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Insights on production scheduling, lean manufacturing, and manufacturing software from 35+ years of industry experience.
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TOC Anchor Scheduling in EDGEBIC, Explained
How theory of constraints scheduling software works: EDGEBIC pins the constraint operation to a date, then plans upstream backward and downstream forward.
What-If Scenarios in EDGEBIC: Testing the Answer Before You Give It
What if analysis in production scheduling, applied: how EDGEBIC scenarios test a second shift, a vendor step, or a weekend push without touching the plan.
Work Center Groups in EDGEBIC: Machine Pools for Planners
Machine pool scheduling software in EDGEBIC: how work center groups differ from alternates, instances, and departments, and which one your shop should use.
Work Centers in EDGEBIC: What They Are and What Every Setting Does
Work center setup in scheduling software decides every promise date. What a work center is in EDGEBIC, and what instances, capacity type, and the flags change.
End Item Lead Time: Item Start vs Job End in EDGEBIC
End item lead time splits every job's finish into two dates. See how Item Start and Job End work, why lateness is judged at Job End, and how backward reserves it.
Firm Demand, Forecast, and Time Fences: Inside the EDGEBIC MPS
How time fences in the master production schedule work: where firm demand comes from, how forecast consumption nets, and what each fence actually suppresses.
8 Demand Forecasting Mistakes That Distort a Manufacturing Replenishment Plan
Demand forecasting mistakes in manufacturing usually come from data entry, not statistics. Here are eight that distort replenishment, and their symptoms.
From Punch to Plan: How Actual Hours Reach the Production Schedule
Actual hours production schedule mechanics: how punches roll up into daily hours, how provenance is tracked, and exactly what the scheduler reads back.
How EDGEBIC Allocates Hours Across Shifts
Shift capacity allocation scheduling explained: how EDGEBIC builds capacity slots, ranks them, clips a late start, and fills each one with worked numbers.
How EDGEBIC Books Operator Hours
The operator hours scheduling constraint in EDGEBIC: the per-person hours ledger, the gate and clamp that allow multi-shift spill, and lights-out staffing math.
How EDGEBIC Calculates Work Center Capacity, Hour by Hour
Work center capacity calculation explained: the exact formula, the override priority chain, downtime and holiday subtraction, and four worked numeric examples.
How EDGEBIC Composes Step Timing: Queue, Overlap, Transit, in Order
Operation timing composition in scheduling: the fixed order EDGEBIC applies queue time, lot streaming, and transit days, worked end to end on one routing step.