Shift patterns and schedules

You can use the Shift Patterns and Schedules module to define unlimited shift patterns to customize the shift schedules of your organization depending on entity shift requirements. A shift pattern includes an option to define the time period when the pattern is active. This allows for defining high and low seasonal demand patterns or alternating weekly patterns.

Shift pattern types

A shift pattern is one of the following types:

• A regular pattern, which includes multiple shift definitions each having up to three break periods

• An overtime pattern to add additional shifts to an existing pattern

• A holiday schedule to indicate no shifts are active during the time window

Shift pattern-entity assignments

An entity with the Can Schedule Shifts capability can be linked to regular shift patterns. Any entity can be assigned to an overtime or holiday shift pattern to indicate exceptions to the regular shift pattern.

Once an entity is assigned to a shift pattern, the shift schedules in the shift pattern will apply to all of its child entities unless a child is assigned a different shift pattern.

If there is no linkage between an entity and a shift pattern, then that entity will not be considered for a shift change.

Parent and child entities should be in the same time zone

An entity that is capable of scheduling shifts and its child entities are expected to be in the same time zone. This is because when the entity that is changing its shift, the shift change will also be applied to the child entities that are inheriting the parent's shift pattern.

Shift pattern configuration

Because you assign entities to a shift pattern, you should create entities that can schedule shifts before creating shift patterns. See Create a physical entity.

By default, the Shift Patterns and Schedules module is grouped under the Master Data Config group in the Navigation Bar. For more information on groups and modules, see Groups and modules.

When you open the Shift Patterns and Schedules module, the following appear in its workspace tab:

• A list of all the existing shift patterns

• For the selected regular or overtime shift pattern, a list of its shifts

• For the selected shift pattern, in the Entities group in the Properties window, a list of the entities assigned to the shift pattern