Irrespective of the size, nature, and type of business, most project managers concur that – resource management is one of the critical factors that determine project success.
Resource management tools give project managers the bird's eye view as well as a detailed view of projects. It provides an overview of everyone in the team, what they are doing, what tasks need to be done, thereby helping to plan how to do it.
Here, in this guide, we take a look at the various challenges associated with managing resources in a few industries and how eResource Scheduler can help with effective resource allocation and management.
Automotive companies are generally large-scale organisations, spread geographically with several branches across countries. Apart from the manufacturing and sales units, there are several other teams involved in – R&D, design, development, and marketing. Automotive companies employ resources from different specializations like – mechanical engineers, automobile engineers, electrical engineers, design experts, safety engineers, and more.
One of the biggest challenges for project managers in an automotive company is finding the right resources with the right qualifications and experience. Identifying the right resource for a project is a massive challenge because the employees are spread across different branches/countries and operate at different time zones. Further adding to the complexity, most resources are shared between projects. This means a team member simultaneously works on multiple projects.
Another challenge here is to ensure optimum utilization of resources. Project managers have a hard time ensuring fair distribution of workload. Very often, they end up using critical team members, again and again, making them feel overburdened while other team members end up feeling neglected.
Several studies indicate that when the workload is not equitably distributed, it causes overburdened team members to lose out on productivity and efficiency while making others feel less motivated. Under or over allocation is one of the main reasons for resource attrition.
How does eRS help?
Identifying the right resources based on availability and skill sets and efficient allocation of resources is made simple with eRS. The eResource Scheduler offers a centralized resource repository – that includes resources across teams, projects, branches, and even countries. The centralized resource database makes it easy for project managers to identify the right resources and ensure optimum resource utilization in real-time.
Once managers identify the right resources, the efficient drag-n-drop charts of the eRS, make it easy to allocate tasks to employees with just a few clicks. The entire team – across branches and countries – can be brought on the same page.
Project managers can easily find out who is working on what, while team members can quickly see which tasks they have been assigned. Additionally, project managers can see when resources are available so that they can allocate and reallocate tasks in real-time, avoiding resource conflicts.
The resource availability and utilization reports of the eRS provide accurate numbers in real-time, making it easy for project managers to ensure that all optimal utilization of resources without any overbooking.
Key Benefits of eRS for the Automotive Industry
The workforce is the biggest asset of any construction company. The success of projects depends on the skill of the workers and the managers who oversee work allocation. However, resource management in the construction industry is plagued with several problems like – high employee turnover, lack of qualified candidates, safety concerns, temporary workers, and more.
One of the biggest challenges in resource management for construction companies is the lack of resource profiling. Without a central repository of resources, it becomes complicated for project managers to identify the right resources using various attributes like location, experience, certifications, availability, and more.
Most construction companies use spreadsheets to maintain a database of resources. However, the problem with this method is that it becomes difficult to share the sheet with different project managers in real-time, causing specific resources to over-utilized or under-utilized.
Additionally, this manual approach is time-consuming as project managers have to update the working time of each resource manually, leading to an inaccurate calculation of project costs.
How does eRS help?
eRS makes it easy to create a centralized database of all resources. Project managers and coordinators can view, filter, and sort resources based on experience, location, qualification, professional certifications, availability, and more. Since the eRS is a multi-user application, all project updates are shared with users who have access to it. It helps different project managers get a complete picture of resource availability – who is working on what, till when, so that they can plan and allocate resources accordingly.
The eRS comes with an inbuilt timesheet module that makes it easy to calculate the time spent by resources on different projects.
Key Benefits of eRS for the Construction Industry
The gaming industry is highly dynamic and hyper-competitive. For companies to succeed in the fast-changing environment, they have to stay on top of their game and focus on both technologies and resources.
Generally, the big gaming companies publish different games across various platforms and have a wide variety of resources – full-time game developers, designers, testers, content creators, marketers, coders, and more. Besides, the full-time resources, game companies usually hire interns, vendors, freelance game experts, especially during the pre-release testing phases.
With so many different types of resources working across branches and remotely, resource allocation and coordination is a crucial aspect of project planning for gaming companies. Project managers have to go through a long list of resources, check availability, and experience to allocate the right resources for various tasks.
Besides, resource identification, project managers also have to calculate resource cost based on their working time. Project managers are in charge of calculating the resource cost and revenue for each project so that they can ensure that game releases are profitable. With the right resource planning software, this becomes tedious and time-consuming.
How does eRS help?
eResource Scheduler makes it easy for project managers to add all resources and categorize them using different features like resource type, previous experience, skill sets, and more. Once all resources are added to the central repository, project managers can quickly identify the right resource and allocate tasks with simple drag-n-drop features.
To give an example, if a project manager requires a few testers, then he/she can use the filter feature on the central repository to get a list of all testers. Then, check who is available and when, compare previous experiences and skillsets, to pick the right testers for the current requirement.
Additionally, the eRS highlights resource shortages or excesses based on project requirements. It makes it easy for the HR department to hire or reallocate resources so that all projects are adequately staffed at all times.
Another huge advantage of the eRS for the gaming industry is that it helps in calculating the cost and expenses of each project accurately, without manual calculations. Project managers can pull up all the financial data – at project level, game level, or organization level, helping them make accurate project decisions and resource hiring decisions.
Key Benefits of eRS for the Gaming Industry
FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) is one of the biggest and most complicated industries. With supply chains spanning across continents, resource management is overwhelming. Most FMCG companies have a presence across countries and employ tens of thousands of employees – store workers, supply chain managers, raw material suppliers, marketers, and plenty more.
For an FMCG company to get an edge over their competitors, they need the right resource management system. Without knowing the current availability of resources, it becomes difficult to allocate tasks and complete different aspects of the project.
Improper resource management could lead to problems like – project delays, fall in customer satisfaction, drop in sales, reduced utilization of resources, loss of revenue, and more.
How does eRS help?
The eResource Scheduler offers a centralized database of all types of resources, irrespective of the number of employees. Whether you want to add a few hundred employees or tens of thousands of employees, the eRS can get the job done.
The eRS offers detailed resource utilization reports helping managers to compare planned and actual utilization of resources. It provides different views – daily, weekly, and monthly in easy to read graphs and charts. Simply put, the eRS makes it easy for FMCG companies to grow faster with maximum utilization of resources, thereby boosting productivity and efficiency.
Key Benefits of eRS for FMCG Companies
The eResource Scheduler offers five major benefits for the healthcare industry. They are:
The eResource Scheduler has various features that make it an excellent fit for all verticals. The best part – you can try the free demo of the product and see if it suits your business requirements. For other queries regarding usage or pricing, get in touch of the product and see if it suits your business requirements. For other queries regarding usage or pricing, get in touch with the team.
The eResource Scheduler has various features that make it an excellent fit for all verticals. The best part – you can try the free demo of the product and see if it suits your business requirements. For other queries regarding usage or pricing, get in touch with the team.
The eResource Scheduler has various features that make it an excellent fit for all verticals. The best part – you can try the free demo of the product and see if it suits your business requirements. For other queries regarding usage or pricing, with the team.
