Sites

A site is one location of your company, for example a second factory in another town. Each site has its own warehouses, production areas and workstations. Most companies have one site, and then this screen changes nothing. When you have several sites, Complaia keeps each site's material and work apart. An order takes material only from the warehouses of its own site, and it goes only to the workstations of its own site.

Where to find it: Production → Configuration → Sites

When you'll use it

• Your company opens a second location with its own warehouse and workstations.
• You want to see which warehouses and areas belong to each location.
• A site should receive its finished goods and returns in a different main warehouse.
• One location closes, and the company goes back to working as one site.

Key concepts

One site or several sites — with one site, the whole company works as one. All warehouses, areas and orders are shared. Sites start to matter only when at least two sites are active.

Advanced warehouse mode — sites work only in advanced warehouse mode. In simple mode the company has one warehouse and one site. See Warehouse type.

What belongs to a site — when there are several sites:

• every warehouse belongs to one site, also an inactive one;
• every production area belongs to one site;
• every workstation belongs to the site of its area, so every workstation needs an area;
• every production order belongs to one site, and its sub-orders belong to the same site;
• a point of sale (POS) terminal serves areas of one site only.

What changes with several sites:

• An order reserves and takes material only from the warehouses of its site.
• Automatic distribution places an order only on workstations of the order's site. A workstation without an area gets no orders.
• Planning gets a Site filter.
• The warehouse fields of an area offer only warehouses of the area's site.
• A new production order gets its site when it is created. You can choose the site on the order form. Otherwise Complaia chooses it, for example the site where the material is available. See Production orders.

Main warehouse of the site — the warehouse that receives finished products from workstations whose area has no finished goods warehouse, and also returns. If you do not choose one, the site page shows Chosen automatically. Complaia then takes the oldest active warehouse of the site that accepts the goods.

Being prepared — a site that exists but does not work yet. Such a site comes from the setup wizard or from a transition that has not finished. It changes nothing until the transition to several sites is finished.

Transition window — the window that moves the company from one site to several sites, or back. It assigns every warehouse and every area to a site in one go. This is the only way to add a second site or to go back to one site.

The screens

With one site

The screen says You have one site and explains what this means. If sites are being prepared, their names are listed in the same text. Add a second site opens the transition window.

In simple warehouse mode, a notice says that sites work only in advanced mode. The notice has a Change warehouse type button.

With several sites

The screen shows the list of sites. The columns are Name, State, Main warehouse, Warehouses, Areas, Open orders, Active since and Created. You can search by name, and filter and sort by name, state and dates. Click a site to open it.

At the top are New site and Back to one site.

📷 Screenshot to add: the list of sites with two active sites and one site being prepared

The site page

The page has three tabs:

Tab	What it shows
Basic data	The name, the status and the main warehouse. In a company with several sites, also the warehouse that receives products and the warehouse that receives material when an area has no warehouse of its own. Then the number of open orders.
Warehouses	The site's warehouses, each with its purpose. The main warehouse is marked main warehouse. Click a warehouse to open it.
Areas	The site's areas, each with its number of workstations. Click an area to open it.

Edit and Delete are at the top. A site that is being prepared shows a notice that explains where it came from and when it starts working.

The transition window

Going from one site to several sites takes four steps: Sites, Warehouses, Areas and Effects. Going back to one site takes one step, which shows what will change. Nothing changes until you confirm on the last step.

Common tasks

Add a second site

Before you start, make sure that the warehouse works in advanced mode and that every workstation has an area.

1. Go to Production → Configuration → Sites and click Add a second site.
2. On Sites, type the name of the site where your company works today and click Add. This site gets all current warehouses and areas. Then add the new site the same way. You need at least two sites.
3. Go to Warehouses. For each warehouse, choose the site it belongs to. The first site is suggested. Optionally choose the main warehouse of each site.
4. Go to Areas. For each area, choose its site. The area's workstations go with it. If an area uses warehouses of another site, those warehouses are removed from the area's fields.
5. Go to Effects and read what will change:
   • problems that you must fix first, with Check again after you fix them;
   • orders whose material reservations will move to warehouses of their new site;
   • POS terminals whose default warehouse is in another site than their areas;
   • areas that lose warehouses outside their site.
6. Click Move to several sites and confirm.

