Question 1

What is finite capacity scheduling?

Accepted Answer

Finite capacity scheduling places an operation on the calendar only when everything it needs is genuinely free: the machine, an operator with the right skill, the material and the tooling. Infinite capacity scheduling, which is what most ERP and MRP systems do, assumes the resource is always available and prints a date anyway. The practical difference is that a finite capacity schedule can be executed as written, and an infinite capacity one has to be fixed by hand every morning.

Question 2

What is the difference between finite and infinite capacity scheduling?

Accepted Answer

Infinite capacity scheduling works backwards from a due date using fixed lead times and ignores how much work is already booked on the resource, so it overbooks work centers and produces delivery dates nobody can hit. Finite capacity scheduling checks the real remaining capacity of each resource in each period before it commits an operation, so the dates are achievable and the bottleneck is visible before it bites. GE Railcar Services was stuck at 30% on-time shipping planning with infinite capacity; after moving to RMDB finite capacity scheduling, on-time shipping tripled to over 90%.

Question 3

How much does finite capacity scheduling software cost?

Accepted Answer

EDGEBIC by User Solutions, the current generation of RMDB, is a one-time perpetual license with published prices: $25,000 for EDGEBIC APS and $35,000 for EDGEBIC Complete, which adds MRP, inventory, purchasing and material pegging. Updates are included and there is no per-seat annual fee. Enterprise APS products in this category are normally quote-only, sold as an annual per-seat subscription or as a project starting around $50,000 before services.

Question 4

Can finite capacity scheduling software handle large schedules?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The USS Nimitz uses RMDB to finite capacity schedule over 26,000 preventive maintenance tasks and 5,000 corrective maintenance jobs together, on a horizon that runs two years out for dry dock cycles. Cummins Engine runs finite capacity scheduling across 33 locations with a six-month labor horizon. Scale is a question of how the engine handles the constraint arithmetic, not how many jobs you have.

Question 5

How does finite capacity scheduling handle more than one resource type?

Accepted Answer

RMDB, and EDGEBIC after it, schedules machines, labor, materials and tooling as simultaneous constraints: an operation is only placed when all of them line up, not just the machine. That matters in heavy equipment (Cummins), electronics (Enevate, with sub-assemblies ten levels deep) and defense (BAE Systems), where the limit on a given week is as likely to be a certified operator or a fixture as a spindle. EDGEBIC adds operator skills and certifications, machine pools with true alternates, and a sequence-dependent setup matrix.

Question 6

Do I have to replace my ERP to get finite capacity scheduling?

Accepted Answer

No. Your ERP stays the system of record. Open orders, routings, work centers and actuals come into EDGEBIC from Excel, CSV or database tables, the finite capacity schedule is built there, and realistic dates go back out. BAE Systems had bought an ERP with MRP and CRP, was not satisfied with its capacity constraint recognition, and discontinued the ERP scheduling in favour of RMDB while keeping the ERP itself.

Question 7

How long does a finite capacity scheduling implementation take?

Accepted Answer

Days to weeks, not months, because the model is built from data you already have. Plastilite Corporation went from raw ERP data to a complete optimized schedule in five days with the ERP integration in place. The long pole is normally the accuracy of your routings and run rates, not the software.

Question 8

Is EDGEBIC the same as RMDB?

Accepted Answer

EDGEBIC is RMDB 2.0: the current generation of Resource Manager DB (RMDB) by User Solutions, Inc., of South Lyon, Michigan, founded 1991. It keeps the RMDB finite capacity engine behind every result on this page and adds a graphical routing designer, a drag-and-drop planning board, what-if scenarios, a schedule optimizer and MRP. RMDB customers are still supported.

	Spreadsheet capacity plan	ERP / MRP scheduling (infinite capacity)	Enterprise APS	EDGEBIC (finite capacity)
What decides the date	Whatever formula you wrote	A fixed lead time per part	A constraint model	Real remaining capacity in that period
Resources checked	Usually one, by hand	The work center, loosely	Machines and often labor	Machines, labor, materials and tooling together
Overbooking	Invisible until it hurts	Routine: load can exceed 100%	Prevented	Prevented: nothing is placed without free capacity
Bottleneck	Found after the fact	Found after the fact	Modelled	Named before the week starts, with the load behind it
When the floor changes	Rebuild the sheet	Rerun the regen, often overnight	Replans	Drag one operation and everything downstream re-plans
Proof on the floor	None	GE Railcar: 30% on-time	Varies by project	GE Railcar: over 90% on-time after the switch
Pricing	Free	Included in the ERP	Quote-only, typically $50K+ or per-seat annual	$25,000 or $35,000, one time

Edition	What it includes	One-time license
EDGEBIC APS	Finite capacity scheduling and optimization: graphical routing designer, forward and backward scheduling, Theory of Constraints anchoring, parallel work centers, sequence-dependent setup, lot streaming, operator skills, and a two-layer schedule optimizer.	$25,000
EDGEBIC Complete	Everything in EDGEBIC APS plus MRP, inventory, purchasing and material pegging, so material availability constrains the schedule alongside machines and labor.	$35,000

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