Calendars in Primavera P6, allow schedulers to specify holidays, work shutdowns, for example, bad weather days which often affect the construction industry, and specific non-working and working days of any project. Not only can working days be specified but also the actual working hours of a day can be defined.
Schedulers using Primavera P6 have the option to select from three different calendars, the global calendar, the resource calendar, or the project calendar. Each calendar supports multiple and different elements of the project therefore selecting the correct calendar is important.
- The Global Calendar can be assigned to one or multiple projects. This calendar is built into the Primavera P6 database, therefore if you modify this calendar all projects that are assigned to it will be affected by the same modification. This calendar can be assigned to any project, resource, and activity in the database.
- The Project Calendar is usually assigned to one specific project and is used to define the activities within the project. The project calendar cannot be linked to the resource calendar but it can be linked to the global calendar. If it is linked to the global calendar, modifications made in the global calendar will be reflected in the project calendar. However, changes/ modifications made in the project calendar will not alter data in the global calendar.
- The Resource Calendar is used to assign a resource (materials, machinery, or production) when availability is low or at a critical level. This calendar is only used under these special conditions. For example, in a construction project; a skilled tiler has been assigned 2 days to complete the tiling of the roof. However, the quality control department has rejected the tiles as they do not meet the specification criteria. The tiles have to be reordered and the skilled tiler has to be re-scheduled. In this example, the resource calendar can be used to reflect when the delivery of the new tiles is due so that the skilled tiler can be re-scheduled to begin work immediately after they are delivered. Again, if a resource calendar in Primavera P6 is linked with a global calendar then any change made in the global calendar will be reflected in the corresponding resource calendar but not vice versa.
Calendars are created at the same time as the Primavera P6 project schedule so that all activities durations are specified and resources allocated. It is recommended by industry professionals that project calendars are used and they are the popular choice of schedulers.
As a project progresses changes to the project often occur. Modifications to the calendar will be required to reflect these changes. We recently published an article on ‘Modifying Calendars in Primavera P6’ that you can read here.
We have also produced a short video on ‘Modifying Calendars in Primavera P6’ where each step of this process is shown. Viewers can browse and familiarize themselves with this feature.
You can also see other Oracle Primavera P6 videos by Ten Six here as well as subscribe to our YouTube channel to receive notifications of when we post a new video.