Resource scheduling is pivotal to ensure managers use the right resources to complete the given tasks. The process improves your resource usage and boosts productivity. But while it seems like a simple process on paper, in reality, it is difficult and time-consuming.
Managers often struggle with scheduling their resources, which leads to delays, adds to costs, and affects the company’s profitability. If you are also struggling with resource scheduling, here are ten easy ways to unleash the full potential of your resources.
- Create a Work Breakdown Structure
Each project has several tasks and sub-tasks that managers must complete to realize the final project. You must take a project and break it down into individual tasks for better resource scheduling. It creates a work breakdown structure that gives you a list of all the activities that your team must complete. The list also helps in resource planning, allocation, and tracking.
- Assess the Capacity of Your Resources
With a thorough task list, you can analyze which resources you need and when you need them. However, the process does not end with identifying available resources. Since no two resources can deliver similar results, you must schedule them based on their capacity.
Do available employees have the needed skill set for completing the task? Or can your meeting room hold needed employees for collaboration? These are some questions you need to ask while assessing the capacity of resources.
- Assign Resources Based on Their Availability
Resource scheduling is about using your resources to their maximum capacity without exhausting them. So, once you identify the capacity for your resources, make sure to use them only if they are available. You can do that by estimating the duration for which you will need a resource for a task. Then you will know precisely when your resources will be free for their next job.
It helps you limit multitasking among employees and improve their productivity. You can also apply the same principle to non-human resources like meeting rooms and cabins so that they are available when you need them.
- Identify Project Constraints
For efficient resource scheduling, you must also identify constraints like cost, time, risks, and scope. Identifying and defining these constraints is essential because they guide which resources you need and when and where you need them. With these details cleared, you can be sure of realizing the full potential of your resources.
- Smoothen Your Resources
Once you have identified project constraints, you can easily optimize your resources. In resource management, when meeting the deadline of a project is a priority, managers use resource smoothing. It means you can pause some other tasks to ensure that resources are available to complete the priority project on time.
- Level Your Resources
Another way to optimize your resources is with resource-leveling. When the availability of resources is vital for completing a project, you must level your resources. You can increase deadlines and even change the entire path to accommodate critical resources when they become available.
Let’s say that you need a crucial team member on two projects. But they can only contribute to one project at a time. In such a case, you will identify a low priority task and extend its deadline. So, the team members can contribute to both projects.
- Create Accurate Time and Cost Estimates
Accurate time and cost estimates are essential for resource scheduling. If you are unaware of the duration for which you need resources, you will end up misusing your resources. It will not only increase the cost of managing your resources, but it will also add to the cost of the project and reduce the profitability of your operations. You can create accurate estimates by revisiting your previous projects and analyzing your resource scheduling for those projects.
- Track Your Projects and Resources in Real-time
Resource scheduling is an ongoing and forever-changing process. Your resources change over time regarding availability and capacity, affecting your projects’ timelines. Let’s say that a team member is on leave. If you were tracking your project, you would be in a better position to decide whether you should extend the deadline or reassign the task.
Real-time tracking also helps you compare your estimates and actual performance. If your actuals are way off the forecast, you can immediately adjust resource usage to close the gap and maintain profitability.
- Constantly Improve Your Resource Scheduling Process
Like other management processes, you can, and you must improve your resource scheduling process as well. Think of all the insights you get with every project your complete. You get a better understanding of your available resources and their capacity. You can also predict their future performance based on their performance on similar projects. So, you must learn from your past projects and apply those learnings to plan future projects.
- Get A Resource Scheduling Software
Implementing the tips from these blogs will become much easier with the right resource scheduling software. A resource scheduling solution removes unnecessary steps and automates most of your scheduling process. Moreover, it is also easier to monitor resources and their performance using scheduling solutions.
Resource scheduling software also provides real-time insights to help you plan, manage, and improve resource usage. At the same time, they are easy to integrate with work apps like Calendar and Slack. You can check your human resources’ availability, allocate tasks, and notify them from a centralized dashboard.
Final Words
These are all the steps you must take to improve your resource scheduling. We hope that these tips will assist you in the optimal allocation of resources.
If you are looking for a solution to your resource scheduling problems, turn to WorkInSync today. WorkInSync resource scheduling software provides comprehensive solutions to help you maximize your resource usage while maintaining the optimum levels of office productivity.
You can book a demo today to learn more about the product.
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