totaling equipment usage

Question

We want to use Project to track the daily usage of equipment.using this total to know if we have enough equipment each day.&nbsp;how can this be totaled and displayed&nbsp;thanks&nbsp;

john-project · Answer

jmorganh,This sounds like something better suited for Excel, not Project. Why do you think you want to use Project?If you do want to or are already using Project, are the various pieces of equipment set up a work type resources and is each piece assigned to a specific task?We need more definitive information about what you are trying to do before we can offer meaningful help.John

jmorganh · Answer

John-project&nbsp;We are starting to use Project to track and show projects/jobs and how they overlap by dates.We also want to show how the qty of equipment is used by totals.&nbsp;There will be 20&nbsp; to 50 jobs going on at once. Some are a few days, some go for months.Looking to monitor how many trucks, trailers, and flagger personnel are needed by day.&nbsp; This will allow us to know when we will be overbooked or need to get more equipment or hire more personnel.&nbsp;What do you think is best tool to track this?Thank you for your opinion.

john-project · Answer

Jmorganh,Project does not tell you how many resources you need, rather, you tell Project how many resources (e.g. people &amp; equipment) are available and you assign those resources to various tasks. Project will tell you if any of those resources are overallocated, (i.e. using more of a given resource than is available over a specific time), and by how much. In that regard project will tell you how much any of those resources are "overbooked" and you can take action to get more resources or perhaps re-shuffle the work load to use the resources you have. Project's leveling functionality can help with that.Over any given time period (e.g minute, hour, day, etc.) Project can tell you how many of each type of resource is being used, so in that regard Project will show the quantity of equipment used.So if you set your plan up correctly Project will tell you how many resources are being used and if overbooked, tell you by how much.Hope this helps.John

jmorganh · Answer

That is helpful.You say Project will tell me how many resources are being used.That is the part I have not figured out. I only see a percent of resources, not qty. Where do I assign qtys of resources? And how do I show how many resources are being used by day?Thank you so much for your time.

john-project · Answer

Jmorganh&nbsp;Resources are assigned as either a percentage or as a decimal value. What you want is a decimal value. To set that go to, File &gt; Options &gt; Schedule tab as shown here:Then on the Resource Sheet the Max Units field sets the number of available resources for each resource type as shown here. In this example, there is one piece of Equipment A, four people on Work team 1, and two people on Work team 2.As far as daily usage values for resources, the Resource Usage view shows that type of data. In this example, the piece of equipment is overallocated since concurrent tasking shows it's usage at 1.5. Work team 2 is also overallocated with a usage of 3 when there are only 2 people on the team. Work team 1 is okay, the tasking never exceeds the 4 person availability. Unfortunately the overallocation values can only be expressed in hours so you won't get a direct read of quantity.How this helps.John

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totaling equipment usage

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