New Schedules in Data Center Operations
May 12, 2008 by Scott King, Data Center Operations in Data Centers, The Planet
At The Planet, we work in a continuous-improvement environment, always looking for new ways to improve our operations and our service. One of the recent changes we’ve implemented in Data Center Operations is a new 12-hour schedule for all data center technicians and supervisors.
With the new schedule, our employees work 12 hours each day in a two-week rotation. In one week they’ll work three days, followed by four days the following week. These schedules actually provide more people on each shift throughout the entire day, and also eliminate wasted time overlaps between shifts and days with double staff.
Every technician affected by the schedule change alternates three- and four-day weekends. Because the shifts are longer, each technician comes into the office seven out of every 14 days, compared with 10 out of every 14 days with the old schedules. The new schedule also streamlines our support communications, especially with regard to ownership and handoffs. We’re eliminating a few shift changes in the middle of the day, so projects and tickets aren’t as likely to bounce between shifts. Not only is this a benefit to our customers, our employees like the additional freedom it provides.
The efficiencies gained from the new schedules will reduce our data center operations costs by approximately $500,000 a year. With that savings, we can fund new positions and projects to improve service. It also increases our efficiency and effectiveness, which are two of the most important mantras in any “operations” handbook.
We’ve implemented the new schedules in four of the six data centers so far, with the final two migrating to the new schedules within the next few weeks. The feedback from the technicians and management staff in the first four data centers has been overwhelmingly positive.
I’d like to personally thank all of our helpful and open-minded technicians who have allowed us to make a significant change in their lives. Our success is fundamentally tied to the team’s 100 percent commitment to the new structure, and we couldn’t be happier with the results.
-Scott
May 15th, 2008 at 8:48 am
So what was the % of cost savings? I think that would tell us much more about how good this idea could be.
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:31 am
Were there any studies done to show how effective employees are working that many hours a day? In my experience, towards the end of long shifts like that, people become tired and tend to make more mistakes than usual which really cuts into your ’savings’ in the long run.