Shift constraints
Shift constraints guide you to limit the number of shifts scheduled for each day for an organization during a specific date range for all of the shifts in a shift collection.
Shift constraints act as a soft limitation. If the number of scheduled shifts exceeds the constraint, the scheduling engine still schedules the shifts when you generate the schedule. A scheduling conflict message appears during the generation, indicating that you have over-scheduled shifts.
Typically, the shifts in a shift collection are related in some way, such as a group of night shifts or delivery shifts. Setting constraints on the shifts in a shift collection allows you to control costs or resources around specific types of shifts.
Example: Set Constraints for a Shift Collection
For example, you have defined a shift collection of night shifts to control costs associated with these types of shifts (such as taxi fares). Between June 29th and August 3rd for Company A, you want to limit the number of scheduled night shifts to 50.
Do the following:
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From the Work Administration module, create an effective date range for this shift collection that includes the date range of June 29th to August 3rd.
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From the Calendar, select a scheduling period that includes the date range of June 29th to August 3rd.
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For each day from June 29th to August 3rd, set the shift constraints to 50 for Company A.
Effective dates for each Shift Collection
For each shift collection, define an effective date range from the Work Administration module. As long as the date range overlaps dates within a scheduling period, the shift collection is available from the calendar when the relevant scheduling period is selected. Dates that are outside the effective date range are unavailable for setting shift constraints.