Blog
Insights on production scheduling, lean manufacturing, and manufacturing software from 35+ years of industry experience.
Everything we have published.
Fourth Shift to EDGEBIC: The Data Mapping Reference
Fourth Shift data mapping into EDGEBIC field by field: items, work centers, routings, orders, actuals, plus positional mapping for legacy exports.
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.
How EDGEBIC Imports Routings in Two Passes
Import routing data manufacturing systems export: why step links need a second pass, how upsert outcomes work, and why re-import wipes and recreates steps.
How EDGEBIC Nets Demand Against Stock: The Decision, Step by Step
Netting demand against inventory decides which orders build and which consume stock. Here are the gates, the reservation map and the ledger entries behind it.
How EDGEBIC Orders Operations: Inside the Dependency Graph
An operation sequencing dependency graph decides what runs first. See how EDGEBIC builds one, orders it, resolves joins, and handles repeated work centers.
How EDGEBIC Picks a Machine: Load Balancing vs One Per Day
Machine instance allocation explained: the four modes the engine uses to choose a machine, why a job sticks to one instance, and worked numbers for each path.
How EDGEBIC Picks the Best Machine in a Pool
Machine pool selection strategy in EDGEBIC: how earliest completion, primary first, and earliest start compare candidates, with real hours and reschedule rules.
Reschedule Without Losing Completed Work: How the Guarantee Works
Reschedule without losing completed work: the six stages that freeze history, compute the resume point, and re-plan only the hours the shop still owes.