View and Edit the Labor Forecast Details

After running a labor forecast, you may want to check labor hours and headcount to see if they line up with expectations for jobs and departments at specific times on specific days. You can do this by drilling down to the daily labor forecast.

You can also set up a view to examine the effect of modifying forecasted volume values on labor requirements. Add volume drivers to the forecast factors in the Labor workspace as detailed in Forecast Factors.

To access the detailed views for the jobs in a department, or for a single job:

  1. Select a department location path. (See Select Location
  2. Select a forecast week. (See Select a Forecast Week.)
  3. Select a favorite factor view that includes labor hours, jobs, or both.
  4. To view or edit the breakdown values for a forecast factor, do one of the following:
    • In the Forecast Factors column, click a cell labeled Labor Hours - Forecasted - (any week) to view or edit the forecasted headcounts for all the jobs in that department. See Daily labor forecast by department for details.
    • In the Forecast Factors column, click a Job (any job) to view or edit the forecasted headcount and additional details for that job. See Daily labor forecast by jobfor details.

You can view and edit the labor forecast data in greater detail for all the jobs in a department:

View the daily labor forecast by department

You can view the headcount values of a forecast for a department. The full path to the department appears at the top left in read only text. (To change the location, return to the Labor workspace.)

Just below this is Labor Hours for followed by a date selector which indicates the date and time range of the data displayed.

  • To navigate through the forecast week, click Next , or Previous .
  • To display data in another forecast week, click Select Day and click the date.
  • To change the Start Time or End Time of the displayed 15-minute increments, enter new values.

If you are working with a budget, daily and weekly budgeted hours for the department appear in the top row of the table (above the table headers). Click More to display tables of values for daily and weekly hours for the department and for each job.

The next row contains column headers identifying the data displayed in the rows below:

  • Time - Indicates the interval for which values are forecasted
  • [Job Title] - Indicates the job related to the headcount values listed in that column
  • Note:
    • There may be only one job, or more than one job in a department.
    • The job title or titles may differ at each location.
    • To hide a displayed job column, or display a hidden one, click . A check mark next to a job title means the job is displayed. Click to job title to toggle the display.
    • To see a breakdown of the headcount for a specific job, click the header for that job. See Daily labor forecast by job
  • All Jobs Total - The sum of all the headcount values listed in a time slice

The bottom row of the table shows the total hours represented by the 15-minute headcounts for each column. For example, with a headcount of one, four 15-minute slices equal one hour of labor. Total Hours Forecasted (the value before the slash (/) sums the values you have modified with unmodified values. System Generated (the value before the slash (/) refers to the unmodified values generated by the last saved labor forecast.

Edit the displayed daily labor forecast for a department

  1. Double-click the headcount for a job at a specific time
  2. Type the modified value.
  3. (Optional) If you want to examine the effect of your changes on other values, click Calculate Totals or to incorporate your changes in the adjusted totals in the Total Labor Hours section. Each increment increases the adjusted labor value (for the job and the total) by 0.25 hours because 15 minutes is 25% of a labor hour.

    4. Note: Clicking Calculate Totals does not save the change, it only updates related values on the screen. This gives you the opportunity to examine the overall effect of the changes you have made before saving them. If the effect is not what you expected, click Refresh. If the effect is satisfactory, click Save.

  4. Do one of the following:
    • To save your changes, click Save
    • To delete your changes for the session and revert to the last saved values, click Refresh .
  5. You can select another day and make edits if desired.

You can view and edit the labor forecast data in greater detail for an individual job in a department:

View the daily labor forecast by job

You can view the forecasted headcount values for an individual job. The full path to the job appears at the he top left in read only text. (To change the location, return to the Labor workspace.)

Just below this is Labor Hours for followed by a date selector which indicates the date and time range of the data displayed.

  • To navigate through the forecast week, click Next , or Previous .
  • To display data in another forecast week, click Select Day and click the date.
  • To change the Start Time or End Time of the displayed 15-minute increments, enter new values.

The next row contains column headers identifying the data displayed in the rows below.

