Blog
Insights on production scheduling, lean manufacturing, and manufacturing software from 35+ years of industry experience.
Everything we have published.
Why the Least Setup Time Goal Is Missing From Your Optimizer
The setup-reduction goal is hidden until sequence-dependent setup data exists. Here is why the optimizer withholds it, what it would need, and what to use in the meantime.
Why Two Utilization Numbers Disagree, and Which One to Trust
A fast utilization figure and a calendar-true one will differ on the same station in the same window. Buying a machine on the wrong one is the expensive version of that difference.
Migrating From Microsoft Project to EDGEBIC
Project plans and production schedules answer different questions. Here is what maps across cleanly, the duplication you get to collapse, and how to reshape exported tasks into routings and orders.
Migrating Quotes and Quote History to EDGEBIC
Old quoted dates are not worth re-creating, and there is no quote import anyway. Here is what to do with historical quotes, how to bring live ones across, and the two cost settings to fix first.
Your First 30 Days on EDGEBIC After Cutover
The migration ends at cutover; the habits start there. A four-week plan for the period that decides whether planners trust the schedule or drift back to the spreadsheet.
Migrating Operators and Skills to EDGEBIC
Operators, skills, certifications, rosters and time off are all entered in the interface rather than imported. Here is the order to build them in, and how to prove a certification is gating the schedule.
What EDGEBIC Cannot Import, and How to Handle It
Eight kinds of data come in on an import mask. Everything else is built in the interface. Knowing which is which before you plan a migration keeps you from waiting on a bulk load that does not exist.
Who You Need on Your EDGEBIC Migration Team
A scheduling migration needs six roles, and only two of them are technical. Here is who does what, which decisions cannot be delegated, and the one role that is most often missing.
Migrating Work Center Groups to EDGEBIC
Machine pools are created by hand in EDGEBIC, not imported. Here is how to turn the alternate lists repeated across your old routings into groups, and why you import the routings first.
Migrating Your Setup Matrix to EDGEBIC
Sequence-dependent setup times are configured per work center in EDGEBIC, and the editor can import a matrix or take it by hand. Here is the order to enter them in, and how to verify the matrix is live.
An OEE Week on One Machine: 40 Hours In, 65.5% Out
A worked OEE calculation example: one CNC machine, 40 available hours, one lost day, and how availability, performance, and quality multiply out to 65.5%.
An Operation Shows Running Forever Though All Hours Are Logged
A step stays in progress after every hour is logged because completion is an explicit stamp, not an hours threshold. How to close it and stop it recurring.