skiftperiod

Skiftperiod is a term used in Danish and Norwegian contexts to describe a defined interval related to shifts in work, production, or operations. It denotes the period during which a particular shift, team, or operational mode is active before a change occurs. The exact meaning of the term can vary by industry and country.

Etymology: The word combines skift, meaning “change” or “shift,” with period, borrowed from English, yielding a compound that is used in scheduling and process discourse.

Definition and use: In workforce scheduling, a skiftperiod refers to a block of time from the start of one shift to the designated handover or to the end of that shift, including any scheduled breaks. In manufacturing and process control, it can describe the active interval in which a given configuration or production setup is maintained before reconfiguration. The concept is often tied to rotation plans, duty rosters, or production pacing.

Variations: The length of a skiftperiod is not fixed and can range from short intervals of less than an hour in some monitoring contexts to standard shift lengths of several hours in typical 8- or 12-hour shift systems. The term is more common in internal documents, operational schedules, and technical discussions than in formal dictionaries.

See also: shift work, shift change, duty cycle, interval, production schedule.