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Insights on production scheduling, lean manufacturing, and manufacturing software from 35+ years of industry experience.
Everything we have published.
When the Optimizer Says Your Plan Is Already the Best
A no-improvement result is a positive finding, not a failure. Here is what the verdict means, what the nearest challenger line tells you, and what to do next.
Who Can Run and Accept Optimizer Changes
Viewing, running, accepting, and configuring the optimizer are four separate permissions. Here is how to split them across planners, supervisors, and administrators.
Why an Optimized Plan Can Look Worse on One Measure
A proposal that improves your goal can show a worse number on a lower ranked measure. Here is why that is honest, expected, and easy to judge.
Why the Optimizer Never Applies Changes Automatically
Deferred apply is a design decision, not a missing feature. Here is why a proposal waits for a planner, and what automatic application would cost you on the floor.
Working the Optimizer Into Your Scheduling Routine
When to run the optimizer, which goal fits which day of the week, and how to fit a thirty second review into a shift without disrupting the floor.
How the CP-SAT Solver Models Your Schedule
Inside the mathematical solver in EDGEBIC: one interval variable per operation, no-overlap and precedence rules, and due dates as penalties, all solved as one problem.
How the Optimizer Ranks Goals in Strict Order
Each EDGEBIC optimizer preset is an ordered list of measures. Here is how lexicographic ranking protects your top goal first and uses the rest only to break ties.
How to Turn On the EDGEBIC Optimizer
The EDGEBIC optimizer ships off by default. Here is how to enable it, pick an engine and a preset, run it, and review the proposal before you Accept.
Measuring Schedule Nervousness: The Instability Metric
Schedule nervousness is the churn a reschedule inflicts on your floor. Here is how EDGEBIC measures it with the instability metric and keeps plans calm.
Canceling the Optimizer Is Safe, and the Run Is Discarded
Canceling a running optimization in EDGEBIC stops it harmlessly and changes nothing, but no plan survives the cancel. What Cancel really does, and why the time budget is a ceiling.
The Never-Worse Guarantee in Schedule Optimization
The EDGEBIC multi-run optimizer is guaranteed never worse than your baseline. Here is how a post-solve clamp enforces that promise instead of just hoping for it.
The Safety Gate Every Optimized Schedule Must Pass
Before any optimized plan reaches you, EDGEBIC runs it through a validity gate. Here is what the safety gate checks and why a solver's proposal is never trusted blindly.