Work Period Management controls when work centres are unavailable to the RedAnt scheduler. Use it to maintain weekly non-working periods, dated closures, overtime and temporary alternative patterns.

Before you begin

Confirm the work centre is active and enabled for scheduling. The New and Edit work centre lists show only active work centres included in the scheduler. Ask your administrator for the relevant maintenance access if an option is unavailable; opening this screen through Scheduler requires Scheduler maintenance access, and deletion and clearance functions check Work Centres maintenance access.

Agree the normal operating hours, breaks, weekend working and any planned closures before entering records.

Open Work Period Management

From Work Centres, select Setup → Work Period Management.

You can also open it from Scheduler → Setup → Work Period Management.

Understand the main grid

Entries in the main grid block out non-working time. Do not enter the productive shift itself as a blocked period. For a work centre operating 08:00–17:00, enter the time before 08:00 and after 17:00, plus any breaks during the day.

The form contains an Efficiency % control, but it is hidden in the reviewed form layout. Do not rely on changing efficiency here to make a period available for scheduling.

Set up a normal weekly pattern

1. Select New.
2. Choose the Day of Week and Work Centre.
3. Set Shift No. to 1.
4. Choose the appropriate Status.
5. Enter the non-working Start Time and Finish Time.
6. Set Date to 01/01/1900 for a recurring weekly period.
7. To repeat this entry on consecutive days, enter the number of additional days under Duplicate entry for. For Monday through Friday, start on Monday and enter 4.
8. Select Save.
9. Repeat for the other non-working periods, then check all seven days.

Duplication follows calendar weekday order and wraps from Saturday to Sunday. Check the selected day before using it.

Example of a Monday to Friday pattern

Assume a work centre operates Monday to Friday, 08:00–17:00, with a non-working lunch break from 12:30–13:00. Create these entries under shift 1, dated 01/01/1900, using suitable locally configured statuses.

Create each Monday entry with 4 duplicate days. Enter Saturday and Sunday separately, or create Saturday with 1 duplicate day.

In recurring patterns, the scheduler treats an end time of 23:59 as the end of the day. The form does not accept a finish time of 00:00, and a single entry cannot span midnight. Split an overnight non-working period into two entries, one for each day.

Edit or delete a period

To change a period, select its row, select Edit, amend the details and save. Check the weekday, shift number and date as well as the times.

Select the delete button to choose between:

• Item: deletes the selected period.
• Work Centre: deletes every main-grid period for the selected work centre, including its alternative shift numbers.

Use Item for a single correction. Check the selected work centre before using Work Centre deletion.

Copy a pattern

1. Select a row belonging to the source work centre.
2. Select the copy button to open Copy Work Centre Shift Pattern.
3. Check Copy from Work Centre.
4. Choose the destination work centre and Shift No..
5. Select Copy.
6. Close the copy window and review the destination entries.

Copy always takes shift 1 from the source work centre. It replaces all existing main-grid entries for the destination work centre and destination shift number. Selecting a source row from another shift does not change this behaviour.

You can copy shift 1 to a higher shift number on the same work centre, then edit the copied periods to create an alternative pattern. RedAnt prevents copying shift 1 back onto shift 1 of the same work centre.

Copying does not copy the separate Holidays / Downtime, Overtime or dated Shift Patterns records.

Record holidays and downtime

Use Holidays / Downtime for bank holidays, shutdowns, planned maintenance and other dated closures.

1. Open Holidays / Downtime.
2. Add a row with the Start Date / Time, End Date / Time and a clear Description.
3. Set the scope using the fields below.
4. Select an Analysis code where required by your local reporting process.
5. Complete the row and close the panel.
6. Reopen it to check that the details have been retained.

The exclusion fields describe a range of work centre IDs, not two separate exceptions. Check the ID ordering before using a range.

Leaving all three work centre fields empty applies the closure to every scheduled work centre.

Check the time portion as well as the date. In this panel, choosing an end date through the calendar sets its time to 23:59. Enter the actual start and end times for a partial-day closure.

Add overtime

Overtime makes part of an existing non-working period available.

1. Open Overtime.
2. Add the Start Date / Time, End Date / Time and Work Centre.
3. Ensure the complete overtime interval lies inside a single existing non-working period for that work centre.
4. Complete the row and close the panel.
5. Reopen it to check the saved dates and times, then check scheduler availability.

For example, if the normal pattern blocks Saturday 00:00–23:59, an overtime entry for Saturday 08:00–12:00 releases that interval for scheduling.

Overtime must be contained within a work centre non-working period. Split the request into separate entries if it crosses midnight or crosses the boundary between separate blocked periods. Calendar date selection does not establish the intended overtime hours; check and enter both times.

Apply an alternative shift pattern

Use this when the weekly availability changes for a defined date range.

1. Create a complete alternative pattern in the main grid using a Shift No. greater than 1, such as 2. You can copy the normal shift 1 pattern into shift 2, then edit it.
2. Include all required non-working periods for every affected weekday. An alternative pattern replaces the blocked periods in its date range; it does not simply add extra entries to shift 1.
3. Open Shift Patterns.
4. Add the Start Date, End Date, Work Centre and matching Shift No..
5. Finish the row, close the panel and reopen it to confirm the record was retained.
6. Reload the scheduler and check the first and last dates, plus a date immediately after the range.

A higher shift number must have valid main-grid entries before it is assigned. Avoid overlapping assignments for the same work centre.

Keep the assignment within the scheduler's loaded date range and check it after changing that range. The reviewed scheduler selects alternative-pattern assignments whose start and end dates both fall within its loading window.

Check closures and overtime within an alternative-pattern range carefully: applying the alternative pattern clears existing non-working blocks starting within that date range before loading the replacement pattern.

Maintain status descriptions

Select Setup → Shift Status to open Status Codes. Maintain the descriptions and colour values required by your local setup, then use the panel's save control to commit the changes.

Keep descriptions consistent so users can identify the purpose of an entry. Changing a status description does not turn a main-grid period into productive time.

Routine maintenance

Review upcoming availability whenever working hours change and before publishing a production plan.

• Check bank holidays, shutdowns, maintenance and approved overtime.
• Confirm alternative-pattern dates and shift numbers.
• Remove duplicate or overlapping periods.
• Check that newly added work centres have a complete weekly pattern.
• Review expiry dates before extending a temporary arrangement.
• Reload the scheduler and inspect representative weekdays, weekends and exception dates.

The Holidays / Downtime, Overtime and Shift Patterns panels each include Clear Entries. Enter the retention period in days to remove expired records. Clearance uses the record's end date/time compared with today's date minus the entered number of days.

Clear Entries applies across all work centres in that panel's records. Choose the retention period carefully and follow your organisation's record-retention process before clearing history.

Troubleshooting