To add a skill to the catalog in EDGEBIC by User Solutions, open the Daily Hours tab, select the Operators inner tab, type a Code and a Skill name in the Skills Catalog panel, and click Add. The skill appears in the catalog grid, ready to certify operators in and to set as the Required Skill on a routing step. A skill is a named certification such as TIG-Weld, modeled at the level you actually certify people, not a broad job title.
This post covers creating the skill. Requiring it on a step and certifying people are the next tasks, both part of how to set up operators, skills, and rosters.
Before You Start
| Prerequisite | Why |
|---|---|
| You know the certifications your work actually needs | A skill should match a real ticket your quality system issues, not a job title |
| The Operators tab is available under Daily Hours | The Skills Catalog lives on that inner tab |
| You have decided one skill per step | A two-certification operation is modeled as a single combined skill |
Step 1: Open the Skills Catalog
Open the Daily Hours tab and select the Operators inner tab. The Skills Catalog panel holds the list of skills for the whole plant. This is a shared catalog: the same skill is certified across many operators and required by many routing steps.
Step 2: Name the Skill
In the Skills Catalog panel, type a Code, for example TIG, and a Skill name, for example TIG-Weld. The name is what planners see in the required-skill picker; the code is a short handle for the same certification. Keep the name at certification granularity: name the specific competency, not the department.
Step 3: Add It
Click Add. The skill appears in the catalog grid with its Name and Code, and the entry boxes clear for the next one. Repeat for each certification your routings will gate on. To correct a name later, edit the grid row and use its Apply button.
Step 4: Handle a Two-Certification Operation
If an operation genuinely needs two certifications at once, do not try to attach two skills to the step. Create the combination as its own skill, for example TIG-Weld plus Inspection, and certify only the people who hold both. This keeps the one-skill-per-step rule while still expressing the compound requirement.
What Changes When You Add a Skill
| Surface | Effect |
|---|---|
| The Skills Catalog grid | Gains the new skill |
| Operator certification | The skill becomes available to certify people in, on each operator's Skills sub-tab |
| Routing steps | The skill becomes selectable as a step's Required Skill |
| Scheduling | Nothing yet: a skill in the catalog constrains nothing until a step requires it and people are certified |
A skill in the catalog is inert until two things happen: a routing step sets it as its Required Skill, and at least one active operator holds an unexpired certification in it. How the scheduler then uses the skill to staff the step is described in how EDGEBIC books operator hours.
How to Check It Worked
The skill appears in the catalog grid, it shows up in the checklist when you certify an operator, and it appears in the Required Skill picker on a routing step. If it is missing from any of those, confirm the Add saved rather than leaving text in the entry boxes.
Common Mistakes
- Naming skills as job titles. Welder is too coarse for the scheduler to staff correctly. Name the certification, like TIG-Weld.
- Trying to put two skills on one step. A step takes one skill. Model a two-cert operation as a single combined skill.
- Deleting a skill still used by steps. The delete is blocked with a count. Change the steps first, then deactivate the unused skill.
- Expecting a catalog entry alone to change the schedule. A skill constrains work only after a step requires it and someone holds an unexpired certification.
Next Steps
Certify people in the new skill with how to certify an operator with an expiry date, then apply it with how to require a skill on a routing step. If you have not created the people yet, start with how to add an operator.
Every task in this library is indexed on the EDGEBIC how-to hub. To see a skill turn a machine-only schedule into a staffed one, book a walkthrough of EDGEBIC.
Expert Q&A: Deep Dive
Q: We are tempted to create broad skills like Machining to keep the catalog short. Why is that a mistake?
A: A broad skill defeats the purpose of the labor constraint. The scheduler uses the required skill to answer which person can run this operation, and Machining answers that too loosely: it will happily staff a manual-mill operator onto a five-axis job because both hold Machining. The schedule then looks feasible and is not. The fix is to name skills at certification granularity, the same way your quality system issues tickets. Five-Axis-Setup and Manual-Mill are separate skills because they are separate competencies. A slightly longer catalog is the cost, and it buys schedules that reflect who can actually run what, which is the entire reason to model people at all.
Q: A certification we listed turned out to be redundant, but a couple of old jobs used it. Can we clean it up?
A: Deactivate it rather than delete it. Deleting is blocked while any routing step still requires the skill, and even where a delete would be allowed, it discards the record that those old jobs referenced a real certification. Deactivation removes the skill from future consideration without erasing that history. If the redundant skill is genuinely on live routing steps, the real cleanup is on the steps: change each step's Required Skill to the correct one first, then the now-unreferenced skill can be deactivated cleanly. Doing it in that order avoids the blocked-delete message and keeps every past job's record honest.
Frequently Asked Questions
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