I could use a little help if anyone has done some similar before. I am trying to predict future loading in several different departments based on expected dates we might land a purchase order for machines we have quoted. I want to create some template projects for a standard machine design and build process for each of several base models we sell. This way, program managers can copy and paste a template structure for the type of machine they have quoted into a master schedule and drive placement of it with a purchase order receipt milestone set to the date we expect to receive it. All good so far, but I run into problems with the way I’m trying to show potential loading. We have a number of departments affected and varying numbers of available employees in each of those department, any or all of whom might be assigned to an engineering task or assembly task. I am not looking for resource leveling or loading for any one specific resource, I just need to get visibility to demand for entire departments for overall manpower requirements against a timescale so I can see if I will expect periods of drastic overload or downtime gaps where there is no work…very rough cut. I cannot schedule and assign individual employees (50-60 people) for this because it will be too complicated and unsustainable for the benefit I’m trying to achieve.



I would like to create a single resource for each department that reflects the entire available hours in the department and be able to enter and/or change a fixed number of hours and have the duration grow or shrink accordingly. If I have 8 employees available in mechanical assembly and they are normally all working in parallel on the mechanical assembly portion of any given project, I have eight times the normal 40 hours week available in a single bucket. How can I accomplish this?

I’ve tried setting the duration based on hours and using 800% availability and that gets me there for the template. The duration shrinks to 1/8 of the time as expected. If I want to change the number of hours, however, I have to calculate what the duration would be if divided by eight and enter that number…fairly complicated and risk prone for the casual users I am trying to get to use this system. Is there some other way to fix or specify the number of hours besides as duration and/or does anyone have a different approach I’m missing?

Using MS Project Standard 2016.

Any help is most appreciated!