ERP Integration (EDGEBIC)

EDGEBIC + MIE Trak Pro Integration FAQ: What Shops Ask First

User Solutions TeamUser Solutions Team
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8 min read

These are the questions MIE Trak Pro shops ask in the first conversation, answered without hedging: there is no connector, the interface is your existing exports, nothing is installed in the ERP, and nothing you import can disturb a work order already running. Each answer stands on its own, so skip to whichever one you came for.

EDGEBIC by User Solutions is a finite capacity scheduling platform that sits beside your ERP. The full walkthrough is the complete MIE Trak Pro integration guide, and the field-level detail is in the MIE Trak Pro to EDGEBIC mapping reference.

Does EDGEBIC connect through a MIE Trak Pro connector?

No, and that is deliberate. EDGEBIC integrates through reusable import masks that read Excel, CSV, delimited text, or a database source. You map your export's columns onto EDGEBIC's fields once and save the mask; every later run is two clicks. Because there is no connector, there is no add-on in the ERP, no integration credential, no schema change to carry through an upgrade, and nothing to version-match when either side updates. A connector is a dependency. A file or a view is not.

Does EDGEBIC replace MIE Trak Pro?

No. MIE Trak Pro stays the system of record for quotes, parts, work orders, purchasing, and costing. EDGEBIC reads exports, builds a finite capacity schedule against real shift hours and real machine counts, and hands back dates and dispatch lists as Excel files. Nothing about how your team uses the ERP changes. The general case for the split is in why ERP needs a scheduling add-on.

What exactly has to come out of MIE Trak Pro?

Four exports carry a complete scheduling model, and a fifth is optional. Parts (a part number is the only mandatory column). Work centers (an identifier, plus capacity detail). Routers (end product, step name, an operation flag, and hours per unit). Open work orders (part, quantity, and a date). Optionally, labor (job number, work center, date, and hours or pieces). Any grid or report that saves to Excel or CSV is a valid source, and a database view works equally well.

Our routers quote setup in minutes and run in hours. Do we convert by hand?

No. Set a conversion factor on each column in the routing mask: 0.016667 turns a 30-minute setup cell into 0.5 hours, while the run column already in hours carries no factor. Seconds use 0.000278, and a time quoted per 100 pieces uses 0.01. The factor is stored on the mask, so every future import converts identically without anyone remembering to do it, and the per-run log records every row if you want to audit the math.

How long until the first real schedule?

Most shops see a first finite capacity schedule from their own data in the first working session, and a tuned one within the week. The documented benchmark in the User Solutions lineage is the Plastilite integration on Fourth Shift: 5 days, Monday to Friday, from first export to a complete optimized schedule with dates synchronized back to the ERP. That figure belongs to that case rather than being a promise, but the method is what repeats: export, map, import, schedule, tune. A small shop with few work centers often gets there faster.

Do we have to clean our routers first?

No, and the attempt usually costs a month. Import what MIE Trak Pro holds today, schedule it, and compare the dates with what your planner believes. The disagreements are your defect list and they arrive specific: a wrong hours-per-unit shows up as a part finishing implausibly early, a missing setup time shows up as a machine that changes over for free. Because a routing re-import wipes and recreates that part's steps, each corrected file replaces the last cleanly.

Do imported work orders schedule themselves?

No, and the separation is deliberate. An import changes data; the scheduler changes the plan. Imported work orders appear as unscheduled demand until you run the scheduler, and before the run starts a confirmation states the scope in plain numbers: how many jobs are new and how many existing jobs are being rescheduled. You always know the blast radius before anything moves.

Can an import disturb work orders already running?

No, for two independent reasons. Every scheduled job carries a frozen snapshot of the router it was planned with, so a router re-import affects future jobs and leaves work in progress alone. And recorded work is never moved by any run: an operation with an actual start and an actual end is historical fact, and no reschedule, mode, or setting will shift it. That is the promise that lets you push an engineering revision the same day it lands without disturbing parts on the floor.

