Reshaping a Quote's Routing With Step Overrides in EDGEBIC

Step overrides let a quote scenario skip, replace, reorder, or retime one routing step before that scenario simulates, so you can test a routing change against real capacity without touching the product's master routing. EDGEBIC by User Solutions attaches these overrides to a quote scenario, applies them to a cloned copy of the routing, runs the finite capacity simulation, and reports the new dates and cost. Nothing about the real routing changes, which is exactly why you can try four different what-ifs on the same enquiry in an afternoon.

This is the fine-grained end of quoting. A whole scenario can flip weekend production on or boost a machine's capacity, but a step override reaches into a single operation and rewrites it. That precision is what lets you answer a customer's "can you do it faster?" with a number instead of a guess.

The four override types

Every step override carries a type that decides what it does to the one step it targets:

Each override names the original step it acts on. Replace also names the alternative work center. ModifyTime carries the specific new values for setup, process, or queue hours. Reorder carries the new sequence number. You add as many overrides as a scenario needs, and they all apply to the same cloned routing before the simulation begins.

Skip: take a step out entirely

Skip is the bluntest lever. It pulls the step out of the routing that this scenario simulates, as if the operation did not exist. Use it to test outsourcing a whole operation off-site (where the vendor handles it outside your shop and outside your capacity), or to price a variant of the product that genuinely omits a step.

The one discipline note: Skip can orphan a successor. Routing steps are sequenced, and a later step may be set to follow the one you removed. When the predecessor vanishes, the scheduler can treat the downstream step as having nothing to wait for and start it earlier than the real world allows. Before you present a Skip scenario's date to a customer, confirm the step you removed was not something a later operation depends on.

Replace: move the work to another machine

Replace keeps the operation but performs it somewhere else. It swaps the step's work center for an alternative you name, then simulates the routing with that machine's rate, capacity, and per-unit time. This is the override behind the classic outside-vendor what-if.

On the documented 500-unit SB-200 bracket, the standard routing simulated a 13-day lead time, five days past the customer's 7-day request. A Replace override on the cutting step moved it from the in-house work center at 0.10 hours per unit to an outside vendor at 0.06 hours per unit with more daily availability. Cutting dropped from 20.5 hours to about 5, and the simulated end came in at 6 days, one day inside the customer's date, at a vendor premium that raised total cost to $4,200. The date moved because the replacement work center was genuinely faster and had open capacity the primary machine did not. For the broader picture of routing alternatives at quote time, see comparing routing options for a quote and quoting with alternative work centers.

Reorder: change the sequence

Reorder assigns a new sequence number to a step and then re-sorts the routing. Use it when a step can legitimately run earlier or later and doing so opens a better path through your capacity. Because the routing re-sorts after the number changes, the whole downstream order shifts to match the new position, so this is a lever to use deliberately: only resequence steps that can actually run in the new order.

ModifyTime: rewrite the assumptions

ModifyTime keeps the machine and its place in the sequence but rewrites its numbers. It can replace the step's setup time, its process time per unit, or its queue time, in any combination. Reach for it when the operation is right but a time assumption is about to change:

• A new fixture cuts setup from 1.0 hour to 0.4 across the run.
• A revised program trims process time per unit.
• You want to test a shorter queue buffer to see how much lead time the wait is really costing.

ModifyTime is the honest way to quote an improvement you have not shipped yet. You are telling the simulation "assume this machine gets faster," and the simulated date and cost reflect exactly that assumption and nothing more.

Overrides reshape the simulation, not the shop

The rule that keeps quoting trustworthy applies to every override type. A step override changes a cloned routing that exists only for one scenario's run. Your master routing, your work centers, and your live schedule are untouched. When you apply a winning scenario back to the quote, only the quote's numbers move. The routing edit, the real alternative work center, the actual fixture that cuts setup: those are real-world changes you make before you convert the quote to an order, so a production run can reproduce the date you sold. Applying a scenario is a pricing decision. Making the promise real is a shop-floor decision, and they are separate on purpose.

Because the simulation runs the same finite capacity engine that plans production, an override's effect is measured against your current live load, not a clean calendar. That is why a Replace onto a machine that is already booked solid may barely move the date, while the same Replace onto a machine with open time moves it a week. The overrides are precise, and so is the answer.

Where step overrides fit

Step overrides are the routing-level tool inside the wider quoting workflow. A quote starts as one simulation against real capacity; when one answer is not enough, scenarios let you compare alternatives with numbers; and step overrides are how a scenario changes one operation at a time. Read the full arc in the EDGEBIC quoting guide, and see how the underlying production scheduling engine makes every override's date honest against the load you already carry.

Explore EDGEBIC to see quote simulation, scenarios, and step overrides working against your own routings and your real shop load.