Republic of the Philippines

CAMARINES NORTE STATE COLLEGE

F. Pimentel Avenue, Brgy. 2, Daet, Camarines –
Norte
4600, Philippines

COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

COURSE: BSBA – Major in Human Resource Management

BLOCK/YEAR: Block A & B/Second Year
COURSE CODE: HRM ELECT 3
COURSE TITLE: Project Management
INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES:
 To be able to know how to allocate resources into projects, deal with deficiencies and adapt to limited
resources.

TOPICS: (Allocating Resources to the Project)

I. Expediting a Project
II. Resource Loading
III. Resource Levelling
IV. Allocating Scarce Resources to Projects

Resource Allocation Definition

 Resource allocation—part art, part science as some call it—is recognizing the best available resources
for the project, assigning them to your team and monitoring their workload throughout the work, and re-
assigning resources if needed.

 “In project management, resource allocation or resource management is the scheduling of activities
and the resources required by those activities while taking into consideration both the resource
availability and the project time” – Wikipedia

I. EXPEDITING A PROJECT

Expediting is a concept in purchasing and project management for securing the quality and timely
delivery of goods and components. The procurement department or an external expeditor controls the
progress of manufacturing at the supplier concerning quality, packing, conformity with standards and
set timelines.

Purpose of Expediting a Project

Expediting is especially needed in large scale  projects, for example, in shipbuilding or when
a refinery is being erected, because a delay caused by late delivery or inferior quality will increase
expense and could lead to unsatisfied clients, thus the loss of a project or reputational damage. To save
these unnecessary costs and minimize potential risks, the supplier and customer may agree on the use of
a third party expeditor.

These are experts from companies specializing in this field who keep track of the deadlines,
supervise progress on site and check whether the components are properly packed. After inspection they
notify the involved parties and banks about their findings; if everything is as agreed the bank will
initiate the transfer of the price of the goods to the supplier.

Expediting exists in several levels:

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 ▪ Production control: The expeditor inspects the factory whether the production is up to the standards
of the country the goods are destined for. This is especially necessary for food or engineering
equipment like power plant components.
▪ Quality control: The components are tested whether they function as required and whether they are
made to the measurements and standards of the customer. A part of this quality control can be the
testing for compliance with standards of the destination country.
▪ Packing/transport survey: This is the lowest and most used level of expediting, as the goods are
only counted and the packing is controlled whether it will withstand the adversities of transport
(pre-shipment inspection).
▪ Project management: At a large-scale project, not only goods are controlled. The expeditor also
keeps an eye on the deadlines and milestones of the project and whether the supplier will be on
time. This way he or she monitors the crucial procurement parts of the project.

II. RESOURCE LOADING AND RESOURCE LEVELING

a. Resource Loading
 Resource Loading is a critical project metric.
 It is the process of allocating resources to planned project activities.
 Resource Loading mainly involves manpower or employees.

Computed as:
RL = hours of work per time period/hours of capacity per time period.
Duration (days) = Total work hours/Availability (hours per day)

Example:
3 days = 12 hours/ 4 hours per day
1 week = 30 hours / 6 hours per day

 Reduce the capacity work hours if something happens.

Resource loading increases the chance that a project will not be completed on time because employees are
loaded with projects.

 We expect a resource loaded to 75 % to complete the 30 hours of planned work each week (40 hours of
capacity), or 6 hour a day. The other 10 hours that week is expected to be spent doing other stuff that
isn’t in the plan or isn’t related to the project (e.g., training, department meetings, etc.)
 Underestimating resource loads impacts the timeline
 Inaccurate resource loading increases risk
 A project manager can predict an employee’s hours for the year and see how tasks can be assigned. This
is also allows the project manager to decide whether or not additional employees or contractors are
needed to complete the scheduled projects.

b. Resource Levelling

Resource Levelling deals with both time (project starting and ending dates) and resources, including
manpower and budget. Resource leveling tries to balance the conflicting interests of projects with the
available resources.

It is a unique in which start and finish dates are adjusted based on resource limitation which the goal of
balancing demand for resources with the available supply.

III. ALLOCATING SCARCE RESOURCES TO PROJECTS

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Use of Software
 Begin with PERT/CPM Schedule
 Activities examined period by period and resource by resource
 In case where demand for resource exceeds supply, tasks considered one by one and resources assigned
to these tasks based on priority rules.

Some Comments about Constrained Resources

 Every time a project falls behind schedule, the PM is apt to plead for more resources. In spite of the
PM’s complaints about the scarcity of resources, serious cases of resources scarcity rarely to resources
in general but rather to one or two very specific resources. We call such resources “Walts”.
 The term was derived from the name an individual, Walter A., who is employed by a large insurance
company.

Some priority rules:

1. As late as possible
2. Most successor
3. As soon as possible
4. Shortest task duration first
5. Minimum slack first
6. Most critical followers

Choosing a Priority Rule

 Schedule Slippage – amount project or set of projects delayed

 Resource Utilization – extent that resources are over or underworked

 In-Process Inventory – amount of unfinished work in the system

IV. ALLOCATING SCARCE RESOURCES TO SEVERAL PROJECTS

Pseudo Activities

 Used to link several project together

 Have duration but do not require any resources
 This approach allows a set of projects to be dealt with as though it were a single project
(Use so MSP’s resource loading and leveling charts and tables

V. GOLDRATT’S CRTICAL CHAIN

 Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) – it was developed by Eliyahu M. Goldratt in 1997.
 It is a method of planning and managing projects that emphasizes the resources required to execute
project tasks.

The following factors that affect the completion of project tasks:

 Student Syndrome: Starting the task at the latest possible moment.

 Parkinson’s Law: Determining the completion of the task throughout the assigned full duration.
 Multitasking: Working on multiple tasks simultaneously and thus not being committed to any one
task, introducing major delays in completing tasks.

WHAT IS CRITICAL CHAIN METHOD AND CRITICAL PATH?

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 The Critical Chain Method (CCM) is a schedule method that allows the project team to place buffers on
any project schedule path to account for limited resources and project uncertainties.

It is developed from the critical path method approach and considers the effects of resource allocation,
resource optimization, resource levelling, and activity duration uncertainty on the critical path determined
using the critical path method.

CRITICAL PATH

The critical path method calculates the early start and finish dates and late start and finish dates for all
scheduled activities. It is the sequence of activities from start to the end of the project. The method is based
on mathematical calculations and it is used for scheduling project activities.

To identify the critical path in a project, determine the following four parameters:

1. Earliest start time (ES) – The time where an activity can start once the previous dependent
activities are over.

2. Earliest finish time (EF)- Earliest start time + activity duration.

3. Latest finish time (LF) – The time an activity can finish without delaying the project.

4. Latest start time (LS) – activity duration

What is the Difference between the Critical Path and the Critical Chain?

Critical Path and Critical Chain are both methods of project scheduling and they are frequently
confused.

The Critical Chain Method has a resource focus while the Critical Path is a task order focused.
What is a Project, Feeding and Resource Buffer?

 Project buffer. A unique and single buffer to protect the project deadline buffers that act as
warning signals to assure the availability of resources.

 Feeding buffer. Multiple buffers to protect parts of the critical chain.

 Resource buffer. Multiple artificial buffers that act as warning to assure the availability of
resources.

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Prepared by:

AIREEN V. ABLAO, MPA

Instructor

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