Minimize number by referring to table

[Huli17]

Hello!

I am trying to simulate the a working schedule and need some help. I have a list of persons where each of them has a "rolled out" work schedule:
Name U1 W W W W W W W O O O O O O O W W W W W W W etc.
Name L1 O O O O O O O W W W W W W W O O O O O O O etc.

Where W is work, and O is off work. U1 and L1 are codes for which days they are working, and when these are filled in, the days with W and O are filled in from another table by using vlookup.

I have set up a table that counts how many people that are working each day of the week over a period, and find the standard deviation of this. What i want to do next is - if i hire a new person which code should they get to lower the standard deviation? The new person is also on the list of employees, and I need to fill in the code.

To be clear - is there a way of using excel to fill in the code from another table that will lower the standard deviation?

I have thought about using solver, but I am not sure how this would work out as i am referring to another table with the codes (U1 and L1).
Unfortunately, I cannot post the excel sheet.

I would appreciate any help I could get, thank you in advance!

[MrShorty]

Short but useless answer -- yes there is a way.

I put "Excel shift schedule optimization" into my favorite internet search engine, and these were the top two results:
https://support.office.com/en-us/art...1-EA3543398B46
https://www.techrepublic.com/article...our-employees/

See if those help you put together a spreadsheet + Solver model that will improve your shift schedule.

[Huli17]

Thank you so much for answering, I will check out the links :-)