How to Add a Work Center in EDGEBIC (The Two-Minute Version)

To add a work center in EDGEBIC, open the Workcenter tab, click Add Work Center, and fill in three things: the WC Id, the number of machines, and whether this resource follows the plant calendar. Every other field on the dialog has a default that works. Those three decide whether the machine has capacity at all.

This is the fast path for one work center. If you want the full field-by-field reference, including cost per hour, effective dates, and the color settings that drive the Gantt, read how to set up work centers in EDGEBIC by User Solutions. This page covers the single task: getting one new machine into the plant model correctly.

Before You Start

• At least one shift exists. A work center with no working hours has zero capacity and never receives a job. Create your shifts first (how to add a second shift covers the dialog).
• You know the real machine count behind the name you are about to type.
• You know whether this machine runs the plant pattern or a different one.
• You have the hourly cost rate if quoting matters to you. It can be added later.

Step 1: Open the Work Center Management Page

Open the Workcenter tab from the main navigation. The Work Center Management page lists the plant's existing resources with columns for WC Id, Work Center Name, Instances, Shift Calendar, One Per Day, and Continuous-Process.

Scan the grid before you add anything. Half the "new work center" requests that reach a planner are really a rename of something that already exists.

Step 2: Click Add Work Center

Click Add Work Center (➕) on the toolbar. The Work Center Configuration dialog opens with the heading Add Work Center, on the Basic Information tab.

Step 3: Set the WC Id

WC Id is the stable identifier used everywhere: routing steps, schedules, reports, imports. It auto-generates, but override it with something a planner will recognize on a Gantt bar at a glance. CNC-Mill-1, Weld-1, Paint-Booth-1.

Pick a naming convention (function plus number) and keep it. Renaming a WC Id later means chasing every routing and import mask that references it.

Name is the display name and is optional. Use it for the detail the identifier cannot carry: Haas VF-3 mill.

Step 4: Set No.Instances

No.Instances is how many parallel, identical machines stand behind this one name. It defaults to 1.

The number multiplies capacity directly. A two-instance work center on an 08:00 to 16:00 shift offers 16 hours a day, not 8, and can run two eight-hour jobs at the same time. The rule for pooling is strict: same speed, same shifts, same tooling. Machines that are interchangeable but different belong in a Work Center Group instead, so each keeps its own calendar and speed. See changing the number of machines in a work center for the capacity math in detail.

Step 5: Decide the Calendar

Use Global Shifts is ticked by default. Leave it ticked and the work center immediately works every plant-wide shift, with no further calendar setup. That is the right answer for most machines.

Untick it only when this resource genuinely runs a different pattern: a mill staffed on nights, a cell closed Fridays, a subcontractor slot. That path is covered in giving one work center its own calendar.

Step 6: Fill the Optional Fields That Pay for Themselves

Two are worth the extra thirty seconds:

Back Color is worth setting too. A distinct bar color makes this work center readable on a crowded Gantt.

Step 7: Save

Click Save. The work center appears in the grid.

What Changes When You Save

Saving master data never reschedules. That is deliberate: your promised dates do not shift under you because someone added a machine record at 3pm.

How to Check It Worked

1. Find the new row on the Work Center Management grid. Confirm Instances matches the floor and Shift Calendar shows 🌐 Global (or Custom, if that was the intent).
2. Open a routing and confirm the work center appears in the step's work center dropdown.
3. Open the Resource Calendar and read the new work center's total capacity for a normal working day. On one instance and an eight-hour shift you should see 8 hours. If you see zero, work through why capacity shows zero for a work center.
4. Point one routing step at it and run Drive Schedule. Bars in the work center's color confirm the whole chain.

Common Mistakes

Creating a second work center for identical machines. Two clones in one work center with No.Instances = 2 give the scheduler load-balancing for free. Two separate records force routings to choose one, and one machine sits idle while the other queues.

Leaving Effective Date set for a machine already on the floor. The scheduler treats the work center as unavailable before that date. It is meant for equipment not yet commissioned, and it produces a silent zero-capacity resource if used by accident.

Pooling unequal machines. An averaged speed across a fast machine and a slow one produces a plan that neither machine can hold. This is the first entry in our list of work center configuration mistakes for a reason.

Expecting the plan to update itself. The bars on screen were computed against the old plant model. Run Drive Schedule before you communicate any date.

Next

Adding the record is step one of four. Set the machine count deliberately, decide the calendar, and confirm capacity before anything routes here. For a machine you have not commissioned yet, how to set a work center effective date lets you route to it today while it offers capacity only from the day it arrives. The rest of the task library lives in the EDGEBIC how-to hub, and the platform overview is at /edgebic.