Resources and skills

[Carel Boshoff]

Hi,

Is there any way to get frePPLe to choose from a set of resources, instead of one being assigned?  My application is as follows:

I have several machines, most of which can do at least two operations.  I also have some personnel, each of which can do at least two operations.  My best solution would therefor be to have a model which chooses one machine from the list of the appropriate skill, as well as a staff member with the necessary skill.  If this is possible, it would be great.

Since I couldn't find a way to model that, I decided to assign a machine, and try to get the solver to only choose from the personnel.  I populated the resource skills table.  When I don't input a skill into the loads table, everything works fine and a plan is generated (see "without_skills.xlsx")  But when I input even a single skill (see "with_skills.xlsx") the complete demand is goes unplanned.  The table "Why short or late" shows no records.

I really hope someone can help me.  FrePPLe is, so far, great, and to me much more applicable than Preactor, which is my other alternative.

[Johan De Taeye]

Carel,

 

>>Is there any way to get frePPLe to choose from a set of resources, instead of one being assigned?

 

Absolutely.

In your model, you will need to make the following changes:

-        Define a new resource “Personeel”. This will represent the complete operator pool.

-        Each operator needs to have the “owner” field set to “Personeel”. This makes them belong to the operator pool.

-        All your operation will need 2 loads: 1) a first one to load the equipment resource, and 2) a second one to load the operator pool “personeel”.
In the load for the operator pool you specify which operator skill is required.

With this setup the solver will select an operator within the operator pool that is available and has the right skills.

 

 

Your model would make a great example for this functionality. 

Would you mind if I take your model and convert it into a “cookbook recipe” for alternate resources?
Similar to the ones already available on: http://frepple.com/docs/2.2/cookbook/index.html  

 

Regards,

 

Johan

Johan De Taeye +32 477.385.362 Skype jdetaeye

Visit us http://frepple.com Woluwestraat 17, 1930 Zaventem, Belgium

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[Carel Boshoff]

Thanks Johan

Worked like a charm.  You're of course welcome to use my example.  That was just a proof of concept model, I will probably have some setup times etc. by next week and I can then post a more complete model if you like.

[Timo]

Hi,

we have about 30 different skills our workers have. Some of them master up to 15 different skills, some only 3-5. I have listed these skills for all workers and also graded them with priority 0 meaning experienced expert and 3 equalling "Has seen it done sometime". I created a resource called Human resource pool and loaded every single operation in our model to this pool with the appropriate skills.

What I found is that some resources with same skills get loaded to 100% and some do not get any load at all. The "On time delivery" rating for the plan made this way is significantly lower than with the model where I assign resources manually to operations. With the human resources pool over half of our orders remain unplanned.

Am I doing something wrong, or is this the way this "resource skill" based planning is supposed to work?

Timo

[Johan De Taeye]

>>Am I doing something wrong, or is this the way this "resource skill" based planning is supposed to work?

That all looks correct, except that you interpreted the priority incorrectly.

 

In the frePPLe documentation you find on the resourceskill priority: “Priority of this resource among all resources having this skill. A lower number indicates that this resource is preferred when the skill is required.”

 

That’s different from your interpretation: ”graded them with priority 0 meaning experienced expert and 3 equalling "Has seen it done sometime".”
It’s not because a worker is experienced in a task that he’s the best choice for it:  you need to use your best people for the jobs nobody else can do.  And leave the easy jobs to less skilled workers. If this isn’t balanced right a poor distribution of the work among the pool is the typical result.

 

 

From: freppl...@googlegroups.com [mailto:freppl...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Carel Boshoff
Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2015 6:08 AM
To: freppl...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Resources and skills

 

Hi,

 

Is there any way to get frePPLe to choose from a set of resources, instead of one being assigned?  My application is as follows:

 

I have several machines, most of which can do at least two operations.  I also have some personnel, each of which can do at least two operations.  My best solution would therefor be to have a model which chooses one machine from the list of the appropriate skill, as well as a staff member with the necessary skill.  If this is possible, it would be great.

 

Since I couldn't find a way to model that, I decided to assign a machine, and try to get the solver to only choose from the personnel.  I populated the resource skills table.  When I don't input a skill into the loads table, everything works fine and a plan is generated (see "without_skills.xlsx")  But when I input even a single skill (see "with_skills.xlsx") the complete demand is goes unplanned.  The table "Why short or late" shows no records.

 

I really hope someone can help me.  FrePPLe is, so far, great, and to me much more applicable than Preactor, which is my other alternative.

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[Timo]

As a new frePPLe user some of the conventions used are difficult to grasp

perjantai 8. toukokuuta 2015 0.49.23 UTC+3 Johan De Taeye kirjoitti:’s not because a worker is experienced in a task that he’s the best choice for it:  you need to use your best people for the jobs nobody else can do.  And leave the easy jobs to less skilled workers If this isn’t balanced right a poor distribution of the work among the pool is the typical result.

 

The definition of an easy job is not very simple when you have multitasking resources. Any job is easy for an trained expert of that specific job, right? And even the most simple task can be difficult for a newcomer person. Good example: me installing and using frepple 8-) One person can be an expert in one job and very unskilled at another.

We want to use the best expert (i.e. resource in frePPLe) for any operation whenever possible, and resort to the next best resource when the best resource is overloaded. Typically our staff can perform 3-5 operations on expert level and another 3-5 with a bit lower skill level. If I understand your answer correctly, this is not the model frepple uses for  resource allocation?

Timo

[Timo]

Hi,

has anyone on the list solved this challenge?

I have a pool of resources i.e. people who are spread across different jobs and workstations, each working on their own specialty. In addition they all have some level of cross-competences having skills in jobs outside their primary workstation operations. In a local overload situation I want to temporarily move resources free at that moment from their primary workstation to the overloaded workstation to avoid delays. In normal load only the primary resource should be loaded. I.e. everyone has their primary job which they normally do. In addition each one has a number of secondary skills that are taken into use when need be.

How?

Timo