Key:

d8 = 8-hour day shift
e8 = 8-hour evening shift
n8 = 8-hour night shift

How It Works:

There are actually three schedules here (one for each shift) that work together to provide coverage 24/7. A different group of employees is assigned to each shift. They are each split into 2 crews. In this case, crews A and B always work day shift and are assigned to the top schedule. Crews C and D always work the evening shift and are assigned to the middle schedule. Crews E and F always work the night shift and are assigned to the bottom schedule. Within each schedule, the crews move through the 2-week cycle. For example, Crew A starts in week 1 of the top schedule. Upon completion of week 1, Crew A will move down to week 2. At the same time, Crew B will move from week 2 to week 1 of the same schedule.

Business Issues:

• Fixed shifts can lead to skill imbalances between the crews. Senior employees tend to migrate to the day shifts while the newer employees are assigned to the less desirable shifts.
• Employees are not exposed uniformly to the various operations of the facility. This can result in crews that are specialists rather than generalists. For example, the day shift may be very good at starting a process while the night shift is good at cleanup. This limits your flexibility as each crew can only do certain things.
• Adaptation to non-day shifts is better on fixed shifts.

Employee Issues:

• Working ten days in a row is excessive.
• Every weekend that is scheduled off is a 4-day weekend.
• Fixed shifts lend themselves well to adapting to the nighttime work hours.

We would never include a schedule like this, as it requires working ten consecutive 8-hour shifts. It is merely an example of what you get in the schedule packages. Sorry, you have to pay to get the good stuff.