Unit Conversions

Owned by Jan Dabrowski
Last updated: Jan 03, 2023 by Marcin Zelek (Unlicensed)
3 min read

Different machines and lines work with different forms of products. When filling fluid we count in ‘litres’, when capping bottles we count in ‘bottles’, when labelling we count in ‘pallets’.

The first step is to define a dictionary of all units used in the system, as a simple list:

You can set the representative ‘Unit code’, the ‘Name’

”Unit Code” is a constant unit identifier - after you set it, you cannot update it, you can only remove these unit and create a new one. It can maximally have 8 characters.

After the list is defined, you can use these units to set all of the line and machine settings, including:

  • Units of machine counters - good count, and waste count

  • Base unit of the line

  • Expected performance unit

  • Short performance unit

  • SKU Line performance configurations

  • Order unit

Packing Structure

Packing Structure defines unit conversions, if only a single unit is used for counters, performance, line and area or plant units - the packing structure is not needed.

If there is no active packing structure (and there are multiple units used), machine counts won’t appear on the line, target production won’t be calculated from performance, OEE performance will be 0%, order production won’t be calculated. Because PackOS can’t make a conversion

To enable unit conversions, there needs to be a packing structure active on the line.

Packing structure is activated on the line when an order with specific SKU is activated. The packing structure remains active until a new order is activated, and the old packing structure replaced.

PackOS does not re-activate the packing structure when the current SKU packing structure is changed. To apply the change, you need to re-activate the order.

SKU merges packing definition from the grup, and defined directly. Entries defined directly on the SKU-level takes priority:

PackOS can infer any indirect mappings between units.
i.e. if the following is defined
A → B
B → C
You don’t need to specify the reverse (B → C, and C → B) and transitive conversions (A → C, C → A)

After defining the key unit conversions, you can see a list of inferred entries:

Unit conversions are applied on the line (and included machines)) when an order for a specific SKU is activated. You can view recently activated packing structures by clicking the “Production” on dashboard

And switching to “Unit conversions history” page, at the bottom: