Is there away to assign equipment to a task as a resource, without it changing the duration or work hours? For example if a resource "bob" is working on a task, and he needs "welder 1" for the whole task. I've tried doing it a couple ways, and it always messes up my hours and duration. Prjoect wants to assign the welder in a way that it is actually doing work. Is there any other way to do this?
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assigning equipment to tasks 2
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The problem with switching a resource to a material is that it won't show overallocation probems. Unless I'm doing something wrong, I believe you can assign a material to mutltiple tasks occuring at the same time and the program won't see it as a problem.
I guess if I want to assign equipment I just have to change the work hours and treat the piece of equipment like another person.
I guess if I want to assign equipment I just have to change the work hours and treat the piece of equipment like another person.
Your second statement is quite different from the problem you reported.
You are correct that you won't see overallocations on materials. It appears to me that "material" is intended to refer to discrete objects assigned to a specific task rather than as a resource to be shared among multiple tasks. Material, then, is 20 cu yd of gravel for the task (concrete foundation) rather than table saw used on multiple tasks.
You are correct that you won't see overallocations on materials. It appears to me that "material" is intended to refer to discrete objects assigned to a specific task rather than as a resource to be shared among multiple tasks. Material, then, is 20 cu yd of gravel for the task (concrete foundation) rather than table saw used on multiple tasks.
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yes that is my understanding of how material works, which is fine.
I guess I just have to get used to the fact that project treats equipment the same as an employee becuase equipment does work. I wish that I could just assign "welder 1" to a task without it contributing actual work, while at the same time being 100% allocated to that task. This way project would notify me if I had the welder assigned to two jobs at the same time.
Here's an example of my problem. Say I have a task, we'll call metal repair. metal repair will take 40hrs of actual work, so duration should show as 1 week. (I manage a car restoration biz, so everything is calculated in hours.) If I assign "bob" to this task at 100% it still takes 40hrs or one week. Now if I assign "welder 1" at 100%, which he obviously needs to do the job, project cuts the duration in half. This is not accurate because the job will still take 40hrs, but it requires both "bob" and "welder 1" working full time.
The only way I can see to fix this is to accept that I have to double the amount of work needed on a given task if I want to track equipment usage. Am I missing something?
Thanks!
I guess I just have to get used to the fact that project treats equipment the same as an employee becuase equipment does work. I wish that I could just assign "welder 1" to a task without it contributing actual work, while at the same time being 100% allocated to that task. This way project would notify me if I had the welder assigned to two jobs at the same time.
Here's an example of my problem. Say I have a task, we'll call metal repair. metal repair will take 40hrs of actual work, so duration should show as 1 week. (I manage a car restoration biz, so everything is calculated in hours.) If I assign "bob" to this task at 100% it still takes 40hrs or one week. Now if I assign "welder 1" at 100%, which he obviously needs to do the job, project cuts the duration in half. This is not accurate because the job will still take 40hrs, but it requires both "bob" and "welder 1" working full time.
The only way I can see to fix this is to accept that I have to double the amount of work needed on a given task if I want to track equipment usage. Am I missing something?
Thanks!
I think you have having some issues understanding the underlying relationship between work, resource units and duration.
I've written about this on a variety of occasions. Read these four threads looking for my discussions about those three elements.
Check them out here, here, here and here
Sorry, just don't have the time to pull the exact specific portions of my answers that I think you need to learn about and understand.
If you don't think that has answered your question then let me know.
I've written about this on a variety of occasions. Read these four threads looking for my discussions about those three elements.
Check them out here, here, here and here
Sorry, just don't have the time to pull the exact specific portions of my answers that I think you need to learn about and understand.
If you don't think that has answered your question then let me know.
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- #7
Seems you've explained this relationship many times before! I'd like to think I have a pretty good understanding of the work/units/duration relationship as I use it many times a day. I think maybe I'm just not explaining my point correctly, which I think is a very simple point. I'll try again here, and maybe I am totally wrong.
