Panama Schedule Generator

A Panama schedule is a 24/7 shift plan where four crews work 12-hour shifts in a 2-2-3 rhythm: 2 on, 2 off, 3 on, 2 off, 2 on, 3 off. Two crews work together, one on days and one on nights, while the other two are off. In the version shown here, crews also switch between days and nights every two weeks.

From a manager’s side, the easiest way to picture it is as two teams of two. Crews A and B are on duty on the same dates, A on the day shift and B on the night shift. Crews C and D have those dates off and work the others. After 14 days, A and B trade shifts, and so do C and D, which makes the full cycle 28 days.

That’s the version the generator above starts with on this page. You can switch it to Fixed crews, where two crews stay on days and two stay on nights, which is how the same rhythm is often described under the name Pitman.

Other names for this schedule include 2-2-3, 2-2-3-2-2-3 and every other weekend off (EOWO). Whatever the label, each person works 14 shifts in every 28 days and gets every other Friday-to-Sunday off.

Nobody seems to know for sure. We looked for a documented origin and didn’t find one, and the scheduling software company Soon says outright that the origin of the nickname “is not documented anywhere reliable.”

That hasn’t stopped the stories. The ones we came across say the schedule:

• Started in the Panama Canal Zone.
• Dates from the construction of the Panama Canal.
• Came from a Panama-based petrochemical plant in the 1980s.

All three are plausible, and none of them comes with a source you can check. Treat them as stories, not history.

What the name does tell you in practice is less romantic. When people say “Panama” rather than “2-2-3” or “Pitman,” they’re often talking about the version where crews rotate between day and night shifts. That’s a habit, not a rule, so if the difference matters to you, ask.

Here is the team calendar for one full 28-day cycle, starting on a Monday. Each day shows the crew on the day shift (D) and the crew on the night shift (N).

The Panama, 2-2-3 and Pitman are three names for one 14-day sequence. If two workplaces use different names, compare their calendars by date and you’ll usually find the same shifts. Some scheduling guides use the three interchangeably.

The difference, when there is one, is about crews:

The table sums up common usage, not strict definitions. The same rhythm with the same crews has the same hours, days off and weekends, whatever you call it. The only real choice is fixed or rotating crews, and the generator lets you try both.

A Panama crew works 168 hours every 28 days: 14 shifts of 12 hours, or 42 hours a week on average. Rotating between days and nights doesn’t change the total, but it does move hours between workweeks, because night shifts cross midnight into the next day.

Here is crew A over one full cycle, with Sunday-to-Saturday workweeks: