24/7 Shift Rotation Schedules

[Go4Long]

So the word came down the other day that we are switching from 12's to 8's.

We're trying to come up with a rotation that works for us before the company decides on one they want (since a very small minority of us want to change to 8's to begin with).

Anyone have an interesting 24/7 coverage shift rotation they work with minimal overtime incurred for 4 teams? It can include some 12s over the weekends possibly (we're hoping we can sell something to the bosses)

We have 5 teams per desk, but use one to cover vacation, training, road trips, etc...

[Unknown303]

8's is a pure shit show to operate. Our company always suggests it but I don't think even they want to figure out how to make it work. Factor in coverage for sickness, vacation, etc and it's brutal.

Just some quick googling I'm sure you've came across this link HERE (http://www.bmscentral.com/learn-employee-scheduling/employee-scheduling-example-247-8-hr-rotating-shifts-less-than-40-hrs-per-week/).

But it appears they even offer a free trial for the software. I'm not sure it will help but if you guys are trying to keep the impact to your lives down to a minimum it might be best to try out some of this crap to figure out a valid schedule.

[Go4Long]

Yeah, we know...the concern we're hearing is that we're not "engaged" enough, since we're never there for more than 3 days at a time, and usually 2 at a time, so they think we come back, don't know what happened while we were gone, and are already thinking about our next days off. Not saying if that's accurate or not (I can only speak for myself, but I generally know what's going on on my days off) but it's what the guy that makes $40 million a year in the corner office thinks.

[Unknown303]

Here's a good link with some pro's and con's management might be interested in seeing.

http://managercheatsheet.com/2010/12/02/schedules-in-24-x-7-operations-8-hour-shifts-vs-12-hour-shifts/

[Go4Long]

Originally posted by Unknown303
Here's a good link with some pro's and con's management might be interested in seeing.

http://managercheatsheet.com/2010/12/02/schedules-in-24-x-7-operations-8-hour-shifts-vs-12-hour-shifts/

For a guy claiming to understand 24/7 rotating shifts he seems to have posted a shift rotation with no possibility of working...you would constantly be working 7 straight shifts.

Our rotation takes 28 days to fully complete, you work 2 weeks of days, 2 weeks of nights. you work M-T, F-S-S on the first week, then W-T the second week then switch from days to nights...full coverage with 4 people working 84 hours every two weeks.

Our direct bosses have argued back and forth that they think us switching to 8s is a bad idea, we've been told we're switching to nights, so oh well.

[haggis88]

we used to work a shift pattern back home that you could suggest.

I loved it, but some of the older guys used to moan like fuck about it (typical west of scotland old guys though)

Its apparently a European concept, and it was always referred to as a "7x7" pattern.

the shifts were 8 hours long, with an unpaid 30 minute lunch and one 10 minute paid coffee break.

the pattern started on Sunday graveyard shift, 11pm-7am and ran S,M,T,W,T and you got the weekend off.

you were back in on Monday afternoon at 3pm-11pm, and worked M,T,W,T,F with the weekend off again.

Then you were back in Monday morning at 7am-3pm, working M,T,W,T,F and working Saturday 7am-5pm and Sunday 1pm-11pm.

You would then not be back in until the following Sunday at 11pm to start the pattern all over again. However, with the way the annualised hours worked, you actually "owe" the company 50.5 hours over the course of the year, so on the week off you'd come in and do a "payback" shift (it worked out at 4hrs/month) but depending on your hours, you'd maybe have more/less payback hours to do! We done overtime on that week too, but you said you need minimal overtime so disregard that!

This worked across 4 crews, so when Crew 1 were on their week off, Crew 2 were early shift, Crew 3 were afternoon shift and Crew 4 were nightshift.

[Go4Long]

Originally posted by haggis88
we used to work a shift pattern back home that you could suggest.

I loved it, but some of the older guys used to moan like fuck about it (typical west of scotland old guys though)

Its apparently a European concept, and it was always referred to as a "7x7" pattern.

the shifts were 8 hours long, with an unpaid 30 minute lunch and one 10 minute paid coffee break.

the pattern started on Sunday graveyard shift, 11pm-7am and ran S,M,T,W,T and you got the weekend off.

you were back in on Monday afternoon at 3pm-11pm, and worked M,T,W,T,F with the weekend off again.

Then you were back in Monday morning at 7am-3pm, working M,T,W,T,F and working Saturday 7am-5pm and Sunday 1pm-11pm.

You would then not be back in until the following Sunday at 11pm to start the pattern all over again. However, with the way the annualised hours worked, you actually "owe" the company 50.5 hours over the course of the year, so on the week off you'd come in and do a "payback" shift (it worked out at 4hrs/month) but depending on your hours, you'd maybe have more/less payback hours to do! We done overtime on that week too, but you said you need minimal overtime so disregard that!

This worked across 4 crews, so when Crew 1 were on their week off, Crew 2 were early shift, Crew 3 were afternoon shift and Crew 4 were nightshift.

I'm confused by this one. No coverage on Friday or Saturday night, and Sunday day.

[Unknown303]

Hmm I never really looked over that last link a whole lot sadly. Just read the pros and cons sections..

If they want to implement an 8 hour shift rotation I wouldn't even try to give them a schedule. have them roll it out and then find the way to break it. 8s are easy to break the 12 hour rotation is a lot more forgiving or coverage. I'm not sure what you guys do for a union or what you have in a contract for short notice changes but that can play a huge roll in holding onto 12s or getting 12s back. Short notice coverage is incredible easy in 12s since there is only 2 crews on each day. But with the 8s depending on availability of off shift workers finding coverage without modifying the rotation is a big problem.


Edit:

Reading into it I think they work 7-8hr shifts to fill the 24/7 rotation. Then at the end of a 4 week period you'd get a additional day off but also accumulate 8 hours in a VO bank or something of that nature. I found an image that illustrates it. Our company tried for this once and didn't even make it past drafting out a schedule before they gave up.

http://i.imgur.com/mIYBjqw.png

[Go4Long]

I'm a manager...so no union.

[SKR]

Why can't you work 8s like the rigs do? Three shifts: mornings from 7 to 3, afternoons from 3 to 11, nights from 11 to 7. Come in Wednesday at 7 am to start on mornings. Last shift ends 3 pm the following Tuesday, then you change to afternoons on Wednesday at 3 pm and work afternoons to the following Tuesday. Another 24 hours off and then Wednesday at 11 you work a week of nights, and you're going out on days off the next Wednesday at 7am.

You could go the other way, come in on nights and go out on days, but your short change would be 8 hours instead of 24.

[Go4Long]

They definitely wouldn't be ok with us working 21 in a row...nor would any of my co-workers.

[SKR]

Then go 5 days instead of 7, or 3, or whatever.