Download Free Production Shift Schedule Templates

Download these useful Free Production Shift Schedule Templates prepared using MS Excel and MS Word to assist you in your day-to-day tasks. You can also download our Construction Schedule Templates if you like.

Managing variable production shifts is not easy and it becomes extra complicated when there are specific requirements involved i.e. keeping costs to the minimum while achieving higher efficiency or compensating missing employees and getting their replacements in time.

The most important thing that keeps production supervisors on their toes is the fact that they are responsible for making sure that the machinery and equipment are well handled and produce exactly what it is supposed to. Doing so is not easy but there are tools and techniques that you can use to ensure you have not encountered a problem during production.

One of these tools is the production shift schedule. On a basic level, this can be a document where you add requirements of a production unit and verify that all requirements are met before time including the most important requirement; manpower.

Table of Contents

The critical importance of the Production Shift Schedule:

It Maximizes Machinery use:

Most of the production managers face the problem of shutting down part of the production unit just because an important operator is on leave and the production can’t run in his absence. This doesn’t only reduce efficiency but can delay production or damage expensive machinery which should be kept running at all times. With the use of a shift schedule, you can make sure that production doesn’t stop and expensive machines are not only operated by experienced workers but the machines are also checked properly before production starts.

It Eliminates Overburden:

When you plan your production shift with a scheduling tool, you can ensure that you have exactly the manpower that is required for the shift. If a unit can produce 100 units every hour and for an eight-hour shift, the target production is more than 800 units, you can make sure to ask necessary employees to come for the shift so the responsibilities and workload are evenly distributed. Using this schedule can ensure that each employee handles his or her responsibilities and if anyone is missing, his replacement will be there without delay.

It Increases the Efficiency:

Lower efficiency or not meeting the production quota is a problem that is most commonly faced when the workforce is not suitable according to the production requirements. You can’t ask 10 people to do the work of 20 and still achieve higher efficiency or you can’t also ask 20 people to distribute the work of 10 people and have higher efficiency because here the overheads will decrease the efficiency percentage. An ideal situation to achieve maximum efficiency in each production shift is to have just the right number of employees and it’s only possible with a shift schedule tool.

It allows you to manage absents and Sick Leaves:

Seeing employees sick or taking leave of absence is a common problem for supervisors and production managers to handle and if there isn’t an effective schedule in place, you can be left with some open slots in the production schedule. with the use of a production shift schedule, you can easily check if everyone will be coming to the office or if someone has called in sick and will take a leave of absence. In case some employees won’t be able to make it to their shifts, you can easily ask for their replacements in time to be there for the shift.

It Helps prepare for Variables:

In production work, there are times when demand is high so the workload is higher compared to the times when there aren’t as many orders and the production slows down. When you have a proper schedule in the workplace, you can easily manage the number of orders and the output that is needed to fulfill the requirements. This means if a shift needs to produce 10,000 units, you can plan manpower accordingly and if the shift has to produce more than 5,000 units, you can ask fewer employees to come in a shift.