Some examples of reports that you maybe involved
with are briefly discussed below.
LABOR DISTRIBUTION REPORTS
AND TIMEKEEPING
Labor reporting, such as that included in a Monthly
Situation Report and a Deployment Completion Report
(both of which are discussed below), is of great
importance to the operation of Seabee units. It provides
management with data that is necessary to determine
labor expenditures on project work for calculation of
statistical labor costs and to compare actual construction
performance with estimating standards. It also serves to
determine the effectiveness of labor utilization in
performing administrative and support functions, both
for internal unit management and for development of
planning standards by higher command.
For labor reporting to be effective, an accurate labor
accounting or timekeeping system is mandatory. This
system must permit the day-by-day accumulation of
labor utilization data insufficient detail and in a reamer
that allows ready compilation of information required
by the operations officer in the management of
manpower resources and in the preparation of reports to
higher authority. The timekeeping system used in Naval
Construction Force units is described in
COMSECOND/THIRDNCBINST 5312.1 series. For
the purpose of our TRAMAN discussion, only the most
important aspects of the system are covered.
In the system, the basic unit for measuring labor is
the man-hour which, as you know, is the amount of
labor produced by one person working 1 hour of time.
Man-days are computed on the basis of an 8-hour day
regardless of the length of the scheduled workday.
therefore, if an individual has worked a scheduled
9 hours in 1 day, he or she has expended 9 ÷ 8 = 1.125
man-days of effort. Similarly, ten persons working
9 hours in a scheduled workday is equivalent to 11.25
man-days.
All labor is considered as being either productive
labor or overhead. Productive labor includes all labor
that directly or indirectly contributes to the
accomplishment of the mission, including military
operations and readiness, disaster control operations,
training, and, of course, construction operations. For the
latter-construction operations-productive labor is
further accounted for in two categories as follows:
1. Direct labor includes all labor expended
directly on assigned construction tasks, either in the
field or in the shop, and which contributes directly to the
completion of the end product. For EAs, this includes,
for example, surveying on a tasked construction project,
travel time to and from project sites, and the preparation
of as-built drawings.
2. Indirect labor comprises all labor required to
support construction operations, but which does not
produce an end product itself. This category is further
subdivided under various codes listed in
COMSECOND/THIRDNCBINST 5312.1 series. One
of the codes, X02 - operations and engineering, lists
such work as drafting (other than as-built preparation),
surveying (for other than tasked projects), materials
testing, and timekeeping as indirect labor.
Overhead labor is not considered to be productive
labor in that it does not contribute directly or indirectly
to the end product. It includes all labor that must be
reported regardless of the assigned mission. Examples
of overhead labor are the work performed by personnel
assigned to the S-1 department, leave and liberty, and
time spent getting haircuts and going to the exchange
during working hours. It also includes time lost due to
inclement weather and waiting for transportation.
MONTHLY SITUATION REPORT (SITREP)
Each deployed battalion submits a monthly report
of its construction operations to either Commander,
SECOND Naval Construction Brigade (COM-
SECONDNCB) or Commander, THIRD Naval
Construction Brigade (COMTHIRDNCB). The
recipient brigade depends upon which theater of
operations the battalion is in. The report, transmitted in
a naval message format, provides a review of the
battalion’s construction activities during the reporting
period. For each project tasked to the battalion
(including the main body and each detail site), the
SITREP lists the scheduled and actual percentages of
project completion, the remaining direct-labor
man-days needed to complete the project, and the
estimated usable completion date (UCD) of the project.
For each tasked project, the SITREP provides also a
brief comment describing the main work performed
during the reporting period. Additionally, the SITREP
includes a personnel summary for the main body and
detail sites and a direct-labor capability analysis. The
capability analysis compares the battalion’s total
remaining direct-labor man-day availability with the
total remaining man-days needed to complete all project
tasking.
For further discussion of the SITREP format and
requirements, you should refer to the NMCB Operations
Officer’s Handbook, COMSECOND/THIRDNCB-
INST 5200.2 series. This instruction, simply called the
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