How to Set Up Sequence-Dependent Setup Times in EDGEBIC

A sequence-dependent setup matrix in EDGEBIC by User Solutions replaces a single flat changeover number with a per-work-center from-to lookup, so the plan reflects that light to dark takes 60 minutes while dark to light takes 240. You build it by creating setup families, assigning products to them, and filling the family matrix. This turns setup from a guess into a value the scheduler and the floor both agree on.

If you only need the same changeover on every job, a flat number is simpler: see how to set a default setup time for a work center. This page is the sequence-aware version, one of many tasks mapped on the EDGEBIC how-to hub.

Before You Start

• The work center exists and is saved. The matrix is keyed to a saved work center, so a brand-new unsaved one asks you to save it first and reopen it.
• The products that run on this machine exist. Families and matrix cells reference real products.
• You know the real changeover times per direction. Ask the floor the exact question: coming from X, how long to start Y? The direction is the whole point.

Step 1: Open the Setup-Matrix Editor

Open the Workcenter tab. On the machine's row in the grid, click the gear button in the Actions column, whose tooltip reads Sequence-dependent setup matrix. You can also open the work center for edit and use the Setup Matrix tab, then Open Setup-Matrix Editor.

The dialog is headed Setup Matrix followed by the work center name. It is keyed to that one machine, because changeover physics are per machine: a paint booth's matrix says nothing about a weld station. The dialog has four tabs, Family Matrix, Product Overrides, Families, and Product Families, with Export CSV, Save, and Close in the footer.

Step 2: Create Setup Families

Families keep the matrix small. One hundred products in eight families need at most 64 family cells instead of ten thousand product cells.

1. Open the Families tab.
2. Click Add family and fill the row. The Name is required, for example Light Colors. The Code is an optional short code such as LIGHT.
3. Repeat for each group. For a paint booth that is Light Colors and Dark Colors.
4. Click Save.

Group by the attribute that physically drives cleaning or re-tooling, so color tone, alloy group, allergen class, or viscosity. Do not group by catalog category, because catalog category does not dictate a flush.

Step 3: Assign Products to Families

1. Open the Product Families tab. It lists every product with a Setup family dropdown.
2. Set the family per product. Widget-A painted white goes to Light Colors, Bracket-B painted black goes to Dark Colors.
3. Leave the dropdown empty for any product that should not follow a family rule. Only product-level overrides will apply to it.
4. Click Save.

A family cell fires only when both products in the pair have a family. If either is unassigned, the lookup silently falls back to the flat setup, so assign both.

Step 4: Fill the Family Matrix

1. Open the Family Matrix tab. It is a flat list of from-to cells with columns From family, To family, Setup (min), and Notes.
2. Click Add cell, pick From family and To family, and type the changeover in Setup (min), in minutes.
3. Enter the directions that exist on the floor. Asymmetry is expected:

4. Click Save.

Zero is a valid cell for a within-family swap that truly needs no changeover. Negatives are rejected. Do not create same-product cells, because the identical product back to back is always zero automatically.

What Changes When You Save

Saving the matrix changes no schedule by itself. The next Drive Schedule run, and every quote simulation, resolves setups through the new matrix, while existing bars keep the times they were planned with until then. Completed operations never change: on a reschedule, finished steps keep their historical setup, and only remaining work is re-resolved against the product that actually ran last.

Sequence now matters, which is exactly what the optimizer exploits. Its setup-reduction goal reorders compatible jobs into light-before-dark campaigns using this matrix as its cost table: see how to choose an optimizer goal.

How to Check It Worked

Run Drive Schedule, then open Job View and show the Setup Reason column. Matrix-driven rows read Matrix (family) or Matrix (product). Fallback rows read Cold start, BOR default, or WC default. Take three paint jobs in due-date order: the first reads Cold start with the flat setup, the second reads Matrix (family) for a light-to-dark pair, and the third, going dark to light, carries the full 240-minute cell. If every row reads BOR default, the matrix never matched.

Common Mistakes

• Mixing minutes and hours. The matrix is minutes; the flat work center and routing fields are hours. A value that is 60 times off is a unit mix-up.
• Products not assigned to families. Both products in a pair need a family, or the cell is skipped.
• Editing the wrong machine's matrix. The dialog header names the work center. Confirm you opened the right one.
• Treating cold start as a miss. The first job of the day has no predecessor, so it uses the flat fallback, not zero.

Next Steps

For the special pairs that break their family rule, add a per-pair exception in how to add a product-level setup override. See how sequence-aware setup fits the wider engine on the EDGEBIC product page.