aiku
Documentation

Batches, packs and part batches

3 min read · #production · #stock · #procurement · #crafts

The three numbers

  • Batch size — how many units the factory makes at once. It belongs to the artefact, set on its page or in bulk from the artefacts list, see Changing many artefacts at once.
  • Packed in — how many units go in one SKO. It belongs to the SKO in the warehouse.
  • Units and SKOs — the floor is asked for units, everything else is counted in SKOs.

What happens at each end

Raising a job. Whatever was asked for — a partner line, an own-customer shortfall, a restock line — is a quantity in SKOs. aiku multiplies it by packed in to get units, then rounds up to the next whole batch. Ask for 1 SKO of a ten-pack made in batches of 16 and the artisan is asked for 16 units, not 1 and not 10.

Receiving the finished job. What the artisan made is units, and it is divided by packed in on the way to the shelf. Those 16 units of a ten-pack land as 1.6 SKOs: one sealed box and six loose. The shelf figure is honest about the remainder rather than rounding it away.

When a batch does not fill whole packs

A batch of 16 and a box of 10 never come out even. That is not an error and aiku does not treat it as one: the factory sizes a batch for the mixer, the shop sells in packs, and both are right. It is simply worth knowing where it happens, so it is measured:

  • a Batch in SKOs column and a Batch not whole SKOs filter on the artefacts list;
  • a line on the artefact page showing the batch in SKOs and the nearest batch size that would come out whole;
  • a stat on the crafts dashboard counting the artefacts where it happens.

Nothing forces you to change a batch size. If the suggestion is easy to take, take it and the arithmetic stops leaving remainders. If the mixer decides the batch, leave it.

What a partner should order

The same arithmetic decides the neatest order quantity, which aiku calls the order step: the smallest number of SKOs that whole batches fill exactly. For a batch of 16 units in packs of 10 it is 8 SKOs — eighty units, five batches, no remainder.

On the partner's side, in the shopping list and the stock list:

  • the line says made in batches of N units and, where they differ, full batches every N SKO;
  • a small button rounds the quantity up to the next step;
  • suggested quantities and everything Auto-fill proposes are already on the step;
  • an order off the step is still accepted, with a note that a full batch is made either way, so the order may be delayed or the quantity adjusted.

An order below one full step cannot be made on its own at all. On the To produce board it waits behind lines too small for a batch are waiting for company until enough demand turns up, an own-customer order makes the job run anyway, or the planner decides to make it regardless.

Related documentation