What Is Move Time in a Routing?

Move time is the physical transport time between operations on a routing step, and in EDGEBIC it is counted in a job's total-time and cost estimate rather than reserved as capacity in the schedule. It captures the cost of moving material without, by itself, changing when the next operation runs.

This entry defines move time and shows how it reads inside EDGEBIC by User Solutions. For the wider index of terms, see the manufacturing glossary; for the cleanup field with the same cost-only behavior, see what is teardown time in a routing; and for the scheduling field that does add a real gap, see what is transit time in production scheduling.

How it works

A routing step carries time fields for the different kinds of work it involves, and move time is the one for physical transport: carting or conveying material to the next operation. It is declared on the step in hours.

The important detail is how the engine treats it. Move time is included when a step's total time is calculated for cost, but it is not consumed by the capacity allocation that produces the schedule. So it raises the estimated total time and cost of a step without moving the bars in the plan. Setup and run time drive capacity; move time captures cost.

That is a deliberate design. Internal material movement often overlaps other waits and does not need to reserve machine capacity, so charging its cost is correct while blocking a slot for it would distort the plan. When a movement genuinely must delay the next step, EDGEBIC has scheduling fields for that: queue time for a shift-aware buffer inside the shop, and transit time for a calendar-day delay between steps.

A concrete example

Think of a warehouse picking order where a runner carries a tote from aisle to packing. The walk takes real minutes and you might charge it to the order's handling cost, but the packing station was already free, so the walk did not make packing start later. Move time in a routing behaves the same: it is handling cost, not a schedule delay.

Take a step with 4 hours of run, 1 hour of setup, and 0.25 hours of move time. The total time for costing is 5.25 hours, so labor cost reflects the movement at the work-center rate. But the capacity the engine reserves comes from the run and setup, so the next step is not pushed out by the fifteen minutes of moving. The cost is complete; the timing is untouched.

How EDGEBIC uses it

In EDGEBIC, move time is a field on the routing step that flows into the step's total-time roll-up and therefore into job and quote costing. A step that carries move time reports a larger total and a higher labor cost, so the transport of material is not lost from the cost picture.

Because it is a cost and estimate field, adding move time will not quietly shift the schedule, which keeps the plan predictable. When you actually need transport to create a gap, you use queue time or transit time, the fields the engine composes into step end times. That division of labor, cost fields for cost and scheduling fields for timing, is what keeps both the costs and the plan honest.

To see the companion cost-only field, read what is teardown time in a routing; to add it in practice, read how to add move time between operations in EDGEBIC. For the general concept of a routing, see routing.