VU2014

Copyright © 2014 Anago Copyright © 2014 Anago

Resource Management in an inspection

organisation

29 April 2014 14.30-15.15


Contents


Lots of different planning questions

How much projects

are we planning to

do next year?

Which projects are

best suited for the

available capacity?

How much time per

skill do the projects

demand next

period?

In which order will

mr. Jones do his

tasks?

Which activity will

mr. Jones do

tomorrow?

Who is going to

work on what

project?

Which projects will

get capacity next

month?

Which deadline is

realisatic for my

project?

Which employee is

on holiday next

month?

Do we have to hire

extra employees?

And if yes, how

many?

How much FTE do

we have available for

next year?


Levels of planning

Operational planning

(Mid Term Planning)

Tactical planning

(Long Term Planning)

1-6 months

1 year

1-4 weeks

Assign employees

to workload

Capacity check

Execution

Positioning Strategic planning


Different questions on different levels

Strategic Tactical Operational

Years Year 0 Months

Month 6 M 3 Year n Month 0 M 1 Year 1

Demand for

capacity

Capacity

availability

Demand and

availability

matching

How much

projects are we

planning to do

next year?

Which projects are

best suited for the

available capacity?

How much time

per skill do the

projects

demand next

period? In which order

will mr. Jones do

his tasks?

Which activity

will mr. Jones

do tomorrow?

Who is going to

work on what

project?

Which

projects will

get capacity

next month?

Which

deadline is

realisatic for

my project?

Which employee

is on holiday

next month?

Do we have to

hire employees?

And if so, how

many?

How much FTE do

we have available

for next year?


Planning on different levels


Years Year 0 Months


Demand for

capacity

Capacity

availability

Demand and

availability

matching

Hours / products / services

Fixed FTE

Fixed FTE vs Demand

products / services / service

level management

Fixed FTE per skill / Skill

management

Fixed FTE per skill

Assign capacity to demand

projects / activities

Contract hours per skill / Flex

workers

Rostering / Project- and

activity scheduling




Years Year 0 Months


Demand for

capacity

Capacity

availability

Demand and

availability

matching


Fixed FTE

Fixed FTE vs Demand


level management


management

Fixed FTE per skill




workers


activity scheduling

Problems arise here…




Years Year 0 Months


Demand for

capacity

Capacity

availability

Demand and

availability

matching


Fixed FTE

Fixed FTE vs Demand


level management


management

Fixed FTE per skill




workers


activity scheduling

Solutions are often

found in operational

scheduling tools




Years Year 0 Months


Demand for

capacity

Capacity

availability

Demand and

availability

matching


Fixed FTE

Fixed FTE vs Demand


level management


management

Fixed FTE per skill




workers


activity scheduling

But the problem

already started at

tactical level…

Copyright © 2014 Anago

On tactical level most companies use

spreadsheets


On tactical level most companies use

spreadsheets

Because…

• Excel supports own planning

methods

• Excel can easily be adapted

• Excel is available at every

workstation


Customer Case


organisation



organisation

• Inspection Organisation

• Mid Term Capacity Planning: 1 month – 1 year

• Facts: • 50 projects • 200 employees

• 15 regions



organisation


Bottlenecks spreadsheets

• High risk of errors

• Many manual actions

• No multi-user support

• No authorisation or audit trail

• Connections to other systems is

difficult

• No smart assignment possible • …


General problem

Balance supply

&Demand

Assignment employee to project

Gross Availability

Overhead tasks

Division Active/Reactive work

Available capacityYear planning Demand planning


Assignment constraints

• Demand per project per period should be met

• Employees should not be over booked

• Only employees with the right skill can be assigned

• Some employees are required on a project (e.g. project

leader)

• Assignment should be sufficiëntly large

• Some projects require a minimum number of

employees

• Projects require an even spread across the regions


But also ‘soft’ constraints

• Some employees like to be assigned to a specific

project (personal preferences)

• Some projects can be bundled (i.e. an employee can

work on these projects in the same period)

• Demand can be shifted over time


LP optimal solution

• Minimalize shortage in demand

• While:

• Assignment < availability

• Employee has skill of project

• Assignment > minimal assignment

• For 70 employees, 20 projects and 4

periods this already takes 30 minutes


Approach

• Quick Assignment algorithm

• Manual assignment possible

• ‘Freeze’ project assignments

• ‘Freeze’ employee assignments

• Re-run assignment


Loop over project

Select employees of region with availiability >0

Loop over period

Select months that start this period

While Demand >0

Loop over region

Sort projects based on available employees

Sort employee on previous assignment & number of

skills

Then: Assign employee for availibility

If demand > availability AND demand > MinAssign

Then: transfer demand to next period

If demand next period >0

Else: Distribute demand over assigned employees

Assign required employees

Algoritm


Results

• Assignment runs in 5 seconds

• Planner can easily assign employees

manually and then re-run assignment

• All team leaders can view actual planning

• 99,3% automatically planned


Demo


Questions


088 – 99 00 800

www.anago.nl

www.anago.nl/linkedin

[email protected]

Additional Information

For internships or student jobs contact:

Wendy Baltussen, [email protected]

www.slideshare.net/tdnooij/vu2014

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