How does resource scheduling reduce flexibility in managing projects?
For resource-constrained projects, resource scheduling (leveling) reduces flexibility
because (after leveling) slack is reduced and the amount of critical/near-critical
activities increases; therefore, the number of CP’s may also increase.
Further, scheduling complexity increases due to the fact that resource
constraints are ADDED to technical constraints. The original CP concept
can loose its meaning because the sequence of activities can become unclear.
Activities with slack on a time-constrained network can change from critical
to noncritical on a resource-constrained network; conversely, some previous
critical activities can become noncritical with slack.
Present six reasons scheduling resources is an important task.
allows project managers to assess availability of resources:
some may not be available at all times. Ex. An engineer working on
several other projects
will have to be scheduled for availability.
allows multiple projects to be worked on concurrently
if they share some/all of the same resources.
allow project managers to control costs: for certain
resource-constrained projects, money can be a resource. Ex. Lead time
or shipping costs
can be reduced if adequate slack is given to procurement activities.
One
may reduce shipping costs by requesting Ground delivery as opposed
to Air Freight.
allow project managers to assess how much flexibility
they have over certain resources. Ex. Borrowing resources from another
project.
allow Project managers to assign work to human resources
allow project managers to gauge the impact of unforeseen
events: Ex. Employee turnover, equipment breakdown, shipping delays
allow project managers the ability to create time-phased
work-package budgets with dates
How can outsourcing project work alleviate the three most common problems associated
with multi-project resource scheduling?
reduce the number of projects the company has to manage
internally; allows company to concentrate only on core projects
specific segments of a project are outsourced because
internal resources (ex. human resources) lack a certain skill or
the internal project team’s
time is limited
responsibility/liability maneuver: this is true at
our company. Certain projects, which can be done in-house efficiently,
are often outsourced
so that someone else carries the liability. Ex. High-Voltage
electrical work, which can be done by in-house electricians are, instead
contracted
out due to the safety/liability issue. This reduces the risk
insurance the company has to carry on its own employees. Even for many
menial
tasks, our company seems to be following the popular trend of
outsourcing. The
liability issue doesn’t just include safety. It can include
downtime costs, too. For example, if an in-house technician worked
on a
small project and things didn’t go so smoothly (i.e., production
downtime was the result), the company has no recourse. However, if
the same
small
project was done by an outside contractor, the company could
hold them liable for the downtime costs. Finally (and I’ve mentioned
this
before),
our company has two different operating budgets. All outsourced
contracting
costs are tapped
from a different budget than in-house work. The in-house budget
are usually depleted long before the end of the fiscal year
(as long
as I’ve worked
there, anyway), so the capital-improvement budget is utilized.