We have several identical machines in one work center. How does EDGEBIC know that?

Through the machine-count column on the work center file, which most ERP exports leave out because a work center is usually modeled as one resource with a capacity figure. Fill the instance count deliberately for every multi-machine center: a cell of three machines imported as one produces a plan roughly three times too long, and it fails quietly, since nothing errors and the dates are simply wrong. The arithmetic is in how EDGEBIC calculates work center capacity.

Can we automate the export and the import?

Partly, and it is worth being precise about which half. The export side automates well: a scheduled extract or a database view that presents stable columns removes the only manual step that ever gets forgotten. The import side stays a deliberate act, because the result dialog exists to be read. A run that reports 40 unexpected Failed rows is information a person needs to see before the schedule is built on top of it. Most shops settle on automated exports plus a two-minute human import.

What can import never bring across?

The settings that most change what a schedule looks like, because no ERP export has a column for them. Work center groups (machine pools re-shopped on every reschedule, with per-member efficiency factors). The sequence-dependent setup matrix that lets the optimizer sequence work to cut changeover. Operator skills and rosters. Bottleneck anchoring. Lot streaming with transfer batches. Each is configured once inside EDGEBIC and then applies to every imported work order afterwards. The EDGEBIC product overview maps them and the ERP integration hub explains where the import boundary sits.

Who runs this day to day?

The planner, in about twenty minutes each morning, without IT. Involve IT exactly once, to make the four exports saved reports or database views with stable columns. After that the routine is export, run the saved masks, run the scheduler, publish the dispatch lists. The same questions for other platforms are answered in the SYSPRO and Acumatica FAQs, and the wider category framing is on the ERP integration hub.

Still deciding?

The fastest way to settle any of this is your own export. Pull this week's open work orders and a router file, then bring them to a demo: mapping them live takes minutes, and you leave having watched your own shop scheduled against its own capacity.

No. EDGEBIC reads the Excel, CSV, or database exports MIE Trak Pro already produces through reusable import masks. There is no connector to license, no add-on deployed inside the ERP, and no integration credential to create or rotate. You map an export's columns onto EDGEBIC fields once and save the mask; every run after that is two clicks with a per-run log recording each row.

No. An import changes data; the scheduler changes the plan. Imported work orders appear as unscheduled demand and stay there until you run the scheduler, which states how many jobs are new and how many existing ones are being rescheduled before it plans anything. That separation means an import can never silently rearrange the floor.

Through Excel and the work order date-maintenance path your process already uses. The Job View grid exports the job schedule as a workbook with colored cells and a legend sheet, and every report dialog exports to Excel or PDF using the column layout you saved. There is no automated write-back, which keeps your ERP records under your team's control.

Expert Q&A: Deep Dive

Q: We are high-mix and low-volume, so our bottleneck moves week to week. Does EDGEBIC actually help, or is it built for repetitive production?

A: It helps most in exactly your situation. A shifting bottleneck is the case a spreadsheet cannot track, because last week's constraint is not this week's, and finite capacity scheduling recomputes the whole picture every run against every open work order at once. You mark the work centers that tend to constrain you, and the engine anchors around whichever one is binding this week. High-mix also means frequent changeovers, which is where the sequence-dependent setup matrix pays off: the optimizer can order work to cut total setup rather than accepting whatever sequence the due dates happen to produce. None of that requires repetitive volume.

Q: Our inspection and outside-processing steps introduce queue time and transit that a simple scheduler ignores. Can EDGEBIC model those?

A: Yes, both, and they ride on the router rather than requiring special handling. Queue time is a buffer before a step may start, which is how you model a part sitting in the inspection queue before the CMM is free. Transit days is calendar time for transport, which is how you model sending a batch to an outside plater and getting it back, without pretending the shop is working on it during transit. Both compose with the run and setup time on the step, so the schedule shows realistic dates that account for the waiting and the shipping your simple tool was quietly dropping.

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