Attendance roster for a 24/7 operation

[Magalela]

Good day.
I have a client that operates a 24/7 type of business and has three employees.
The duty roster operates as follows:
Dayshift starts from 07.00 to 18.00
Nightshift starts from 18.00 to 07.00
The other shift is off when the above are on duty.
The normal working hours per month is 208.

The dayshift works for two days in succession and on the third and fourth day they work on nightshift and on the fifth and sixth day they are OFF
The nightshift works two nights and then they are OFF for two days. On the fifth and sixth day they resume in the dayshift.

The challenge with this is that they work too much overtime and this is costly.
Is there a way an automated duty roster could be created that can limit the overall monthly hours not to exceed 220 and be not less than 208 and also make sure that there is always someone on duty during the day and also during the night. Also making sure that it does not happen that the employees end up working together in one shift.

I have attached my schedule for reference.

[JohnTopley]

For 30 days x 24 hour coverage you require 720 man-hours which is an average of 240 per person so a max of 220 a person is not achievable.

Or is this the non-OT target which still leaves (unavoidable) 20 OT hours per person.

[Magalela]

If perhaps we increase the off days but still making sure that there is always someone on duty per shift, is this also not achievable?
Actually, the overtime should not exceed 12 hours per period, and the total hours per period should not be below 208 hours.

[JohnTopley]

Not possible: if you look at your example, there is only coverage for 11 hours on 29th and 30th November so the missing 13 hours for those 2 days (26 in total) would make the total hours for Employee 3 240 [as per Employees 1 and 2]

You simply need 720 man-hours of coverage or 744 for a 31 day month.

So would it be less costly to employ 4 people for 180 hours per month than pay the extra overtime required with 3 people?

[Magalela]

I am not quite sure on how I can accommodate a fourth person in the schedule. Perhaps you can help me on how the roster would look like.

[JohnTopley]

I'll leave the request in your last post re 4 people to those smarter than me!.

For your part, you need to define the minimum /maximum hours allowable if 4 people are to be employed.

And would it be same shift patterns?

[popipipo]

to those smarter than me!

I did my best

[Magalela]

Things looks fine, thanks.
Now, how do I change this roster in the event the month ends on the 31st or on the 28th? Is it not possible to change the month and the rest get updated automatically?

[JohnTopley]

As per my earlier post you need to define both the working hours (min/max) and time off criteria so that there is a basis for providing an "automatic" solution.

[Magalela]

The minimum hours are 208 and the maximum is 220.
The time off should be a minimum of 8 per month as long as the hours worked range between 208 and 220.

[JohnTopley]

Again, not possible: with 4 people covering 31 days X 24 hours (744 hours) the average working hours per person is 186 hours.

[popipipo]

720 hours in a month
If minimaal hours is 208 you need 3.46 persons
If maximaal hours is 220 you need 3.27 persons

[Magalela]

Ok. Then how do you create an automated roster for the two scenarios supposing we round off the number of persons to four?

[popipipo]

... how do you create an automated roster ...

Read #7 again

[Magalela]

Oh, thanks.