How to Choose the Optimizer Engine in EDGEBIC

To choose the optimizer engine in EDGEBIC, open Settings, go to the Schedule tab, and pick under Optimizer Engine: Multi-run search tries many complete schedules and keeps the best, and Mathematical solver (CP-SAT) is an exact solver that also proves how close its result is to optimal. Both engines in EDGEBIC by User Solutions are propose-only and built so the result can never be worse than the schedule you already had, so the choice decides which brain runs, not whether your plan is safe.

This post covers the one setting. For how to launch and read an optimization run, read the EDGEBIC optimizer guide; the full task library is at the EDGEBIC how-to hub.

Before You Start

• You can reach the Settings tab, which is permission-controlled.
• You understand that both engines are propose-only: they present a candidate and change nothing until you Accept it.
• You know the two claims each engine can make: multi-run search is guaranteed never worse than the baseline; the solver adds a proven optimality gap on top.

The Steps

1. Open the Settings tab and select the Schedule tab.
2. Find Optimizer Engine and choose one:
   • Multi-run search (the default): tries many complete schedules with different job orderings and keeps the best. Its badge reads "best of N schedules tried."
   • Mathematical solver (CP-SAT): an exact solver that also proves how close its result is to optimal. Its badge reads "proven within a percentage of optimal."
3. Click Save.
4. Run an optimization from the Optimizer tab, where you set the goal and the time budget for that particular run.

What Changes When You Save

The engine setting is a site-wide policy that stores only which engine runs. The goal you are optimizing for and how long you are willing to let it run are chosen per run on the Optimizer tab, because those are decisions you make for each optimization, not once for the whole site. If you select the solver but it is not available on a given installation, EDGEBIC silently uses multi-run search instead, so the choice can never break scheduling.

How to Check It Worked

Launch an optimization from the Optimizer tab and read the result badge. Under multi-run search it reads as a best-of count of schedules tried; under the solver it reads as a proven optimality gap, a percentage distance from the true optimum. If you chose the solver but the badge shows the best-of wording instead, the solver is not available on that install and the system fell back to multi-run search, which is expected behavior, not an error.

Common Mistakes

Expecting the engine setting to run an optimization. Choosing the engine only stores the policy. The run happens on the Optimizer tab, and nothing changes until you Accept a proposed schedule.

Looking for the goal and time budget in Settings. They are per-run choices on the Optimizer tab, not site policy. Settings holds only which engine runs.

Assuming a missing solver is a fault. The solver is not present in every installation. If it is absent, multi-run search runs instead and still gives the never-worse guarantee.

Believing the optimizer can worsen the plan. It cannot. Both engines are floored at the baseline you already had, and both are propose-only, so a run you dislike is simply discarded.

What to Do Next

The engine setting decides which brain runs; the run itself is where you pick a goal and read the result. How to run and read an optimization in EDGEBIC walks through that. To understand the proof the solver reports, what is an optimality gap in production scheduling explains it plainly, and the EDGEBIC product page shows where the optimizer sits in the scheduler.