Want to think about something impossible, just looking at the start and end dates for a tasks and consider the headache of managing everything in between without a Gantt Chart, with this article we look to explore the marriage of Gantt Charts with Enterprise Resource Planning.

Each row of any project plan requires you to think about the dates, and position those dates in the context of preceding and dependent tasks. The thought process of visualizing these dates in your head requires valuable thinking time and can result in a great deal of confusion if many tasks are involved in the project.

A Gantt Chart enables the project manager to visualize the entire project plan, often on one page, like in the screenshots of Gantt graphs from our own product within this article. This visualization enables the project manager to see new relationships between tasks, and to continually refine the plan. Major improvements can be made in your Gantt Chart by identifying tasks that might run in parallel, rather than sequentially.

When it comes to ERP FM and our relationship with how we manage Gantt charts we have taking a no nonsense approach to make sure as little time as possible is required to produce and maintain Gantt Charts, the ERP systems takes care of it all.

When we talk ERP advantages ,Gantt Charts are top of the list, with our offering the user doesn’t even have to create one, it all naturally creates itself as you enter required information or just import from existing rules.

The main two axes of the system are tasks and time period to be mentioned and the amount of work done in certain period of time are marked with the ability to gain more in depth information as required. Certain tools are there with which we can create a chart within no time if the prerequisites are known.

With Enterprise Resource Planning meeting Facilities Management (ERP:FM), one can access a built-in Gantt charts that automatically populate and evolve as your task or project does. For projects with specific due dates, the generator can help plot milestones as well as important dates related to the project’s delivery. To do this, the project manager has to determine the timeline in your Gantt chart for the various critical tasks included in the project and then work backwards so dependent tasks are accomplished in time to hit the target, giving the perfect overview of any ongoing tasks.

You can communicate more effectively with stakeholders

Many high performing business people operate visually and with ERP FM, we believe that is the best way to not only save time but have a successful operation. Your Gantt chart provides a means for these people to navigate simply through a very high level of complexity in your project plan. As the data is “visualized for them”, all stakeholders are looking at the same representation of the information.

The milestones and landmarks in a project can be represented very effectively in this chart. This format is preferred by many modern managers. As such, these charts need no further interpretation for presenting to sponsors, executives, and higher officials. From a single sheet graph you can show where there is a lag in the project and fix it before the issue worsens. Since this chart is created in very short amount of time, this allows for more time for decision making to decide how to handle the trends being revealed as the plan is updated.

You can see ahead … for miles

A good Gantt chart tool will enable you to plan well in advance, but a great Gantt Chart will empower your entire business and take no time away from you with tedious setting up. Sometimes visualizing longer term plans can feed back to changing your short term plans, so it becomes a requirement that your Gantt Chart should let you plan far into the future, however you should also be able to change your view so that the entire Gantt enterprise resource planning range can be visualized on one page.

The main advantage of this chart is it is easily understandable and for even the most unaware users to easily adapt to what it is presenting with the information stored being very transparent and easily identifiable. Thus it is used in the important phase named planning phase in the project. By seeing the horizontal bars we can easily make out how much work has been completed in a given period of time which helps to keep track of the progression in the project activities while allowing your calendar operations to still be accessible for a more micro managed approach when it comes to service partners and internal staff.

You can identify resource clashes

Using a Gantt chart, you can easily see periods when a resource is scheduled on multiple tasks. If this scheduling is a full time allocation to each task, then something as to give. Gantt charts enables you to see these emerging issues in advance and take corrective and preventative action, otherwise known as project management.