How to Set Work Center Efficiency in EDGEBIC

In EDGEBIC by User Solutions there is no editable efficiency or utilization field on a work center: current versions run every work center at 100 percent of its clock, and the value is not editable on that screen. So reflecting a machine's realistic productive rate is done where it is visible and auditable instead, through honest shift hours and per-day capacity overrides. Knowing that up front saves a long hunt for a percentage box that is not there.

The word "efficiency" gets used for two different things on a shop floor, and EDGEBIC keeps them separate. One is how much of the clock a machine really produces. The other, for output-rate machines, is how fast it runs. This page covers both, and how to set each one honestly in the current build. For the full formula behind every capacity figure, read how EDGEBIC calculates work center capacity.

Before You Start

• The work center already exists (how to add a work center).
• You have a real number in mind. Finite-capacity practice is to load a resource to roughly 80 to 85 percent of the theoretical clock and keep the rest as buffer for breakdowns, rework, and changeover drift.
• You know which kind of efficiency you mean: lost time (the machine is idle part of the shift) or slow rate (the machine produces fewer pieces per hour than rated).

What Efficiency Means to the Scheduler

For every work center, shift, and date, EDGEBIC computes:

available hours = (shift hours - downtime - partial-holiday overlap)
                  x number of instances
                  x utilization %

The utilization term is an engine-level throttle on how much of the clock the scheduler may book, and in current versions it sits at 100 percent: a one-instance work center on an 8-hour shift offers 8 schedulable hours. It is useful to know the term exists, because it explains why the two levers that do work, shift hours and per-day overrides, change the answer. Capacity is resolved at the start of a run, so any change takes effect on the next Drive Schedule pass, never retroactively on bars already placed.

One point trips up new administrators: a work center also carries a stored field labeled efficiency, but it is not an editable planner control on this screen and setting it is not how you throttle capacity. If you go looking for it expecting the plan to change, nothing happens.

Setting a Realistic Rate in the Current Build

Current EDGEBIC builds run work centers at their full clock and do not expose an editable utilization field on the work center dialog. That is deliberate: rather than hide lost time behind a single percentage, the app asks you to express it where it is visible and auditable. You have three honest levers, and industry practice is worth stating alongside them, which is to load a resource to roughly 80 to 85 percent of the theoretical clock and keep the rest as buffer.

1. Shape the Shift Hours

The most durable way to reflect a machine that produces only part of the clock is to define its shift as the productive window. If a cell loses the first 30 minutes to warm-up and the last 30 to cleanup, an 08:30 to 15:30 shift tells the truth better than an 08:00 to 16:00 shift loaded to 87.5 percent. Shift setup lives with the calendar, covered in shifts and calendars explained.

2. Take Maintenance Hours Out of the Day

Recurring, predictable losses, such as a weekly lubrication run, do get subtracted before the instance and utilization math, but there is an important limit in the current release: recurring in-shift downtime has no screen to configure it. The routes that work today are a per-day capacity override on the affected dates, or a partial plant holiday when the loss hits the whole site. See how to take maintenance hours out of a machine's day, which covers both routes and the honest cost of modeling a standing weekly window.

3. Use Capacity Overrides

For a temporary derate, a per-day or date-range capacity override sets the exact hours a machine will offer, carries a reason, and reverts when you reset it. This is the right tool for a partial-crew stretch or a machine running below spec while it waits for parts. See how to set a work center to run at reduced capacity.

Output Rate on a Pieces-Based Machine

For a machine you schedule by pieces rather than hours, the rate is a second lever, and it is worth knowing where it lives. Piece-rate math, meaning pieces per hour and batch sizes, is configured on the routing step that runs at that work center, not on the work center editor. Capacity Type and Unit of Measure appear on the work center grid as read-only columns.

So a line running at a sustained rate below its rated one is described by setting the rate the routing step actually achieves. A molder rated at 120 pieces per hour that consistently holds 108 is described honestly by the 108, in the same spirit as shaping shift hours rather than hiding the loss behind a percentage. Changing a rate changes how long each job takes, not how many clock hours the machine offers, so it is a different lever from the three above. For the difference between the two capacity models, read pieces-based vs hours-based capacity.

What Changes When You Apply It

Nothing moves until you rerun. Master-data edits never reschedule on their own.

How to Check It Worked

1. Open the Resource Calendar and read the work center's available hours for a normal working day. Confirm the number matches your intended productive rate, not the gross clock.
2. Run Drive Schedule and watch whether jobs on that resource stretch or compress as expected.
3. For a pieces line, place a test job and confirm the duration reflects the rate configured on the routing step that runs there, not the machine's rated nameplate output.

Common Mistakes

Loading every machine to 100 percent and hoping the plan absorbs the drift. A fully loaded plan has no recovery room, so a single breakdown cascades into every downstream promise. Build the 15 to 20 percent buffer in deliberately.

Confusing lost time with slow rate. Halving a routing step's piece rate doubles every job's time and models a slower machine, not an idle one. If the real problem is that the machine sits idle part of the shift, fix it with shift hours or a capacity override and leave the rate at what the line truly achieves.

Expecting the stored efficiency field to throttle capacity. It does not feed the hours formula. Use the utilization-shaping levers above.

Next

Efficiency in EDGEBIC is a decision about how much of the clock you promise, expressed through honest hours and overrides rather than a hidden percentage. Pair it with the instance count in configure instances and utilization, and find more single-task recipes in the EDGEBIC how-to hub. The platform overview is at /edgebic.