Hello all,
I posted this question last week but now I can't find it so forgive me if
you have seen it. I work for a police department and am trying to figure out
a cleaner way to schedule our shifts. Basically we have 6 shifts two days,
afternoons and graves. The year is split into three sections. Each officer is
given their preference on what shift they want to work for each of the
sections based on seniority. there are a couple of stipulations. Each officer
can't work the same shift two sections in a row, SWAT personel need to be
distributed evenly between the shifts. Also with this last bid they set it up
so each officer got to pick the one shift he really wanted regardless of the
section it was in. That way each officer got at least one shift he wanted
instead of just the most senior guys. The problem every time we do this
someone feels slighted. This last go around we have had to put together three
different schedules and it still isn't right.

My question is: Can all this be done in Excel so each officer's preferences
are plugged in along with if they are on SWAT or not and Excel can fill in
the schedule based on the above mentioned criteria? Seems like a lot to ask
but I have seen Excel do some amazing things I never thought possible.

Sorry about the length. I hope this all makes sense.