Blog
Insights on production scheduling, lean manufacturing, and manufacturing software from 35+ years of industry experience.
How the platform actually works: scheduling, optimization, the shop floor and ERP data.
What Is Sales Order Reference Grouping in an Import?
Sales order reference grouping gathers file rows sharing one order reference under a single sales order and auto-numbers their jobs. Learn how it works and when to leave it blank.
What Is the Delay Composition Order in Scheduling?
Queue time, lot-streaming overlap, and transit days are applied to a finished operation in one fixed order. Learn the sequence and why the order changes the answer.
What Is the Labor and Material Cost Basis on a Quote?
A quote's estimated cost is labor plus material: hours times each work center's rate, and material from routing steps or the product unit cost. Learn the exact rule.
What Repeated Machine Swaps Tell You About Your Capacity
Every time work gets bailed out of one station onto another, somebody made a capacity judgment. Counted over a quarter, those swaps are the cheapest capacity evidence you own.
What a Blocker Hint Saves You on Every Late Job
Finding late jobs is easy. Working out why each one is late is where the afternoon goes. A hint that routes you to the right next report turns diagnosis from a search into a lookup.
What the Customer Actually Receives From an EDGEBIC Quote
The Send action produces a quote summary for the rows you checked. See what reaches the customer, why internal notes never leave, and why the status does not move itself.
What the Good Counter Actually Counts
Piece counters only increment during a run punch, so parts made during first article and run-off are real, in the bin, and numerically invisible. Why that is correct, and what to reconcile against instead.
What the Optimizer Needs Before Its First Run
Four prerequisites, only one of which is mandatory. Here is the short checklist before your first optimizer run, and the two messages that tell you a prerequisite is missing.
What to Do When the ERP Export Is Late or Missing
The nightly file did not arrive. Here is why yesterday's plan is still safe to work to, what not to do while you wait, and how to catch up cleanly when the file lands.
When the Kiosk Queue and the Floor Disagree
The operator sees one job in NEXT UP and the cell is running another. Learn the five reasons that happens, who resolves each, and why the kiosk cannot re-sequence.
When Your ERP Labor File Starts Mid-Routing
An actuals row can only land on an operation that is already scheduled. When your ERP's labor history begins at step 30, you have three responses and only one of them keeps the record honest.
Which One Machine Would Stop Your Shop?
Most plants can name the machine that would hurt and cannot rank the ones that would stop them. Your routings and utilization report already hold the answer.