Project - How to shift task to start date of another task

Question

Project - How to shift task to start date of another task

Anonymous

I am working on a construction schedule (new to project, using project 2013) and I know the lead time of a product is 10 weeks. I want to create the schedule so that Project gives me the latest possible date I must order this product in order to be there for install. The only way I have been able to create this link is by manually changing the date of the task.

For example:

Task 29 - Order Wood Flooring

Task 30 - Install Wood Flooring

I want task 29 to finish at the start of task 30.

When I auto schedule the task starts at project start date. Even when I tried to adjust lag/lead time.

For example I did it as a Start-to-Start link with a lag time of -1 day and the order task still didn't move.

By adjusting the date, based on the start of task 30, I get this, which is how I would like it to automatically read.

How can I do this? Thank you!!

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3 answers

Answer 1

Kate --

There are two ways to tackle your scheduling problem. The easiest way, I believe, would be to set an As Late As Possible (ALAP) constraint on task ID #29. To do this, double-click task ID #29 and then click the Advanced tab in the Task Information dialog. Click the Constraint Type pick list and select the ALAP constraint. Click the OK button. Does that help? Let us know.

Answer 2

Kate,

you are using task 29 to represent not just the placing of the order, but also the lead time. I would make a milestone task (zero duration) named "Place Order For Wood Flooring" to represent placing the order, and this milestone is a FS0 predecessor to the lead time, which I would call "Wait For Wood Flooring". I would also make another milestone task called "Deliver Wood Flooring". Now, the order can be placed early, and the lead time starts immediately after, and is FS0 predecessor of "Deliver Wood Flooring", and that is a FS0 predecessor of "Install Wood Flooring". The installation task has other predecessors which are whatever the construction task is that must finish before the flooring can be installed.

Now, the critical path will run through the construction tasks, which means that the order, wait and deliver are on a path which has float, so they are not on the critical path. This means they can be delayed, or at least placing the order can be delayed, up to a point before they use up their float and become critical. Every task which has float has an earliest start date and and earliest finish date, and a latest start date and and a latest finish date. You can see these dates in the schedule table. The date you are looking for is the latest start date of the order task. It has been calculated for you by MSP. It is not displayed on the default Gantt Chart view because that view draws the bars from the earliest start to the earliest finish. If you choose a different view, say the Detailed Gantt chart, that will display the float (slack in MSP).

You are running into problems because you do not have a clear understanding of the critical path method, and that is essential for construction planning.

Any help?

Answer 3

Thank you for the reply! Unfortunately when I did that it pushed both task 29 and 30 to the end of the overall project. I did find that if instead of making task 29 a predecessor of task 30, I make task 30 a predecessor of task 29 using Start-to_finish and enter the lead time as the task time then it worked!

Now if I have to change lead time I just change the task length and if I push the install task, the order task adjusts accordingly.

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Project - How to shift task to start date of another task

3 answers