How to Build and Compare Production Scenarios in EDGEBIC

A production what if scenario is a named variant of a quote's simulation with one deliberate change in it. This guide builds three of them, runs them, compares them, and applies the winner, using the documented worked numbers so you can check your own screen against a known-good result.

For what a scenario is and why the module exists, read what-if scenarios explained. Everything here describes documented behavior of EDGEBIC by User Solutions.

Before You Start

Two prerequisites, both practical.

A simulated quote. Scenarios are children of a quote, and the quote's own base simulation is your comparison baseline. Without it you have alternatives with nothing to measure them against. See how to create a quote.

One lever in mind. Scenarios earn their keep when they compare named alternatives: second shift, outside vendor, weekend push, delayed material start. They are not the tool for fixing a quantity that was typed wrong. That belongs on the quote.

Step 1: Open the Scenario View

Select the quote and open its scenarios. The what-if scenario analysis view replaces the quote list, with a back control to return.

The left panel lists the quote's existing scenarios, each showing its simulation status. The right side carries two tabs: scenario parameters, and comparison analysis.

Step 2: Create the Baseline First

Create a new scenario and name it Standard. Change nothing else. Run the simulation.

This step feels redundant and is not. A comparison chart with two bars and no baseline tells you which alternative is faster than the other, not whether either is better than doing nothing. The baseline also documents what the standard case looked like on the day the decision was made, which matters six weeks later when somebody asks why the shop ran a weekend.

Name it after what it is. The scenario name is all you see in the comparison charts.

Step 3: Fill the Scenario Parameters

Each scenario carries two groups of settings.

Scenario information

Production settings

The custom start date is the underrated one. It is how you model a job that genuinely cannot begin until raw material lands, which is often the real constraint rather than machine capacity.

Save the changes.

Step 4: Boost a Work Center for This Scenario Only

Add a work center capacity override, select the machine, and set the capacity percentage.

The row shows original capacity and adjusted capacity side by side, so a machine at 8 hours a day set to 150 reads 12. Remove an override from the same row when you are done with it.

One boundary worth repeating: this override lives inside the scenario. To change real capacity on real dates, use the per-day capacity override on the work center itself, which the scheduler and the dashboards honour. See work centers in EDGEBIC.

Step 5: Override a Routing Step

Add a step override, pick the step, and choose the type.

Replace is how an outside vendor is modelled: swap the step onto the vendor's work center and let the engine schedule against that machine's availability and rate.

Skip carries a real hazard. It removes the step without rewiring whatever depended on it, so a later step that was waiting on the skipped one may simulate earlier than is physically possible. Sanity-check any skip scenario's dates before quoting from it, and prefer Replace or ModifyTime when dependencies exist. What a scenario can and cannot change covers why.

Modeling the Situations That Actually Come Up

Most enquiries reduce to one of six questions. Each maps to a specific configuration, and knowing the mapping saves the trial and error.

The material-delay case is the one planners underuse. It is not an optimistic what-if, it is a risk test, and running it before you quote tells you whether the promise survives the supplier slipping. Answering that question in advance is worth more than another way to shave two days.

Step 6: Run It

Select the scenario and run the simulation. Read the results group: estimated start date, estimated end date, lead time, total hours, estimated cost, and profit margin.

Re-run as often as you like. Each run overwrites that scenario's stored results and nothing touches the shop plan. Scenario runs are in-memory only, and they load the same real capacity override records the production scheduler uses, so maintenance windows and holiday cuts are already respected.

Worked Example: Three Scenarios, One Decision

The quote is 200 units, base simulation July 20 to August 14, cost $9,230, quoted at $85 per unit for $17,000. The customer needs August 8.

Scenario A, Standard. No overrides. End August 14, cost $9,230. Six days late. Baseline established.

Scenario B, Second Shift on Mill. The constraint is the mill's 101 hours. Add a capacity override on that mill at 150%, so 12 hours a day instead of 8. Run. End August 5, lead time 16 days, cost $9,830. Meets the date with three days spare.

Scenario C, Weekend Push. Remove the capacity override, tick weekend production instead. Run. End August 8, cost $9,590. Meets the date exactly.

Note the discipline: one lever each. That is what makes the next step meaningful.

Step 7: Compare

Open the comparison tab. Tick the scenarios to include; only simulated ones are eligible. Three charts fill in.

Read all three. The second shift costs $240 more than the weekend push and buys three days of margin. The utilization chart is where you check whether the winning scenario runs a machine so hard that a single breakdown loses the date anyway.

At $85 per unit, Scenario B's margin is ($17,000 minus $9,830) divided by $17,000, or 42.2%. Still green, and the date is met with slack.

Step 8: Apply the Winner, Then Make It Real

Select the winning scenario and apply it to the quote. Confirm the prompt. The scenario's estimated dates, hours, and costs are written onto the parent quote, and the scenario view closes.

Two things do not happen, and both matter.

The unit price does not follow. If the cost moved, re-derive it with the apply markup action on the quote, or decide the price yourself.

The real world does not change. Applying a scenario copies results. The routing is untouched, the work centers are untouched, and the schedule is untouched. Until somebody arranges the actual second shift, or adds a real per-day capacity override, or edits the routing to use the vendor, a real scheduling run reproduces the standard case.

That last point is the one that turns a good scenario into a missed delivery. Build the follow-through into your process: apply, arrange, then convert.

The Loop, Condensed

1. Simulate the quote to get a baseline.
2. Create a Standard scenario with no overrides and run it.
3. Create one scenario per realistic lever, one change each.
4. Run each one.
5. Compare lead time, cost, and utilization together.
6. Apply the winner to the quote and re-derive the price.
7. Make the real change before converting.

Two to four scenarios per quote is the working range. Beyond that you are enumerating combinations rather than deciding, and each one still has to be created and run individually.

For the boundaries of what a scenario can express, read what a scenario can and cannot change. For the errors that produce a confident wrong answer, read scenario planning mistakes. The quoting pillar covers the enquiry these scenarios hang off, and the EDGEBIC complete guide maps the platform.