Assignment of resources
The assignment of resources is one of the program's most important features,
and can be carried out in two different ways:
- Specific assignment.
- Generic assignment.
Both types of assignment are explained in the following sections.
To carry out either of the two types of resource assignment, the following
steps are necessary:
- Go to the planning of an order.
- Right click on the task to be planned.
- The program shows a screen in which the following information can be viewed:
- List of criteria that must be fulfilled. For each hour group, a list of
hour groups is shown, each of which requires a list of criteria.
- Task information: start and end date of the task.
- Type of calculation: The system allows users to choose the strategy to
be used to calculate assignments:
- Calculate number of hours: This calculates the number of hours
required to be devoted to the assigned resources, which are given an
end date and a resource number per day.
- Calculate end date: This calculates the end date of the task based on
the number of task resources and the total number of hours to finish
the task.
- Calculate number of resources: This calculates the number of resources
required to finish the task on a specific date and devotes a known
number of hours to them.
- Recommended assignment: This option allows the program to gather
criteria that must be fulfilled and the total number of hours from all
hour groups, and then recommends a generic assignment. If there was
a prior assignment, the system deletes it and replaces it with the new
one.
- Assignments: A list of assignments that have been carried out. This list
shows the generic assignments (the number will be the list of fulfilled
criteria, and the number of hours and resources per day). Every
assignment carried out can be explicitly removed by clicking the delete
button.
- Users select "Search resources".
- The program shows a new screen consisting of a criteria tree and a list to
the right of workers that fulfil the selected criteria:
- Users can select:
- Specific assignment. See the "Specific assignment" section to find out
what is involved when choosing this option.
- Generic assignment. See the "Generic assignment" section to find out
what is involved when choosing this option.
- Users select a list of criteria (generic) or a list of workers (specific).
A multiple-choice selection is performed by pressing the "Ctrl" button
when clicking each worker/criterion.
- Users then click the "Select" button. It is important to remember that if
a generic assignment is not marked, users need to choose a worker or
machine to perform an assignment. If this is not done, it is sufficient
for users to choose one or several criteria.
- The program then shows the selected criteria or resource list on the list
of assignments from the original resource assignment screen.
- Users must choose the hours or resources per day depending on the
assignment method used on the program.
This is the specific assignment of a resource to a project task, i.e. the
user decides which specific "name and surname(s)" or "machine" must be
assigned to a task.
Specific assignment can be carried out on the screen shown in this image:
When a resource is specifically assigned, the program creates daily
assignments in relation to the percentage of daily assigned resources
selected, by previously comparing it with the available resource calendar.
For example, an assignment of 0.5 resources for a 32-hour task means that
4 hours per day are assigned to the specific resource to fulfil the
task (supposing a working calendar of 8 hours per day).
Specific machine assignment functions in the same way as that for workers.
When a machine is assigned a task, the system stores a specific assignment
of hours for the chosen machine. The main difference is that the system
searches the list of assigned workers or criteria at the moment the machine
is assigned:
- If the machine has a list of assigned workers, the program chooses from
those that are required by the machine for the assigned calendar. For
example, if the machine calendar is 16 hours per day and the resource
calendar is 8 hours, two resources are assigned from the list of available
resources.
- If the machine has one or several assigned criteria, generic assignments
are carried out from among the resources that fulfil the criteria assigned
to the machine.
Generic assignment occurs when users do not choose resources specifically,
but leave the decision to the program, which distributes the loads among the
company's available resources.
The assignment system uses the following assumptions as a basis:
- Tasks have criteria that are required from resources.
- Resources are configured to fulfil criteria.
However, the system does not fail when criteria have not been assigned, but
when all resources fulfil the non-requirement of criteria.
The generic assignment algorithm functions in the following way:
- All resources and days are treated as containers where daily assignment of
hours fit, based on the maximum assignment capacity in the task calendar.
- The system searches for the resources that fulfil the criterion.
- The system analyses which assignments currently have different resources
that fulfil criteria.
- The resources that fulfil the criteria are chosen from those that have
sufficient availability.
- If freer resources are not available, assignments are made to the
resources that have less availability.
- Over-assignment of resources only starts when all the resources that
fulfil the respective criteria are 100% assigned until the total amount
required to carry out the task is attained.
Generic machine assignment functions in the same way as worker assignment.
For example, when a machine is assigned to a task, the system stores
a generic assignment of hours for all machines that fulfil the criteria as
described for the resources in general. However, in addition, the system
performs the following procedure for machines:
- For all machines chosen for generic assignment:
- It collects the machine's configuration information: alpha value,
assigned workers and criteria.
- If the machine has an assigned list of workers, the program chooses the
number required by the machine depending on the assigned calendar. For
example, if the machine calendar is 16 hours per day and the resource
calendar is 8 hours, the program assigns two resources from the list of
available resources.
- If the machine has one or several assigned criteria, the program makes
generic assignments from among the resources that fulfil the criteria
assigned to the machine.
Advanced assignments allow users to design assignments that are
automatically carried out by the application in order to personalise them.
This procedure allows users to manually choose the daily hours that are
dedicated by resources to tasks that are assigned or define a function that
is applied to the assignment.
The steps to follow in order to manage advanced assignments are:
- Go to the advanced assignment window. There are two ways to access advanced assignments:
- Go to a specific order and change the view to advanced assignment. In
this case, all the tasks on the order and assigned resources (specific
and generic) will be shown.
- Go to the resource assignment window by clicking the "Advanced
assignment" button. In this case, the assignments that show the
resources (generic and specific) assigned for a task will be shown.
- Users can choose the required zoom level they want:
- If the chosen zoom is more than one day. If users change the assigned
hour value to a week, month, four-month or six-month period, the system
distributes the hours lineally for all days throughout the chosen
period.
- If the chosen zoom is one day. If users change the assigned hour value
to a day, these hours only apply to a day. Consequently, users can
decide how many hours they want to assign per day to task resources.
- Users can choose to design an advanced assignment function. In order to do so, users have to:
- Choose the function on the selection list that appears at the side of
each resource and click "Configure".
- The system shows a new window if the chosen function needs to be
specifically configured. Supported functions:
- Segments: A function that allows users to define segments to which
a polynomial function is applied. The function per segment is
configured as follows:
- Date. Date on which the segment ends. If the following value is
established (length), the date is calculated, alternatively, length is
calculated.
- Defining the length of each segment. This indicates what percentage of
the task's duration is required for the segment.
- Defining the amount of work. This indicates what workload percentage
is expected to be completed in this segment. The quantity of work must
be incremental. For example, if there is a 10% segment, the next one
must be larger (for example, 20%).
- Segment graphs and accumulated loads.
- Users then click "Accept".
- The program stores the function and applies it to the daily resource
assignments.