We know well the planning problems of the SMEs. A context of competitiveness where the respect for deadlines runs alongside with performance requirements. It’s often about a short term schedule, where quantities and deadlines often change.
In this context, the project manager must have control of his schedule. Schedule changes must be simple and fast. Customer constraints must be met in real time and alerts should notify you of issues such as delays.
That’s why we provided Direct Planning Project with an essential feature: the planning assistance.
Direct Planning Project – Planning assistance
The planning assistance
A “to be scheduled” room for each resource
If you have developed an interface with your information system (ERP, CAPM) keeping to our specifications, no further job entry is required.
However, jobs can be entered manually, of course.
New, automatically imported jobs are temporarily stored in a “to be scheduled” room specific to each resource. This way, new jobs don’t perturb the current schedule; it’s up to you to schedule them where you decide to.
Keeping to the precedence constraints
When the planning assistance is enabled, you are assured that the precedence constraints, set by the links between the jobs, are fully respected. When you move a job that initiates a project, the downstream jobs are automatically moved.
Keeping to the earliest start date
When the planning assistance is enabled, you are also assured that the constraints of earliest start date of the jobs are fully respected. Thus there’s no risk of scheduling a job before its earliest start date.
Automatic left-adjusting / Adjusting at the earliest
Further to the planning assistance, you may also enable an additional working option: left-adjusting, or Adjusting at the earliest. In this mode, jobs will be automatically shifted to the left when a time slot is available on the resource.
Automatic right-adjusting / Adjusting at the latest (just-in-time)
If the left-adjusting mode doesn’t suit you, Direct Planning Project also offers the right-adjusting mode (Adjusting at the latest). The ranges are automatically shifted to the right, on their latest end date. This mode of operation follows the logic of the “just-in-time“.