Resources

Resource Loading and Leveling

Resource loading, time-constrained leveling and resource-constrained scheduling of an activity network pasted as text in the Project Schedule format with per-activity resource demands (Crew:2, Tech:1). The critical path method gives the early and late schedule; the early-start resource histogram of every resource is compared with its availability and the over-allocated days are listed. Leveling shifts activities within their float by the Burgess and Killebrew (1962) sum-of-squares criterion, successors moved forward where a shift requires it, until no move lowers the sum of squares, and on small networks the exact optimum found by enumeration is printed as the bound. Where the conflicts cannot be removed within float, a serial or parallel schedule-generation scheme (Kelley 1963, Kolisch 1996) with a chosen priority rule builds a resource-feasible schedule and reports the project extension, with the exact makespan by enumeration on networks of up to twelve activities; a deadline, time-phased availability, a working-day calendar with dates and resource rates for the time-phased cost baseline (the cumulative cost curve for earned value) are included. The default case is an illustrative 12-activity building project with a crew of 4 and 2 technicians: the early schedule needs 6 crew and 4 technicians, leveling brings the crew within its limit without extending the 27-day project, and the technician conflict between two critical activities extends the resource-feasible schedule to 30 days, the exact optimum.

1 worked example reproduced, listed on the tool page.

Crew Productivity and Labor Estimating

Labor-hour and cost estimate of a work breakdown from crew productivity: each task has a quantity, a crew and an output per crew-hour (or labor hours per unit), and the crew-hours are adjusted by the production conditions (the NAVEDTRA 14043 production efficiency rating and its delay factor, weather, congestion, shift, altitude or heat, an entered overtime efficiency and a unit learning curve with an entered slope) before the crew-hour cost build-up (trades, wages, burden, equipment at ownership-and-operating rates) prices them. The schedule is a finish-to-start chain of the task durations with a bar chart, the daily labor histogram and the cumulative hours and cost curves; the overtime premium follows the UFC 3-740-05 hours-paid method for one-shift weeks; an optional equipment hourly rate build-up follows EP 1110-1-8 (depreciation, cost of money, fuel, filters-oil-grease, repair, tires, standby); and installed quantities with actual hours give earned hours, the productivity factor and the estimate at completion. Money is one currency throughout. The default is an illustrative five-task concrete foundation estimate with an excavation crew and a concrete crew.

1 worked example reproduced, listed on the tool page.

Other Project Management sections

Schedule · Cost · Risk · Contracts and Claims