Tip:To see a visual representation of the duty cycle as you are defining on a calendar, enable the display of color coding as described inSet workstation-specific scheduling options, on page 8, before doing the steps below,
1. (If one is not open already)Open an existing schedule, as described on page 18. 2. (If it is not selected already) Click theShiftstab.
3. Select the shift you want to define duty cycle for, and then clickOpen. TheShiftdialog box appears.
4. Click theDuty Cycletab.
5. To the right of the time grid, click the plus button.
The first row of the time grid partially populates with data. The value in theStart Time
column is based on the time you specified in theScheduledialog box, in theStart Time
field, when you added the schedule.
Information on adding a schedule is available inAdd a new schedule, on page 16.
6. Click in theOn Dutycolumn, in the highlighted cell, and type aYor anNon your keyboard to indicate whether the time range you are defining is an on-duty range (Y) or an off-duty range (N), and then press Tab or Enter on your keyboard.
The cell in theLength (Hours)column for that row highlights.
7. In theLength (Hours)column, in the highlighted cell, type the number of hours in the cycle, and then press Tab or Enter on your keyboard.
Tip:The number of hours for common intervals of time are listed in the dialog box, at the lower right corner of the time grid. Most shifts will have a duty cycle length that is divisible by 24.
The cell in theStart Timecolumn for that row highlights, and the value in theEnd Time
column for that row is calculated for you, based on the start time and the length you spe- cified.
Caution:When defining the length of a duty cycle, you must keep in mind the date and time specified in theScheduledialog box, in theStart DateandStart Timefields. To get a duty cycle to start on a specific day of the week and at a specific time, you may need to add an off-duty cycle before the on-duty cycle to achieve the actual start day/- time you want.
Note:A detailed example of starting a duty cycle on a specific day of the week is avail- able inExample: Add a shift starting Friday morning, on page 35.
8. Click the plus button to the right of the grid again, or press the down arrow key on your key- board.
A new row of data appears in the time grid. The value in theStart Timecolumn for the new row is supplied for you, based on the value in theEnd Timecolumn for the previous row.
9. Repeat steps 6-7 to fill in the information for the new row of data. The value in theEnd Timecolumn for the new row is calculated for you.
10. Repeat steps 8-9 until you have added enough information to the time grid to complete the duty cycle.
Example: Add a shift starting Friday morning
You want to add a new shift that is on duty every Friday, starting at 8:00 in the morning, and run- ning for 24 hours. The schedule you are adding the shift to has aStart Datevalue of 12/05/2006, and aStart Timevalue of 08:00:00 (8:00 in the morning on a 24-hour clock).
December 5, 2006, falls on a Tuesday, and you want your new shift to begin its on-duty cycle three days later, on a Friday. The shift needs to begin with a three-day (72-hour) off-duty cycle to account for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Then the shift would continue with a one-day (24-hour) on-duty cycle for Friday, and finish with a three-day (72-hour) off-duty cycle to account for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.
Note: If theStart Timevalue for the schedule had not been the same as the time you wanted the new shift to start, you would have needed to adjust the length of the off-duty shifts to account for the hours offset.
Example:If the scheduleStart Timevalue had been 00:00:00 (midnight on a 24-hour clock) instead of 08:00:00, your first off-duty shift would have been 80 hours to account for midnight Tuesday through midnight Thursday (72 hours), plus eight more hours from midnight
Thursday to 8:00 Friday morning. The second off-duty cycle would have been 64 hours long, to cover from 8:00 Saturday morning to midnight Tuesday.
In theShiftdialog box, on theDuty Cycletab, on the right of the time grid, you would click the plus button to add the first off-duty cycle.
The first row of the time grid partially populates with data, and the value in theStart Timecolumn is listed as 8:00 (theStart Timevalue in theScheduledialog box).
In the highlighted cell in theOn Dutycolumn, you would enterN, to indicate that this is not an on- duty cycle. InLength (Hours), you would enter72, to account for the number of hours from 8:00 A.M. Tuesday to 8:00A.M. Friday. The value in theStart Timecolumn is based on theStart Time
value in theScheduledialog box, and cannot be edited in the time grid. The value in theEnd Time
column is calculated for you, based on the number of hours you entered inLength (Hours). To add the on-duty cycle, you would either click the plus button again, or you would press the down arrow key on your keyboard. A new row of data appears in the time grid.
In the highlighted cell in theOn Dutycolumn, you would enterY, to indicate that this is an on-duty cycle. InLength (Hours), you would enter24, to account for the number of hours from 8:00A.M. Friday to 8:00A.M. Saturday.
Note:If you had enabled the display of shift color coding on calendars, a color corresponding to the shift duty cycle you are defining appears on the calendar in theShiftdialog box. Because you have not defined the off-duty cycle for the remaining hours of the week yet, the shift does yet not consistently begin on Friday.
To add the second off-duty cycle, you would either click the plus button again, or you would press the down arrow key on your keyboard. Another new row of data appears in the time grid. In theOn Dutycolumn in this row, you would enterN, to indicate that this is not an on-duty cycle. InLength (Hours), you would enter72, to account for the number of hours from 8:00A.M. Saturday to 8:00 A.M. Tuesday.
Now that all the hours in a seven-day week are accounted for, the calendar shows the shift as con- sistently starting on Friday morning and ending on Saturday morning.
You would then clickSaveto save the duty cycle for the shift.