How to Schedule a Job Backward From Its Due Date in EDGEBIC
User Solutions TeamTo schedule a job backward from its due date in EDGEBIC, set its direction to Backward, give it a real due date, leave the cut off date at today, and run the scheduler. The job comes out right-aligned: its last operation finishes just in time and the slack sits in front of it. Everything else about the run is unchanged, because both directions use the same capacity rules in EDGEBIC by User Solutions.
This is the procedure post. For what backward scheduling is and when to prefer it, read backward scheduling explained first, and forward versus backward scheduling for the general comparison.
Before You Start
| Prerequisite | Why |
|---|---|
| The order has a real due date | Backward means finish by that date. Without one the job quietly schedules forward, and the order dialog requires it when the direction is Backward. |
| The product's lead time is correct | The delivery tail is reserved out of the backward plan. A wrong value shifts the whole job. |
| You know how to run a scheduling pass | Backward is a per-order option on the ordinary run, covered in how to run the scheduler. |
Step 1: Set the Site Default (Optional)
If most of your work is make-to-order against promised dates, set the default once:
- Open Options and go to the Schedule tab.
- Under Default Scheduling Direction, choose Backward, described as scheduling each job latest-feasible so it finishes at or before its due date.
- Under When a Backward Job Doesn't Fit, choose between accepting the forward schedule silently and showing a popup for review.
- Save.
The default only pre-selects the direction on new orders and quotes. Existing orders are untouched, and every order can still be switched individually. The doesn't-fit setting is read fresh on every run, so a change takes effect on the very next pass with no restart.
Step 2: Set the Direction on One Order
- Create or edit the order and set Scheduling Direction to Backward.
- Two things change in the dialog. Due Date becomes required, marked with an asterisk, because it is now the finish-by commitment. The Start Date label flips to Cut off Date.
- Leave the cut off date at today unless material or approvals genuinely force a later floor.
That relabelling carries real meaning. On a backward job the date is not "start here", it is "do not start before". It is a floor, and no operation of the job will be placed earlier than it. An artificially late floor is the single most common cause of a backward job failing to fit, because it squeezes the window the engine has to place work in.
The direction column's tooltip is the one-line summary worth memorising: forward schedules from the start date, backward finishes by the due date, and the field locks once actuals are logged.
Step 3: Run the Scheduler
Run Schedule + Re-Schedule exactly as you would for any job. Nothing about the procedure changes. The job comes back right-aligned, with its last operation ending just in time and empty days visible in front of it.
Those empty days are the point. Do not drag work into them.
Step 4: Read the Result
Three columns tell the story:
- Item Start is when the last work center operation ends.
- Job End is Item Start plus the product's lead time: the delivery-ready date.
- Days Late compares Job End against the due date. A backward job that fitted reads zero.
On the Gantt you will also see a muted band after the last operation, captioned with the lead time in days. It is display only: it consumes no capacity, cannot be dragged or resized, and nothing schedules into it.
A Worked Backward Run
Fifty brackets. Direction Backward. Cut off date Thursday July 16 (today). Due Wednesday July 22. Routing: saw 2 hours, then mill 8 hours. Product lead time 1 day. One day shift, 08:00 to 16:00, no other load.
- The target. Due Wednesday means delivery-ready by the end of Wednesday. Reserving the one day tail, all machining must finish by the end of Tuesday July 21.
- Last step first. The 8 hour mill run is right-aligned to that limit: Tuesday July 21, 08:00 to 16:00.
- Feeding it. The 2 hour cut must end by Tuesday 08:00. Right-aligned, that is Monday July 20, 14:00 to 16:00.
- The result. Item Start Tuesday 16:00, Job End Wednesday July 22, Days Late 0. On the Gantt: empty space from Thursday through Monday at 14:00, two tight bars, then the lead time band ending on the due date.
Compare that with the same order scheduled forward, which would run the cut Thursday morning and finish machining days earlier. Same hours, same machines, opposite end of the window.
When It Does Not Fit
Change one thing: the customer wants it Friday July 17, tomorrow. Machining would have to finish by the end of Thursday July 16 after reserving the one day tail, and only one eight hour shift exists between the cut off and that limit. The routing needs ten sequential hours.
The backward attempt is abandoned completely, with no half-placed operations left behind, and the whole order is scheduled forward instead: saw Thursday 08:00 to 10:00, mill Thursday 10:00 to 16:00 and Friday 08:00 to 10:00. Work ends Friday at 10:00, Job End is Saturday July 18, and the job is one day late.
What you see next depends on your Options setting.
With Accept the forward schedule (the default), the run saves immediately and the job carries its projected lateness on the grid. Check the Days Late column after runs.
With Show a popup, the run computes everything and saves nothing, then shows the jobs that did not fit:
- One row per affected job, with a reason line explaining why it did not fit.
- Columns for Due Date, Start Date and Priority, all editable in place.
- A forward start to finish column showing the complete fallback window, so you see where the job would begin as well as when it would end.
- A status pill reading on time in green, or late by a number of days in red.
