Overview

This unit covers essential concepts, advanced techniques and sophisticated tools to plan and manage resources for the tasks/ operations in engineering industries, specifically in project-based settings.

Requisites

Prerequisites

Undergraduate students must complete 250 credit points in Civil or Construction majors only

There are no prerequisites for Postgraduate students.

Teaching periods
Location
Start and end dates
Last self-enrolment date
Census date
Last withdraw without fail date
Results released date
Semester 1
Location
Hawthorn
Start and end dates
02-March-2026
31-May-2026
Last self-enrolment date
15-March-2026
Census date
31-March-2026
Last withdraw without fail date
21-April-2026
Results released date
07-July-2026
Semester 1
Location
Hawthorn
Start and end dates
01-March-2027
30-May-2027
Last self-enrolment date
14-March-2027
Census date
30-March-2027
Last withdraw without fail date
20-April-2027
Results released date
06-July-2027

Learning outcomes

Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:

  • Describe the concepts and functions of planning and managing resources in project scenarios (K5, K6, S4, A1, A4, A5, A6)
  • Apply relevant principles and theories for planning and managing resources (K5, K6, S4, A1, A4, A5, A6)
  • Use appropriate tools and techniques for resource planning and management (K2, K5, K6, S1, S2, S4, A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, A6, A7)
  • Formulate and/ or specify suitable strategies, methods and tools/ techniques for resource management in the project-based engineering industries (K2, K5, K6, S1, S2, S4, A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, A6, A7)

Teaching methods

Hawthorn

Type Hours per week Number of weeks Total (number of hours)
On-campus
Lecture		 2.00  12 weeks  24
On-campus
Class		 2.00  12 weeks  24
Online
Directed Online Learning and Independent Learning		 1.50  12 weeks  18
Unspecified Activities
Independent Learning		 7.00  12 weeks  84
TOTAL     150

Assessment

Type Task Weighting ULO's
AssignmentIndividual 20 - 40% 1,2,3 
Project ReportIndividual/Group 30 - 50% 1,2,3,4 
TestIndividual 30 - 50% 1,2,3,4 

Content

The contents of this unit are set in three components as below:

  • Component 1: Resource planning and management fundamentals
    • Concepts and theories for resource planning and management decisions;
    • Fundamentals of estimating resource requirements for engineering industry operations in project-based settings;
    • Planning and managing dependency-based complexity problems using single domain and multi-domain Dependency Structure Matrix (DSM) solutions
    • Resource productivity with metrics-based monitoring and control;
       
  • Component 2: Planning and managing expendable and non-expendable resources
    • Expendable resources: Material resources planning and management including classification, estimating, inventory management, supply chain and logistics, storage arrangements, documentation and reports, waste control;
    • Non-expendable resources: Equipment resources planning and management including selection of equipment, equipment schedules and costs, equipment reliability and dependability, codes/ standards, classification and controls. optimisation, obsolescence prevention and mitigation
    • Non-expendable resources: Human resources planning and management including recruitment, retention, training, motivation, aging workforce, generations and genders, physical and psychological factors, culture, workforce schedule, designing job and workplace/ site layout for safety and productivity 
       
  • Component 3: Resource scheduling and optimisation
    • Resource scheduling including allocation and smoothing/ levelling of resources;
    • Constrained resource scheduling;
    • Multi-project resource management;
    • Mathematical models and heuristics for resource scheduling optimisation;
    • Software and digital technologies for resource schedulng.

Study resources

Reading materials

A list of reading materials and/or required textbooks will be available in the Unit Outline on Canvas.