How the cascade pulls dates along

The cascade is the core of Gantway: when one work step shifts, Gantway recalculates the dates of all dependent steps — including free gaps in the resources and taking into account what other orders already occupy there.

Two conditions for the cascade to take effect

1. There is at least one dependency. Without a chain, every task is scheduled individually — nothing "knows" that it should move up. That is the most common answer to "Why aren't my follow-up dates shifting?": set dependencies.
2. The task is not a fixed point. Three kinds of task are never moved by the cascade: pinned ones (see below), running ones and finished ones. What has started or been completed is not re-dated retroactively.

Planning always runs forward, from the start. The cascade never moves the date you promised the customer; it sits on the order as the delivery date, and Gantway warns when the planned end slips past it.

Recognising and releasing pinned tasks

A task gets pinned when you drag its bar in the Gantt (only that one bar; successors moved along stay free) or resolve a conflict with "Reschedule". Some of these labels are not translated; German labels are quoted with the meaning in brackets. You recognise the pin in three places:

• in the Gantt by a small pin tag on the bar, with the tooltip "Fixiert – die automatische Terminierung verschiebt diese Position nicht." (pinned — automatic scheduling does not move this position),
• in the item card in the "Tasks" tab by the badge "Fixiert" (pinned),
• in the expanded work step by the row "Termin fixiert" (date pinned) with a switch.

You release or set the pin by clicking the bar in the Gantt (menu item "Fixierung lösen" — release pin — or "Fixieren" — pin), by clicking the "Fixiert" badge or via the switch. Releasing does not move anything yet: "Fixierung gelöst – beim nächsten Umplanen kann die Position verschoben werden." (pin released — the position can be moved at the next rescheduling). In the order Gantt and on the item card, admins, planners and team leads may do this by default; in the desk Gantt, admins and planners.

You have the final word

For changes to the date, duration or buffer on a work step and to the order's start date, Gantway asks "Recalculate dates?" beforehand and lists every affected position with its old and new time range: "Your change shifts the dates of {n} position(s). … Already running or completed positions remain unchanged." With "Apply dates" the shift runs; with "Don't move" everything stays put. More under Recalculating deadlines.

Buffer between the steps

After each predecessor, the cascade adds its "buffer minutes" to the following date — the slack for drying, retooling, transport. The "Buffer" field sits on the expanded work step in the order's "Tasks" tab; if it is empty, the order's default value applies.