Temporary containers are great for items that are temporarily housed together, such as lights or speakers in a flight case.
They’re designed to work with a variety of workflows:
You might quote for the items in the container, then allocate the container. Current will allocate the components to existing lines, then add the container to “Spares & Containers.”
You may quote for the items in the container, but also include the container on the opportunity. This means that Current will include the container weight and replacement charge in the opportunity weight and replacement charge totals. Current will match components and the container itself when allocating.
You could quote for the container with its components as accessories. Current will allocate to the container and its accessories, in a similar way to permanent container allocation.
Similarly, your container and components might also be accessories to a parent product.
Allocation logic
To work with such a variety of workflows we use some logic to figure out where we should allocate components on a job.
When you allocate a temporary container, our allocation logic:
looks at items that match the scenarios mentioned above;
breaks down the opportunity into potential groups of matching opportunity items;
allocates where it finds the greatest quantity of matching items.
After finding the best match, Current can either:
be optimistic: continue allocating container components to existing items.
be pessimistic: stop allocating and add the remaining container components to “Spares & Containers.”
You can choose whether you’d like to use optimistic or pessimistic allocation in System Preferences.
Optimistic
When you set your strategy to optimistic, Current RMS will find the best match of components first, then continue allocation.
After allocating a set of container components, we re-calculate the best match, then allocate to the next best match.
We’ll repeat re-calculation and allocation until we’ve allocated as many components as we can. We’ll add anything else to “Spares & Containers.”
Optimistic allocation is great if you work with cable trunks or containers that include general components. Simply scan and Current will start allocating to existing lines.
Pessimistic
When your allocation strategy is pessimistic, we’ll look for the best match of components and allocate to them.
After this, we’ll stop allocating and add everything else to “Spares & Containers.”
Example
We have a temporary container called “D&B E3 Flight Case” (DB-300). It contains:
4x D&B E3 speakers, serialized
4x XLR 10m cables, bulk.
Our opportunity has two groups called “Speakers” and “Cables.”
Speakers includes 4x D&B E3s, with 1x XLR and 1x D&B E3 Flight Case as accessories. It also includes another XLR cable as a main item.
Cables includes 1x XLR cable.
Pessimistic
With pessimistic allocation, Current find the best match on the opportunity: the 4x D&B E3 inside the “Speakers” group. It allocates the case and a single XLR.
Allocation stops. The rest of the container components are allocated to “Spares & Containers.” The XLR cable that’s a main item in “Speakers” is left unallocated, as is the XLR inside “Cables.”
Optimistic
With optimistic allocation, Current find the best match on the opportunity: the 4x D&B E3 inside the “Speakers” group. It allocates the case and a single XLR.
Allocation continues. The XLR cable that’s a main item inside “Speakers” is considered a match, so is allocated, as is the XLR inside “Cables.”
The remaining XLR cable is added to “Spares & Containers.”
Common questions
Does this apply to permanent containers?
Your allocation strategy only applies to temporary containers. There’s no way to set a strategy for permanent containers right now.
Is this something that you’d be interested in? We’re keen to get your thoughts – chat with us using the green help bubble to let us know how you work ↘️