Most CFA stores still run their morning placement on a whiteboard. The whiteboard works. That is why it persists. But it costs roughly 30 minutes per Day Part per shift, and that time has to come from somewhere.
30 minutes per Day Part × 5 Day Parts per day = 2.5 hours of Director or Leader time per day spent on placement. That is 17.5 hours per week, or roughly half a Director's full-time schedule.
Auto Schedule cuts that to under 5 minutes per Day Part. The Director gets ~15 hours back per week.
Two things. First, the whiteboard forces a Leader to think about the shift before it happens. Auto Schedule places everyone in 5 seconds, which can mean the Leader stops thinking about the shift before it starts. Second, the whiteboard is a teaching tool: new Leaders learn placement by watching it happen on the whiteboard.
OneClick's answer is to keep the human-in-the-loop. Auto Schedule is the starting point. The Leader still reviews and adjusts. The whiteboard's teaching role is replaced by the Layout Editor, which an experienced Leader can use to walk a new one through the placement logic.
It works because it forces a Leader to think about the upcoming shift, and because new Leaders learn placement by watching it happen. The whiteboard is a teaching tool, not just a placement tool. Auto Schedule does not replace the thinking; it replaces the time cost.
Auto Schedule will only place Team Members who have a rating on the position. Until you have ratings, Unassigned will be larger than usual. The first 30 days are heavy data-entry; after that, Auto Schedule produces a 90% complete layout in under 5 seconds.
Yes. Each Position has a Min/Max (the number of Team Members it needs) and a Priority (the order it gets filled). Auto Schedule fills Priority 1 → 21 in order, respecting Min before moving to the next Position. The Operator's manual placements always stick.
Use Priority -1 on that Position. Priority -1 means "never auto-fill"; the Position stays manual. Most CFA® stores set this for Director coffee, Operator catch-up shifts, and any other position where the Operator wants a specific Team Member.