Performance Factor (PF)
Performance Factor (PF) is labour productivity as a single ratio: earned (budgeted) hours for the work completed divided by the actual hours booked. PF above 1.0 means the crew is beating the estimate; below 1.0 means the work is burning more hours than it earns.
Performance Factor strips earned-value analysis down to the unit site teams actually manage: hours. Each activity carries the budgeted (norm) hours the estimate allowed; completed quantities earn those hours; the crew log supplies the hours spent. Earn 80 hours of installed work for 100 booked hours and PF is 0.80.
Because it needs no rates or costs, PF works at the level where productivity is actually won and lost - one activity, one gang, one day - and it can be shared with supervision without exposing commercial data. Estimators close the loop with the same number: the as-built PF on this job's cable pull is the evidence for the norm on the next bid.
PF is mathematically the hours-denominated sibling of CPI, and the same ratio WBSync surfaces per WBS node as S/E (Spent vs Earned). The convention matches the rest of the family: at or above 1.0 is good. Used as a forecast divisor (remaining hours / PF), it also turns today's productivity into a defensible hours-at-completion figure.
Want this calculated live across your whole project? Start free with WBSync — 30-day trial, up to 30 active operatives, no card required.