The role of Scheduling in the Time Management business process.

The Time Management Scheduling component aims to define schedules for specific group of employees such as Managers, Clearing Staff and Maintenance Crew, and apply the schedules to the individual employees under the group.  A schedule consists of shifts, weekly offs and holidays, in a prescribed sequence. They are governed by rules. A schedule is valid for a given period.

Example: John Rowling’s   schedule from December 2 2002 through December 7, 2002 could be Monday-Shift1, Tuesday-Shift2, Wednesday-Shift1, Thursday-Shift2, Friday-Holiday, Saturday Shift-2 and Sunday- Weekly Off. Shift1 could be from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., while Shift2 is from 6 a.m. to 12 p.m. He is also bound by specific attendance and overtime rules, such as

• Fixed Hours Of Time Deviation Allowed. This implies that employees can deviate in the timing of the shift, but the number of hours that he puts in the shift must be the same as the original number of hours in the shift.

• The maximum overtime hours allowed per week is 15

• When employees work on weekly off, it must be treated as overtime. The conversion rate that the system must use, to compute the employee’s overtime, is also defined

The employee is bound by this schedule, as long as he is mapped to the schedule. By this schedule, he is aware of the organization’s timetable for him. Similarly, the supervisor is aware of his availability. Factory production planning can use the employee availability information. This employee schedule, combined with the actual employee attendance recorded in the Employee Attendance component, provide the input information required for computing Payroll, Leave and Reimbursement.

Rota Plan - The Cornerstone of Scheduling

 The foundation of Scheduling is a basic plan called the rota plan. A rota plan is a fusion of the following:

• The entire list of shifts pertinent for a specific group of employees, example Workers

• The Holiday Master containing the list of holidays applicable to the employees

• The attendance policies and rules that will determine the handling of employee attendance.  These policies or rules could span overtime applicability, overtime conversion rates, shift deviation, time deviation, weekly off and scheduling shifts on holidays for the employee

This plan is exclusively drafted for a specific group of employees, example Workers. Attendance processing, carried out in the Employee Attendance component, will be carried out for all the employees under the rota plan.

Defining the Rota Plan

 When you enter the Scheduling component for the first time, you are to identify the rota plan by a unique code and description. Next, you are to enter the list of shifts, and specify the Holiday Master to be attached to the rota plan.  The Holiday Master plays a pivotal role in a rota plan, because the rota plan automatically inherits the effective period of the Holiday Master. For instance, the valid period of the Holiday Master is January 1 2003 through December 31, 2003. It will be the valid period of the rota plan as well. By attaching a new holiday master to the rota plan, the rota plan will get extended until the effective period of the new holiday master

Besides identifying the shifts and holidays, you are to build in all the rules and regulations that will dictate attendance, overtime and holiday working – right up to conversion factor - so that all decisions will be applicable to all the employees who are mapped to this rota plan. Typical attendance regulations that you specify will include

• Whether a deviation from one shift to another is allowed or not allowed.

• The treatment of break time during a shift – whether the break time must be paid for or not.

• Whether there is a ceiling to the number of overtime hours allowed for a week. If so, you are to enter maximum overtime hours for the week.

• The number of hours, after the shift hours, at which the system will consider the employees eligible for overtime. For instance, if the shift hours are 8, you can enter 1, to indicate that the overtime must  be considered after 9 hours.

•  When employees work on weekly off, whether it must be treated as overtime or compensatory off. If you chose overtime, you are to enter the conversion rate that the system must use, to compute the employee’s overtime

Rota Schedule – Derived from the Rota Plan

 Once the rota plan is defined, you can pick out the shifts with which to create a custom-made schedule. This schedule, called the rota schedule, is for a specific group of employees, and will be for a specific period.

The rota schedule, like the rota plan, must be identified by a unique code and description. You are to derive shifts from a rota plan, arrange them in a specific sequence, and specify the number of days for which each shift will be applicable.

Attaching the Rota Schedule to an Employee

 Finally, you are to attach the rota schedule to the individual employees under the group, so that each employee inherits the schedule. When the employee’s schedule is defined and laid out, he is aware of the organization’s timetable for him. Similarly, the supervisor is aware of the employee’s availability. Factory production planning can use the employee availability information.

Fitting Employees Midway, in the Rota Schedule

An employee can enter midway in the rota schedule period, and still be fitted into the rota schedule. To assist precision in decisions, you can preview the rota schedule details for a required month and year. The system shows you, in a calendar form, the shift occurring on each day of the entire month. You can now fit the employee accordingly.

A Timetable for Every Employee

 With employees mapped to rota schedules, the system can generate a timetable for every employee under the rota schedule. Employee timetables are generated for each rota schedule, at your request.

Generation, and Setting the Status

  Because the number of employees is high, generating the timetables is a batch process. The system allows you to abort the processing when you don’t anticipate the output to be as desired. For example, after initiating an employee schedule generation, you could find that there are pending entries to be recorded, or employees have been mapped to wrong rota schedules.

In such instances, you abort the processing for a specific rota schedule, incorporate the necessary changes reset the processing for the rota schedule and execute it again.

Viewing Attendance in the Employee Timetable

 After you map the employees to rota schedules and the employee timetables are generated, you are to enter the actual attendance of employees in the “Employee Attendance Processing” component. After the system processes these attendance details, you can view the employee attendance in the “Employee Time Table” page and compare it to the timings of the shift to which he/she is associated. In effect, the employee timetable shows you

• Every date in the month, and the day of the week such as Sunday or Monday.

• The shift or shifts scheduled on this date.

• The attendance of the employee for this shift.

Adapting to Deviations in Shifts and Shift Timings

 You can enter both planned and unplanned deviations in the timings of the employee’s shift. Unplanned deviations refer to entering the deviation, after the employee has availed of it. The system updates the timetable with the deviated timings.  

Similarly, you can enter both planned and unplanned deviations from one shift to another one. The system updates the timetable with the deviated shifts.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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