How Supervisors Use the EDGEBIC Dispatch View

The EDGEBIC by User Solutions dispatch view turns the scheduler's crew assignments into a per-person, per-day work list that a supervisor can print and hand out at shift start. It groups the work by operator and date, sums the hours per group, and reads top to bottom as each person's day in order. For a dispatch view manufacturing supervisor, this is the bridge between the plan the scheduler built and the crew standing on the floor. This article walks through how it fits into a supervisor's day.

A supervisor's morning has one non-negotiable task: everyone needs to know what to do. Historically that meant standing at a Gantt chart and transcribing each person's work onto a scrap of paper, a slow and error-prone ritual. The dispatch view replaces the transcription with a grouped, printable list. Here is how supervisors put it to work.

What the Dispatch View Is

The dispatch view is a read-only report that presents the assignments the last scheduling run produced. It is not a control surface: it reassigns nothing and reschedules nothing. It groups planned operator work by operator, then by date, with an hour sum for each group, and each row names the shift, the job, the work center, the operation window, and the hours.

The read-only nature is deliberate and worth stressing. The planner owns the schedule; the supervisor uses the dispatch view to communicate it. If a work list looks wrong, the fix is a scheduling conversation, not an edit on the board. This keeps a single owner for the plan, the same separation that keeps operators out of scheduling on the kiosk. To work the board step by step, see how to use the dispatch board.

The Supervisor's Morning Workflow

Here is the dispatch view in the flow of a real shift start.

Set the window and filter. The supervisor sets the from and to dates to the shift, a single day or a week. Leaving the operator filter open shows the whole crew; setting it to one person prints that person's day. The board recomputes to the filter, so producing one operator's list or the full crew's is the same tab.

Read the grouped list. With the work grouped by operator then date, reading top to bottom gives each person's day in sequence. The hour sum per group tells the supervisor at a glance whether someone is loaded light or heavy. This is exactly the shape a hand-out needs: person, then their jobs in order.

Print or hand it out. The supervisor prints the crew's sheets, or one per person, and distributes them at shift start. Because the plan behind the board was re-anchored to reality on the morning reschedule, the sheet reflects overnight production, not yesterday's guess.

That is the whole workflow, and it takes minutes. The value is that it comes after a fresh reschedule, so the dispatch is current. This is the final stage of the loop from shop floor to plan: the plan, freshly updated from actuals, reaches the crew.

Two Dispatch Views, Two Questions

EDGEBIC offers two ways to slice the same scheduling run, and knowing which to reach for is part of using them well.

• Operator-grouped (this view). Groups by person. Answers "what is each operator's day?" The supervisor's hand-out tool.
• Machine-sequenced. Groups by work center. Answers "what is the sequence of jobs at this machine?" The lead's setup tool.

A supervisor distributing work to a crew uses the operator-grouped view. A lead setting up one machine uses the machine-sequenced dispatch list. Both read from the same run; they just answer different questions. For the underlying concept of a dispatch list, see the dispatch list glossary entry.

A Worked Example

Monday, 07:40. A supervisor over an eight-operator cell opens the dispatch view.

• The planner ran the morning reschedule at 07:30, so the assignments reflect the weekend's real production.
• The supervisor sets the window to today's day shift and leaves the operator filter open. The board loads all eight operators' work, grouped by person, each group summed.
• Reading down: the first operator has three jobs totaling 7.5 hours, the second has two jobs at 8 hours, and so on. One operator's group sums to only 4 hours, so the supervisor notes they will need a fill job mid-shift and flags it to the planner.
• The supervisor prints the eight sheets and hands them out as the crew clocks in. Each person reads their day in order off one page.

What used to be twenty minutes of transcribing from a Gantt is now a couple of clicks and a print. And because the plan was fresh, nobody is working from a stale assignment.

Where the Dispatch View Fits

The dispatch view is the last mile of the schedule. Everything upstream (the routing, the capacity model, the reschedule that consumed last night's actuals) exists to produce a good plan, and the dispatch view is how that plan becomes action on the floor. It sits at the end of the daily shop floor rhythm: log actuals, reschedule, dispatch, work, repeat.

Because it only exists for staffed steps, the operator-grouped view covers the portion of the plan the scheduler assigned to certified, rostered people. Work you schedule purely by machine capacity, without an assigned operator, belongs on the machine-sequenced list. Between the two, the whole floor is covered. The other supervisor read is mid-job rather than mid-shift: reading the job progress header as a supervisor covers the five fields at the top of the Actual Live view and why none of them is on its own the job's status.

The dispatch view also closes a communication gap that outlasts any single tool. A plan that stays inside the software helps no one; a plan printed in each operator's hands runs the shift. This is the unglamorous but decisive last step, and it is why User Solutions has always paired a strong scheduling engine with practical ways to get the plan to the floor, across shops from small machine cells to the 33 locations of a customer like Cummins.

For the complete tour of how the plan reaches and returns from the floor, see the shop floor execution guide and how it supports day-to-day WIP management. Explore the platform at EDGEBIC.