Project Planner Tab

The Project Planner tab in the Project Planner ribbon contains the following commands.

Project Planner

Refresh updates the Project Planner hierarchy, if necessary. For example, if multiple users are accessing the same plan simultaneously, this will update the plan to reflect any changes made by other users.

Create Project Plan opens the Create Project Plan window so you can start again from a blank plan, or import an existing plan from another project.

Delete Entire Plan deletes every gate and removes every action from the plan.

Item Properties allows you to view or edit the Identifiers defined for the current plan. These identifiers can be used in the Analysis Explorer to explore all of the different types of analyses (including project plans) in the current database.

Clipboard

Paste pastes the contents of the Clipboard into the level below the selected gate (or on the same level of the selected action). If you want to paste gates only (without sub-gates and actions), use the Paste Without Actions command.

Cut cuts the selected gate/action and any dependents to the Clipboard. You can paste this information into another Project Planner within the same database.

Copy copies the selected gate/action and any dependents to the Clipboard. To copy everything, use the Copy Entire Plan command. You can paste this information into another Project Planner within the same database.

Delete deletes the selected gate/action and any dependents.

Gate

Add Gate

- Add Same Level Gate adds a gate on the same level as the selected gate.
- Add Next Level Gate adds a gate one level below the selected gate.
- Add Gate adds a top-level gate to the end of the plan.
- Insert Gate inserts a gate at the selected location.

Use Precedence, when selected, automatically sets a new gate's precedent to the prior gate, which allows you to take advantage of expected timelines and ensure that there are no gaps between gates. If you clear this option, the default precedent will be "None."

Edit Gate opens the Gate Properties window.

Promote and Demote moves the selected gate to the next higher or lower level in the plan. An item can be demoted only if there is another item on the same level and above the selected item that it can be demoted under.

Action

Add Action

- Add Action creates a new action resource.
- Reuse Action Resources allows you to select existing action(s) from the project that a) are not already used in the current plan and b) have dates that fit within the current gate. Specifically, the action’s start date can’t be before or more than a year after the gate’s start date. (See Select Resource window.)
- Reuse FMEA Actions allows you to select one or more XFMEA/RCM++/RBI system hierarchy items from the current project that have FMEAs. You can then select to use existing action(s) from those particular FMEAs in the project plan.

Edit Action opens action properties window. (See Actions in the Project Planner.)

Tools

Remove Gaps in Dates automatically assigns precedents to every applicable gate. This ensures that there will be no gaps in the planned or expected timelines, and it allows the expected dates for an activity to automatically shift in response to delays in prior activities. (See Project Planner Timelines.) You can choose to remove gaps in the Entire Plan or just for the gates that fall under the selected Branch.

Check Utilization opens the Check Utilization window so you can examine the utilizations for individual users and facilities across multiple actions (e.g., is a particular user assigned to too many actions at the same time, or is a particular test facility already booked for a particular timeframe).

Expand All and Collapse All expands or collapses the gates in the project plan hierarchy.

Dashboard

- Dashboard Viewer opens the Dashboard Viewer so you can view dashboards based on predefined layouts.
- Dashboard Manager opens the Dashboard Layout Manager so you can create, edit and delete the predefined layouts that will be available for any user to view for any project plan in the database.

Excel Import/Export

- Export View to Excel exports the entire hierarchy and all displayed columns to an Excel sheet in a format that's suitable for presentation.
- Import Hierarchy and Export Hierarchy use an Excel format that's suitable for recreating the plan hierarchy in another project plan using information about precedents, outline level, etc.