How do resource smoothing and resource leveling differ from each other?
Resource smoothing aims to maintain original project deadlines while increasing project costs. On the other hand, resource leveling does not alter the existing resource capacity but instead emphasizes rescheduling, which may have an impact on project deadlines.
The accompanying diagram, sourced from the APM Body of Knowledge, provides a comparison between the two approaches.
Resource levelling and smoothing options (APM, 2019, p. 179)
© Association for Project Management (APM) (2019) APM Body of Knowledge (7th edn), Princes Risborough: APM.
At a more significant level of impact, certain projects undergo more than just rescheduling or resource allocation adjustments. They may undergo a reevaluation of their project scope by the project sponsor. This involves a broader analysis of the entire project and requires reconsideration of how time, cost, and quality interact within the project.
A prime example is the review of large-scale infrastructure projects like railways. Such projects often undergo rescaling due to increased costs, resulting in significant deviations from the original plans. The consequences of these revisions can affect the client and a wider range of stakeholders and may even result in the loss of subsequent work opportunities (Kerzner, 2009, p. 529).
Now, let’s consider MTD, the water installation events company, and the Glasgow event that you have been following in the course videos thus far. When examining the provided figure, do you think it would be feasible to implement a resource leveling approach in this scenario?
Share your thoughts and join the discussion below.
© The Open University
Since meeting deadlines is crucial partner projects, MTD should go with resource smoothing rather that Levelling. Even though it increases cost but doesn’t affect deadlines.
With an already fixed date for the event, resource levelling will not be the best approach because that will mean a new end date for the project and, eventually a new date for the event.
Implementing resource leveling will not be feasible for MTD as it will affect the project deadline which would not be good for the event, so it would be better to go with resource smoothing to meet up with the deadline.
Well definitely yeah, because it aims at maintaining project deadlines while increasing costs
Since resource smoothing aims to maintain original project deadlines while increasing project costs. MDT would rather embrace resource smoothing which may not have an impact on project deadlines.
MTD cannot afford to delay on their timelines.They will therefore use resource smoothing to ensure their project is timely and also deliver on the quality.
In the context of MTD’s water installation events for the Glasgow event, applying a resource leveling approach might involve redistributing existing resources within the project’s current capacity to ensure a smoother workflow without changing the overall capacity. This could involve adjusting schedules or tasks within the available resource constraints to mitigate any overloading or underutilization of resources.
Resource leveling, in this scenario, could help in optimizing the use of available resources without affecting the overall capacity, potentially helping to balance workloads and avoid bottlenecks in the installation process.
Resource Smoothing is the best option. It is difficult to reschedule events of that nature done by MTD that are time based.
With MTD company resource smoothing will be the best approach because it’s an event water supply company. It is of a fact that events are time bound and as such every event planner must work and deliver between a specified time frame.
As an events based company, MTD needs to prioritise deadlines because it caters to events that are time-based, so the project needs to be done within a fixed schedule.
Resource levelling may not be the right approach as it could end up prolonging the deadlines which will affect the project deliverables.
For MTD, I believe the best course is Resource Smoothing which would ensure that the project stays on course and the water installation is completed before the event, albeit at increased costs which I’m sure the sponsors would prefer rather than failing to deliver the required output.
For the MTD company and Glasgow event , resource smoothing is the way forward as they have a planned time frame to execute the project before them.