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Aussiebear
05-10-2010, 02:56 AM
The ThunderDownUnder Mining Company has recently appointed you as its new Project Manager. On arriving at work on your first day you notice that efficency in allocating Equipment and Employees on a day to day basis is substandard. You organise a meeting with various section heads and request the following information:

HR Manager provides you with a full list of all 44 employees, the equipment they are authorised to operate (In a Matrix form), the crew to which they are assigned (A, B, C or D), and each crew's Supervisor & Co-ordinator.

Production Manager provides you with a complete list of Ramps (Locations), Sub locations within the Ramps, List of operations carried out, and the current operations being undertaken by the Company.

Workshop Manager provides you with a complete list of the mining equipment including Equipment Group Type, the Equipment individual type, the ID number, and whether its currently operational.

You then retire to your office to design a program to allocate Equipment and Employees as required to complete the operational needs of the Company.

Would you use Excel, Access or a combination of both? And would you care to explain why or how or both?

Sample data will be provided once a concept can be agreed upon.

BTW: Is there any other data that could be relevant?

Tommy
05-10-2010, 05:25 AM
Where will it be hosted? Lets assume that it will be hosted on a Company Server.


Will all employee's have access?
Not all employees. I foresee the following persons;
1. HR Manager. To adjust names of employees as they come & go, edit the employee authorisations on equipment, or transfer employees within the four crews.
2. Workshop Manager. To add or amend list of Equipment available,
3. Shift Supervisor. To allocate employees to various locations and equipment
4. Mining Operation Supervisor. To list current & future jobs.
5. Project Manager. To oversee all of the functions.

Maintenance
To keep the concept from getting far to complex, the Maintenance component will be dealt with separately. All we need to know at this point is whether a machine is available for use.

HR
To keep the concept from getting far to complex, the HR component will be dealt with separately. All we need to know at this point is whether an employee is authorised to operate the machine in question. A primary matrix will be maintained to record all employees and their authorisations. A secondary matrix can then determine the skills sets within the crews, and from that it can be determined if further training should be provided to suit the operational needs of the Company


Will it be printed on large paper and posted on the wall, or will it be looked up on the screen? On Screen only at this stage.


Will the report show just for 1 employee or the shift or the crew?
Shift Supervisor will need it for each 12 hour shift.
Project Manager & Mining Operations Manager for a longer period ( Which is going to force us to use a true database as against Excel only)
HR Manager needs to see the " at this point in time" view


how will the machines be allocated? Per day, per week, month, depends on the task?
Per 12 hour shift. Whilst a task may take up to 2 months to complete, ( For Example. Pre-Stripping parameters range out to 6 cuts of 4 metres in depth, bench widths of up to 200 metres, and bench lengths up to 1500 meters. Thats an awful lot of dirt to dig up and carry out) While the location for a set of machines may not change, the allocation needs to be considered on a per shift (12 hour) basis.


This looks like it could be interesting and fun at the same time! :yes
The objective here is to primarily to come up with a workable solution, however, more importantly its a great opportunity to learn how something like this could be achieved. Everyone is invited to contribute ideas and or workable examples, and from this specific questions may be derived into specific forums.

I hope that everyone treats it as fun way to learn.

Aussiebear
05-11-2010, 02:19 PM
Anyone else with any ideas about how to approach this project?

Tommy
05-11-2010, 06:04 PM
Sorry, looks like you are stuck with just me :(

How critical is this or is this just a rule of thumb thing that could grow to the critical stage? (You know, you get it to where they DEPEND on it =D)

Are the crews defined or do they change per task/shift? (thinking that the task could be months and the requirements of the task can change any day for any reason)

See if I am on the right track lets define some Roles:

1. HR Manager. Weekly access doesn't need to see anything but the employee and authorizations, skill set.
2. Workshop Manager. Daily or real time, this could effect the next shift
3. Shift Supervisor. Daily needs to see everything whats coming and who is available for what equipment with skill sets available
4. Mining Operation Supervisor. Read Only!!!!! Only sees what is absolutely necessary!!! LOL like projects are on time, machines available, how much time is estimated to be on the project.
5. Project Manager. Should train the users for their specific tasks and verify the business model is correct.

This is just a suggestion, from my short sighted and narrow minded point of view so if anybody can help enlighten me I would appreciate it.

I know this is going to sound a little dingy but do you have to worry about the weather?

Aussiebear
05-11-2010, 11:32 PM
Hi Tommy, The purpose of the Project is more of a learning experience for those who want to get involved. Whilst its based on what I see happening at the workplace, I've no intention of seeing it implemented anywhere, however someone might just be able to use it for something that they had in mind.

Crews are defined.

Rain sometimes causes a delay. Diggers & trucks generally "park up", however Dozers and Graders are expected to continue when possible. ( Pushing mud, getting rid of water etc.)

Definition of roles:
HR, Workshop Manager, & Shift Supervisor are correct,
Mining Operations Supervisor needs to add or amend tasks, overview everything else
Project Manager needs to overview everything. If there's an issue he/she contacts the relevant section heads and demands "blood"

Aussiebear
05-12-2010, 12:25 AM
Adding workbook

mdmackillop
05-12-2010, 02:22 PM
A few thoughts
1 Generate the plant list from Operations
2 Are Plant items equal, or does one choose a specific type.
2.1 Maybe a userform with types; available quantity; enter a number against requirements
3 Should you have a "rotation" system so all plant gets used equally
3.1 Consider adding a "value" column to record number of allocations
4 Add an operator availabilty column; maybe "unavailable" dates for future programming
5 For plant and operators have an Allocated column which will form the basis for filtering your lists
6 Will you have a series of similar tables for Crew Allocations?

Aussiebear
05-13-2010, 02:34 PM
I have split the Equipment into specific tables and applied both a total count and available count figure to each table.

I have also amended the Operations Matrix so that if you were to allocate more machinery than is currently available, a message comes up indicating an error has occurred. I have also created a button to sort the tasks into priorities,and will be looking to find a way then to allocate equipment and employees based on the ranking in that table

Currently seeking to modify the Employees Authorisations Matrix by turning it into an advanced filter, using the Crew Value of B2 in the Qualifications Sheet as the filter value, but the filter bit is not functioning.

I can only spend an hour or so each day so progress will be slow.

mdmackillop
05-15-2010, 04:33 AM
Hi Ted,
A starter for Allocation

Aussiebear
05-29-2010, 02:10 PM
SorryMD, but Laptop has been to the doctors.

Aussiebear
07-20-2010, 07:25 PM
MD, Currently I am able to allocate the same machinery to different ramps. Might be preferable to not allow this to occur.

linhely
06-02-2011, 08:45 PM
I have also amended the Operations Matrix so that if you were to allocate more machinery than is currently available, a message comes up indicating an error has occurred. I have also created a button to sort the tasks into priorities,and will be looking to find a way then to allocate equipment and employees based on the ranking in that table

guoting
07-03-2011, 07:28 PM
I'm sorry, I feel it's a little bit difficult, I can't answer you.

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08-16-2011, 02:31 AM
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