If you create a resource that is equipment not a person, project still treats this equipment as "doing work." Which is why you select "work" as the resource type in the resource field. Which, is in fact, the same setting you would give a person resource. You can set any of the three key elements to fixed and change whatever else you want, but that piece of equipment is still designated as a "work" type resource. So, yes you can make your duration as long as it should be, and yes you can change units, or work or whatever. The problem here in my eyes is that project treats an equipment resource the same as a person resource.
Here's another example... We have jigs that hold a car while we work on them. The jig obviously has to be there for the duration of the work, however long that may be. To me, it's not doing work, it's just sitting there. However, I'd still like to track it's whereabouts so that I don't schedule it to 2 cars at once. (which rules out using it as a material.) I can certainly assign the jig, and set everything so that duration and units are correct, but now the amount of work required has gone up (doubled) when it really hasn't...since to me the jig isn't doing anything.
I think this makes sense...I hope I'm not completely wrong here, but I certainly could be.
If you create a resource that is equipment not a person, project still treats this equipment as "doing work." Which is why you select "work" as the resource type in the resource field. Which, is in fact, the same setting you would give a person resource. You can set any of the three key elements to fixed and change whatever else you want, but that piece of equipment is still designated as a "work" type resource. So, yes you can make your duration as long as it should be, and yes you can change units, or work or whatever. The problem here in my eyes is that project treats an equipment resource the same as a person resource.
Here's another example... We have jigs that hold a car while we work on them. The jig obviously has to be there for the duration of the work, however long that may be. To me, it's not doing work, it's just sitting there. However, I'd still like to track it's whereabouts so that I don't schedule it to 2 cars at once. (which rules out using it as a material.) I can certainly assign the jig, and set everything so that duration and units are correct, but now the amount of work required has gone up (doubled) when it really hasn't...since to me the jig isn't doing anything.
I think this makes sense...I hope I'm not completely wrong here, but I certainly could be.
You've expressed yourself very clearly.
I think this is a philosophy type of question. There's no easy answer for your situation. It seems, to me, that you're (especially with the jig example) trying to use Project as both a project scheduler and as an inventory controller. Now, I know, the situation can be well argued from your perspective, too, since the jig can also be seen as a resource and should, therefore, show an overallocation when two tasks (in the same or different projects of a master project) are scheduled to use the same jig simultaneously.
I just don't see any built-in way to easily see what (i.e. overallocation) is happening.
As a workaround:
Turn "autofilter" (the button with the funnel icon) on
View > Resource usage
Display the Type column
Autofilter on "Type" and select Material
I think this is a philosophy type of question. There's no easy answer for your situation. It seems, to me, that you're (especially with the jig example) trying to use Project as both a project scheduler and as an inventory controller. Now, I know, the situation can be well argued from your perspective, too, since the jig can also be seen as a resource and should, therefore, show an overallocation when two tasks (in the same or different projects of a master project) are scheduled to use the same jig simultaneously.
I just don't see any built-in way to easily see what (i.e. overallocation) is happening.
As a workaround:
Turn "autofilter" (the button with the funnel icon) on
View > Resource usage
Display the Type column
Autofilter on "Type" and select Material
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- #9
Well I feel better knowing that I'm not just totally missing something! I figured this was the case, so I'll be sure to let you know if I find a better way.
Thanks very much for you help, you certainly know what you're doing.
thanks again!
Thanks very much for you help, you certainly know what you're doing.
thanks again!
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Your welder/Jig/crane etc... may not be a human resource but they are still tied up and allocated to the job.
If the jig is tied up for 40 hours and the fitter is repairing on and off over the week for say 25 hours.
Then the jig is still unavailable for the week.
If your looking at billable man hours then you can create a resource group and with the use of filtering and grouping you can get a cost/manhour breakdown. This way I can see both requirements being satisfied.
Just another way of looking at it.
If the jig is tied up for 40 hours and the fitter is repairing on and off over the week for say 25 hours.
Then the jig is still unavailable for the week.
If your looking at billable man hours then you can create a resource group and with the use of filtering and grouping you can get a cost/manhour breakdown. This way I can see both requirements being satisfied.
Just another way of looking at it.
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