Shift coverage becomes a crisis when someone is absent

Someone calls in sick at six in the morning and a machine has no operator. The supervisor rearranges people, a skilled job goes to someone who has not done it, and the quality or the output suffers.

It happens often enough that everyone has a story, and rarely enough that nobody fixes it.

1. 01Skills sit with one person per machine or task
2. 02No record of who can do what
3. 03Absence is learned at the last minute
4. 04No habit of cross-training
5. 05Leave is not planned against the work
6. 06Contract labour is hard to arrange at short notice

1. 01A skills list shows who can run what.
2. 02Every critical task has two people.
3. 03Leave is planned against the work.
4. 04A short list of dependable contract help is kept.
5. 05Cross-training is a regular, small habit.