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Not all companies today can select and allocate right resources for their activities. Desktop resource scheduling software provides a powerful enterprise-wide solution to effectively schedule available resources. If your organization suffers from inefficiencies in resource scheduling, you can deploy CentriQS software to drive business performance. Such troubles as resource over-burden or under-allocation can be solved. The program lets create a central database to keep and manage business information in one place.
Resource Scheduling Term Definition
Resource scheduling is a part of the resource management process to select right resources and allocate them to right jobs. It is driven by decisions that level available resources and desired goals to be accomplished. Management considers resource limitations to determine the start and end dates of tasks that must be done. You can use the Task Analytics view in CentriQS software to analyze time performance.
If considered as a separate process, resource scheduling comprises of the two steps:
Selecting Right Resources
When there is a kind of work to be done, you need to figure out what resources are required to do this work. With this idea in your mind, you can start selecting among available resources. Funds, HR, technology, time are some examples of the resources you need to select and allocate for your work.
First, you need to ensure that the entire work can be equitably distributed among available resources. If some part of your work can't be done only with the available resources, you can consider outsourcing the missing resources. Everything should be done in a way that ensures smooth work distribution. No selected resource should be under- or over-allocated. Sudden work interruptions as well as undesired delays in resource schedules should be averted.
Central Database
Resource scheduling software will help you select right resources. CentriQS creates a central database where you can keep all information on your resources and check their availability. The program provides a view-based navigation menu that lets you switch between multiple views to see the content of your database. Employees, tasks, budgets, accounts payable/receivable, projects, inventory items, customers, schedules. Everything you need for selecting and allocating your resources can be stored and managed in CentriQS database.
Allocating Selected Resources
One of the key objectives is to ensure that scarce resources are not over-allocated or under-allocated. Management also needs to make sure that there are no significant ups and downs in resource schedules. A thorough analysis of selected resources helps figure out how to best distribute them among jobs. This analysis takes into consideration such key concerns as purpose, availability and cost of the resources. By using resource scheduling software management can analyze their resources against these key concerns.
Resource Over/Under-Allocation Trouble
A resource is over-allocated when it's involved in performing more work than it's expected by the appropriate schedule. For example, an employee is assigned to work 8 hours on one activity on Mondays; then this employee is re-scheduled to work full time on other four tasks on Mondays. Although the new schedule is tighter, the employee needs to do all the jobs on time. This person has to work more hours each Monday in order to stay on plan. However, the legal regulations require working shifts to be no more than 8 hours a day. Obviously it is impossible to work 10, 20, or even more hours a day, so the resource is over-allocated.
In a similar way, the resource can be under-allocated when the schedule requires less work to be done. The worker then has to do something with the time remaining after the work was done. This time will be rather idle and non-productive for the employer.
Resource Leveling to Fix the Problem
Resource leveling is a way to fix resource over- and under-allocation. Typically, both sides of the problem can be addressed by delaying tasks and splitting tasks. When your resource is over-allocated you can delay the assigned tasks by extending their durations to an amount that ensures alignment with the desired completion date. Splitting a task means adding interruptions the resource schedule, so that some part of the task is done as planned and the rest of it can be done when the resource has time. Splitting lets reduce under-allocations while keeping the resource doing the work on schedule.
Resource scheduling software lets develop schedules on which you can easily level tasks and activities of your resources. CentriQS features the Scheduler view to create tasks and appointments and manage their time frames. If you see your resource is over-allocated you can delay tasks by extending their durations. You can easily drag'n'drop and resize tasks to add necessary delays. If the resource is under-allocated you can split each task into multiple items so that the entire work gets bigger while the schedule remains aligned with the desired completion date.
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