How a date gets derived, step by step.
Scheduling software fails in shops when it hides its arithmetic. This page is the arithmetic. It describes the model Takta is being built on, and where that model stops.
01The chain
Five inputs, resolved in order.
Step 01
Job
Quantity, requested date, parts
Step 02
Routing
Ordered operations per part
Step 03
Work center
Setup + run rate, shift hours
Step 04
Material
On site, or expected arrival
Step 05
Earliest finish
With slack against the request
Resolution order for a single job. Each step can only place work into hours the step before it left available.
02Arithmetic
Operation duration is setup plus run, and then it queues.
Each operation gets a duration from two numbers you maintain on the work center: a setup time that does not scale with quantity, and a run rate that does. A 40-part bend job with a 25-minute setup and 45 seconds a part is 55 minutes of brake time, not “about half a day”.
Duration
operation_minutes = setup_minutes + (quantity × run_minutes_per_part)
Placement
start = max(previous_operation_end, material_on_site, next_free_hour)
Placement is forward-scheduled: the first operation starts at the earliest hour that satisfies all three conditions, and every operation after it inherits that start. The finish of the last operation is the earliest date the job can be promised. Slack is the gap between that date and the date the customer asked for, so negative slack is the signal to renegotiate before accepting the order.
03Limits
Where this model is deliberately blunt.
It is only as good as your run rates
If a work center's rate is guesswork, the date is guesswork. Takta makes the guess visible instead of burying it in a quote.
It does not optimise globally
There is no claim of an optimal shop-wide sequence. It resolves jobs in the priority order you set, which is explainable to a customer.
It cannot see what you don't record
Unrecorded rework, walk-in work and undocumented setups will not appear in the schedule.
It is not a shop-floor data collection system
There is no machine monitoring, sensor integration or automatic time capture, and none is planned for the first release.