RAMPS A RESOURCE SCHEDULING TOOL FOR MULTI-PROJECTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: NGA Records (Formerly NIMA)
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP73T00325R000100040002-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: January 4, 2017
• Sequence Number: 2
• Content Type: REPORT

y, Approved For Release 2008/06/05 CIA-RDP73T00325R000100040002-7
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A resource sehedulirag ites�9 f�r enuld6-progeets.
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I~ToT u~.TLix~ such fads as hula hoops, yo-yo's and
navy Crockett hats which periodically sweep
through she younger generation, there have been
mana_,~ment fads which attract a great deal of
a.t�teni:on and ballyhoo, only to have their meteoric
rise quid:'.y fizzle out, leaving at best a small resi-
due in cep tain quarters. The interest and enthus-
iasm which greeted early versions of the critical
;:.wth methodology, and in particular the PERT sys-
tem, have been tempered by the disillusionment
that came with practice.
Reasons for this are not difficult to fathom. The
PERT system makes a good straw man. One must
realize that P;~, ~,T was designed as a management
aid in monitori:~g projects where the ernphasis was
on timely completion in particular, and on the con-
trol of costs as a secondary feature. PERT was not
designed as a schedu~ing technique. Organizations
attempting to use it in this fashion soon found that
there vas a great gap between the customary tabu-~
lations proci~.~~d by a PERT program and a prac-
tical and realistic working schedule.
The "classical" C_itical Path Method (CPM) was
designed mo:�e as a scheduling aid, but in its custom-
ary applicatio:l its major benefit is in providing
assistance in calculating an advantageous balance
using, the tra,�?e-off between time and cost in
accomplishing�one particular piece of work.
The major deficit found by organizations con-
cerned with the scheduling of "in-house" activities
was the need to take explicit account of limited
resources, and the fact that the organizations usu-
ally were concerned with the simultaneous manage-
ment of a variety of independent projects linked
together solely by their reliance on. a common pool
of resources. A conventional arrow'diagram may
show two activities in parallel. If, however, these
activities use the same resource which is composed,
of less than the required number o~ units to run
both activities concurrently, the two activities are
necessarily constrained to be conducted sex�ially.
The limitation of available resources -obviously has
a serious effect on any critical path analysis. The
term "resources" includes. manpower with different
skills; equipment such as computers, lathes, bull-`
dozers and spectrometers; such facilities as test
stands, warehouses and office space , and money
divided into specified budgetary' .pockets.
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To meet the needs of operating organizations, a
technique was developed by C-E-I-R, ~ ,Inc. that
explicitly schedules limited resources among .an
arbitrary number of independent projects This ,
technique was given the acronym RAI4IPS. � Re- �
source Allocation and Multi-Project Scheduling.
Approved For Release 2008/06/05 CIA-RDP73T00325R000100040002-7 ~`~,~
.� ;`,,AMPS is a member of the family of techniques ~~
using� the critical path methodology. It, like CPM
and PE%T, uses the by now conventional arrow
diagram to describe the interrelationship of activ-
ities within a project.
A departure from previous procedures is the
reliance i:~ RAMPS on the amount of work con-
cept. Rather than have the project manager arbi-
trarily prescribe a specified number of resources
of one or more types which are needed to complete
a project in ..;i estimated number of time periods,
R:~MPS calls for the amount of work. Different
rates of resource utilization at varying efficiencies
might be used to accomplish the normal amount of
work. For example, a particular job may normally
require eight men for 12 days to complete the
ac'I;ivity. The normal 96 man-days may be looked
upon as the amount of work. If 10 men were avail-
able and assigned to the project, the job would be
completed in 10 days, a saving of two days time
but at an added cost of four man-days. The effi-
ciency relative to the norm is 96 percent. On the
other nand, if only five men were available, 24 days
would be needed to complete the job, requiring a
total of 120 man-days and representing an efficiency
of 80 percent.
The flexibility achieved in using different utiliza-
tion rates for resources by the application of the
amount-of-work principle results in a great deal
of flexibility while, at the same time, adequately
representing the realistic changes in efficiency that
occur when different resource utilization rates are
applied. We live in a non-linear world, a fact
recognized by RAMPS.
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Other features that have been built into P~A.MPS
include the ability to apply resources in teams, a
recognition that at times limited resources can be
expanded at increased cost through overtime or
subcontracting, the ability to provide for, or to
prohibit, possible interruptions of an activity once
commenced. !Interruptions, if 'permitted to occur,
may involve an added cost.