Warehouses, areas and open orders get their sites, and the sites start working. From now on, every order takes material only from the warehouses of its site. If a POS terminal was listed on Effects, open it and choose a default warehouse of its site.

The sites you name on the first step are saved straight away, but they change nothing until you confirm. If you close the window, they stay as sites being prepared, and the window offers them again next time.

Add another site

This applies when your company already has several sites.

1. Click New site at the top of the list.
2. Type the Site name and click Create.

The new site works straight away, but it is empty. Then:

1. Assign warehouses to it, in each warehouse's settings, in the Site field. See Warehouses.
2. Assign areas to it, in each area's editor. See Move an area to another site.
3. Optionally choose its main warehouse.

Give the site a warehouse that accepts products and one that accepts materials before you move areas with workstations there.

Change a site's name or main warehouse

1. Open the site and click Edit.
2. Change the Site name, or choose the Main warehouse of the site. Only active warehouses of this site are offered. Leave it empty to let Complaia choose.
3. Click Save changes.

Delete a site

You can delete only an empty site: one without warehouses, areas and open orders.

1. Move its warehouses and areas to other sites, and finish or move its open orders.
2. Open the site and click Delete.
3. Confirm. Deleting cannot be undone.

While something still belongs to the site, Delete is disabled. Point at it to see what is left. When the company has only two active sites, deleting one of them means going back to one site. Use Go back to one site instead.

Go back to one site

1. Click Back to one site at the top of the list.
2. Read what will change.
3. Click Go back to one site and confirm.

All sites are deleted. Warehouses, areas and orders stay, but without a site. Orders take material from all warehouses of the company again. You can add a second site later with the same window.

Finish an interrupted transition

If saving the transition stops halfway, the list shows a notice that the transition did not finish. The steps that were saved are kept.

1. Click Finish on the notice.
2. Confirm in the window.

Finish it before you change warehouses or areas. Complaia also finishes it on its own after a while.

When it doesn't work

What you see	Why	What to do
A notice that sites work in advanced warehouse mode, and no Add a second site	The warehouse works in simple mode.	Click Change warehouse type and switch to advanced mode. See Warehouse type.
No Add a second site, New site or Edit	Your role may not manage sites.	See Permissions.
Effects lists areas without a site, or workstations without an area	Every area needs a site, and every workstation needs an area, when there are several sites.	Go back to Areas and choose a site. Give each workstation an area in its editor, then click Check again.
A production site named “…” already exists…	Another site has the same name.	Enter a different name.
Delete is disabled	Warehouses, areas or open orders still belong to the site, or the company has only two active sites.	Point at Delete to see the reason. Move what is left, or use Back to one site.
Site “…” has areas with workstations or open orders, so it needs an active warehouse that accepts …	A change would leave the site without a warehouse for products or for materials.	Keep such a warehouse in the site, or add one first.
Warehouse “…” cannot be the main warehouse of this site…	The main warehouse must be an active physical warehouse of this site.	Choose another warehouse.
A warehouse mode switch or a site transition is in progress…	Another change of sites or warehouses is running.	Wait until it finishes and try again.
A notice that the transition between sites did not finish	Saving stopped halfway.	Finish the transition.

Permissions

To do this	You need
See the list of sites and open a site	Workstations: View
Add, edit and delete sites, and use the transition window	Warehouse: Manage and Production: Edit, both

Related

• Production areas — choosing an area's site and its warehouses
• Workstations — workstations take their site from their area
• Warehouses — the Site field of a warehouse
• Warehouse type — sites need advanced mode
• Planning — the Site filter
• Production orders — the site of an order