What EDGEBIC Does Today vs the MRP Roadmap

EDGEBIC owns the finite-capacity scheduling layer today, along with single-product inventory netting, an MPS grid, forecast and replenishment planning, and flexible import and export. What it does not yet do is full multi-level MRP: the plant-wide explosion of a finished-good order down a bill of materials into planned component builds and purchase requisitions. This post draws that line honestly, because a clear map of what ships versus what is on the roadmap is more useful to a planner evaluating the tool than an inflated claim. EDGEBIC by User Solutions is strong exactly where the hardest engineering lives, the finite scheduler, and candid about the classic MRP modules that are still ahead.

Vendors blur the planning vocabulary constantly, so this post grounds the map in the real lineage of planning terms and then places EDGEBIC on it. For the generic definitions, see what MRP is and MRP versus MRP-II versus ERP. For the planning layer EDGEBIC ships, see the inventory and planning pillar.

The Planning Lineage, Defined Plainly

Five terms get used interchangeably and mean different things. Keeping them straight is the whole basis for an honest capability map.

Two clarifications prevent the common confusion. First, MPS is the input to MRP, not its successor: demand and forecast feed MPS, MPS feeds MRP, and MRP output feeds a finite scheduler. Second, APS is the hard, finite layer that respects real capacity, and it is the layer most advanced planning vendors actually sell.

What EDGEBIC Ships Today

EDGEBIC already owns the finite APS layer, the hardest part to build. That is the sequence-aware, finite-capacity engine that respects machine instances, shifts, setups, and constraints, and it is what runs the shop floor. On top of it, the current capability includes a connected planning layer:

• A single source of truth for on-hand: an append-only inventory ledger where on-hand is the sum of signed entries.
• Single-product inventory netting: for one product, demand nets against on-hand and scheduled receipts, and the scheduler consumes from stock at schedule time.
• A projected available balance calendar with available-to-promise, showing future stock bucket by bucket.
• Forecast and replenishment planning: forecasts drive suggestions that firm into build-to-stock orders.
• A master production schedule grid: committed build quantities that firm into scheduled orders.
• Sales orders as firm demand: confirmed order lines drive requirements.
• Flexible import and export through configurable Excel, CSV, and database masks, which is how existing item and order data reaches the tool.

The distinctive part is where the planning ends. Every decision, a firmed replenishment, a firmed MPS build, lands in the same finite-capacity engine that schedules the floor. Most standalone planning tools stop at an infinite-capacity plan and hand a wish list to a separate scheduler. EDGEBIC closes that gap.

What the Roadmap Adds

Being honest means naming the gaps precisely. Several classic MRP capabilities are genuinely not in the current tool.

Multi-level bill-of-materials explosion. Today EDGEBIC plans one product at a time. It does not cascade a finished-good requirement down a bill of materials to plan every sub-component and purchased part in one run. Real MRP low-level-codes every item and plans it once per run from the top down. That orchestration is roadmap.

A purchasing module. There is no supplier, purchase order, or purchase requisition entity today. Purchased components are planned outside the tool and imported in. A procure-to-pay module is a prerequisite for planning buy items, and it is roadmap.

Material pegging. Today a material step is treated as available when its upstream operations finish. Pegging that step to a specific inbound purchase order's promised receipt date, so the schedule reflects when material actually arrives, is a roadmap item.

A plant-wide regenerative run. The current calculator emits a per-product suggestion for display; it does not roll planned orders across the whole plant in one netting pass. A regenerative or net-change run that sees all open orders as scheduled receipts is roadmap.

Financials. There is no general ledger, accounts payable, or accounts receivable. Without those, EDGEBIC is an advanced manufacturing planning and scheduling suite, not an ERP. Financials is the decisive criterion for the ERP label, and it is roadmap.

The honest summary: single-item netting and the firm-into-schedule path exist; multi-level explosion, purchasing, pegging, and financials do not.

The Infinite-to-Finite Handoff, Illustrated

The one seam that already works is the handoff from an infinite-capacity plan to a finite schedule. Consider a furniture maker with an order for 100 tables due in week 10.

A traditional MRP would explode the table into a tabletop, four legs, and eight screws, net each against on-hand, offset each by lead time, and emit planned builds and purchase requisitions, all assuming infinite capacity. That multi-level explosion is the roadmap piece.

What EDGEBIC does today is the finite half. A planner commits the 100-table build in the MPS, firms it into a build-to-stock order with a release date offset by the assembly lead time, and the finite-capacity engine then places the assembly across a real work center, respecting instances and shifts, and returns actual start and finish dates. If capacity is full, the engine slides the finish and surfaces the miss before the order is committed, not after. That is the value of finite scheduling: MRP says need 100 by week 10 at infinite capacity, and EDGEBIC says the real finish is here, on this machine, on these shifts.

Where EDGEBIC Is Genuinely Ahead

Being candid about gaps makes the strengths credible. EDGEBIC is strong exactly where the engineering is hardest and where many small ERPs are weakest: the finite scheduler. That engine already handles sequence-dependent setup through a setup matrix, lot streaming with transfer batches, work-center groups as first-class resource pools, and an operator and skill model with rosters and certifications. It also carries a two-layer optimizer: a multi-run candidate search that is guaranteed never worse than the baseline plan, and a solver layer that reports a proven optimality gap where its model applies. These are capabilities most planning tools in this class do not have.

So the map is not finite-good-everything-else-bad. It is: the finite scheduling layer is genuinely advanced; the single-product planning layer around it is solid; the multi-level MRP, purchasing, and financials modules that would make it a small ERP are roadmap.

How the Roadmap Modules Fit Together

The roadmap items are not independent wishes; they build on each other in a sensible order, and seeing that order helps you judge where the tool is heading. Multi-level bill-of-materials explosion is the keystone, because it is what turns a single finished-good requirement into a plan for every component and purchased part. But explosion needs somewhere to send its buy-item output, which is why a purchasing module, with suppliers, purchase orders, and requisitions, is its natural companion. Once purchase orders exist, their promised receipt dates can peg material steps in the schedule, which is the material-pegging item. And once buy and make plans run plant-wide in one pass, a regenerative run ties them together.

Financials sit at the far end and are what would earn the ERP label. An enterprise system is ultimately a system of record for money: a general ledger, payables, receivables. Until those exist, the honest description is an advanced manufacturing planning and scheduling suite, stronger on scheduling than most small ERPs, but not an ERP. Adding purchasing and the full order-to-cash flow would make it a manufacturing operations system; adding financials would make it a small ERP. Each threshold is real and each is named.

The reason this ordering is credible rather than aspirational is that the hardest layer is already done. Building demand-planning and purchasing modules that feed a proven finite scheduler is standard, well-understood work. Building the finite scheduler itself, the part EDGEBIC already owns, is the part that takes years and defeats most attempts. Starting from the hard part being finished is what makes the roadmap a sequence of additions rather than a rewrite.

Why an Honest Map Helps You

A planner evaluating a planning tool is best served by knowing exactly where the tool ends. If your shop lives or dies on multi-level component planning across a deep bill of materials, the multi-level explosion gap matters and you should plan around it, doing that netting outside the tool and importing components in. If your shop's pain is finite scheduling, sequencing, and connecting a build decision to real capacity, EDGEBIC already covers that better than most tools in its class.

The roadmap items are real and named, not vaporware and not oversold. Multi-level explosion, purchasing, pegging, and financials are on the path, in that rough order, and each is a distinct module that feeds the scheduler EDGEBIC already owns. Building ERP on top of a strong finite scheduler is a different, easier problem than rewriting a scheduler, which is why the roadmap starts from the hard part being done.

For how EDGEBIC connects to your existing systems through import and export rather than a native connector, see the import-export integration approach. For the finite scheduling this all lands in, see what production scheduling is, and for the platform overview visit EDGEBIC.