Parallel Resources

the parallel resources feature in planeus helps you plan situations where a work step needs more than one resource at the same time this is perfect for many circumstances, such as needing a special tool in addition to a machine scheduling multiple employees to help on one task using extra equipment that’s only available in limited numbers how parallel resource works? when you plan a work step , you can also link one or more parallel resources (sometimes called secondary resources) this means the work step will use both a primary resource and one or more parallel resources at the same time hence the part of the work step using the primary resource is called the main work step the part using the parallel resource is called the parallel work step key points the duration of the parallel work step is tied to the duration of the work step different capacity plans for each resource might make the parallel step shorter or longer, depending on availability always plan forward when using parallel resources to avoid gaps between primary and parallel work steps how to add parallel resources? except for the special case of personnel resources (explained below), all parallel resources must be fully available during the time of the primary work step what happens if a resource isn’t available? all linked parallel resources (except for employees — see the special case below) must be available during the same time as the primary work step when you schedule a primary work step planeus searches for a time slot where all resources are available together if it can’t find a suitable time slot within a year , the order cannot be scheduled, and you’ll see an error message how parallel resources are shown in the gantt chart when you move a primary work step, planeus automatically moves all linked parallel work steps and recalculates their times in the gantt chart, parallel work steps will be shown in different colors to distinguish them from primary work steps parallel work steps cannot be moved individually you can only move a primary work step alternative resources if you try to move a work step and one of the parallel resources is unavailable planeus will suggest an alternative resources from the same resource group that are available in that time frame if no alternatives exist, the system will let you know there’s a conflict exclusive availability parallel work steps require the parallel resource to be exclusively available during the time of the primary work step in short the parallel resource cannot be scheduled for another task during that time use case auto shift planning with parallel resources you can use parallel resources to plan human/employee resources not all assigned employees need to be available at the same time planeus will only schedule those employees who are actually available during the planned time example imagine you have 1 machine that runs for 8 hours but you need 3 employees to help, each working in 3 different shifts how planeus automatically plans it set you machine as the primary resrouces set those 3 employees as parallel resources with their own capacity plans schedule the order planeus will then automatically assign the employee who is actually available that time this makes it possible to plan complex scenarios without causing conflicts