Docs › RotoScheduler manual › Read the board

Each order's start-by day

Describes RotoScheduler 0.3.0 · checked 2026-09-24 D5

Every job card carries a fourth row, Start by: the latest day the order can start and still finish by its due date, counted as if every machine it may run on made nothing else. It is a fact about the order and the factory, not about today's plan.

Reading the row

Select the order to read the same value in the details pane with a one-line explanation:

• Covered: "The latest day to start and still finish by the due date if every machine this order may run on made nothing else. Counted with each machine-day's cycles, the mold's copies and the target mold clearance: from that day to the due date, up to {count} a day." A plan that counts in starts says starts instead of pieces.
• Short, with a day it could still start: "… {count} cannot be finished by the due date even if every machine this order may run on made nothing else. The earliest day it can run is {date}."
• No usable day at all: "… no machine-day on or before the due date can run this order."
• When an arm has no recorded dimensions, the explanation adds "The mold's fit on an arm without dimensions is assumed, not measured." The built-in sample never shows this: every arm in it has dimensions.

How the day is counted

From the order's due date the app walks back one machine-day at a time. On each day it adds what the order's mold could start: each allowed machine's cycles that day, how many copies of the mold fit its arms, and the plant's target mold clearance. The day the running total first reaches the order's quantity is the start-by day. The quantity is the plan's target for the order (in starts when the mold states a good share), not the raw ordered number.

What the day is not

• It is a best case, not a promise: it ignores the other orders that compete for the same machines.
• It does not move when you edit the plan, because it describes the order and the factory, not the arrangement; it is counted once for the plan's content.
• Pieces already made are not subtracted.
• Two orders of one mold each count every copy; both read the day of an order alone.
• On a very large plant the count can delay a queued move or room check for a moment. If it fails, the row stays absent until the plan is reopened; no error is shown.

Where to look next

• Due work, closed days and changeovers for the due lane and the cards.
• The machines an order may run on: only those machines count.