Circadian was asked by a major commercial printing company to facilitate the process of identifying and implementing the optimal schedule for 8 plants in the Eastern and Central part of the
US. All of these plants worked the same 12-hour schedule, which had been implemented over the years because that was the schedule being worked at the oldest plant.
It was simply “transported” to each new plant as a matter of convenience and comfort – a common practice with companies that have multiple plant locations.
After management established the business parameters for each plant, Circadian then went from plant to plant to survey the employees and develop schedule options that would fulfill the business requirements and at the same time incorporate the employee-desired schedule features.
All of the plants stayed with 12-hour schedules (in 25 years we have yet to see opt for 8-hour schedules after working 12-hour shifts).
But the various locations had very different ideas about the speed of rotation, the on/off pattern of days and nights, and the frequency and distribution of the weekends off.
For the plants Northeast plants, a fair distribution of the summer weekends between the 4 crews was very important, whereas the employees at the Midwestern plants focused on the time off around the holidays and the start of deer hunting season. For the employees at the Southern plants, other factors such as the length of breaks in between shift turns were the most important considerations for their new schedules.
This assignment vividly demonstrates one of the key learnings about schedule selection:
one size does not fit all, and the “best” schedule is truly a site specific phenomenon.
The optimal schedule is site specific.
Most of the plants operated by this client looked alike, performed the same tasks and activities, and even dressed in the same uniforms.
Nevertheless, the employees at each facility had different ideas about what their schedule should look like, and thus many were at odds with the original schedule that had been handed down from “Corporate”.
In large corporations, it can be very tempting to transplant a schedule that works fine at one location to another location.
But local and regional cultures and the demographic mix of personnel is different at each individual plant.
Thus, even with the best of intentions, it is very difficult for corporate management to predict, let alone address, these different wishes and circumstances. An inflexible schedule “one size fits all” approach can unintentionally cause labor relations issues, recruiting and retention problems, increasing levels of absenteeism, and even performance decrements due to low morale and negative attitudes.