How to estimate man-hours?

Each specialty has specific labor quotas. Check the relevant professional quotas.

Sinopec has a quota for design hours; it seems to be available on the forum.

Public standards are quite outdated and basically unreliable; if possible, establish internal corporate standards, as those are the accurate ones.

Every industry has its own set of standards and quotas. For example, in the electrical field, there are quotas specific to electrical engineering. It seems that the person in question works in the paper industry, so surely there are also quotas there. It’s possible for companies to establish their own quotas based on experience, and definitely such quotas exist in the paper industry as well. You can find out by doing some research. I recommend a book titled \"Application Manual for Budget Quotas in Equipment Installation and Maintenance of Paper Manufacturing Enterprises\" – see if it’s useful

　　It is usually an internal quota set by the enterprise, and it is related to the enterprise’s management level. 　　Moreover, the amount of time required varies depending on the different specialties, as well as on the specific drawings and documents for a given specialty; for example, PID diagrams and PFD diagrams, material balance sheets and process equipment lists, design specifications for different specialties, preliminary design and detailed design, and so on. It cannot be simply standardized by specifying the number of hours per sheet for A4, A1, and A2; instead, the standard should be set based on the average hourly effort required for each drawing, using a level that is above the average of our company/innovation center. 　　Of course, if the level of efficiency set for your company is also related to market conditions, otherwise you will either fail to win bids or end up losing money despite making an effort.

Are you referring to the labor hours of the design firm or those of the construction company? There is a difference between the two

The labor hours for the construction party can be determined based on the construction standards and the volume of work, but the labor hours for the design party are usually agreed upon through negotiation between the two parties, as intellectual work is difficult to quantify in terms of time.

It is best to make an estimate based on the actual situation within the company. First, list the control file inventory, then fill in the items as needed, and the total can be obtained by adding them up

It becomes clear once you find someone who specializes in budgeting. Sinopec has ready-made software for this purpose. Of course, when calculating labor hours, Sinopec differentiates between internal staff and external staff – internal staff have a coefficient greater than 1 applied to their hours, while external staff are not subject to such a coefficient. As a result, the standards for labor hours vary across different industries, with each industry preferring rules that are favorable to itself

We negotiate with the construction contractor regarding the project quotas, the cost of the work (unit prices), as well as the methods for determining and calculating the volume of work. After discussions between both parties, a consensus is reached, and a contract agreement is established. This is the approach we have always followed.

Every industry in the country has its own standards for engineering design costs; I also need such standards for chemical engineering design, but I can’t find them. Could anyone provide some? Thank you in advance.

The labor quotas for chemical engineering design also depend on factors such as the design firm involved, the complexity of the design project, the skill level of the designers, the extent of support provided by the client, the tightness of the deadline requirements, and the competence of the project management team. Additionally, it is related to the bidding strategy of your company as well. Therefore, it is very difficult to estimate the number of man-hours required for a project, and the results often vary significantly. But logically, your company should have an internal standard for man-hours consumed, right? Otherwise, how can you calculate costs? Ask your project manager for it. In the projects I have worked on, it is basically impossible to control the number of designers involved by estimating man-hours. Instead, the number of designers is determined at the start of the project based on its scale, and progress is monitored throughout the project to identify any issues. If there is indeed a shortage of manpower, it is necessary to report this to the project manager promptly in order to request additional designers. This often leads to delays in controlling the project’s design progress; however, I have not encountered a better solution, and it seems that other design firms face the same problem.

There seems to be software for this purpose; I’m not sure how our company does the calculations

Every industry in the country has its own engineering design quotas; you can just search for them on forums.