Cost Allocation Hierarchy

With a cost allocation Hierarchy, you can allow the operator to find a tool faster by filtering the item list based on the cost allocation selected.

Cost allocation is consisting of Set, Step, Values, and structure. Followed by restrictions if needed.

- The SET is the top level of a CA.

- The STEP  is what the CA should contain, think of it as questions.

- The VALUES are what the operator can choose from.

- The STRUCTURE  is how it should look.

- The RESTRICTIONS defines what should be available (items, user, or groups)

First, start with adding a new cost allocation Set. You find this under Data management > Cost Allocations.

The Set ID has to be a unique name or number without spaces. In this example the Set ID is CA1 and the cost allocation name is MY CA 1. As soon as you saved you will have the option to add Steps. 

Click the + sign to add a Step. The Step has a step type, a unique category to keep track of the steps. In this example, there are 3 different steps added. Machine, Component, and Operation. These are the questions that will be shown to the operator.

The system comes with a few predefined Steps you can use, if that's not enough you can add more custom steps under system settings.

You are now done with Set and Step. It's time for the VALUES.  Click on the Values tab. Use the + sign to add values. We recommend that you add all the values for that step first before continuing to the next value.

The picture above shows that we have added two values for each STEP.

1. M1 and M2 for Machine

2. C1 and C2 for Component

3. O1 and O2 for Operation

You can also see that each step is part of a level. This is very important! Later when you create the Tree Structure you have to use the values at the correct level.

Its time to build the tree structure that will allow you to filter the options visible to the operators. Simply drag and drop the values onto the right side. All values that are at LEVEL 1  can be dropped on the Root.

All values for LEVEL 2 can then be dropped on the values of LEVEL 1. Etc.

You HAVE to use at least ONE value from each level. If you leave out a level then the CA won't work. In the picture above you can see that the operator will be able to pick from M1 or M2. Selecting M1 will give the operator two choices C1 and C2. BUT, as you can see, the C2 does not have a value from the last level 3 and therefore won't work. The only option the operator will see is M1, C1 then O1/O2.

One other important thing is that if there is only one value to pick from, the system will automatically pick that value. That means that if the operator would pick M2 then C1 would be automatically selected and the next visible value for the operator will be O1 and O2.

Next picture shows how the correct setup should be:

Your Cost allocation Hierarchy tree structure is now finished. Go to Data management > Devices and set the cost allocation to My CA 1, for the device you want to use this on.

On the SFI (Shop floor interface) the cost allocation we setup will look like this:

Notice that there are so called bread crumbs showing what you selected in the previous step.

Last thing to do is to add restrictions to the Hierarchy. Simply select the value in the tree structure you want to assign a restriction to and click on the rench.

You can add a restriction per item. That means that if the operator selects M1, C1, O2 they will ONLY see those items that you put in the list. The same goes for Users and user groups, if the operator is not in that list of users then they won't see that value in the hierarchy on the SFI.

Please note the small icon on the right side of the tree structure indicating that the value has a restriction assigned to it.