Overview
Sometimes when the products in a load are defined with configurations, the optimizer may load those products in a different way than you want.
The default behavior of Cube-IQ is to use all the available product configurations necessary to get the best possible container utilization. But there may be cases where you want to prioritize certain configurations of products over others.
There are a couple of options in CubeIQ that allow you to do this.
Example Case
Let's say we want to set the priority for a particular product configuration. You can find this setting in the Configurations tab of the Products view, as shown below.
The available Priority values are 1 through 9. The highest priority is 1, while the lowest is 9. In the example below, the priority for this configuration is being set to 9, the lowest possible priority.
In Xml
<Product
Priority = "9"
...Symptoms
After the load is optimized, the selected product configuration is one with a lower priority than we expected.
Possible Causes
The default behavior is to select the configuration with the better fit. This may lead to a configuration with a lower priority.
Also, there is an option that allows to assign a specific configuration to each available stage. So it will select a configuration with priority 1 for the first stage, the configuration with priority = 2 for the second stage and the configuration with priority =3 for the third stage. In this case, priority will be related to stages and it won't be acting as an actual priority.
Troubleshooting Steps
Select To Override Default Behavior
You can tell Cube-IQ to strictly enforce the Configuration Priority by going to the Options view and clicking on the Loading Rules tab. Here you will find the checkbox Product Configuration Priority is Strict.
In Xml:
<Parameter
UseOnlyLargestPossibleConfig = "true"
...With this box checked, Cube-IQ will not allow a product to be loaded in a configuration with a lower priority if a configuration with a higher priority is possible. The optimizer will try to load products in configurations with the highest priorities first. If more highly prioritized configurations are not possible, it will attempt to load the products in configurations with lower priorities.
Remember that lower numbers indicate higher priorities! The lower the configuration's priority number, the more likely the products will be loaded in that configuration.
- Assign Product Configurations to Stages
When Options/Loading Rules/Assign Product Configuration to Stages is selected, the optimizer will use the configuration priority values in a different way.
In this case, it will load products in configurations whose priority value matches the stage number within the load. For example, if a product's configuration is assigned priority 2, the optimizer will load the product in that configuration in the second stage of the load.
In Xml:
<Parameter
ConfigPriorityIsStage = "true"
...Uncheck this option (or set the value to False in xml file) in order to stop using the priority value to match the stage number. This will make the priority to be used as its primary purpose, selecting the products according to the configuration with the higher priority (lower value) possible.
Note:
Attributes on xml must be all lowercase.
Here are in Title format to result in a clearer reading.
Assistance
If any further assistance is needed, please contact our Support team.