Shift development
Shift development
(OP)
We have a site that needs to be manned by 2 man shifts 24 hours per day. Does anyone out there have suggestions as to how to arrange the shifts. Our best solution is 4 teams of 2 men on a team. Teams A B C D. Team A and B do 12 hour shifts Sun, Mon and Tues. Wed all 4 teams do 6 hour shifts. Team C and D do 12 hour shifts on Thur, Fri and Sat. This works out to 42 hours a week per man. Ideas please!!!





RE: Shift development
Staggering the shifts allows contact between shifts, more flexibility for scheduling.
RE: Shift development
RE: Shift development
But back to my original question. Does the coverage need to be on a team basis or can the shifts be staggered?
midnight to 8AM, 8AM to 4PM, 4PM to midnight
4AM to noon, noon to 8PM, 8PM to 4AM
RE: Shift development
Our full time coverage here utilizes four 12 hour shifts, but they are fixed on nights or days. This schedule ensures they have every other weekend off to be with family as well as a five day stretch of off days in a row each month. They have a 48 hour week and then a 36 hour week. I'll attempt to describe the schedule, but let me know and I can probably get my hands on an excel doc I could email you if you're interested. The schedule for each shift is:
Work Off
3 4
2 3
3 2
2 5
4 3
4 2
3 3
2 2
5 4
As I said, it looks better in graphic form. This is the best compromise we've found to have 24/7 coverage while keeping the employees happy. I hope this helps.
JCovey
RE: Shift development
If your operators cannot swap roles, or the crew is small, such as yours, normally a 5-crew system is more practical and less expensive. There are 6 and 7 crew systems as well (another discussion). With a five-crew system the chosen schedule is a multiple of 5 weeks long. The operators are scheduled to an average of 40 hours/week. This leaves four crews operating on any one day, and one crew on spare shift. The spare shifts are used for vacation, sick time, training, etc. There are usually a bunch of rules for management to deal with, but, are usually for a small crew are not that bad (i.e. who gets first choice on holidays, Christmas off, etc.).
Location usually plays a role in what type of rotation you choose. If your plant is in a remote location, a longer stretch working for a longer stretch off is usually the norm. If the plant is near recreation, a rotation involving shorter shifts on/off could work well. Rotating from nightshift to dayshift every set is what is most prevalent in industry. The operators on extended nightshift loose touch with the operation, and their families. This is a major stress factor, and contributes to overall poor mental health. Physically, it would be best to remain on nightshift forever, if you didn't swap back to dayshift on your days off work (which is not likely).
Finally, I would recommend that you let the crews choose the actual schedule as they are the ones working it. If you set the boundaries (five crew, four crew/no more than four shifts in a row etc.), and give it a try for at least 2 rotations, and then vote on continuing, or choose a new schedule.
Operators value their schedule highly and choose their place of employment based on how it functions.
I hope this helps, there are a number of companies out there in business to just optimize shift schedules.
I can email you a few schedules I have collected over the years if you send me your address, I'll pass them along in excel format
shyst
RE: Shift development
Our experience: 4 shifts, 5-days a week, 8 hours.
One shift is always in rest.
CODE
8:00 - 16:00
16:00 - 24:00
After the morning shift, the next working time is on the evening shift on the 7th day.
This is for a production crew (large) there is room for vacation, sick leave, training etc.
Additionally each shift has 1 electrician.
4 people always on shift, with 3 electricians in the morning. Enough room for planning vacation, training, sick leave etc. The advantage of this system is that people can see what are their off-days years in advance if they know the shift they are assigned to.
Steven van Els
SAvanEls@cq-link.sr