How to Load the Resource Master for Generic Resources by Department?

Question

We are using P6 enterprise version in our company having a central database.
Q1a.) We set the Activities view > Resource Usage Spreadsheet > Select View 1) By Resource OR 2) By Role.
The result is the spreadsheet presents the Remaining Early Units by Resource OR by Role. Other spreadsheets behave the same way. Is it possible to view the total Remaining Early Units and not have it separated by Resource OR Role?
Q1b.) We would like to find out the recommended structure to load Generic Resources (ie. professional and trades such as Civil Engineer, Mechanical Engineer, Carpenter, Welder etc.) for each Department (ie. 8221, 9362, 8524 etc.) into the Resource Library. Example: we would like to load Civil Engineer once for departments 8221, 9362, 8524, load Welder once for departments 9362, 8524, etc.
We contacted Primavera Support and they pointed us to use Roles.
Thank-you for any suggestions you may have.

Answer 1

i think you could try to model it like this:
- define a single "mech eng" role in the role tree (not too deep or even a flat list). no dept's mentioned here. keep the role tree strictly "speciality" oriented or anyway according to their technical classification.
Role ID     Role Name
Engr     Engineer
.......Engr.SE     Structural Engineer
.......Engr.EE     Electrical Engineer
.......Engr.ME     Mechanical Engineer
- define any number of resources (either individuals, or teams or even a combination of the two) in the resuorce tree.
1 eng with a capacity of 8h/d, a fixed formation (team) regardless of the number of individuals would still have a capacity of 8h/d if they can only accomplish tasks together. if assigning a team of 5 means means faster for fixed workload or more for fixed duration then define a fixed team (again if this is the case) as a single resource with a capacity of 40h/d or simply define and assign the required number of individual eng's 8h/d max each. use activity duration type to switch between duration driving and non-driving resource usage.
e.g.
Resource ID     Resource Name     Resource Type     Default Units / Time     Max Units/Time     Primary Role     Roles
.......*ElecEng     Electrical Engineers*     Labor     20.00h/d     20.00h/d     Electrical Engineer     Electrical Engineer
..............EE1BARBW     Barb Wire, Senior Electrical Engineer     Labor     10.00h/d     10.00h/d     Electrical Engineer     Electrical Engineer, Project AQ
..............EE2BILLS     Bill Sanders, Junior Electrical Engineer     Labor     10.00h/d     10.00h/d     Electrical Engineer     Electrical Engineer, Consultant
.......*MechEng     Mechanical Engineers*     Labor     10.00h/d     0.00h/d     Mechanical Engineer     Mechanical Engineer
..............MechEng T1     mech eng team 1     Labor     8.00h/d     8.00h/d     Mechanical Engineer     Mechanical Engineer
..............MechEng T2     mech eng team 1     Labor     16.00h/d     16.00h/d     Mechanical Engineer     Mechanical Engineer
.....................MechEng T2.1     ME 2.1     Labor     8.00h/d     8.00h/d     Mechanical Engineer     Mechanical Engineer, Consultant
.....................MechEng T2.2     ME 2.2     Labor     8.00h/d     8.00h/d     Mechanical Engineer     Mechanical Engineer
- create the necessary res to role associations. one employee or team (i.e. res) can be linked to one primary qualification and several other proffesions or specialities (i.e. roles)     
- when assigning to activities, if a particular individual/ team is required assign directly the res. select several activities requiring mech eng, select 1 or several mech eng's and assign them (use resource security to limit user's access to certain res nodes).
- if any res with a particular role can perform the task, assign the role. later on if you decide for a res, you can assign a particular resource through the previously assigned role. decide applicable rates and h/d between role and res.
- you can track allocation in spreadsheets and histograms by resource or role (or by activity for both). if individual res have clear capacities, for roles you can chose between custon role limits (manual) and system calculated for each role based on res having that as primary qualification (user pref)
- you can report by activity / WBS / project / portfolio (tracking)
- solve over-allocation by levelling, by switching between res for the same role, etc
- optimise duration vs. load and/or # of res/roles (and viceversa)
Edited by: Tibi on Oct 9, 2009 9:40 PM
Edited by: Tibi on Oct 9, 2009 9:59 PM