Resource management: What is it and why is it essential?

November 20, 2023
8 min read
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Effective resource management is crucial to the successful delivery of a construction project. To ensure that projects are completed on time and within budget, it is essential to have visibility of the project lifecycle and objectives, as well as the resources available within the organization.

Imagine being stranded on a desert island and having to choose just 3 things to survive. It's a form of resource management, isn't it? Well, in the construction industry it's much the same, except that the business is a little more complex. To succeed, it's important to know what material and financial resources you need, what you can do, and how you can do it with the fewest resources possible. 

By carefully planning your resources, you can increase your company's efficiency by up to 20%, and keep a close eye on how they are used. Managing your resources is essential to achieving your goals.

What does resource management mean?

Resource management means ensuring that resources are used as efficiently and effectively as possible to maximize productivity. It involves identifying, acquiring, allocating and managing resources such as material resources, human resources, financial resources, equipment, time and technology to complete a given task or achieve a goal.

Managing resources involves establishing a cost structure for projects to ensure that objectives are met.

Why is good resource management important?

Resource management is part of project management and essential to the success of any project. It helps optimize resources, reduce costs and maintain quality standards. It also ensures that projects are completed on schedule.

Good resource management ensures that resources are used efficiently, helping organizations to achieve their objectives with a minimum of delays or additional costs. Accurate tracking of resources enables closer control of their availability and early identification of potential problems. This enables corrective action to be taken quickly, helping to avoid costly overruns.

The 5 benefits of resource management?

  1. Anticipate obstacles: by having an excellent knowledge of your resources and planning their use by a project manager, you can identify and resolve any potential problems before they arise in your organization.
  2. Avoid burnout: by effectively managing a set of resources, you can prevent overwork or over-reliance on human resources. Your employees will be able to use their know-how, and your manager will be able to use the various players to their full potential.
  3. Ensuring support in the event of failure: if your project doesn't succeed because of a lack of resources (which can happen, for example, depending on the materials available), resource planning and management demonstrate that your strategy was the right one, and that you did everything possible to optimize the resources available.
  4. Be more transparent: other people and your customers can have a better understanding of the human resources you have at your disposal, and adjust their targets according to their maximum capacity or availability to take on new projects.
  5. Measuring efficiency: with an exact understanding of what is required to manage and execute all types of project, you can both plan and measure ROI effectively.

What are the best techniques for managing your resources?

Assigning resources

The aim of resource assignment is to maximize the use of the types of resources available to you. Taking into account the skills and availability of team members, this process involves managing projects by making efficient use of the organization's equipment and resources in your possession.

To get a clear picture of this assignment, project managers often rely on reports. These can range from a general overview of production to a detailed analysis of resource availability, helping to avoid delays and budget overruns.

Comprehensive reporting enhances project transparency and efficiency. It enables people to identify potentially risky elements. It also enables more accurate estimation of costs and deadlines, and better collaboration between teams.

Readjustment of resources

Another method is to readjust resources. This approach aims to identify the under-utilized resource on a site, or the mis-utilized resource within an organization, and leverage it as needed. For example, a project manager with estimating skills could support another team by taking on tasks on building assessment or another stage of the project. If one member of the team has the required skills, the estimating team will not need to call in external service providers if suddenly faced with an influx of project requests, and will have the means to manage its internal skills. Ultimately, the right use of resources and skills enables teams to be more productive and efficient.

Resource estimates

To make the right choice, it's essential to gather all the necessary elements and conditions, and draw up a financial resource plan to maximize the efficiency of people, information and finances. A resource estimate helps you anticipate your future resource requirements before launching a project.

During the planning phases of a project, this estimate is used to define the scope of the project, the types of possible constraints, unexpected expenditure on raw materials, for example, and possible risks (facilities, manufacturing, available skills, etc.).

To carry out this assessment, project management needs to have a clear understanding of the project's lifecycle and objectives, as well as an overview of the resources available within the organization. Project management software specialized in construction resource management, such as Cilvalgo, offers companies this visibility, as well as centralized access to your projects and resources, enabling you to maximize your know-how and manage your assets with ease.

What are your favorite resource management tools?

Let us know your suggestions on our chat!

Anticipating obstacles: By having an excellent understanding of your resources and planning their usage by a project manager, you can identify and resolve any potential problems before they manifest in your organization.

Avoiding burnout: By effectively managing a set of resources, you can prevent work overload or excessive reliance on human resources. Your employees can then use their skill sets and your manager can use different actors to their full potential.

  1. Ensuring support in case of failure: If your project fails due to a lack of resources (which can happen depending on the available equipment, for example), resource planning and management demonstrate that your strategy was relevant and that you did everything possible to optimize the available resources.
  1. Be more transparent: Other people and your clients can have a better understanding of the human resources you have available and adjust their goals according to its maximum capacity or availability to take on new projects.
  2. ‍Measuringeffectiveness: With an exact understanding of what is necessary to manage and execute all types of projects, you can plan and measure return on investment effectively.

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