Note: Some columns are hidden by default. To hide a displayed job column, or display a hidden one, click . A check mark next to a job title means the job is displayed. Click to job title to toggle the display.

  • Time - Indicates the interval for which values are forecasted
  • Headcount - The forecasted headcount values listed in that column. This is the data you can modify.
  • Raw Requirement - The system-generated labor requirement from the most recent labor forecast. Expressed as a headcount that may include fractional values.
  • Rounded Requirement - The raw requirement rounded to a whole number. Corresponds to the Headcount column before any modifications.
  • Unallocated/Unassigned - The difference, positive or negative, that shows how much the raw requirement was rounded up or rounded down, respectively, to create the rounded requirement.

The bottom row of the table shows the total hours represented by the 15-minute headcounts for each column. For example, with a headcount of one, four 15-minute slices equal one hour of labor. Total Hours Forecasted (the value before the slash (/) sums the values you have modified with unmodified values. System Generated (the value before the slash (/) refers to the unmodified values generated by the last saved labor forecast.

View the details of jobs and tasks in the labor forecast

Managers can access the details of labors standard calculations for each job to troubleshoot issues with the labor forecast. They can also drill down into the labor standard calculation detail by 15-minute intervals to evaluate the contribution of each labor standard to the total labor forecast hours.

The following options work independently:

Click Tap Show Tasks to add a column to the table for each task that is assigned to the job. Each cell displays the total minutes of labor calculated for that 15-minute interval. Totals are shown in both hours and minutes. The total for each task appear in the bottom row. (Note that the task data cannot be edited.)

Click Tap Show Standards to add a column to the table for each labor standard that is assigned to the job, and shows its calculated value. Each cell displays the total minutes of labor calculated for that 15-minute interval. Totals are shown in both hours and minutes. The total for each standard appears in the bottom row. (Note that the labor standard data cannot be edited.)

Export the data for a job

You can export the data for a job to Excel for further analysis. All data is exported, including tasks and labor standards, whether it is currently displayed or not.

Edit the displayed daily labor forecast for the job

  1. Double-click the headcount for a job at a specific time
  2. Type the modified value.
  3. Click Calculate Totals to incorporate your changes in the Total Hours Forecasted. Each increment increases the adjusted labor value (for the job and the total) by 0.25 hours because 15 minutes is 25% of a labor hour.
  4. Do one of the following:
    • To save your changes, click Save
    • To delete your changes for the session and revert to the last saved values, click Refresh .
  5. You can select another day and make edits if desired

See the effect of volume changes have on headcounts

  • You can include volume drivers as a forecast factor in the Labor workspace. This can provide an easy way to check the effect of volume changes on labor headcount.

    • Scenario: Having executed both a volume run and a labor run for a department and examined the forecasted headcount for a job, you now want to see what would be the potential impact of a sudden increase in volume on forecasted headcount for that job.

    Note: There is no way to save the complete scenario without losing the original forecast. However Calculate Totals provides a way to see the effect and return to the original forecast.

    1. In the Volume workspace, add a forecast factor to show the forecasted volume driver values for the department.
    2. In the Volume workspace, add a forecast factor to show the forecasted volume driver values for the department.
    3. Double-click a forecasted volume value and make the modification.
    4. Click on Calculate Totals to see the effect on related values in the table, if any. If you want to keep all these values and proceed, click Save . If not, click Refresh .
    5. Run the labor engine:
      1. Click Run Labor. The Run Labor panel opens.
      2. Select the loaded location you want to run. The location must be a site or a department and you must have already have run a labor forecast for the location.
      3. Note that any metrics that are used in the constraint are evaluated at run time for the current forecast week.
      4. Click Run.
      5. To check the progress of the volume run, click Tools > Engine Status. The Engine Status panel opens showing active engine runs and their status. To update the engine status, click Refresh .
      6. When the run is over, click OK.
    6. Compare the previous headcount for the job to the current headcount. If you want to keep the new headcount values, click Save . If not, click Refresh and click .
    7. (Optional) If you want to revert the volume forecast to the previous values, click Restore Volume ,