 1000X.

Thanks, I am very happy and comfortable with the solution, from now on I will not miss any partial assignment detail.

Best regards,

Rafael