Forum Discussion
Link Procurement Tasks to deliver Just-In-Time without using up slack?
Every task in a critical path network has an earliest start, earliest finish, latest start, latest finish.
The early dates are the ones normally displayed in the entry table and in the Gantt chart views. That's because those are of most immediate interests because we want to know first of all how soon can tasks start, and that's also why we need the predecessors as a priority, especially the FS0 one that every task should have.
However, that's just what it does out of the box. You can easily make a custom view to display bars for the latest dates (format, bar styles), and of course they are all there in the schedule table, along with the free float and the total float.
Stick to good ol' reliable CPM. The most important feature of the method is that we schedule forwards, not backwards. If you are toying with ALAP constraints and weird links, like SF and positive and negative lag, to model just- in-time or some other management fad, you can end up doing a lot of gymnastics which are unnecessary and somewhat futile anyway.
Keep it simple. Plan to place an order for parts or materials or something asap. There is a lead time, say 60 days. It has a FS0 successor which is 100 days out. There is 40 days of free float, so you can choose any day between day 1 and day 40 to place the order.
Any help?
Thank you for the response. My initial suggestion was similar to yours: order everything asap (within reason, using total slack as a guide) and don't wait until the last minute. However, there are expiration dates on materials, billing constraints, as well as limited space, hence the need for a "just-in-time" delivery. What I'm really looking for is a "late date" for these procurement tasks, but I don't see an option to display the "late finish date" for selected tasks only, while displaying the normal "ASAP" dates for the remaining tasks. Is there a way to do this in MS Project? If so, I think you have solved our riddle!
Brett, in addition to the reasons you mention for not ordering and getting stuff asap, such as limited space an the cost of storage, there is also consideration of insurance and warranty dates, and plain ol' cash flow. I've heard it all.
However, so what? You still want to start with a clean asap CPM network.
Of course, MSP does have ways to present what you say you want to display because it has custom fields, custom views, custom filters, custom groups, custom tables.
I would copy the Gantt chart view, call the copy "Intended Order Dates Gantt Chart. Then I would copy the entry table and call the copy "Intended Order Dates Table". Then I would insert a custom start column, say Start1, and rename it "Intended Order Date", which will probably be neither the earliest start or the latest start, but some date in between. Hide all the columns you don't need. You can type in the intended dates or perhaps, better, calculate them as a formula, such as earliest start + half of the total slack (float). Then, in the view, just a matter of formatting the bar styles. Delete all but one of the existing styles, give it a name and a from and to (Start1, Start1).
Any help?
Brett,
this is how to make an "intended start" halfway along the total float (slack).
You can adjust the formula to drop the intended start anywhere between earliest and latest starts.
Example of custom fields, custom table, custom view.Any help?