DuPont schedule
A 4-week rotation of 12-hour days and nights whose signature feature is a full 7-day break every cycle, paid for with one 72-hour work week.
Also known as: DuPont shift pattern, DuPont 12-hour rotating schedule
- Shift length
- 12h
- Rotation cycle
- 28 days
- Teams
- 4
- Avg hours/week
- 42
- Longest stretch
- 4 days
- Longest break
- 7 days
The full 28-day rotation
One complete cycle for all 4 teams. Coverage is 24/7: every day has exactly one team on each shift.
| Team | Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team A | N | N | N | N | D | D | D | N | N | N | D | D | D | D | ||||||||||||||
| Team B | N | N | N | N | D | D | D | N | N | N | D | D | D | D | ||||||||||||||
| Team C | D | D | D | D | N | N | N | N | D | D | D | N | N | N | ||||||||||||||
| Team D | D | D | D | N | N | N | D | D | D | D | N | N | N | N | ||||||||||||||
- Each row is one team across the 28-day cycle. Teams run the identical sequence, offset from each other by 7 days.
- Read Team A left to right: 4 nights, 3 off, 3 days, 1 off, 3 nights, 3 off, 4 days, then the 7-day break.
- Because the offsets are exactly one week, every calendar day has exactly one team on days and one on nights.
Build your DuPont calendar
Pick the date your rotation starts (day 1 of the grid above) and a team to see the next six weeks as real dates. Download the result for your calendar app or as a spreadsheet.
Calendar exports cover 26 weeks from the start date. Shift times use this page's defaults and can differ from your operation's clock times.
How the DuPont schedule works
The DuPont schedule is a rotating 12-hour pattern that covers 24/7 operations with four teams over a 28-day cycle. Each team works through the same sequence: 4 night shifts, 3 days off, 3 day shifts, 1 day off, 3 night shifts, 3 days off, 4 day shifts, and then 7 consecutive days off.
That week-long break every single month is why the pattern has survived since the DuPont company introduced it in the 1950s. Employees effectively get a mini vacation twelve times a year without touching their leave balance.
The price is concentration: the stretch that contains 4 nights and the stretch with 4 days each pack 48 hours into a week, and the cycle averages out at 42 hours. DuPont is loved and hated for exactly the same reason, everything is either intense work or real rest.
How many people you need
Every position staffed 24/7 on this pattern needs 4 employees, one per team, before you cover holidays, sick leave, and training. A planning buffer of around 25 percent on top is a realistic starting point; the exact number depends on your absence rates, which you can work out with our shrinkage calculator.
| Positions per shift | Minimum headcount | With 20% shrinkage buffer |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 5 |
| 2 | 8 | 10 |
| 3 | 12 | 15 |
| 5 | 20 | 25 |
| 10 | 40 | 50 |
Pros and cons of the DuPont schedule
Works in its favor
- A full 7-day break every 4 weeks, effectively a monthly mini vacation without using leave
- Only 14 workdays per 28-day cycle, the same total as 2-2-3 but bunched for longer recovery
- Fast rotation through days and nights spreads unpopular shifts evenly across all four teams
- Popular with employees who commute long distances or value big blocks of uninterrupted personal time
- Decades of real-world use in process industries, so the failure modes are well understood
Watch out for
- One week per cycle hits 72 scheduled hours, which is brutal and pushes legal limits in some jurisdictions
- Four consecutive 12-hour nights is a serious fatigue risk that needs active management
- The single day off between day and night blocks is barely enough to flip sleep rhythm
- Rotation makes it the least sleep-friendly of the common 12-hour patterns
- Sick leave during the heavy weeks is very expensive to cover, since replacements are already near their hour limits
Who runs DuPont
Chemical and process plants
The pattern was built for continuous chemical production, where shutting down between shifts is not an option.
Oil, gas and refining
Refineries and offshore support operations use DuPont where staff prefer compressed work and long breaks.
Paper mills and heavy manufacturing
Continuous-process mills adopted DuPont early and many still run it after decades.
Power generation
Plant operators use the 7-day break to schedule training blocks and medical checks without extra absence.
Whichever industry you plan for, the hard part is rarely the pattern itself but keeping it fair as people join, leave, and swap. That is worth reading up on before you commit a team to one; our guide on making shift schedules faircovers the rotation-fairness tradeoffs in depth.
Common variations
- Reversed DuPont
- Runs the day blocks before the night blocks so the cycle ends with nights into the 7-day break, giving more recovery after the hardest stretch.
- DuPont with 8-hour relief
- Inserts an 8-hour handover team on turnaround days to soften the 72-hour week during maintenance periods.
- Modified 3-4 DuPont
- Swaps the 4-shift blocks down to 3 and extends the cycle, capping the worst week at 60 hours in exchange for a shorter long break.
Compare with other patterns
2-2-3 schedule (Panama)
Four teams on 12-hour shifts work 2 days, get 2 off, work 3, in a 14-day cadence that gives every team a full weekend off every other week.
12h shifts · 28-day cycle · longest stretch 3 days
View pattern →Pitman schedule
The fixed-shift take on the 2-2-3 cadence: two permanent day teams and two permanent night teams, 12-hour shifts, and every other weekend off.
12h shifts · 14-day cycle · longest stretch 3 days
View pattern →4-on-4-off schedule
The simplest continuous pattern there is: work 4, rest 4, forever. Four teams on 12-hour shifts cover 24/7 with a cadence anyone can remember.
12h shifts · 16-day cycle · longest stretch 4 days
View pattern →Kelly schedule
Three platoons on 24-hour shifts: work one full day, get two full days off, forever. The standard rotation for fire and EMS crews.
24h shifts · 9-day cycle · longest stretch 1 days
View pattern →Frequently asked questions
- How does the DuPont schedule work?
- Four teams rotate through a 28-day sequence of 4 nights, 3 off, 3 days, 1 off, 3 nights, 3 off, 4 days, 7 off, all on 12-hour shifts. The teams are offset by one week each, which keeps one team on days and one on nights at all times.
- How many hours a week is the DuPont schedule?
- It averages 42 hours a week over the 4-week cycle, but very unevenly: one week reaches 72 scheduled hours while the week containing the long break has zero.
- Why do employees like the DuPont schedule?
- The 7 consecutive days off every cycle. No other mainstream 24/7 pattern delivers a guaranteed week-long break monthly, and for many workers that outweighs the heavy 48-to-72-hour weeks.
- Is the DuPont schedule legal in Europe?
- Often only with adjustments. The EU Working Time Directive caps average weekly hours at 48 and mandates daily rest, so European plants typically run modified DuPont variants or use it with explicit opt-outs where national law allows.
- What should managers watch out for on DuPont?
- Fatigue in the 4-night block and the 72-hour week. Most operations pair the pattern with fatigue scoring, nap-friendly break rooms, and strict limits on overtime during the heavy weeks.
Your next schedule could take 2 minutes.
Import your team, set your rules, hit auto-fill. Most teams are live the same day.
30 days free ยท No credit card required
Already have an account?Sign in
