Im kind of at a loss on what to use to accomplish this task. Approch ? Excel ? Dbase ?

What I want to do is kind of simple...

I have about 200 employees.
50 work Sunday- Wed
50 work Wed - Saturday.
50 work Mon-Friday
50 work Mon-Thur
Every weekend I have an "oncall" list; simply put Sunday-Wed work oncall Saturday. Vis-Versa for the other shifts.

I need 3 total workers for each on call day. (1) Packer (2) Sorters.

As it sits now, I put every name on the list in order by employee number on the weekend day they don't work.

Then I go through the Time off requests and move those names.

Then I go through the Training days and move those days.

Then I do the same thing for the other group (Sorters).

Then I post it and get yelled at by 25% of employees for have them work on call when they are out of town. Or skipping over names, and makeing other work more oncall than others.

What I was seeing in my head was this.

A place where I can enter they employees Number, Name, Shift, Possition, and enter days off as needed. Have the 'program' insert the names in the weekend slots verifying that they do not conflict with the days off requested.  Then print out on a nice easy to read form.

I have been doing this quarterly and it is a very painstacking process, I feel that there must be way to autimate the process.

I was thinking Excell, 5 Tabs, (Oncall,M-F, M-Thur, S-W, W-S). On the Day tabs Having there posstion (P)icker or (S)orter, Employee Number, Name, and multiple places for dates off.  For the Oncall tab, some time of formula to insert the names into the propper place, verifying that they don't have time off that day if so, fill with next emploee, and move timeoff employee to following week.

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Sorter
Sorter
Packer
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Sorter
Sorter
Packer


Well I guess it is not as simple as I thought now that I type it out.

Any and I mean ANY help would be SWELL.

David