Scheduling at Red, White and Blue Fireworks

Scheduling at Red, White and Blue Fireworks Company

The situation being experienced by Joan Bennet at Red, White and Blue Fireworks Company (RWBFC) is one common to many growing companies. The organization is luckily experiencing a period of high product demand; however, they are not able to expand the current facility. As such, Bennet has decided to run production ten hours per day, seven days per week. With this new production schedule, and as a means of avoiding the use of overtime, Bennet is implementing a four, ten-hour shift work week for employees, with each employee having three consecutive days off. The manufacturing process requires a minimum of 20 employees. With these constraints, a staffing plan is presented that determines the exact number of full-time employees needed as well as the schedule each employee will need to work. In addition, the other factors that are relevant in making the transition to the new schedule are presented. A method for determining which employees work which schedule and how to implement the new schedule with minimal dissatisfaction are also overviewed.

RWBFC Staffing Plan:

In order to staff RWBFC ten hours per day, seven days per week, allowing employees to have three consecutive days off, employees will be divided into seven schedules. Five employees will work Monday through Thursday. Five employees will work Tuesday through Friday. Five employees will work Wednesday through Saturday. Five employees will work Thursday through Sunday. Five employees will work Friday through Monday. Five employees will work Saturday through Tuesday. Lastly, five employees will work Sunday through Wednesday. (See Schedule below).

RWBFC Staffing Schedule:

With this schedule, RWBFC will be able to meet the production requirement of 20 employees working each day, with an employee schedule of four, ten-hour work days and three consecutive days off. To meet this requirement, RWBFC will need 35 full-time production employees.

The method for determining this schedule was determined mathematically. The company needed to staff 200 man hours per day, seven days per week, for a total of 1400 hours. Fourteen hundred hours divided by an employee work week of 40 hours is equal to 35 employees needed. These were then placed into 7 groups, to facilitate the rotation allowing for three consecutive days off.

Factors Relevant to Making the Transition to the New Schedule.

Making the change to a ten-hour workweek will not only provide the company with the productivity it needs to meet the increased product demand at RWBFC, but also past research has shown this type of work schedule offers additional benefits. Cunningham's (1981) study of police officers adopting a ten-hour work schedule found a significant decrease in absenteeism, with absenteeism being almost three times higher for those working a traditional eight-hour shift. These law enforcement employees expressed a strong preference for the ten-hour work day, when they were required to switch back to the eight-hour shift. It is likely that RWBFC employees will also favorably adapt to this new schedule, as they'll have more time to spend with their families. In addition, with the extended hours on their work days, many will miss the prime-time rush hour traffic, resulting in reduced commuting time. As the company is currently on a five-day, traditional workweek, the new schedule should be implemented beginning on Monday, to minimize fatigue, as employees will all have just had two days off.

Assigning Employees to Employee Groups:

As can be seen by the illustrated schedule above, each day there are four groups of employees working each day. As an example, groups A, E, F, and G. work on Monday. Each group consists of five people. To ensure all needs of production are met each day, with the ever-changing employee roster, production needs to be broken down into five components, and each employee schedule group must have one person from each type of employee in that group. As an example, production may be broken down into line workers, supervisors, quality assurance, shipping, and material handling. Group A would have one of each of these employees, group B. would have one of each as well, etc.. In this way, each day there would be adequate staffing in each of these areas.

If there is a need for more of one type of employee, cross-training should be undertaken to meet this increased demand on some days, and certain groups, such as A and D. that only interact once, could not have a certain employee type. As an example, Bennet may choose for groups A and D. To not have a supervisor, but instead have an extra line worker. In this way, on most days, RWBFC would have three supervisors, but seven line workers. On one day a week they would have two supervisors and eight line workers. Other groups of employees can also be altered this way, if needed.

Concerns with the New Staffing Plan:

There is one primary concern with this new staffing plan for RWBFC -- potential exposure to chemicals. A change from the traditional eight-hour work day to a ten-hour work day could affect the health of RWBFC employees. According to Markiewicz (2008), the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists warns that the threshold limit values for hazardous chemical exposure needs to be carefully monitored by an industrial hygienist. With the longer hours, exposure may be affected. Because RWBFC works with hazardous chemicals that may be dangerous to employees who are exposed to them for long periods of time, this needs to addressed and monitored continuously to ensure employee safety.

Conclusion: