What Is a Parallel Factor in a Routing Step? EDGEBIC Definition

A parallel factor is the speed multiplier applied when several instances of the same work center run one routing step simultaneously. In EDGEBIC by User Solutions, a routing step normally claims hours on one machine, but some operations are physically run by several identical machines at once. The parallel factor is where you record what that arrangement does to the step's effective time.

The kitchen version: one oven bakes the tray in forty minutes. Three ovens do not always give you fourteen minutes, because someone still has to load them and they do not all come up to temperature together. The factor is where you write down what three ovens really buy you.

For the broader vocabulary of planning, see the manufacturing glossary.

How a Parallel Factor Works

Start with the base case. A routing step says how many hours it takes per unit and which work center performs it. Multiply hours per unit by order quantity, add setup, and you have the step's claim on a machine.

That model assumes one machine doing the work. Plenty of operations do not work that way. A work center may hold four identical drill presses, and a large order may be run across three of them at the same time. The physical duration of that step is not the single-machine duration, and if the plan says it is, every date downstream is wrong.

Two settings describe the arrangement. The number of instances applicable to the step says how many of the work center's machines this particular operation may use, which can be fewer than the total available because not every machine is suited to every part. The parallel factor says what running them together does to the effective time.

The reason the factor is entered rather than derived is that parallel work is rarely ideal. Three machines seldom deliver exactly one third of the duration. Loading takes time. An operator can only stand in one place. A shared fixture has to move. Machines do not all start on the same second. Real plants observe a gain that is genuinely useful and genuinely short of the arithmetic.

Keep it distinct from the other multiplier on the routing. When a step can run on a different work center instead of the primary one, that alternate carries its own factor describing its relative speed. That is substitution: use this machine instead. The parallel factor is ganging: use several of the same machines together. Both scale time, which is why the two get mixed up, but they answer different questions.

A Concrete Example

Drilling work center, four identical presses. Job 42 needs three hundred parts drilled, at 0.1 hours per part. On one press that is thirty hours of drilling.

Thirty hours is more than three shifts, and the job is due Thursday. So the shop runs the operation on three presses at once.

If the routing step says nothing about parallel running, the engine plans thirty hours on one press. The schedule shows the drilling finishing Wednesday night and everything downstream stacked behind it, when in reality the floor will be done Monday afternoon. Every date after that step is pessimistic, and the planner learns to distrust the board.

So the step is configured for three applicable instances with a parallel factor that reflects what those three presses actually deliver. Perfect parallelism would give ten hours. The shop measures twelve, because loading and the shared operator eat the difference. Twelve is what gets entered.

Now the plan says twelve hours of drilling, the downstream steps sit where they belong, and the promised date matches the floor. Note that entering the ideal ten would have been worse than useless: the schedule would consistently promise two hours it cannot deliver, on every job that runs this step, forever.

How EDGEBIC Uses It

The parallel factor is a field on the routing step:

• It scales the step's effective time when several instances of the same work center run the operation together, so the plan reflects ganged running rather than single-machine running.
• It pairs with the applicable instance count on the step, which says how many of the work center's machines this operation may actually use.
• It is distinct from the alternate work center factor, which describes a substitute machine's relative speed rather than the effect of running several of the same machine at once.

For the substitution multiplier, see what is a true alternate work center. For the instance count itself, see what is applicable instances in a routing step. To set the value, follow how to set a parallel processing factor.