How to Change the Number of Machines in a Work Center in EDGEBIC

To change the number of machines in a work center, edit it and set the No.Instances field on the Basic Information tab. Each instance is one physical machine, and the count multiplies shift hours directly. Two instances to three takes an eight-hour work center from 16 hours a day to 24, and the change lands at the next Drive Schedule run.

The instance count is one of the two largest levers on a promise date (the other is the calendar). It is also easy to get subtly wrong, because pooling machines that are not truly identical produces a plausible-looking plan that no machine can keep. This page covers the field and the decision behind it. For the broader instance and utilization setup, read how to configure machine instances and utilization from EDGEBIC by User Solutions.

Before You Start

• You know the real machine count the work center should represent.
• You have confirmed the machines are identical: same speed, same shifts, same tooling. If they differ, this is the wrong tool.
• You can rerun the schedule. The new count does not move existing bars on its own.

What One Number Does

No.Instances answers a single question: how many identical machines stand behind this name? The scheduler computes capacity per (work center, shift, date) as:

available hours = shift hours × No.Instances × utilization %

So the instance count is a straight multiplier. A worked case with a two-press bank on Day Shift 08:00 to 16:00:

capacity per day = 8 h × 2 instances = 16 h

Two 8-hour jobs run simultaneously, one per machine, both finishing the same day. A single 16-hour job splits across both and finishes in one day instead of two. The Gantt and the allocation records show which instance ran each slice.

Step 1: Open the Work Center for Editing

Open the Workcenter tab. On the Work Center Management grid, read the current value in the Instances column, then click ✏️ Edit on the work center's row. The Work Center Configuration dialog opens on the Basic Information tab.

Step 2: Change No.Instances

Change No.Instances to the new machine count. Keep it a whole number for a normal bank of machines. Fractional values (2.5) are accepted for a genuinely half-capacity resource, but whole numbers are the norm and anything else deserves a second look.

Before you type, confirm the machines you are adding are true clones. This is the whole decision:

Step 3: Save

Click Save. The Instances column on the grid updates.

What Changes When You Save

The routing part is the quiet payoff of using instances over separate work centers: adding a machine touches exactly one field and nothing downstream.

How to Check It Worked

1. Confirm the new value in the Instances column on the grid.
2. Open the Resource Calendar and read the work center's total capacity for a normal working day. On three instances and an 8-hour shift it should read 24 hours where it read 16.
3. Run Drive Schedule. A job that queued behind capacity should now finish sooner, and simultaneous jobs should appear on the added instance.
4. Confirm the Gantt shows work distributed across the instances rather than piled on one.

Common Mistakes

Pooling unequal machines. An instance count assumes interchangeable machines at one speed. Add a slow machine to a fast one under a shared count and the scheduler plans against the average, over-promising the slow unit. Split them and use a Work Center Group. This is the first entry in our work center configuration mistakes list.

A count that does not match the floor. If the record says three and only two machines run, every date built on that work center assumes 50 percent more capacity than exists. Reconcile the count with the physical floor whenever the mix changes.

Expecting the plan to update instantly. The bars on screen were computed against the old count. Run Drive Schedule before you read the new dates or promise anything.

Confusing instances with One Per Day. Raising the instance count adds capacity that pools freely. Turning on One Per Day dedicates each instance to one job per day. They are different levers and interact: a three-instance work center with One Per Day on takes exactly three jobs per day, no more.

Next

The instance count is a straight multiplier, and the only real trap is pooling machines that are not identical. When machines differ but should still share routings, a Work Center Group is the right structure, and how to remove a machine from a work center group covers taking a member back out without disturbing running work. To restrict how each instance is used, look at the One Per Day rule in how to configure machine instances and utilization. More single-task recipes are in the EDGEBIC how-to hub, and the platform overview is at /edgebic.