Reduction
Use
If you have specified a basic start date and basic finish date for a network, and the scheduled dates are outside of these dates, the system attempts step-by-step to reduce the duration of the network.
By means of various reduction strategies, the normal duration of the activities is reduced until the minimum duration of the activity is reached.
Features
You enter the reduction strategy on the activity detail screen for internally processed activities. If you do not enter a reduction strategy here, no reduction can be carried out.
In Customizing for reduction strategies you define:
By how many levels the duration of the activity should be reduced (maximum is six)
By what percentage per level the duration of an activity should be reduced.
In the scheduling parameters for the network you define:
The maximum reduction level to be used in the network
The reduction type - this specifies whether all activities are reduced or just those that are on the critical path.
With the percentage, which is valid per reduction level, the normal duration is shortened until either the start or the finish date of the network can be met or all reduction levels have been used.
If, after reduction, the minimum duration is also not sufficient to meet the basic dates, negative floats result. The scheduled dates are then outside of the basic dates you specified.
Note
If the system must carry out reduction measures, it schedules the network after each reduction level. This could lead to performance problems.