Resource utilization plan: Analyze and plan resource utilization to achieve maximum/optimal capacity utilization

Resource Management needs to be used by Ford’s senior leadership to determine how much capacity is available for client projects and to help prioritize their work. Without this information it is extremely difficult to align resources to projects without over allocating them. When resources get over allocated projects and support suffer, because there is not enough time to deliver tasks on time and without issues.
Colleagues have an integral role in the Resource Management process and are required to forecast the amount of time they plan to spend on Project, BAU (Business As Usual), and Administrative activities for the next 3 months minimum 6 months preferred.
Forecasting is only one part of the Resource Utilization Solution, but it is only useful as long as Colleagues also enter their actuals into a Time Entry System. These two pieces of information, Forecast and Actuals, are used to create Variance reports which are available in the SharePoint site. Variance reports are used to gauge how accurate Colleagues are at predicting how they spend their time each month. The Ford Resource Management goal is to have Colleagues be within +/-10% of their forecasted Project work.
Once the month is completed reports need to be generated and reviewed to understand the variances, see how much time is being spent on support and what hours are available for projects by resource. You can also use the data to see if there are significant increases or decreass in support hours.
Below are the resource utilization steps that should be performed by every employee.
Process Overview

Monthly Timelines
Resource Manager Timeline

Guidelines/Best Practices - Colleague
When entering a Project forecast, use the Project Billing number in your forecast whenever possible. If a Project Billing number is not available, you can use the Ford Motors Project Index code. If you don’t have the Project Billing number for a project, reach out to the Project Manager, another project team member, or check the Ford Motor Project Index entry for that project. The Ford Motor Project Index is a Lotus Notes Database that should have an entry for the project you are working on.
If a Project Billing number doesn’t exist in the Time Entry system for a Project you are working on, reach out to the Project Manager to get one created.
Enter Forecast information into your plan as soon as you know about it – New Projects, existing projects, PTO/Holiday, DR, security audits, patching, BAU, Admin, etc. Entering Forecast information into the Resource Management system as soon as it is known will improve your forecast accuracy.
Final adjustments should be made your Resource Forecast with the most current information as close to the 15th of the current month as possible. The Resource Management system ‘locks down’ the current month at 4:30PM CST on the 15th of every month. After the lock down, you can’t make any more adjustments to the current month as your Forecast information will be in READ ONLY mode. Project forecasts improve the closer you get to the date of the Project work. Adjusting your forecast near the 15th of each month will improve your forecast accuracy.
By the 15th of each month, make sure your current month’s Forecast percentage is at least 100%. If it your current month’s Forecast isn’t at least 100%, you will show a Variance since full time colleagues work at least the number of standard work hours in that month.
Future months do not need to show 100%. Future months should show capacity if you have time available. BAU should not be used to level your forecast to 100%. BAU should be based on historical BAU actuals.
Each month, the current month will fall off the plan and a new month will be added at the end of the plan. Be sure to enter a forecast for the new month added at the end of the plan.
Always submit your time on or