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Fair enough. I can see where the confusion comes from.
When I'm running work and accountable for crews I'm asked on the front of the project for manpower (production) estimates. What do you NEED to get this job done? That's where I break down my explanation, similar to what I did above to my dispatcher/scheduler, boss, customer and other trades.
When I'm asked "how long will it take" I have to FIGHT to make everyone involved realize that we don't want to work in smaller sections. We want to work in processes, as in #1 prep, #2 layout and cutting/distributing material #3 install #4 base/trim. We don't normally even use the same men for these different jobs if we can negotiate the right conditions. Ideally the entire preparation would be done before I snap a chalk line. Of course we virtually never even get close to that ideal. It's a part of WHY I use those crazy production numbers. When a man is constrained by the job conditions to handling every tool he owns every day working in small section at a time production suffers greatly no matter how great he is as an installer and how hard he is working to be efficient and productive. He's trapped in an inherently inefficient system.
When I can explain to everyone that IF THEY GET OUT OF THE WAY and let us work efficiently not only will we do better quality work but we can go much faster an get the hell out of everyone elses' way. Let me use another absurd and extreme example to make my point. We were doing endless commercial office space with basic level loop glue down carpet. The carpet was cut by machine in Hartford, CT and delivered to the sites, frequently in Westchester County, NY. , Southern CT and Southern Mass, up as far as Boston. Blueprint has every seam and every cut drawn and numbered including letters for the fills and what cut they come out of. Prep is done days in advance or at least well out ahead. Rolls are hauled into the building, tossed into the room and opened up with the arrows going the right way by laborers/apprentices who leave when the truck is unloaded. Buckets of glue are spread out in front of the doors pretty much as needed.
So a journeyman does nothing but actually glue down the carpet, trim down the wall, make a seam or two and make a neat pile of the scraps in the center of the room. He doesn't even have to haul off his own scraps. You couldn't possibly make it easier for an installer without training monkeys to do his job and just let the installer feed him cookies or bananas.
We were doing this type of system with one office tower after another for most of the '80s and into the '90s. The details aren't all that different for carpet tile, stretch, VCT, sheet vinyl or whatever else was involved. So it's kind of irrelevant to me what a man would average "all-in" including driving to a store or shop, loading his truck, going to the supply store, unloading the rolls, determining the best layout, finding a cutting area, cutting up the rolls and so on and so forth up until he drops the bags of scraps in the dumpster. We do have to work similar to that often enough and we all have numbers for those kinds of conditions based on the men, locations and materials.
Th production numbers for those different types of projects don't "cross over" and in that sense you, Larry and Tim are correct.
