Hi Sajit
while I have not generated a project on Primavera, I have used a number of
other programming packages. In my opinion most of them are, or at least
were, garbage.
MS Project, for example, could not easily handle generating a program to
meet a future immovable deadline, although I have been told this major
deficiency has been fixed.
Another common failure is an updating feature which increases or decreases
projected task manning levels as tasks slip or run ahead of the time
allocated in the original estimate.
However many of the packages can overcome your problem by adjusting the
available working hrs/day or days/week.
For example if your workforce workman normally works 6 X 8 hr per week, and
you are working on two equal effort concurrent jobs, then you can make the
available time per job as either 6 X 4hr or 3 X 8hr, less a bit if changing
over is required. Alternatively you can allocate workmen on an individual
basis (e.g. Joe and Fred on job#1 and Jacques and Paul on job#2 - I would
probably allow a bit more time for Jacques and Paul as they are a bit lazy).
All the packages that I have used permit the addition of holidays.
It sounds like you should have a look at MS Project as can (sort of) handle most of your concerns. I use it for planning, but tend to spreadsheets for detail work because I find it easier to force an outcome. Perhaps there are some hidden features in Primavera that you are not aware of.
It is a very unusual project that has an up-to-date proactive program at job completion; after about a month most wind up in the bin, and some poor soul merely updates the official program to reflect progress, or lack thereof, instead of using the program to force the pace.
Cheers
Steve McKenzie
-----Original Message-----
From: Sajit Viswan [mailto:sviswan@tebodin.co.om]
Sent: Sunday, December 28, 2003 7:54 PM
To: PipingDesign@yahoogroups. com
Subject: [PipingDesign] Multi-Job Scheduling
Dear Group,
The company that I work for does several small piping jobs concurrently. The planning schedule is made on a job-independent basis with no connection to other jobs that have to be done during the same period. The management 'mantra' that I am given is that, it is my job to assess the resource allocation. The schedule is made on 'Primavera'.
My contention is this. When it takes 'Primavera' to arrive at a schedule, why is that no significance is given to the effort to manage time between jobs. The job schedule is based on merely the connectivities within the job. The connectivities are for example, the finish of PID approval for the start of the Piping layouts. I think it is much more a complex task to plan several activities of about 10+ concurrently running jobs without any software aid. The holiday schedules of personnel being yet another constraint.
By having merely a job-independent schedule, what is arrived is also an unrealistic one. The other reasoning given is that the client project engineer wishes to see only the schedule of the job that he handles and not the inter-dependencies of other jobs. Despite the fact that the other jobs also belong to the same client.
Sajit
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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