Of major' importance is the flexibility inherent
in RAMPS to be responsive to the needs of man-
agement and to generate schedules which reflect
individualized management criteria. Within the
framework of providing different priorities to the
completion of different projects, RAMPS can pro-
vide schedules which, subject to resource limita-
tions, are those which complete projects at mini-
mum cost, complete projects in minimum elapsed
time, complete projects using resources at a level
rate, or complete projects guided by other manage-
ment objectives. RAMPS is an automated tech-
nique, running on the IBM 7090, in active use by
a variety of organizations for the planning and
scheduling of construction operations, paper flow,
the replacement of one' computer for another wiih
the consequent training and reprogramming, the
production scheduling of a variety of products and.
other applications. '
Output from RAMPS normally is tabulated in
two ways
1. Aproject-oriented report provides to the proj-
ect manager the number of units of each type of
resource to be applied to each activity within the
- FIGElR~ 1 - PE2�.CECY SCHE�IDLE ~:'
PROTECT IDENTIFICATION, DESCRIPTION, SCHEDULED PERIODS AND
AND COMPLETION INFORMATION AMOUNT OF WORK RESOURCES ASSIGNED '
/ UTILIZATION 14TES l /
PRpCR U REK)VAfE OFFICE
AVAI LADLE STMT InTE: 11
D:SIItrD E014�LETI CN DATE: 70 .. ' ~
INDICATED COWIPTIhi RITE: t0 ' ,,, /
fEUY CDST Ai 51000:
PERIODS
AtnvlTY wYmc � ,
RESOURCE 5-OPN NC/MNL SHIP
t ! ! ~ ! 6 7 R 9 IO 11 l4 33 lA 'IS 16 lI 1R 19 70
i
1-7 RENlVE ~FtN.II SMI NCS y
CARPENTERS 1 I , 4 y '
2-: tIdTKL Itl+ FI KTWES y ,
EIERRl CIM6 1 ! 4
7 7 y
7-4 RC/OVE OLD PMTI T1016 9 q
URPEHIERS 1 2 4 y y ~ '
WS INSTALL TE4 PMTITItr6 l7
CARPENTERS 2 ~ 6 4 7 7' .R� 7
7-S INSTKL AIR Cb~ITIOrER R4 '
ELECTRI CIMd ] 4 R ~ R 4 v 4"
S-! PRIM ~
R
PAINTERS 1 7 8 Z 7 I' 2
S-li INSTKL FIXNISNIrCS y '
(. CARPtiNTERS 1 7 V p p
1 ,
EVENT NUMBERS ACTT VITV DESCKIPTION ~ ~ �
RESOURCE REOuIREMENTS ,
Approved For Release 2008/06/05 CIA-RDP73T00325R000100040002-7 -
Approved For Release 2008/06/05 CIA-RDP73T00325R000100040002-7
h ~~e~~~ a - ~~so~Q~~,~, ~,~.~acazeal~ su~l~lA~aY
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ACTIVITIES USING THIS RESOURCE
QUANTITIES ASSIGNED EACH PERIOD
RESOURCE DESCRlPTION\ UTILIZATION RATES \
~~ ELECTRiC1AN5 ~ ~ PERIODS 1 THROUG!1 20
PROJECT ACTIVITY S-D04M NOf.*5AL 5-UP WORK 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17,18 19 20
~~ A 2- 4 1 2 4 R
A 2-3 2 3 6 18
A 4-5 2 4 8 16
l A 5-6 2 4 6 12
I
B 2-3 1 2 4 4
B
!I 2-5 2 4 8 24
TOTAL REQUIRED:
TOTAL AVAILABLE: 7
TOTAL IDLE (-PREM) USED): 7
4 4
3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2
2 2 2 2 2 2 4
4
2
7 7 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 6
7 7 7 7 7 7 7 1 1 7
3p3 3 3 .3 3 3 1
4 4
2 '
4 8 4 4 4
6 '8 8 4 4 4
7 1 7 7 7 7 7 7
1 -1 -1 3 3 3 7 7
TOTAL QUANTITY ASSIGNED / QUANTITY IDLE AND PREMIUM UNITS
ASSIGNED (indicated by a minus sign)
TOTAL QUANTITY AVAILABLE
project d~~:ing each period of time over the life of information is critical in determining the adequacy
the project.
_..:_ resource-oriented report, designed for the
resource supez�visor, shows him the requirements
v.Tithin the numbers available to him for each activ-
ity i:-. all of the projects during each period of time.
-i~urc 1 shows the work schedule for a project
denoted as Project B and a breakdown of the
vas�ious types of information contained in all
;AMPS schedules. Although RAMPS internally
interrelates the schedules for all projects, the
printed schedules are produced separately for each
project. This allows those who are interested in a
pars?cular project to receive only the information
for that project.
The heart of the schedule is the right-hand por-
lion which shows the time periods during which
each activity is to be worked and the quantity of
each resource allocated during each period. To
t e left are the activity names, event numbers,
arzounts-of-�~oa�k, resources required, and the three
utilization rates -all of which have been repro-
duced from the orig�inai data given to RAMPS.
~TOte that the activities are listed in order by
starting period. All activities scheduled to begin
during period 1 are shown first, those starting in
period 2 appear next, and so on until all the activ-
ities have been shown in the schedule. This is ex-
tremely convenient, especially in large projects
where the schedule may ~_..,.:d over many pages.
It allows ti:e user to consider and act upon the
total requirements of each time period In turn.
The information in the upper left corner of the
schedule includes the specified start date, desired
completion date, indicated or scheduled completion
d