MODULE: EAT 340: PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT

TECHNIQUES.

LESSON 10: RESOURCE PLANNING & SCHEDULING

910.1 INTRODUCTION.

Effective project management, as you have seen in previous lessons, means

completing projects on time, within budget, and such that quality requirements
are met. This requires a thorough analysis of the resources required to
complete all the project activities, a sufficiently accurate estimate of the cost
of those resources, and a clear understanding of the availability of the
resources. The outputs of this analysis may be used to establish the schedule
of activities and also to determine the overall cost of the project.

If resources are not identified soon enough, they might not be available when
required and so delay the overall completion of the project. This will damage
the reputation of the organisation and may result in penalty charges.

In the previous 2 lessons we have considered activity sequencing and

scheduling, culminating in a study of the critical path method. Now we turn
our attention to how resources may be allocated to each task to ensure timely
completion of the project. In doing so, we learn how we can “smooth”
demand on limited resources by (for instance) exploiting activity float (i.e.
slackness). Effective resource planning is therefore vital to successful project
management and it is to that topic that we turn in this lesson.

10.2 YOUR AIMS.

On completion of this lesson you should be able to:

 Understand the process of resource scheduling.

 Be able to compile a simple resource histogram.
 Integrate resource planning methodology with activity sequencing &
scheduling techniques.
 Perform resource scheduling and smoothing exercises
10.3 STUDY ADVICE.

The core material for the lesson is to be found in Chapters 13 of the module
text by Burke. You should read the module text as directed and complete all
the in text exercises and Self Assessed Questions. Also make use of the
supporting PowerPoint presentation.

*You should now read Chapter 13 of the module text, taking care to
follow the tables and in particular to understand the construction and
use of the resource histogram.
10.4 RESOURCE ESTIMATING, FORECASTING & AVAILABILITY.

Pay particular attention to the introductory remarks of Burke, Chapter 13 and

then answer the following SAQs:

SAQ 1: How does Burke define (i) Resource and (ii) Resource Planning

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SAQ 2: At what stage in the overall sequencing/scheduling process should

resource constraints be considered?

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Note that Burke firmly bases his consideration of resource planning on

resource estimating. He immediately introduces considerations of resource
availability or capacity and considers how different resource capacity might
directly influence the elapsed time to complete an activity. He then points to
the need to forecast the resource requirements by activity and discipline (i.e.
how many machines and/or people will be required for each activity and for
how long).

Ensure that you can freely convert between (i) Resource tables, (ii) Gantt
charts showing resource requirements and (ii) Resource histograms (e.g. see
Burke, Section 2).

Finally, be aware of the constraints placed upon project progress by

availability (or more importantly, unavailability) of resources (also see section
10.6, this document).
10.5 RESOURCE SMOOTHING

The focus in resource planning is on where and when resources will be

required. Identified resource requirements are then compared with resource
capacity, which will lead to a consideration of resource availability, loading,
smoothing, scheduling and controlling. The objective is to bring the project in
on time whilst making the most efficient use of resources.

Your attention is particularly directed to Sections 4, 5 & 6. Here Burke shows

how the Gantt chart and Resource Histogram are used to compare
requirements with capacity and to use float in making appropriate
adjustments. You may wish to revise some fundamental aspects of Gantt
Charts, in particular the representation of float (Burke, Chapter 11), before
proceeding. In Section 5 for example, a Gantt chart and its associated
resource histogram are shown. Satisfy yourself that you understand clearly
the relationships between the two parts of this diagram (i.e. between the
Gantt chart and the resource histogram). The following SAQ (SAQ 3) is a
reworked example, similar to that shown in Burke, Section 4, but with a
corrected resource table.

SAQ 3: Consider the following employee (resource) table.

Employees
Float Early Start Duration Required
Activity (Days) Date (Day) (Days) (per Day)
A1 0 1 2 2
A2 2 3 2 2
A3 0 3 2 6
A4 2 5 2 3
A5 0 5 4 1
A6 0 9 1 2

For the duration of this particular project your “resource constraint”

is that you are limited to 6 employees per day.

(a) Construct the associated Gantt chart, showing (i) any activity float and
(ii) resource requirements superimposed on each activity

(b) Construct a resource histogram based on (i) early starts, and (ii) late
starts.

