What Is a Material Step in a Routing? Definition and Example

A material step is a routing step that consumes a raw material or purchased component at its point in the sequence, without running an operation on a work center and without using machine hours or finite capacity. Where a work center step runs the mixer for ten minutes, a material step is the one that says add the flour: it marks where and how much of an ingredient is drawn into the job. It sits in the same routing as the machine operations, at the exact step where the material is needed, but it competes for no capacity of its own.

This entry is part of the EDGEBIC by User Solutions glossary series; for the broader vocabulary of production planning, see the manufacturing glossary.

How a Material Step Works

A bill of routing holds two kinds of steps that behave very differently. A work center step names a machine, a setup time, and a run time per unit, and the scheduler dates it against that machine's shift calendar and existing load, consuming finite capacity. A material step names an item and a quantity, and that is the point of it: it records that a specific material is consumed here, not that a machine runs.

Because a material step uses no work center and no hours, it does not extend the machine schedule. The engine handles it as an assignment at its sequence point rather than a block of run time. It marks consumption and, where the material must physically be present, it can gate the following operation: the step after the material cannot start until the material is available.

The field that records which kind of thing a routing position refers to is the BOR item type, which separates a product, a work center step, a raw material, and a sub-assembly component.

That separation keeps the schedule honest. The time in a routing comes from the work center operations and from any queue, transit, or transfer settings, never from the material step pretending to occupy a machine.

A Concrete Example

A routing for a welded frame reads: cut, weld, inspect. The frame consumes 4x8 steel plate at cutting and consumes fasteners at welding. You model both consumptions as material steps placed at the right points:

The engine schedules Saw-A for 3 hours, Weld-1 for 5, and QC for 1: 9 hours of dated machine work. The two material steps add no hours to that total. They record that two sheets are drawn before cutting and two dozen bolts before welding, and if the fasteners are not on hand when welding wants to begin, the weld step waits on them.

How EDGEBIC Uses It

In EDGEBIC a material step is a routing step whose item is a material or component rather than a work center, and the engine treats it as a consumption point, not a capacity load.

• It draws material at its sequence point. The step records the item and quantity consumed where it sits in the routing, so the right materials are attached to the right operation.
• It uses no work center hours. A material step does not compete for machine capacity and does not extend the run schedule; the machine time comes from the work center steps around it.
• It can gate the next operation. Where the material must be present, the following work center step is held until the material is available, which is why a job can show a material step holding it up even though the step itself has no duration.
• It sits alongside sub-assemblies. For a component that is itself manufactured, a sub-assembly step nests a whole routing instead; a material step is for the item you simply consume.

Material steps are part of what makes a routing a complete build recipe rather than just a list of machine operations. To add one on a real routing, see how to add a material step to a routing in EDGEBIC, and for the wider finite capacity picture, finite versus infinite capacity scheduling explains why material and capacity are tracked separately.