Creative Component Abstract

Abstract

Forecasting Project Man-hours Based on Historical Data

Nehal Patel

1. Introduction

-This section will start with a basic overview of my project. I will start with some background information and describe some of my objectives with my research/project. I will share the principles of what I have learned throughout my graduate program that will help me to overcome the challenge of analyzing the problem and coming up with answers.

Since the petrochemical industry is generally estimated in terms of # of equipment, I will use that as a basis to start comparing man-hours of various projects. This will require me to dig into past project information and count how many pieces of equipment there are in each plant. The biggest question is, “What counts as a piece of equipment?” Equipment ranges in different size and complexity of piping/structures/and installation requirements. I will have to determine if two pieces of the same equipment will count once or twice since design is repetitive. I will have to use methods described in Dr. Oberlender’s Project Management book along with other references to find the best method of creating estimation data. Hopefully all of this will lead to better estimates of the number of drawings expected on each project along with a good man-hour estimate which will lead to more accurate project costs.

2. Solution Methodology

-This section will contain many graphs of the various quantities that I have examined for my research. I will have linear regression analysis performed and determine if there is a better way of representing the figures that are quantified from the graphs. I will measure quantities different ways to determine which method of estimating leads to the most correct correlation.

There are several ways of comparing man-hours to project quantities. It can be done on the basis of man-hours/piece of equipment, man-hours/piece of individual equipment, man-hours/square feet of plant,...