(c) Comment on your findings with respect to the “smoothing” of daily

resource requirements.
SAQ 3 (continued):

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 10.6 RESOURCE SCHEDULING CONSTRAINTS

What constraints exist with respect to resources? In general, projects can be

“time-limited” or “resource-limited” or perhaps both.

10.6.1 Time-Limited Resource Scheduling

When a project is running late and the planned end date cannot be
exceeded, it is necessary to accelerate the project (see also Lesson 10:
Project Acceleration). For the purposes of this lesson, all we need to
understand is that we can accelerate the project by allocating additional
resources to it.
Resources

Planned
Resources Apply
Time-
Additional Limited
Resources

Time
Planned
End-Date

In the above example, because the end date is inflexible, the resource
availability must be flexible to accommodate the constraint.

10.6.2 Resource-Limited Resource Scheduling

In this example, because the resource availability is inflexible, the end-date

must be flexible to accommodate the constraint.

When a project cannot secure sufficient resources to finish by the planned

end date (usually because the planned resources become unavailable), the
project is almost certainly going to run late.

This situation may be depicted:

 Resources
Resource-
Limited

Planned
Resources
Extend
End
Date

Time
Planned
End-Date

10.6.3 Time- AND Resource-Limited Resource Scheduling

If insufficient resources are available to complete the project on time AND the
project end date cannot be moved then, as Burke says, something must give.
This type of situation is not supportable.

SAQ 4: How might you increase the resources available to a project?

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There are sometimes situations in which resources are under-loaded or

under-utilised. This leads us to the next SAQ:
SAQ 5: How might you decrease the resources available to a project?

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SAQ 6: What is resource smoothing? Which resources might you focus on

first in smoothing the resource load?

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10.7 ANSWERS TO SELF-ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS.

SAQ 1:
(i) A resource is the machine or person who will perform the scope of work.

(ii) Resource Planning is defined as a forecast of the resources required to

perform the scope of work within the time-plan.

SAQ 2:
The resource constraint should be considered after having constructed the
network diagram, schedule Gantt chart and procurement schedule, but before
the cash-flow statement.

SAQ 3:
(a) The completed Gantt Chart should appear as shown:

Activity Day
Number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
A1 2 2
A2 2 2
A3 6 6
A4 3 3
A5 1 1 1 1
A6 2

Total Resources 2 2 8 8 4 4 1 1 2

In this Gantt chart, float is shown for Activities A2 (2 days) and A4 (2 days).
Resource loadings are shown directly on activities.

(b) Activities A2 and A4 have a degree of float, so can be scheduled flexibly

within this float. The Early Start scenario leads to daily resource requirements
as shown in the resource histogram below (reproduced from Burke):
The Late Start scenario leads to different daily resource requirements as
shown in the resource histogram (together with revised Gantt Chart) below:

(c) The discussion should centre on the “resource smoothing” effect which
can be achieved by moving activities within their float. If this mechanism is
not sufficient, other remedies must be sought to balance available and
required resources.

SAQ 4:

 Working Overtime
 Working Shifts
 Increase Productivity
 Job and Knock
 Learning Curve
 Sub-Contractors
 Scope of Work.
SAQ 5:

Burke suggests that when the resources are under-loaded, or under-utilised

there are a number of options for reducing the available resources including
the following.

 Move unemployed resources to critical activities.

 Move unemployed resources to fill-in jobs that either have a resale

value or can be used by the company, e.g. building a spec house.

 Hire out resources internally or externally - the hire rate can be

competitively reduced to at least make a contribution to their salary.

 Pre-manufacture to make components before they are needed.

However, check the trade-off between resource utilisation and the
additional cost of the trial assembly, disassembly and handling.

 Maintenance of equipment during slack periods.

 Train your workforce during slack periods to gain new skills, which will
make them more productive and flexible in the future.

 Send the under-utilised workforce on leave.

Burke reminds us that the profit of a company in the long term is likely to
depend directly on the efficient utilisation of its resources.

SAQ 7:

Resource Smoothing is the process of moving activities to improve the

resource loading profile. To decide which resource to smooth, consider:

 The resource that is most overloaded.

 The resource that is most used on the project.

 The least flexible resource - this could be the resource that comes
from overseas, is difficult to get hold of or is least available.

 The most expensive resource to hire.

10.8 LESSON SUMMARY.

In this lesson we have acknowledged the importance of resource planning as

a basis for costing a project and matching resource requirements and
availability. We have considered the nature of resources and resource
scheduling. We have in particular reviewed the Resource Histogram as an aid
to planning.