August/1998
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THE 24 HOUR BUSINESS: MAXIMIZING PRODUCTIVITY THROUGH ROUND-THE-CLOCK OPERATIONS
Richard M. Coleman New York: American Management Association, 1995 195 pages, hardback, $24.95
Reviewed by Lynne Lamberg
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More companies are considering 24-hour operations, Coleman
writes, as they seek to expand to international markets, open new
plants or close old ones, increase productivity without purchasing
new capital equipment, and meet customer demands for just-in-time
deliveries.
Poorly designed schedules lower productivity, increase accidents,
and undermine employee morale, says Coleman, founder and
president of the Coleman Consulting Group, a shift work consulting
firm based in Ross, California.
The 24 Hour Business , while aimed at employers and
managers, may interest people on the line: shift workers themselves
and their families. Health care professionals who must deal with the
consequences of poor schedule design, such as problems with
sleep, indigestion, heart disease, and other ailments, along with
marital and family distress, also may find the book enlightening.
Schedule design should start, Coleman says, by defining a
company's or organization's needs. A company that runs a 24-hour
customer service hotline, for example, needs to tailor its number of
employees on duty to call-in patterns. Police and fire departments
and public utilities don't need equal numbers of workers all around
the clock.
Lawsuits, he notes, are making many companies more schedule-
conscious. A McDonalds' restaurant in Portland, Oregon, for
example, was found negligent after a part-time student worker fell
asleep at the wheel and had a fatal crash on his way home from an
extra overtime shift.
There are no perfect schedules, Coleman says. "Designing shift
schedules," he writes, "is a balancing act." His book amply illustrates
both sides of the scale.
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