Shift transitions

The optimization engine can generate LFSO shifts that cover multiple staff requirements at different time periods within the shift. Employees working these shifts are assigned to one combination of job, activity, and department at the beginning of the shift and then transition to other jobs, activities, or departments at specific times during the shift. These combinations are defined in the staff requirements in the location configuration for the departments being scheduled. Shift transitions can improve the efficiency of generated schedules by covering gaps in staff coverage for one staff requirement by transitioning employees that are already assigned to other jobs, activities, or departments.

Shifts that include transitions are comprised of multiple transition segments that each cover a different staff requirement. This table describes an example shift that includes multiple transition segments, which each cover different jobs, activities, and departments:
Start Time End Time Department Job Activity
9:00 AM 12:00 PM Checkout Cashier Cashier
12:00 PM 3:00 PM Deli Deli Clerk Deli
3:00 PM 6:00 PM Checkout Cashier Cashier

You can specify parameters for shift transitions to determine how many transitions can occur in a shift and the minimum time employees can spend covering a single staff requirement. Schedule efficiency can be increased by increasing the maximum number of transitions and by decreasing the minimum length of time spent at each staff requirement. But, optimizing for maximum schedule efficiency is likely to reduce employee productivity when the schedule is executed. When transitions occur, employees may spend time traveling to different departments or performing set up tasks. You should consult with the customer to determine how to configure these parameters to find the optimal balance between schedule efficiency and employee productivity.

Note: The optimization engine supports two transitions per shift. This allows shifts to be generated that include up to three transition segments for different staff requirements. The minimum length for shift transitions must be specified in whole hour increments. The minimum length of time that an employee can be assigned to a single staff requirement is one hour.

When the qualification rules are used, employees must have the required qualifications for each transition segment in the shift. When the Honor Position rule is used, an employee is only assigned transition segments that they possess the necessary job qualifications for. When the Honor Required Skills rule is used, an employee is only assigned transition segments that they have the necessary skill qualifications for.

Shift transitions are typically configured in schedule profiles to enable shifts with transitions in schedules generated by the batch scheduling task. For testing purposes, shift transitions can be enabled for manually created schedules by configuring the security settings for the shift transition parameter fields.