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For managing a project, there are various activities which have to be performed in some order. This was explained in Net-Working Techniques. There were some activities which were considered critical and hence cannot be postponed or delayed. While some other, non-critical activities, can be slipped or postponed within a slack-time. So far we have been discussing planning. The next phase would be implementing which is covered by Resource-Management. This is subject matter of this paper.
What is a resource?
Resource is a generic word and is used in various ways. For our discussion, we would restrict it to 4Ms or Man, Machine, Material and Money.
What is management?
Once again, Management is a generic word. To simplify, it is a process of planning, implementing and controlling the resources to achieve desired objectives. input : Output Ratio
and machines would be required. We would further estimate cost of furniture and gadgets for the room such as white-board, multimedia, clock, air-conditioners and tube- lights. Resource Loading is assigning resources to activities. It is the same as budget but broken down in terms of activities like (a) get approval of building extension, (b) lay foundations, (c) build super-structure, (d) put on a roof, (e) plaster the walls and (g) complete finishing. The money, men, materials and machines, as given in the budget, would be re-distributed in terms of activities. To sum up, Resource Loading is the process of assigning resources for each and every activity required for the project.
A question?
Gantt Chart
Just a cursory glance on the question would reveal that activity B has five days and needs two workers each day. Before B finishes, C & D would also start and labor requirements would exceed the availability. So we need some re-scheduling. Before, we can attempt it, we need to find out which activities are critical and which are not. For this purpose, we would draw a Gantt Chart as follows:
We observe that B & E activities are on the critical path. Moving them would increase the total duration beyond seven days. We mark them red. We can now insert labor and get the following picture:
It is evident that on third day, we would experience shortage of two workers while on the last day, two workers would be surplus. If we can make necessary adjustment, we would level or smooth out the excesses and shortages. Obviously, activities B & E cannot be moved. Moving A would not solve the problem as its shift would affect start of linked activities C & D. Even if there was no such linkage, moving A would not make any difference. This leaves C & D. We can move C for two days as there is free float for the same period. But it would result in increase of labor requirement for the subsequent period. So moving D for one day is cure-all. The revised Gantt Chart would appear as follows:
A QUESTION ON SPLITTING?
The following chart shows: (i) Resource Loading, (ii) Critical Activities and (iii) Slack available against non-critical activities.
RESOURCE LOADING
We can easily split activities U & X within the available slack as would be observed from the following:
LEVELED
A chicken feed?
So far examples have been kept simple to make it easy to grasp the subject. In real life, there are not 5 to 6 activities but in hundreds. For the sake of convenience, a project is divided into sub-projects and even further into tasks. Even than, things do no get as simple as that. Try to solve the following question on your own and then consult the solution. I am sure it would NOT be a chicken feed this time.
A tricky question
SOLUTION
Both resource loading and leveling charts are given below: It would be observed that in one case the an activity had to be adjusted within its Total Float (Late Finish - Early Start Duration). Please note there can many solution not just one. The aim is to compelete the project within the given time through a logical adjustment.