Holiday scope is the level a non-working day applies to, plant-wide, one shift, or one work center, so the scheduler removes capacity from exactly the right resources and no others. Choosing the correct scope is what keeps a closure from either idling the whole shop by accident or ignoring downtime that is really there.
This entry defines holiday scope and shows how it reads inside EDGEBIC by User Solutions. For the wider index of terms, see the manufacturing glossary; for the downtime classifications that pair with it, see what is a downtime type in scheduling; and for the practical machine-blocking task, see how to block a machine for a maintenance day in EDGEBIC.
How it works
A non-working day can be declared at different levels, and the level is its scope. A plant holiday is company-wide and removes capacity from all work centers. A shift holiday removes capacity from a specific shift. A work-center holiday removes capacity from a single work center only.
The scheduler reads each holiday at its scope and zeroes the matching capacity for that day. So a plant holiday empties the calendar everywhere, a shift holiday empties just that shift's hours while other shifts run, and a work-center holiday empties just that machine while the rest of the shop continues.
The reason scope exists is precision. Real downtime is rarely uniform: a site closes for Christmas, but a single shift might take an eve off, and a single machine might go down for calibration while everything else runs. One flat holiday type could not express those differences, so the scope tells the engine exactly which resources to remove and leaves the rest untouched.
A concrete example
Think of a school calendar. A national holiday closes the whole school (plant scope). A single class canceled for a teacher's training day affects only that class (shift scope). A gym closed for floor refinishing affects only that room while every other class meets (work-center scope). Same idea of a non-working day, three different reaches.
Take a week where the plant closes Friday for a long weekend, the night shift is off Wednesday for an event, and Furnace 2 is down Tuesday for calibration. You model three closures at three scopes: a plant holiday on Friday that idles everything, per-day overrides of zero on Wednesday's night shift across the machines that run it, and a per-day override of zero on Furnace 2 for Tuesday. When the engine schedules, Friday is closed shop-wide, Wednesday still runs the day shift, and Tuesday runs every machine except the furnace. Three scopes, one holiday record and two sets of overrides.
How EDGEBIC uses it
The engine resolves closures at all three scopes when it builds the plan. What differs is how you create them. Plant holidays have their own screen and cover site-wide closures in one entry. Shift and work-center scopes are honored if records exist but cannot be created in the current release, so both are expressed with per-day capacity overrides, which are keyed to a work center, a shift, and a date together. Zero the night shift on every machine that runs it and you have a shift closure; zero one machine on both its shifts and you have a machine closure.
That is a fair amount of typing for a wide closure, and it is the honest state of the product today. It does come with a compensation: an override carries a reason and shows as overridden in the grid, so a closed day explains itself months later in a way a bare holiday record would not.
Matching scope to reality keeps the plan honest in both directions. Too broad a scope over-blocks, idling resources that are actually available; too narrow a scope leaves phantom capacity the shop cannot really use. Because the engine respects each scope precisely, a reschedule flows work around exactly the resources that are down, and steps needing an unavailable machine slide past its holiday while everything else holds.
To pair holiday scope with the reason a resource is unavailable, read what is a downtime type in scheduling; to block one machine for a day in practice, read how to block a machine for a maintenance day in EDGEBIC; and to close one crew's shift, how to close one shift for a holiday.
Expert Q&A: Deep Dive
Q: One furnace is down for calibration next Tuesday but the rest of the shop runs. How do I model that without stopping everything?
A: Zero the furnace for Tuesday with a per-day capacity override, not a plant holiday. A plant holiday would remove Tuesday from every machine and wrongly idle the whole shop. The override is keyed to that work center, that shift, and that date, so it zeroes only the furnace and leaves the rest of the plant scheduling normally, and it carries a reason such as annual calibration. When you reschedule, steps that need the furnace slide past Tuesday while everything else stays put. That is work-center scope in practice: the concept exists, and the override is how you reach it, since there is no per-machine holiday screen in this release.
Q: We are closing the entire plant for a long weekend. Do I add the holiday to every work center?
A: No, use a plant holiday, which is scoped company-wide and removes the day from every work center at once. Adding the day to each machine individually would be tedious and easy to get wrong, and a single plant holiday captures the closure in one entry. The scheduler then treats those days as closed everywhere, so no work is placed on them. Reserve the narrower scopes for downtime that only affects one shift or one machine, and use plant scope for a true site-wide closure.
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