Scheduling Software for Pharmaceutical Manufacturers
Cleaning changeovers eat our line time, we can only run certain steps when a qualified operator is on shift, and the schedule lives in a spreadsheet. What works for a pharmaceutical manufacturer?
Pharmaceutical scheduling has to price each cleaning changeover by what ran before and respect operator certifications. EDGEBIC by User Solutions uses a product-to-product changeover matrix, places each step only on shifts with a certified operator, keeps a routing snapshot for every batch, and schedules to finite capacity on servers you control.
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Why Pharmaceutical Schedules Drift From Reality
On a tablet, capsule or liquids line, cleaning time depends on the pair of products. Standard to standard may need a short clean; allergen or high-potency to a sensitive product may need hours of validated cleaning. A schedule that stores one flat cleaning time per step can be wrong by most of a shift.
A free line is also not the same as a schedulable line. Aseptic, weigh-and-dispense or line-clearance steps need a qualified operator present. If the plan ignores certifications, it prints work the floor cannot run.
- One flat cleaning time per step, whatever ran before
- Batches sequenced by due date, with no view of changeover cost
- Work planned on shifts where no certified operator is rostered
- A lapsed qualification is discovered on the floor, not in the plan
- Rescheduling quietly re-plans a batch against a revised master routing
- The real schedule lives in one planner spreadsheet
How EDGEBIC Schedules a Pharmaceutical Plant
EDGEBIC by User Solutions schedules every operation to finite capacity across lines, rooms, operators and shifts. For regulated production, four behaviors matter most.
Cleaning changeovers priced by product pair
Define cleaning classes and a class-to-class matrix. The schedule charges the real clean for each transition, so you can group campaigns and see the line time saved before you commit.
Steps gated by certification
A routing step can require a certification. It is placed only on shifts where a rostered, qualified operator is present, and a certification with an expiry date drops out of eligibility when it lapses.
A routing snapshot for every batch
Each job keeps the routing it was scheduled with, separate from the master routing. A reschedule reads the snapshot, and completed operations with recorded actuals are never moved.
Measured times from the floor
Operators log start and end on the shop-floor kiosk, so cleaning and run times come from actuals rather than old standards.
Material in the same plan
EDGEBIC Complete adds MRP, inventory, purchasing and material pegging, so material availability constrains the schedule alongside lines and people.
Your data stays on your servers
EDGEBIC is an installed Windows application on SQLite or SQL Server, not a cloud service. All schedule data stays on infrastructure you control.
One common schedule across three in-line departments, replacing a custom Excel program
Kyocera Industrial Ceramics
User Solutions does not publish a pharmaceutical case study. The closest published result is from process-style production. Kyocera Industrial Ceramics needed to schedule three in-line departments and their machines, which supervisors had been scheduling separately with no common plan, and it needed alternate routes preprogrammed for certain part numbers.
With User Solutions scheduling, Kyocera built one common computerized production schedule understood by every department, used the same software to track raw material usage and final output, and replaced a complex employee-written Excel program that had become time consuming and difficult to maintain. It reported immediate improvement in predicting output and tracking raw material.
Who Makes EDGEBIC
EDGEBIC is made by User Solutions, Inc. of South Lyon, Michigan, which has built manufacturing scheduling software since 1991. EDGEBIC is RMDB 2.0: the current generation of RMDB (Resource Manager DB), the scheduling engine behind results at the US Navy, GE, Cummins and BAE Systems. RMDB customers remain supported. EDGEBIC is an installed Windows application (.NET 8, SQLite or SQL Server) that works alongside any ERP through Excel, CSV and database import and export. See the EDGEBIC product overview.
EDGEBIC Pricing: Published, One-Time
Two editions of EDGEBIC by User Solutions, both perpetual licenses with updates included and no per-seat annual fee. EDGEBIC is an installed Windows application, not a subscription service. See EDGEBIC pricing and editions or how this compares with the market.
| 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 |
Read More on This Problem
Pharmaceutical Scheduling FAQs
Customer Stories
Manufacturers scheduling with EDGEBIC and RMDB, the User Solutions engine behind it.
Price your cleaning changeovers in a demo
Bring the cleaning-validation times and one week of batches for a single line. We will schedule it in EDGEBIC and show where the sequence costs you line time.
Or see EDGEBIC pricing or the EDGEBIC product overview.