A night shift is just what it sounds like. It is the second (or third) shift at a facility after the normal day shift ends.

A night shift usually exists for one of two reasons. In production environments, a night shift adds capacity without needing to buy extra equipment. This is very useful for production requiring large amounts of space or expensive capital equipment.

In service environments, you may find a capacity-related night shift, but more commonly, service groups use the night shift to match customer needs—24 hour access to phone support, or overnight dry cleaning, for example. Night shifts in service mirror demand.

Having a night shift is not without cost, though. It adds complexity to the management of an organization.

Communication

Teamwork is especially important in Lean. Plus, continuous improvement requires standardization. That means that the day and night shifts have to be on the same page and do things this same way.

That can be tricky when they never get to speak to each other in real time. Most communication is done via email and phone messages. It requires sophisticated team building techniques to prevent an “us-against-them” attitude between the day shift and the night shift.

Night Shift