FORECASTING MAN-HOURS AND FTE TRACKING IN P6
Oracle Primavera P6
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Primavera P6 allows users to forecast man-hours and track FTE (full-time equivalent) in the Resource Assignment Window and Resource Usage Profile. Forecasting man-hours is important to any project schedule. It lets the P6 User know the cost of the resources and how many man-hours are needed to complete a task. FTE is the number of hours worked by a resource in a given time period. This standardizes the measurements for the time, money, and resources that are used in the schedule. FTE can be helpful in a project if the hours of work are known but how many resources are needed is not known.
Forecasting Man-Hours
Before the Tech Tip further explains how to forecast man-hours and track FTE in Primavera P6 the following data fields are defined:
Remaining Early Units
The remaining units of work to be performed by a particular resource on a particular activity
Cumulative Remaining Early Units
The Cumulative amount of remaining units of work to be performed by a particular resource on a particular activity
Forecasting Man-Hours in Primavera P6 is done under the Resource Assignment window and can also be displayed as a graph on the Resource Usage Profile.
To navigate to the Resource Assignments window Project>Resource Assignments as shown in the figure below.
Once in the Resource Assignment window, the left side of the screen displays the Resources and can be filtered, group, and sorted by specific items.
On the right side is the Resource Usage Spreadsheet which will be used in this Tech Tip to forecast Man-Hours.
Right-click on the Resource Usage Spreadsheet to bring up options such as Timescale, Spreadsheet Options, Zoom In/Out, and Spreadsheet Fields. Under Spreadsheet Fields click customize and the dialog box above will appear. Since Man-Hours are being forecasted bring over Remaining Early Units and Cumulative Remaining Early Units to the Selected Options side.
Click OK and the final results should look like the figure above. Shown here are the Cumulative Remaining Units and the Remaining Early Units. Using the spreadsheet it is possible to forecast how many Man-hours a specific activity will need based on the Cumulative Remaining Units for that activity.
To show this forecast in a graphical representation navigate to the Resource Usage Profile (Assuming the reader has a basic understanding of the Resource Usage Profile)
To ensure that the forecasting for Man-Hours is displayed on the graph above right click on the Resource Histogram and click Resource Usage Profile Options to confirm that Units is displaying. From here the Resource Histogram shows the Remaining Early Units in green, and the Cumulative Early Units are represented with the green curve. This is a graphical representation of forecasting Man-Hours for a project.
FTE Tracking
To display FTE Tracking in Primavera P6 ensure that the Resource Assignments window is open. Right-click on the Resource Usage Spreadsheet and click Spreadsheet Options.
The dialog box in the figure above will display. Check the Calculate Average Box. In the Divide interval totals by field put 8. (Assuming a full-time employee is 40h) Then click the box Base on Hours per Time Period. Click OK.
The result is shown in the figure below.
Any field that had 8h per day in the cell on the Resource Usage Spreadsheet was replaced with a FTE of 1.0. In the highlighted activity 60% Electrical Design (1) Full Time Employee is needed for each day of the week for the week of June 28. In addition please note that activities in which a FTE was not needed the FTE is measured in decimals which represent a Part-time employee.
Primavera P6 also allows users to show FTE tracking in a graphical representation. Navigate to the Resource Usage Profile. Right-click on Resource Histogram to show options. Click Resource Usage Profile Options.
Once the dialog box screen is open it will show the figure above. Under Additional Display Options in the Graph Tab check the Calculate Average and in the Divide Interval totals by field input 8.
Results are shown below
The resource Senior Mechanical Engineer for the Week of Jul 05 is assigned as a FTE. This statement is true because the Remaining Early Units Total is showing a FTE value of 1.0.
Conclusion
Forecasting Man-hours and FTE tracking can be beneficial throughout the project life cycle. Forecasting Man-hours can show P6 Users how many hours a particular activity may need to complete it. Which can give clients time to plan staffing and plan accordingly. FTE is a useful tool to measure how many resources a project requires, assuming that employees are full-time. If a part-time resource is needed then the FTE value will be broken down into decimals and reflect on the Resource Usage Spreadsheet / Profile in Primavera P6.