How to Set Up Product Configurations

Overview

A Product can have its unit(s) packed together in different Configurations.
 
A unique Product Id may come as a single Unit, or it may be prepackaged in a pack of 8, or case of 32 (4 packs) , or packed and stored as a pallet of 7500 units (180 cases). Juice boxes, soap bars, pop bottles... etc. are all examples of Products that have a different number of units packaged in different Config sizes.
 
Cube-IQ will automatically select the best Configs to load out of the Quantity of an order and/or by Priority. This keeps the Products To Load (PTL) list from exploding and getting very long, and having to pre-calculate how many single, packs, or cases are needed. It is only necessary to enter the order Quantity of the Product Id, and Cube-IQ will automatically break the Load Quantity down into different Config packages, and optimize them into selected Containers.
 
Product Configs can be used to ensure a Product is loaded in a particular way when its quantity is a certain amount; stacked on top of each other and/or side by side. Product configs may also be a layer of units to ensure a special layer configuration is used for stability.

Requirements

1. You must have any currently supported version of Cube-IQ installed on your computer or be logged in to Cube-IQ Web.
2. Valid license (standalone version).

Procedure

Here is an example of an Orange Product Id with a Length, Width, and Height of 4 x 2 x 3.

 

Switch a Product ID's Orientation tab to Configurations before setting up Configs

1. Click the Products menu.
2. Click the Orientations tab.
3. Click the Set up Configurations button.

 

Add a Product Config with 1 Unit

Products do not automatically have Configs created. It will likely be necessary to create a Config with 1 Unit to start. 
 
The following example will use the Orange Product Id from the earlier example, and this 1 Unit Configuration  will be named "Each".
 
To create the Orange Product's first configuration:

1. Click Configurations tab
2. Click the Add Config button
3. Click Create button in the Data Entry popup window,
4. Change the name to "Each"

The # Units field will automatically set to 1 on account of the default Data Entry values. The # Long, # Wide, and # High are all left at 1, resulting in the dimension and weight of this fist Config to equals the original Orange Product (4x2x3 and .25 lbs.) and # Units is 1.
 
Here is the first Config after renamed to "Each".

 

 

The shape drawn for this Config is identical to the shape drawn for the Product on account of this Config being 1 Unit.

Add Configs with multiple Units using the Data Entry fields 

The next Config will have more than 1 Unit. The # Unit field is automatically calculated from the Data Entry popup window. This next Config will have the Data Entry fields adjusted in the way its units are packed together.

The following example will add a second Config to the Orange Product for a "Pack" of 8 units, this Config's dimension will be 8x4x6 to reflect the number of units.

To create the Orange Product's second configuration: 

1. Click the Product Configurations tab.
2. Click the Add Config button.
3. In the Data Entry pop-up window:
   1. Change the # Long, # Wide, and # High to 2, 2, 2.
   2. Click the Create button, then rename the configuration to "Pack".

Based on the Data Entry numbers entered; the # Units is automatically set to 8, and the Config's dimension is automatically set to 8x4x6. Here is a table of how the units and dimensions were calculated.
 

Config	Data Entry Calculation	Example Calculation
# Units	# Long * # Wide * # Height = Value	2 * 2 * 2 = 8
Config Length	# Long * Product Length = Value	2 *4 = 8
Config Height	# Width * Product Width = Value	2 * 2 = 4
Config Width	# Height * Product Height = Value	2 * 3 = 6

Here is the second Config after renamed to "Pack" and changing the color to a darker orange. The weight of 2 lbs. also reflects 8 Products, each .25 lbs.

 

 

The drawing for this Config is identical to the shape drawn for the "Each" Config on account of its Length, Width, and Height are double the dimensions of the "Each" Config.
 

Add Config by manually setting the # Units, dimensions, and Weight

A Config can be created by manually entering its # Units and dimensions after the Data Entry popup is closed. The drawing will change to the new shape.
 
The following example will add a third Config to the Orange Product where there will be 32 units in a "Case". The Data Entry popup window will not be adjust for this Config; however, the dimension will be manually entered instead.
 
To create the Orange Product's third configuration: 

1. Click the Configurations tab.
2. Click the Add Config button.
3. In the Data Entry pop-up window: 
   1. Click the Create button.
   2. Enter 8" (long), 16" (wide), 6" (high), and 8 lbs. in the dimensions/weight fields.
4. Rename the configuration to "Case".

The drawing for this Config has a different shape; however, it can technically fit 4 "Packs" along the width if this Config.

 

Set each Config Priority to prioritize which Config is used first

Cube-IQ will load the Config with the highest Priority first if possible. The highest Priority is 1, a Config with Priority 1 will normally be selected to Load before Configs with 2, 3, 4… etc. The default Priority is 9.
 
The Orange "Case" config has 32 units, the "Pack" is 8 units, and the "Each" Config is 1 Unit; therefore, the logical priority would be a Priority of "9" for Each,  "6" for Pack, and "3" for Case. The following Configs are used to Load 110 Orange Products: 3 Cases, 1 Packs, and 6 Each.

 

To set a priority for each config:

1. Click the Configuration tab.
2. Select a Config's tab (Each, Pack, Case).
3. Change the Priority number.

 

Config Priority can be to set to strict

Cube-IQ has a checkbox in Options where Config Priority can be set to strict.
 
The Priority strict option will ensure the 8 Packs highlighted below in the Sample Config Load are loaded as Cases instead.
 

The 8 Packs highlighted above are not loaded as Cases on account of the Config Priority is not strict.
 
To set Config Priority to strict:

1. Click Options menu
2. Click Loading Rules tab
3. Check the "Product Configuration priority is strict" box

The Sample Config Load above now only loads 2 Packs on the top layer, and all the packages on the second to top layer are now Cases. 

 

Assistance

If any further assistance is needed, please contact our Support team.

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