Manage cargo groups

Cargo groups differ from supply groups in that the ratios between group components are fixed and stay fixed as the group moves through the network. The components are then depooled when the cargo group reaches a demand or a plant node.

While you could create a regular supply group with fixed ratios, the ratios would be enforced only at the point of purchase, with the optimizer then free to send the group components to different nodes.

The following settings, which are available for ordinary supply groups, are not applicable to cargo groups:

• Grouping: cargo groups cannot be members of another group.

• Pro Rata: the supplies in a cargo group must be defined within a single period.

• Member Limit: membership of a cargo group is fixed.

In addition, any material belonging to a cargo group will not enter terminal inventories or terminal blends. The cargo group will pass through the terminal node unchanged.

Follow these steps to set up a cargo group:

1. Create the group

   1. In the Cargo Groups tab, do either of the following:

      • Click Add Group in the Groups group of the Home ribbon tab.

      • Right-click anywhere on the grid and choose Add Group from the context menu.

   2. Enter the desired name for the group in the Name column.

   3. Optionally, choose a category for the group in the Category column.

   4. In the Wgt/Vol column, choose whether the group is weight- or volume-based.

2. Add items to the group

   5. Go to the Supplies tab.

   6. If you cannot see the Group column, select All from the View drop-down list in the Grid group of the Home ribbon tab.

   7. In the Group column, select the group you created for each supply you want to add to the group. Note that all the supplies added to a cargo group must be defined within a single period.

3. Set fixed composition ratios

   Go to the Cargo Supplies tab, where you can see a summary of the cargo groups you have configured, together with the members of each group. Each group member must have an active Fixed constraint, with the sum of all proportions for a group totaling 100%.

4. Review cargo group supplies allocation

   After optimizing the case, open the Cargo Analysis tab. This read-only tab gives you an overview of the allocation of cargo group materials to each plant node. You can inspect the optimization result for any combination of period, plant node, category, cargo group and supply.

   In the Data group of the Home ribbon tab you can choose the period for which to show data and the units of measure for weight, volume and proportion quantities.