Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science
Resource Management and Cost Control WEEK-11 Resource leveling ● Resource leveling is minimizing the fluctuations in day-to-day resource use throughout the project. It is usually done by shifting noncritical activities within their available float. It attempts to make the daily use of a certain resource as uniform as possible ● According to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) Guide, resource leveling is a technique to help you better accommodate resource constraints by adjusting the start and finish dates of a project. In doing so, you can make realistic project deadlines without overworking your team and increasing the total cost of the project. ● Resource leveling is a project management technique that involves resolving over allocation or scheduling conflicts to ensure a project can be completed with the available resources. Resources include the time, materials, or tools needed to complete a project. Resource leveling ● The purpose of resource leveling is to get the most out of available resources while working within the project’s time, cost, and scope constraints. ● Resource leveling can be challenging for project managers as it requires balancing the demand for the same resources across multiple projects. ● Depending on team needs, here are possible outcomes: ● If the goal is to keep the current project deadline, more resources may need to be made available. ● If the goal is to run the project with currently available resources, the deadline of the project may be extended. ● Resource leveling adjusts resource allocation or project schedules to keep resources from being overextended. This can help maintain the quality of project outputs. Resource leveling ● The goal of the Resource Leveling is eliminating delays, failures and cost overruns, without interfering with the project’s scope, cost and time constraints. ● In Resource Leveling, the project duration, number of the resources and the completion date remains unchanged. ● Resource Leveling is closely tied to the project scheduling methods such as Critical Path Method (CPM) and Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT), which are predominantly used in construction industry. Usually, Resource Leveling is coupled with one them. ● Whereas, these scheduling techniques are interested in critical tasks and their connections to each other for completion of the project, they fail foreseeing any failures due to shortcomings. ● Resource leveling ● Resource Leveling takes advantage of float and moves tasks around in timetable with an eye on resources. Coming up with more efficient solutions for more balanced use is an area that has been attracting interest. ● For this purpose, various methods, algorithms and objective functions have been developed. The users have opportunity to select between them according to their project in order to achieve best results. ● Resource Levelling may impact critical path When to use resource leveling ● Resource leveling prevents resources from being spread too thin while ensuring projects still have what they need to succeed. This technique contributes to not only project management, but also helps maintain work-life balance for the team. Here are some reasons why your team can benefit from resource leveling. To optimize your resources ● Resource leveling lets you get the most out of the resources you have on hand. It helps you assess which projects should receive additional resources and which ones are flexible in terms of deadlines. To minimize deficits ● Resource leveling prevents significant project delays, thereby minimizing the losses in costs and labor. This technique allows you to manage the resource demand without exceeding the company’s current capacity and financial resources. When to use resource leveling To prevent task overloading ● Overallocation of resources leads to overwork, which can be overwhelming for team members. Resource leveling prevents this by resolving over allocation issues and adjusting deadlines to ensure team members don’t have too much on their plates.
To ensure the quality of a project output
● Leveling allows you to manage both resources and client expectations by maintaining the same level of quality for project deliverables. In general, resource leveling can be a useful technique for resolving budget issues, resource overallocation, and project delays. resource leveling strategies ● Critical Path Method (CPM) ● The critical path method is a common resource leveling technique that’s used to calculate project duration without taking resource limitations into account. ● Fast tracking There are times when projects must be delivered on or before the deadline to satisfy client requirements. In those cases, you can use fast tracking to run multiple parallel tasks to speed up the project. This schedule compression technique can only work if the activities can be overlapped with one another to a certain extent. Crashing When fast tracking can’t be applied or it’s not effective enough, you can implement the crashing technique. This is where additional resources are allocated to a project to shorten the timeline. In this case, you have to assess the needs of high-priority tasks and look for resource options that provide the most value at the least cost. resource leveling strategies Critical chain method The critical chain method is an updated version of the critical path method. Unlike the critical path method, the critical chain method takes resource limitations into account. In this case, the critical chain refers to the longest path of tasks, taking into account both task and resource dependencies. A resource can only be allocated to one task at a time. resource Smoothing Resource smoothing is a project management technique used to ensure that resources are utilized as efficiently as possible without exceeding predefined limits. It aims to minimize the fluctuations in resource allocation while maintaining the project's deadlines and critical path.
Key Concepts 1. Resource Allocation: ○ Resources include people, equipment, materials, or any other assets required to complete project tasks. ○ Effective resource allocation ensures that the right resources are available at the right time and in the right quantities. resource Smoothing Fluctuations in Resource Usage:
● Projects often experience peaks and troughs in resource demand, leading to periods of under-utilization or over-utilization. ● Such fluctuations can lead to inefficiencies, increased costs, and delays.
Resource Limits:
● These are constraints on the availability of resources. For example, there might be a limited number of workers or equipment available at any given time. resource Smoothing Benefits of Resource Smoothing ● Enhanced Efficiency: ○ Reduces periods of idleness and overwork, leading to more consistent productivity levels. ● Cost Management: ○ Minimizes overtime and the need for temporary resources, thus controlling project costs. ● Improved Morale: ○ Helps prevent burnout by avoiding excessive workloads on team members. ● Resource Availability: ○ Ensures resources are used optimally and are available when needed without unnecessary downtime. Resource leveling vs. smoothing Difference between Resource leveling vs. smoothing Resource Smoothing Objective:
● To ensure resource usage is as uniform as possible without changing the project's overall duration or critical path.
Constraints:
● The project end date and the critical path cannot be altered. ● Tasks can only be moved within their available float/slack time.
Key Characteristics:
● Focuses on minimizing fluctuations in resource usage.
● Adjusts start and end dates of tasks to smooth resource allocation. ● Maintains the original project schedule. Difference between Resource leveling vs. smoothing Resource Leveling Objective:
● To resolve resource overallocation by adjusting the project schedule.
Constraints:
● The project duration and critical path can be altered.
● Tasks can be delayed beyond their float/slack time if necessary.
Key Characteristics:
● Focuses on resolving resource conflicts and over-allocation issues.
● May extend the project duration to ensure resources are not over-committed. ● Prioritizes resource constraints over schedule constraints. Difference between Resource leveling vs. smoothing Resource Scheduling Resource Scheduling Resource Scheduling Any questions?
