A resource pool is a group of resources that have the ability to perform a common task(s).  You can group one or more resources under a pool for scheduling purposes, capacity analysis purposes, and/or for reporting purposes.  For example, suppose you have multiple skill levels for welders, “A” welders can perform specialized work as well as all other welding activities. For less skilled work however, you may want other welders to be fully utilized prior to scheduling “A” welders for “B” work. In this case “A” welders would belong to an “A” pool as shown below. They would also belong to a “B” pool but they would be placed on the bottom of the list so they would be chosen when the “B” welders have been fully utilized.  

The following example shows how resources can belong to more than one pool.      

  

A resource pool can optionally have a resource type.  If a resource pool is identified as a Labor type of resource, the scheduler handles the pool differently than other resource pools.  For more information, see Labor Pool Scheduling.

Resource pools must first be defined in the Tables menu Resource Pools before they can be used to define what resources belong to what resource pools in Resources.