Rotation schedule generator

What this does and does not know

The rotation it builds is a single cycle: everyone advances one stop along the same chain of positions and rest slots, so every position holds exactly one person at every step. That is a property of the construction rather than a check run afterwards, which is why the coverage line always reconciles.

What it does not know is everything that makes a real rotation hard. It assumes anyone can work any position, so it will happily send an uncertified person to a station that legally requires a certification. It treats every walk as the same length when a large site has short hops and long ones. It has no view of who called in this morning, and it cannot re-solve when an outdoor position closes and its crew becomes surplus. Those are the constraints that turn intrashift scheduling into a solver problem rather than a grid, and they are why the spreadsheet version of this stops working somewhere around the third exception of the day.

Break entitlements vary by jurisdiction more than most planners expect, and the rules that constrain a schedule differ on duration, timing, and who is even covered.

Questions

How long should a rotation be?

Standard rotations in attractions, retail and food service run 45 to 60 minutes. They shorten when people are exposed: 15 to 30 minutes is common for outdoor positions in heat, and shorter still for heavy costume or full PPE where the worker carries their own microclimate. They lengthen where a handoff is expensive, such as a position that needs a briefing to take over.

Why does the generator subtract walk time from the rotation?

Because the walk is real and it comes out of coverage. A 45 minute rotation on a site with a 10 minute walk gives 35 minutes on station, so a position covered by eight rotations across a shift loses over an hour of staffed time to walking. Planning as though the swap is instant is what makes hand-built grids drift from reality.

What is a staggered rotation?

Positions are relieved one at a time in a cascade rather than swapping the whole crew at once. Someone arrives to relieve the greeter, the greeter walks to the grouper and relieves them, the grouper walks to the loader, and the loader goes to break. The operation never has every position changing hands in the same moment, which is what keeps a ride running or a queue moving through the change.

Does this account for skills and certifications?

Not in this generator. It assumes everyone can work every position, which is rarely true: safety critical positions usually need a named certification and the roster has to respect it. Certification aware assignment is what the scheduling engine in Soon does, and it is the main reason hand-built rotations break when someone calls in.

Does the output satisfy break law?

It shows where rest falls and how long the gap between rest periods runs, but it does not know your jurisdiction. Break entitlements differ sharply: some places set a minimum duration after a threshold of hours worked, some set none at all for adults, and collective agreements often override both.