On Fri, Apr 15, 2011 at 6:52 AM, Marshall Eubanks <tme@americafree.tv> wrote:
On Apr 15, 2011, at 9:37 AM, Greg Moore wrote:
When I did this years ago I found 5 was really a minimum so that I could cover weekends and then had extra coverage as needed during the week.
I did find it was good to swap out the graveyard shift every 6 months or so.
When I worked with NASA and the Navy on remote locations that needed full time staffing, the rule of thumb was 5 people and 4 shifts was the absolute minimum, and the people had to be motivated enough to pull 12 hour shifts on a regular basis (i.e., this was very bare bones). The 4th shift was needed during the weekends.
Anything less, and you would have uncovered periods if, say, 2 people got sick simultaneously.
I believe that for ongoing long term operations, NASA and DOD standards are 6 shifts worth of people, however you juggle the particular shift lengths / schedules. I.e., NORAD, NASA ISS / Moon mission mission control, etc. You can do it with 5, but people need time to get sick, take vacations, go to training, etc. -- -george william herbert george.herbert@gmail.com