Last-Minute Shift Planning in Logistics – Manage Personnel Deployment in Real Time

Conventional employee scheduling quickly reaches its limits in everyday logistics, because things often turn out differently than planned.  This results in gaps in the shift schedule, overtime, unclear responsibilities, and decisions that must be made under time pressure. 

• Tour and priority changes: Last-minute adjustments lead to missing or unfilled shifts and, without suitable software solutions, require a great deal of manual effort for rescheduling.
   
• Staff absences: In the event of illness or other absences, there is no overview of availability and qualifications, which makes it considerably more difficult to quickly find replacements for shifts. 
   
• Lack of transparency throughout the day: Whether orders are brought forward or delayed, every change can also shift the requirements for workforce planning. Logistics teams that work with rigid staffing schedules are hardly able to respond to this.
   
• Manual employee scheduling: Many schedules are created using tools that are not designed for this purpose, such as Excel, or even just in the minds of experienced shift supervisors. However, as team sizes grow and changes occur at short notice, the likelihood of errors increases significantly—the entire process comes to a standstill, and quick and reliable decisions are lacking.
   
• Inefficient communication: Many logistics companies rely on paper shift schedules that are distributed or posted. Last-minute changes often reach the affected employees too late or not at all.