Blog
Insights on production scheduling, lean manufacturing, and manufacturing software from 35+ years of industry experience.
Everything we have published.
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.
Which OEE Factor Is Actually Costing You the Most
A single OEE percentage is not actionable, because three independent losses multiply into it. Decomposing it tells you which intervention to fund, and which station is worth improving at all.
Who May Correct a Kiosk Entry, and When to Escalate
Corrections in EDGEBIC sit on a four-rung ladder from a ten-second undo to a planner reopening a job. Learn which rung fits which mistake and where the line is drawn.
Who Should Log Actuals: The Operator or the Planner?
EDGEBIC has two doors into the same actuals record. Learn how to decide which one your shop uses as primary, and why leaving it undecided quietly corrupts the data.
Who Should See Your ERP Export Files
Your nightly export is a spreadsheet holding customer names, prices, due dates and labor rates. Here is who needs it, where it should live, and what the application does and does not control.
Why an Offline Dash Protects You in a Customer Conversation
The most expensive number on any dashboard is a projection that somebody quoted as a fact, or a blank that somebody read as a zero. Labeling provenance on every tile prevents both.
Why an Operation's Actual Start Is Written Once
Two sources can stamp an actual start and neither overwrites the other. Learn why first writer wins, where the kiosk stamps it, and how to correct one deliberately.
Why Certification Is Checked When You Schedule, Not When You Punch
EDGEBIC gates skill-required work at plan time, never at the terminal. Learn what that split protects, what it deliberately does not stop, and how to prove compliance.
Why Job Hours and Work Center Hours Do Not Add Up
On a routing with synchronized parallel machines, the per-station hours legitimately exceed the job total. Neither figure is wrong, and quoting the wrong one is how a price goes bad.
Why Optimizer Changes Show an Arrow and a Word
Every Change cell in the optimizer comparison carries a direction arrow and the word better or worse, never a color alone. Here is why that matters and how to read the table quickly.