Resource cycle through 20 working calendars

[Peter W]

I want to schedule tasks for a resource based on 20 working calendars. Each
calender describe each working shift. I need the resources to cycle through
the calendars day by day.
Each shift differs from one another, and each shift is different depending
on which day in the week it is.

I need something like this:

Day 1:
Resource 1 works according to Shift 1
Resource 2 works according to Shift 2
Resource 3 works according to Shift 3
Resource 4 works according to Shift 4
.... and so on

Day 2:
Resource 20 works according to Shift 1
Resource 1 works according to Shift 2
Resource 2 works according to Shift 3
Resource 3 works according to Shift 4
Resource 4 works according to Shift 5
.... and so on

Is it even possible to bind a resource to a cycle of working shifts?

Should I even bother with trying this in MS Project?

All answers are much appreciated!


Sincerely

Peter W

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

I'm afraid it's indeed not possible, sorry :-(

 

[Rod Gill]

I think you best results will come from creating one calendar with eh
average number of hours per week and not worry about the time of day for
each task.

 

[John Sitka]

Is it a reality or an experimental thing.
I'm a Resource and I come in to work and
am told of my new rotating shift pattern.
My first two weeks layout like this?

Mon 7:00AM -5:00PM
Tues 8:00AM - 6:00PM
Wed 9:00 AM - 7:00PM
Thurs 10:00AM - 8:00PM
Fri 11:00AM - 9:00PM
Sat 12:00PM - 10:00PM

Mon 2:00PM - 12:00AM
Tues 3:00PM - 1:00AM
Wed 4:00PM - 2:00AM
Thurs 5:00 PM - 3:00AM
Fri 6:00 PM - 4:00 AM
Sat 7:00 PM - 5:00AM

Do people like that? Is it common?

 

[Brian K - Project MVP]

Do people like that? Is it common?

Im curious about what the business logic is behind a system like this. I
cant think of a reason why this would be a good idea. i would think that
the workers would hate it. I worked in a place where the shifts rotated
every week and it ended up being so bad for morale that they stopped doing
it. I cant imagine the revolt if they changed every day and there were 20
possible shifts!

 

[John Sitka]

There is a similarity to rotating watches on ships as in minimum hands of various skills needed
at all times (plus you don't want all cold crews coming on watch.) Still I would like to live through such
an employement and understand it. Could be nice for a while. See and feel different aspects of your town.

J.

 

[Steve House [Project MVP]]

I'll second the other comments on this. From a human factors perspective
this is an incredibly bad idea. The fatigue and burn-out factors for fire
departments, railroad and airline crews, etc that work rotating shifts is
immense and take an extremely heavy toll in lost efficiency, health issues,
job safety considerations, etc and they work far less onerous shift patterns
than what you're suggesting. I think you'll find this to be extremely
costly, if not disasterous, in the end.

 

[JarrodP]

Something of a variation on the rotating shift.....

We employ a 4 shift rotation which the employees love. It is a 3,2,2,3
rotation, Each shift is 12 hours, this gives us 24 hour/7 day a week coverage
without burnout, as no employee ever works more tha 3 days at a time with out
at least 2 days off. Also, as a big bonus, every other week end is a 3 day
weekend.

It works like this:

Week one:
Shift 1 works Monday Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday
Shift 2 works Wednesday, Thursday

Week two:
Shift 1 works Wednesday, Thursday
Shift 2 works Monday Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday


ANYWAY...This is also giving me fits trying to get Project to model
this.....any advice?

 

[JulieS]

Hello JarrodP,

I probably can't offer any advice you haven't already tried, but here
goes. I would create a new base calendar and mark every day a working
day with the 12 hour shift set. Then sadly, it would be
month -by-month selecting the non-working days (use CTRL + Click),
going to the next month and selecting those non-working days.

If I follow your scenario, you'll need 4 base calendars -- day and
night shifts for shift 1 and shift 2.

Sorry, I can't offer any magic wand stuff.

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie
Project MVP

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for the FAQs and additional information
about Microsoft Project