What Is a Next-in-Sequence Link in a Routing?

A next-in-sequence link is the pointer on a routing step that names what comes after it, either another step or the finished product itself. It is the arrow in a routing diagram, and it is what the scheduler follows when it works out the order operations must run in. A step's sequence number is a display hint for sorting a list; the next-in-sequence link is the real dependency the plan is built from.

The analogy is a flowchart rather than a numbered list. You cannot frost the cake until it is baked, and you cannot bake it until the batter is mixed. The arrows carry that meaning. Numbering the boxes 10, 20, 30 is helpful for reading, but if you renumber them the cake still has to be baked before it is frosted, because the arrows did not move.

This entry belongs to the EDGEBIC by User Solutions glossary. For the wider vocabulary, see the manufacturing glossary, and for its close sibling, the definition of a sequence number in a routing.

How the Next-in-Sequence Link Works

Every routing step carries a link naming its successor, and a routing import can build those links for you with Auto-Generate Next in Sequence rather than making every row state its own. That successor is one of two things: another routing step, or the end product itself. The step that points at the end product is the last operation before the finished good exists, and everything upstream chains backward from there.

Because each step names its own successor rather than relying on a global ordering, the routing forms a graph rather than a list. The scheduler reads that graph, orders the steps so every predecessor comes before its dependents, and schedules them in that order. This is the reason a routing can express shapes a numbered list cannot.

The link also carries two companion fields that exist for readability: the successor's display name, so a grid can show the arrow's destination in words, and whether the successor is a step or a product. Neither changes the plan; both make the routing legible.

Branches and join points

A step's link may name more than one successor, which is how a split is expressed. More importantly, several steps may name the same successor, which is how a join is expressed. Two sub-assembly branches that both point at the final assembly step make assembly a merge point: it cannot start until every predecessor pointing at it is finished. No special marker is needed. The shape comes from the arrows.

Depth in the routing

The link chain is also what gives each step its level in the routing hierarchy. A step pointing directly at the end product sits at level zero, meaning it is the last operation. Each step upstream of that is one level deeper. Those levels are recomputed by walking the links, which is why they update automatically when you redraw an arrow rather than needing to be maintained by hand.

Broken chains

Two shapes are wrong and both are flagged. A link with no valid target leaves a step with no defined successor, shown as a dangling branch with a warning icon in the routing editor. A circular chain, where two steps point at each other, is flagged as a cycle. The scheduler can still produce a plan when a cycle exists, because it treats the looped steps as sitting at the same depth, but the routing no longer describes what the planner intended and should be fixed before it is trusted.

A Concrete Example

A shop makes a welded frame. The routing is saw, then drill, then weld, then paint, then the finished frame.

The planner numbers them 10, 20, 30, 40 and draws four arrows: saw to drill, drill to weld, weld to paint, paint to the end product. The scheduler follows the arrows, and paint sits at level zero because it points at the product.

A year later the shop adds a deburr operation between drill and weld. The planner adds a node, numbers it 25 because the original spacing left room, and redraws two arrows: drill now points at deburr, deburr points at weld. The plan updates and the levels renumber themselves from the new chain.

Later still the frame gains a second branch: a machined bracket that must be ready before welding. The planner adds two steps for the bracket and points the last of them at the weld step. Weld now has two predecessors and will not start until both the deburred frame and the finished bracket are done. Nobody renumbered anything, and the schedule is correct, because the arrows carry the meaning.

How EDGEBIC Uses Next-in-Sequence Links

In EDGEBIC, you set the link by drawing it. In the visual routing designer, adding a node and dragging an arrow from it to its successor is exactly what writes the link, and the routing's levels recompute on save. In the grid view of a routing you can set the successor directly on the step.

The practical consequence worth internalizing is the one the sequence number invites you to get wrong. Renumbering steps changes how a grid sorts them and nothing else. If a job is running operations in an order you did not expect, the arrows are where to look, not the numbers.

The neighboring definitions are the sequence number that the link is often confused with, the dependency graph the links build, the topological sort that turns the graph into a running order, and the routing chain issue that names the broken shapes. For the mechanism, see how EDGEBIC reads a routing, and for the practical step, how to connect two steps in the routing designer.

If you remember one thing about routings: the numbers are for people, and the arrows are for the scheduler.