The program manages two different types of resources: staff and machines.
Staff resources are the workers of the companies. Their main characteristics are:
Machine resources are the machines in the companies. Their main characteristics are:
Users can create, edit and invalidate (never delete definitively) workers from the company by going to the "Resources" tab. This tab has the following features:
The management of workers is carried out by going to the "Resources" tab and then the feature "List of workers". Users can edit all of the workers on the resource list by clicking the standard editing icon.
When users are in the editing option of a resource, they can access the following tabs:
Editing workers' personal details
Associating criteria with workers
Calendar tab for a resource
Cost category tab for a resource
Resource assignment is explained in the resource assignment section.
Machines are resources for all purposes; therefore, similar to workers, machines can be managed and assigned tasks. Resource assignment is dealt with in the assignment section, in which the specific features of machines will be explained.
Machines are managed from the "Resources" menu entry. This section has an operation called "Machine list", which shows the machines a company has. Users can edit or delete a machine from this list.
When editing machines, the system shows a series of tabs that can be used to manage different details:
Machine details tab. This tab can be used to edit the ID details of the machines. The details that can be changed on this tab are:
i Name.
ii Machine code.
iii Description of the machine.
Editing machine details
Assigning criteria to machines
Assigning calendars to machines
Machine configuration tab. On this tab, it is possible to configure the ratio of machines to existing worker resources. A machine has an alpha value that indicates the machine/involved resources ratio. As has already been mentioned, an alpha value of 0.5 indicates that 0.5 people are used for each full day's operation of a machine. The system, based on an alpha value, automatically assigns workers who are in some way associated with a machine once the machine is assigned to a task. Associating a worker with a machine can be done in two ways:
i Specifically assigning a range of dates on which the worker is to be assigned to a machine. This is a specific assignment as the system automatically assigns hours to the worker when the machine is planned.
ii Specifically assigning criteria to be fulfilled by workers who are assigned to machines. This creates a generic assignment of workers who fulfil the criteria.
Configuration of machines
Assigning cost categories to machines
The program enables users to create resources in the system, which are not real workers but simulated staff that enable production capacity to be increased at a specific time according to the configured settings in the calendar.
Through virtual worker groups, it is possible to check how project planning would be affected by contracting and assigning staff who fulfil the defined criteria, thus facilitating the decision-making process.
The tabs for creating virtual worker groups are the same as the ones to configure workers:
- General details
- Assigned criteria
- Calendars
- Associated hours
The difference with respect to workers is that virtual worker groups have a name for the group and a quantity, which refers to the number of real people in the group. There is also a field for comments, in which additional information can be provided, for example, which project would require contracting that is equivalent to the virtual worker group.
Virtual resources
Limiting resources are an specific type of productive elements which just can be either not assigned or with a 100% of dedication. What it the same, they are not capable of having more than one task scheduled at the same time nor overassigned.
For each limiting resource a queue is automatically created so the tasks they have scheduled can be managed in an specific manner using the assignment methods provided, creating automatic assignments between the tasks and the queues matching required criteria or moving tasks between queues.