Three buttons:
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Accept Forward Schedule | Saves the held run as computed, late where shown |
| Adjust and Re-run | Saves your edited dates and priority onto the orders, discards the held run, and recomputes |
| Cancel | Discards everything. The database is untouched, as if the run never happened |
Two scope rules keep this predictable. The popup fires only during a Drive Schedule run, and only for new backward jobs. Reschedules of already-planned jobs never trigger it, because backward applies to a job's first schedule only.
After the Run: Four Things to Check
| Check | What good looks like |
|---|---|
| Days Late | Zero on every backward job that fitted. A value here means the fallback fired |
| Item Start and Job End | Job End lands on or before the due date, with the tail accounted for |
| The front slack | Empty days before the job, which is the plan working as intended |
| The failures list | Empty, or every entry understood and acted on |
If a backward job came back with lateness and you were not prompted, the doesn't-fit setting is on the silent option. That is the first thing to change once backward jobs carry real promises.
Backward on a Quote
The same direction choice exists on a quote, and it changes what the requested date means. On a forward quote, the requested date is treated as a target start. On a backward quote it is the customer's finish-by date, and the simulation answers how late you could start and still deliver on the day.
Two things carry across. The direction travels with the quote when it converts to an order, so a backward quote becomes a backward job. And the simulation respects capacity already committed to live work, which is what makes the resulting promise date something you can defend rather than a best case. The wider workflow is in the EDGEBIC quoting guide.
One Warning Worth Repeating
Never pin a target start date on a backward job. Pinning one promotes the job to an anchored job, which outranks the backward setting, and it stops being backward at all. This is precisely why the popup's start date edits change only the ordinary start floor: the safe lever is the cut off date, not a pin.
If It Keeps Not Fitting, Compute the Window by Hand
When a job refuses to fit and the reason is not obvious, do the arithmetic yourself once. It takes two minutes and it settles the question.
Count the working hours available: from the cut off date to the due date minus the product's lead time, using the shifts that actually run on the machines in the routing. Then count the working hours needed: every operation's run time plus setup, plus every queue time and transit day between them, added in sequence rather than in parallel.
If the second number is larger, no scheduler can fit the job and the popup is telling the truth. The levers are then real ones: move the due date, pull the cut off date in, raise the priority so the job wins contested capacity, add a shift, or split the order. If the first number is larger and it still does not fit, the cause is contention rather than arithmetic, and the priority column is where to look.
Where to Go Next
- For the lead time reservation and how lateness is judged across every screen, see end item lead time, item start versus job end.
- For the failure patterns to design out, see backward scheduling mistakes.
- For the direction it inverts, see forward scheduling explained.
- For which jobs a run touches at all, see EDGEBIC scheduling modes explained.
Bring three promised orders and your shift calendar to a demo and we will schedule them backward, including the one that will not fit, so you can see the popup do its job. Contact US to book it, or start at the EDGEBIC product overview.
Set the order's scheduling direction to Backward, give it a real due date, leave the cut off date at today unless material forces a later floor, and run the scheduler. The job comes out right-aligned: the last operation finishes just in time and the slack sits in front. Due date becomes a required field when the direction is Backward, because backward means finish by that date.
It is the earliest moment any operation of that job may start, so it means do not start before rather than start here. The start date label changes to Cut off Date when the direction is Backward for exactly that reason. An artificially late cut off date is the most common cause of a backward job failing to fit, because it squeezes the window the engine has to work in.
One row per job that could not meet its due date, with the reason it did not fit, the complete forward fallback window showing both start and finish, and a status pill reading on time or late by a number of days. Due date, start date and priority are editable in the popup itself. Nothing is saved until you choose one of the three buttons.
Yes, when the popup is enabled. Edit the due date, start date or priority directly in the popup and choose Adjust and Re-run: your edits are saved onto the orders, the held run is discarded, and the schedule is recomputed from the new data. The popup reappears if something still does not fit.
Because backward applies only to a job's first schedule. A job that already has a plan reschedules forward from its resume point, so it can never be a new backward job that failed to fit. The popup fires only during a Drive Schedule run, and only for new backward jobs, which is the only situation where the choice is meaningful.
Expert Q&A: Deep Dive
Q: I set a job to backward and it scheduled forward with no warning. Where do I start looking?
A: Work the precedence rules in order. Does the job carry a pinned target date on an operation? That makes it an anchored job and anchors win. Does it have any recorded actuals? Started work forces forward. Are any operations pinned to planner-chosen dates? Those express forward intent. Does it have a real due date? Without one, backward has no target. Has it been scheduled before? Backward applies to a job's first schedule only. One of those five explains essentially every case, and the fix is usually to clear the pin or supply the date.
Q: The popup keeps coming back after I adjust the dates. What am I doing wrong?
A: Probably nothing: your edits are not creating enough room. Backward needs enough working hours between the cut off date and the due date minus the product's lead time to fit the routing in sequence. Moving the due date out by one day adds one shift, which does not help a routing needing ten sequential hours in an eight hour day. Try three levers together: push the due date further out, pull the cut off date in to today, and raise the priority so the job wins contested capacity. If none of that works, the honest answer is to accept the forward schedule and talk to the customer.
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