Alternative To 12Hr 4 On / 4 Off Shift Pattern ?

[CW1]

Hi,
We have 4 teams, 2 of which work 12hr days, the other 2 12hr nights, working 24 x 7, 4 on / 4 off. Does anyone know of a shift pattern which allows more than 4 off at least once in a cycle that's obviously fair to both day & night workers ? Previous ones I've done only worked when people were rotating between days & nights, which we don't.
Thanks

[factor-fiction]

I'm not sure if this is trustworthy or any good but you may want to look
http://exceltemplate.net/other/shift-schedules/

[Graham-W]

To get 24hr cover it can only be a variation on what you're doing now.
eg. 7 on, 4 off, 4 on, 7 off
___7 off, 4 on, 4 off, 7 on.

[Graham-W]

Above for "A" shift at top and "B" shift at bottom.

[CW1]

That's given me something to mull over, Graham - thanks. No one'll go for working 7 x 12hrs straight (I wouldn't want to do that myself, but then I live furthest away !) but it's easily adaptable to 5. And I'll try tweak it some more.

[buildersmate]

I'm spent many a long hour in the past, considering the ramifications of various patterns.

Wikipedia has quite a decent resume of the thing, and I have worked with the Du Pont system, which is here (I wasn't at Du Pont): -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shift_plan#DuPont_12-hour_rotating_plan

The great thing about this one is that an employee can take 4 shifts off and get a two week holiday (if the timing is right). The bad thing is that it switches from Days to Nights with about 36 hours of break between.

The reason why the 4 days on / 4 days off pattern is so popular is that it is simple to administer and understand. The Du Pont based pattern HAS to be pblished well-ahead for staff to plan. We used to publish one year ahead.

[CW1]

I worked that system for a year buildersmate, & it did work very well though the team with the week off were "obliged" to cover any leave but you did occasionally get the whole week off. Unfortunately it won't work this time as that system has to be rotating days / nights. But I've come up with a 5 on / 4 off / 5 on / 5 off / 4 on / 5 off that looks pretty good. Even if I do say so myself LOL Just need to persuade the others although ... days could stick to 4 on / 4 off if they *really* wanted to, would still work ;)