We have created customized spreadsheets for dozens of clients with special scheduling needs. If you would like to tell us about your special scheduling need we can provide you with a proposal for a custom spreadsheet.

Here are some of the more interesting custom spreadsheets we have developed for our clients.

Home Care Scheduler   A few years ago we were contacted by the president of a company that licenses home care franchises asking us if we could develop a spreadsheet that his several franchise locations could use to schedule their caregiver’s client home visits. They had been using a large white board and colored markers to create the daily schedules and many locations had outgrown this primitive scheduler and needed something else. We worked closely with the company president and one of his franchise offices to create a spreadsheet to schedule their caregivers to multiple client visits each day. The scheduling spreadsheet was then provided as part of the franchise package to all of the company’s locations. Since all of the locations used QuickBooks for payroll and client billing, we created a QuickBooks connection within the spreadsheet to transfer scheduling information from Microsoft® Excel® to QuickBooks. The spreadsheet was eventually distributed to hundreds of franchises throughout the United States. This spreadsheet has evolved into our current Series 6 Multi-Task Scheduler.

Work Rules Enforcer   In 2003 we were contacted by a nation-wide security firm who provides security for several nuclear power plants operated by TVA to develop a spreadsheet to help them manage overtime assignments for security officers stationed at 3 power plants in Alabama. In response to the events of September 11, 2001, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission ordered increased surveillance at all nuclear power plants which resulted in increased overtime by the security officers at those plants. Then in early 2003 the NRC issued an order (often called the fatigue order) that established maximum work hours for security personnel in order to assure that they were rested and alert while on duty. We developed a spreadsheet that incorporated the established rotating shifts in use at the plants and combined them with an overtime manager to assure that the security personnel work hours did not exceed the 24 hour, 48 hour and 7 day work rules. Whenever someone is assigned to an overtime shift, the spreadsheet checks for work rule compliance and alerts the scheduler of any impending violations.

Automatic Daily Call Scheduler   A group within the Department of Homeland Security needs to provide one on-call person at two different locations each weekday while on weekends and holidays, one person covers both locations. They needed a system that would assign calls fairly and equitably to all of their personnel with emphasis on a fair distribution of holiday and weekend assignments. We created a spreadsheet that randomly assigns people to calls while keeping the call distribution fair and equitable. The system assures, for example, that everyone will receive a holiday call assignment before anyone is assigned a second holiday call. The same is true for weekend and weekday calls.

Airline Plane and Pilot Scheduler   The owner of a small airline asked us to create a customized spreadsheet that he could use to schedule his 15 aircraft and 25 pilots to 19 daily flights between islands in the South Pacific. The spreadsheet allows the assignment of an aircraft and two pilots to each scheduled flight and to training and charter flights as required. Scheduled flight times and any over/under flight hours are tracked for compliance with rules regarding weekly flight hours for each pilot.

Dispatcher for PC Installers   We were approached by a firm that needed to schedule hundreds of technicians to install thousands of personal computers at dozens of different locations. We worked with the client to clarify his needs and define his scheduling rules for dispatching his technicians.  We then built a spreadsheet to create the PC installation schedule.

Overtime Scheduler at a Union Shop   A major bakery came to us with a need for a system to assign and track weekend overtime shifts in accordance with union rules involving employee seniority and qualifications balanced with the bakery’s need for weekend employees. The bakery has up to 20 product lines and each employee is qualified to work one or more of the product lines. The spreadsheet has a section where employees sign-in each week and specify shift and product line preferences. The various line managers specify the number of people they need for each 8 hour shift, and the spreadsheet then automatically assigns overtime shifts to the employees in accordance with the union work rules until all shifts have been filled. Some shifts are filled by simply assigning people (in order of their seniority) to their preferred shifts while other shifts are filled by forcing people to work an overtime shift.

Mainframe Scheduler Replacement   An enterprising employee at a major refinery on the Gulf Coast of Texas came to us asking if we could modify one of our Series 3 Template Schedulers to create work and vacation schedules for his unit. The old scheduling program in use at the refinery was a not-so-friendly DOS-based program on an old mainframe computer and he was concerned that when the old mainframe failed, the scheduling program would no longer be available. We worked with him to create a spreadsheet that can schedule his people, track employee vacations and fill vacation absences. The new Excel scheduler allows much greater control of vacation scheduling and employee overtime while providing weekly calendars for the whole year. The added assurance that the scheduler will be available for a long time and not go the way of the old mainframe computer is a big bonus for this client.