Roughly 80 to 90% of project schedules are NOT resource loaded, not even partially. Resources are an often-overlooked aspect of construction project scheduling. Resource availability and costs can make or break a schedule but resource loading a schedule is always up for debate:
Resource loading yes or no?
All or some activities?
Our resources or sub-contractor resources?
Labor, equipment, material?
Do we have all the details?
Can resourcing change throughout the project life?
Resource loading increases schedule complexity 10X when using conventional scheduling software. Not only this, one of the main reasons why schedules are not resource loaded is simply because doing this in traditional scheduling software requires a significant effort and time.
Tricks to overcome the challenge
There are many, many tutorials, videos, hacks, tricks, guides, etc that can alleviate the "pain" of loading resources into P6 or Microsoft Project. In fact, most planners will have their own, self-developed hack to overcome this challenge. If not, you can check these videos:
Resource Loading in P6 Made Easier
Bulk Upload Using Excel
It doesn't do the trick
Doesn't matter which cheat, trick, guide or hack a planner uses, there will always be a significant amount of manual input and line-by-line checking to ensure that the information is correct.
Or maybe resource loading is only required for a specific goal like understanding required sub-contractor resources for earth works. In that case the planner may not want to use the schedule used for this specific exercise as the overall project schedule is shared amongst all parties involved in the project. This situation, extremely common in projects where there are 2, 3 or more schedules in parallel (client schedule, internal schedule, specific situations) makes it even more daunting to load resources.
AI comes into play
Artificial Intelligence is a gamechanger technology that can make resource loading as easy as clicking a button. Solutions like Frontline's optimization technology enable the user to upload a schedule without resources and our AI will load "default" resources to each activity based on activity names, WBS and other activity information.
To keep things simple, Frontline will assign 1 unit of "default" resource to each activity on the schedule or to a sub-set of activities predefined by the user. AI will distinguish between activities i.e. resources for "Installation of electrical cabling" will not be the same as for "3rd floor east unit painting".
As simple as:
Can't believe your eyes? Reach out to our team for a demo: