21 Feb Resource Loading: Man-Power and Man-Hour
We have had this type of discussion around resource loading a few years ago but it reared its head again recently on one of the Projects that we recently reviewed. In this practice:
- Management requests the loading of all resources that are assigned to the Project into the Schedule so as to be able to manage them all!
- The planner retorts, I will load all the man-power and man-hours into the Schedule!
At that point in time, these two ideas seemed excellent and every Project should implement. Then, the planner starts with resource loading after the completion of the resource pool. For example, for the activity: Welding of Feed water line, he/she adds the following resources to the activity:
Thereafter, he/she presents the above to the team and say all man-powers are assigned and man-hours are calculated! Everyone gets impressed by this practice and for a few weeks/months it is all happiness.. Moving forward, the Planner realizes that the Budgeted units are too high to be acceptable. Therefore, he/ she comes up with a new trick. In this trick, the budgeted units/time get added in percentage form.
Another trick is that the Planner, he/she enters a random number for budgeted units/time!
These types of practices are wrong, absurd and a mockery on Projects. As we have illustrated in many posts and articles, Resource Loading requires data, calculations, norms, correct settings, assumptions, etc. and cannot be done by playing the numbers / settings in the software. When resource loading is incorrectly undertaken, most likely, the Planned Curves will be wrong, if the software gets utilized for progress calculation, the actual progress will also be wrong, etc. So, what is the chance of any Project being successful with these types of planning systems! The situation gets worse when the PM and/or management team never realize what the real issue is which led to the Project failure.
If you believe above practices are correct, then continue with it. But if you want to learn resource loading in depth and detail then contact us: ifno@khonopc.com
Naveen Lopes
Posted at 06:31h, 22 FebruaryI think that Resource loading needs to be based on estimates. In the above activity of feed water line welding, its a good practice to enter the estimate of each resource as per the estimate, for example, the crane may not be required for 192 hours for the activity. so entering the estimated budgeted hours of the crane will give better picture of progress. Thanks
admin
Posted at 11:25h, 23 FebruaryThanks Naveen for the comment,
That’s correct. Also, due to complexity (or might be simplicity!) of the software, any planner should know what is the meaning of Budgeted Unit, Unit/Time and what setting is the right one as per the project scope of work. Obviously, when a planner adds a crane with 192 hours, it indicates that he/she did nit know the concept. Also, assigning Driver, Safety office, etc. is wrong practice.
Naveen Lopes
Posted at 06:31h, 22 FebruaryI think that Resource loading needs to be based on estimates. In the above activity of feed water line welding, its a good practice to enter the estimate of each resource as per the estimate, for example, the crane may not be required for 192 hours for the activity. so entering the estimated budgeted hours of the crane will give better picture of progress. Thanks