Set vendors' productivity for job time calculations (Smart)

Owned by Oksana Vishchuk
Last updated: Nov 08, 2023
5 min read

Planning is one of the crucial elements of successful project management, but it can be quite complicated when it comes to the localization business. We, in XTRF, know how important it is to estimate the time and, therefore, the costs of the translation projects. With that in mind, we’ve created the “vendor productivity” functionality that allows you to set how quickly your vendors usually work and automatically calculate the time needed for a certain amount of work.

How to define vendor productivity on the XTRF Platform

I. Set the vendors' availability hours

To estimate the vendors' availability and jobs' time properly, you have to set the standard number of working hours for your vendors. To do so, perform the following steps:

1. Sign in to the XTRF Home Portal.

  1. Go to the Configuration menu > Clients and Vendors > Vendor Settings > Availability tab and click the Edit button.

     

  2. Provide the Vendor Availability Start Hour and End Hour.

  3. Click the Save button.

The number of hours between the start and end hours will be considered a standard working day for all vendors.

II. Set vendor productivity per job type

Each job can have the vendor productivity defined per day for one selected calculation unit. To set the vendor productivity for a specific job type, perform the following steps:

  1. Go to the Configuration menu > System Values: Advanced > Job Types.

  2. Click on the job type in question. You will be directed to its page.

     

  3. Click the Edit button at the bottom of the page.

  4. In the Vendor Productivity section, select the desired calculation unit from the drop-down list and provide the quantity of the selected calculation units a vendor can process daily.

     

  5. Click the Save and Exit button.

To learn how to add a calculation unit, see the System Values: Advanced - Add a calculation unit article. To learn about other settings of the job types, see the System Values: Advanced - Job Types article.

III. Set vendor productivity per vendor

To define the productivity of a specific vendor, perform the following steps:

  1. Go to the Vendors module and click on the vendor in question
    or
    use the search field in the top menu bar to find the specific vendor.

  2. In the vendor’s profile, go to the Competencies & Rates tab.

     

  3. If this vendor has several price profiles, click on the selected one. If otherwise, skip this step.

  4. Click the Edit button at the bottom of the page.

  5. Click the Edit Vendor Productivity button. The Vendor Productivity pop-up window appears.

     

  6. With the radio button, switch from the Default Vendor Productivity to the Current Vendor Productivity for the selected job type.

  7. Select the desired calculation unit from the drop-down list and provide the quantity of the selected units this vendor can process daily.

  8. (Optional) Repeat steps 7 and 8 for other job types.

  9. Click the Apply button. The pop-up window closes.

  10. Click the Save button at the bottom of the page.

Now, after you assign this vendor to a job, their specific productivity will be taken into account while calculating the estimated job time.

Where is the vendor productivity used?

I. To calculate the vendor’s availability on the Vendor Workload view

When selecting a vendor for a new job or just checking the workload of your vendor pool, you may use the Vendor Workload view. In this view, you can check the vendors' daily availability and busyness, which are calculated based on the vendor’s productivity. If one of your vendors works quicker than others, this will be reflected in their availability.

Although vendor productivity is not applied to Classic projects and quotes, it is used to calculate vendor’s availability regardless of the project/quote type. Therefore, the vendor’s availability is based on calculations including both Smart and Classic jobs.

 

To learn more about the Vendor Workload view, see the Smart views - Vendor Workload view article.

II. To calculate the estimated job time in Smart Projects

After you enter the project volume, the system calculates the estimated job time for each job in the process using the following formula:

where the Project’s volume is the value provided in the Volume (source word) field on the Order card;
the Vendor productivity is the value provided in the job type definition or the vendor’s profile;
the Availability hours is the number of hours between the Vendor Availability Start Hour and End Hour set in the vendor settings.

 

The estimated job time can then be found in the following areas of the XTRF Platform:

  • In the Time Tracking card on the Job page on the Vendor Portal

III. To calculate the job’s dates in Smart Projects

After you provide the project’s volume, the system calculates the start and deadline dates for jobs in the process (except for the start date of the first job, which depends on the project’s start date).

  • If no vendors are assigned, the calculations will be based on the default vendor productivity defined for each job type.

  • After you assign the vendors, the system will recalculate job dates according to the productivity of those specific vendors. Changing a vendor will also result in job date recalculation.

  • If the vendor productivity is not defined for a specific job type, then the Minimum Job Duration from the Automatic Job Dates settings or the job’s Scheduling card in the Process Designer is applied.