Shift Rota & Crew Rotation Planner

Pick a crew rotation — Excel builds the shift rota for the whole year and shows every day a shift falls below your minimum crew.

• 7 factory rotations – Panama 2-2-3, DuPont, 4-on-4-off …
• Custom pattern – your own cycle, up to 5 crews
• Days below minimum crew shown in red
• Instant download: BLANK + EXAMPLE · Quick Start PDF
• Built by a production manager · one-time purchase, no subscription, no macros

▶ REQUIRES MICROSOFT EXCEL (DESKTOP) 2016 OR NEWER — Windows or Mac.

Not for Google Sheets, Apple Numbers or mobile apps.

The SmartFactoryTools Shift Rota & Crew Rotation Planner is made for factories, warehouses and food plants that run 2-shift, 3-shift or 24/7 crews. Stop rebuilding the rota by hand every month: choose a rotation, put your people into crews, log vacations and sickness — and see in advance where you will be short of people.

No macros. No subscription. Built by a production manager who plans crews himself.

WHAT IT DOES

• Whole planning year (365 days) generated from one rotation pattern
• 7 ready-made factory rotations: 1-shift Mon–Fri · 2-shift weekly · 3-shift weekly · 4-on-4-off · Panama 2-2-3 (12 h) · DuPont (12 h) · 5-crew continental 24/7 (8 h)
• Custom pattern: your own cycle up to 35 days, up to 5 crews, own offsets — and an own sequence per crew (e.g. people who only work the day shift)
• Up to 4 shift types: code, times, paid hours, night shift, minimum people
• Up to 100 employees in crews A–E
• Vacations, sickness, training, other absence and shift swaps as date ranges
• Plant holidays: closed (everyone off) or 24/7 (only marked)
• COVERAGE: people on each shift vs your minimum, every day — UNDER days in red
• YEAR CALENDAR: shift of every crew, 12 months, colour-coded
• MONTH ROTA: printable month for the notice board with shifts, hours, nights, weekend shifts and absences per person
• DASHBOARD: gaps per month, worst days, average weekly hours per crew, people with the most nights and weekends
• Data checks: duplicate IDs, unknown employees, wrong dates, invalid pattern

WHAT'S INCLUDED (ZIP)

• BLANK workbook — ready for your plant
• EXAMPLE workbook — 24/7 food plant, 48 fictional employees in 4 crews, Panama 2-2-3
• Quick Start Guide (PDF, 2 pages)

Sheets: START_HERE · SETUP · PATTERNS · EMPLOYEES · EXCEPTIONS · YEAR_CALENDAR · MONTH_ROTA · YEAR_ROTA · COVERAGE · DASHBOARD · FAQ · LICENSE

HOW IT WORKS

1. Enter your shifts and the minimum people per shift
2. Choose a rotation (or build your own)
3. Add employees to crews and log vacations, sickness and swaps
4. Read the calendar, print the month rota and fix the red days

The rota itself is never typed by hand — so it can't be broken.

WHO IT'S FOR

Production and shift managers · Plant and operations managers · HR in manufacturing · Warehouses and logistics · Food and packaging plants · Any team working in crews.

LIMITS

• Plans the rota and shows gaps in advance — it is not a time & attendance system
• It does not fill gaps automatically; you decide who covers
• No payroll, overtime premiums or working-time law checks (they differ by country)
• One planning year per file · 100 employees · 5 crews · 4 shift types
• Fully editable inputs. Need it set up with your data or adapted to your plant? See the Setup & Customization section in our shop.

FAQ

Q: Does it work in Google Sheets or on an iPad?

A: No. It is built and tested for Microsoft Excel 2016 or newer on Windows or Mac desktop.

Q: Our rotation is not in the list.

A: Use the Custom pattern: type the shift sequence of one crew (1 = first shift, 2 = second, - = day off), the number of crews and the offset in days for the others.

Q: Some people never work nights.

A: Put them into their own crew and give that crew its own sequence.

Q: Is the file locked?

A: Formulas are protected against accidental changes, without a password. Your input cells are always editable.

DIGITAL DOWNLOAD

This is a digital product. No physical item will be shipped. After purchase, download the ZIP from your Etsy account on a computer, unzip it and open the workbook in Excel.

LICENSE

For use within your own company or organisation. Resale, sharing or redistribution of the template is not permitted.

© SmartFactoryTools