Question

The difference between resources the company earns and the resources it disperses during a period is what?

Answer 1

Resource smoothing is used when the time constraint takes priority. The objective is to complete the work by the required date while avoiding peaks and troughs of resource demand. Resource levelling is used when limits on the availability of resources are paramount. It simply answers the question ‘With the resources available, when will the work be finished?’.

Few re-usable resources are limitless, so the time schedule has to be adjusted to take into account the limited availability of resources over time. There are two approaches to reconciling resource limits and time constraints; resource smoothing (or time limited resource scheduling) and resource levelling (or resource limited scheduling).

smoothed resource profile will be achieved by delaying some work. This will remove some flexibility from the schedule and its ability to deal with unavoidable delays, but the advantage is usually a more efficient and cost-effective use of resources.