Six free DuPont schedule templates in Word and Excel for running the four-crew, 12-hour rotation that covers a site 24 hours a day. The cycle itself is fixed, so what these templates differ in is the view you need: the daily in-and-out sheet, the weekly roster, the monthly crew plan, or the HR record behind it.
How the DuPont rotation actually works
The DuPont schedule runs on a 28-day cycle with four crews on 12-hour shifts. Each crew works 14 shifts in the cycle, 168 hours in total, which averages 42 hours a week. One crew is always on, and the pattern below repeats indefinitely, with each crew starting at a different point so the site is never uncovered.
| Week | Pattern | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | 4 night shifts, then 3 days off | 48 |
| Week 2 | 3 day shifts, 1 day off, then 3 night shifts | 72 |
| Week 3 | 3 days off, then 4 day shifts | 48 |
| Week 4 | 7 consecutive days off | 0 |
| Cycle | 14 shifts across 28 days | 168 |
Two features define it. The seven-day break every fourth week is the reason crews tend to like it. The 72-hour second week, often called hell week on site, is the reason it needs managing: six shifts in seven days including a day-to-night switch. Any template you use has to show the whole 28-day cycle, because a single week taken out of context tells you nothing about whether the rotation is balanced.
Free DuPont schedule templates
Click any template to download it. No account, no email address, no watermark.
DuPont Schedule Template – Monthly Team Plan
All four crews across the full cycle on one sheet. This is the master view: the only layout that shows whether coverage holds and where the handovers fall.
- File type: MS Word (ZIP)
- File size: 73 KB
- Best for: the full 28-day cycle
DuPont Schedule Template – Monthly Plan
The same period laid out as a calendar month rather than a crew grid, which is the version to post up or hand out when people want to find their own dates quickly.
- File type: MS Word (ZIP)
- File size: 102 KB
- Best for: posting up for the team
DuPont Schedule Template – Weekly Plan
One week at a time, with room to write in who is actually covering each shift once swaps and absences are accounted for. The working copy, not the plan.
- File type: MS Word (ZIP)
- File size: 98 KB
- Best for: the week in front of you
DuPont Schedule Template – Daily In and Out
Records who actually started and finished each shift, rather than who was rostered. An Excel sheet, so hours total themselves, which matters when weeks alternate between 48 and 72.
- File type: MS Excel (ZIP)
- File size: 46 KB
- Best for: attendance and hours worked
DuPont Schedule Template – Hourly Plan
Breaks the 12-hour shift into hours, for sites where coverage has to be demonstrated hour by hour or where staffing varies within a shift. Excel, so it totals as you go.
- File type: MS Excel (ZIP)
- File size: 45 KB
- Best for: hour-level coverage
DuPont Schedule Template – Human Resources
The administrative version, with crew assignments, leave and cover recorded alongside the rotation, so the roster and the personnel record stay in step.
- File type: MS Word (ZIP)
- File size: 97 KB
- Best for: HR and payroll records
Which DuPont template should you pick?
The rotation is the same in all six. What differs is the time span and whether the sheet calculates.
| What you need | Use |
|---|---|
| All four crews across the 28-day cycle | Monthly Team Plan |
| A calendar view to post on the wall | Monthly Plan |
| This week, with swaps written in | Weekly Plan |
| Actual start and finish times | Daily In and Out |
| Coverage broken down by hour | Hourly Plan |
| Leave, cover and crew records | Human Resources |
| A rotation that is not DuPont | A staff schedule template, which does not assume a fixed cycle |
Most sites run two of these together: the monthly team plan as the published rotation, and either the weekly plan or the daily in-and-out sheet as the record of what actually happened. The two diverge the first time somebody calls in sick, and the gap between them is what payroll needs.
How to set up a DuPont schedule
- Unzip the file and open it in Word or Excel. Google Docs, Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Apple Pages all open these.
- Name your four crews first, usually A, B, C and D. Four is not negotiable in this rotation: with three you cannot cover the cycle, and with five you are running a different schedule.
- Set each crew’s starting point one week apart in the cycle. That offset is what produces continuous coverage, and getting it wrong is the most common setup error.
- Pick your cycle start date and write real dates in, not just day numbers. A 28-day cycle does not align with calendar months, so it will drift against them, and people need to see actual dates.
- Mark the 72-hour week clearly for every crew. It is the week where fatigue, absence and overtime problems concentrate, and it should be visible on the roster rather than discovered.
- Check the result against your own rules on rest periods and maximum weekly hours before publishing. Requirements for night work and consecutive 12-hour shifts differ by country and by industry.
- Publish the whole cycle at once, as a PDF. Crews plan their lives around the seven-day break, so a rotation issued a week at a time removes the main thing people value about it.
Common questions
How many hours a week is the DuPont schedule?
42 hours a week on average, made up of 14 twelve-hour shifts across the 28-day cycle, which is 168 hours in total. Individual weeks vary a great deal though: 48 hours, then 72, then 48, then none at all.
Why do people call it hell week?
It refers to the second week of the cycle, which is six shifts in seven days: three day shifts, one day off, then three night shifts. That is 72 hours, and it includes a switch from days to nights with only a single day between. It is the hardest stretch of the rotation by some distance.
How many crews does the DuPont schedule need?
Four. The rotation is built around four crews offset from each other so that one is always on shift while the others rest. It cannot be run with three, and adding a fifth means you are running a different pattern, such as a Pitman or a continental rotation.
Does the DuPont schedule produce overtime?
At 42 hours a week on average it sits above a 40-hour week, so how the extra hours are treated depends on your jurisdiction and your agreements. Some employers pay a fixed amount each week, others pay against hours actually worked. Check how overtime is calculated locally before committing to the rotation.
Where does the name come from?
The pattern is widely attributed to the DuPont chemical company, where it was developed for continuous operations. It is now used well beyond chemicals, in manufacturing, utilities, emergency services and anywhere a site has to be staffed around the clock.
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