Blog

Christmas Rota

Sunday, 06 January 2013 11:08

Last year more people than ever were working over Christmas. There has been a steady increase over the last 10 years and last year over 70% more people worked Christmas day than 2002.

Working at Christmas is a necessary requirement for many organisations but it needs special management, that is why we often recommend that companies employ a special Christmas Rota. No repeating pattern will fit into 365.25 days. Therefore we often set up a shift pattern for 50 weeks then have a special rota over the last two and a bit weeks. This means that we can control who works Christmas and who doesn't. Therefore if a person worked Christmas last year, they will not have to work it this year etc. Also if they work Christmas then they get New Year off and vice versa. This is contentious, and therefore you need a fair and equitable system.

The advantages to a Christmas Rota, are:

• You can equalise everyone's hours,
• You can equalise everyone's shifts,
• You can equalise everyone's nights,
• You can have better control of holidays,
• Better cross team communication,
• Opportunity to equalise payments,
• Opportunity to swap teams,
• Equalise skills, and provide an equal level of service over the holiday period.

Wedding Planners

Monday, 29 October 2012 15:32

Have you ever thought about shift patterns for wedding planners?

Hotel Wedding Planners have to work long Saturdays and be available during the week to liaise with other suppliers. This means that they need a shift pattern. Ideally a holidays included one to ensure that their holidays do not affect their work, especially during the summer (their busiest time).

The other good thing about using a shift pattern is that everyone knows when they are available, including their clients and suppliers. In the run up to a wedding they could be available everyday and have their time off at another time.

A typical shift pattern for a wedding planner would be:

A shift pattern like this is based on a 40 hour week, with breaks included and 35 days of holiday per year including Bank Holidays. There are two shifts D which is a normal 8-hour day shift and WD, a 12 hour day shift for Wedding days. This shift pattern gives three fortnight breaks and five weekly breaks per year.

Large hotels with multiple weddings planners need a shift pattern for them to maximize their availability and weddings.

Inventory Modeling

Tuesday, 07 August 2012 11:25

Inventory modeling is of interest to all organisations. There are huge amounts of capital tied up in stock so it's important to ensure you have the correct amount of stock.

There are six reasons for having stock:

1. Cycle stock: This is where you order stock and hold it as it goes out at a steady or variable rate
2. Congestion stock: If you have large batch sizes and multiple products produced on the same lines then you will need to hold stock for when the line is producing the other products
3. Buffer stock: When either the demand or supply is variable you will need to hold stock to have faster customer response time
4. Pipeline stock: This is stock being transported to the customer
5. Anticipation stock: Where the costs of raw materials is likely to rise, you may want to stock up when the price is low
6. Decoupling stock: This is where stock is held in different locations to allow decentralised decision making

When modeling your inventory it is important to understand why you are holding the stock and the cost of that stock. Then you can make important decisions like should you minimise stock or maximise customer response times.