Unify - Settings Menu: Tank Categories and Level Forecast Setup

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TANK CATEGORIES

A Tank Category allows the user to define default level thresholds for Tanks based on, for example:

• the usage rate consumption (if it's a group of high usage Tanks or Low usage Tanks).

• the type of product being consumed (different products could need different level thresholds).

ADDING A TANK CATEGORY:

1. Select the SETTINGS Menu. Click on the Operations Tab and select the Tank Categories Page. On the top-right corner click on the NEW TANK CATEGORY Button.

2. Insert the name of the new Tank Category.

3. Select the Product Group the new Tank Category will apply to (only one product group can be selected).

4. (OPTIONAL) Select the type of product(s) this Tank Category will apply to (more than one product type can be selected).

5. Select the desired level thresholds for this Tank Category. Four values must be selected:

          1 - Overfill Level Threshold

          2 - Warning Level Threshold

          3 - Critical Level Threshold

          4 - Very Critical Level Threshold

6. Click NEXT button to proceed to Section 2 - Tank.

7. (OPTIONAL - ONLY FOR F&L) Select the Type of Vessel this Tank Category will apply to. NOTE: The Type of vessel should have already been created before creating the new tank category.

8. Click NEXT button to proceed to Section 3 - Communication.

 9. Select the Communication Frequency (if it's daily or multiple times a day).

10. If daily, select the Communication interval Start Time and End Time (default Interval: 24 hours; minimum Interval: 1 hour).

11. Click NEXT button to proceed to Section 4 - Confirmation.

12. Confirm all info and finish creating the new tank category.

13. The New Tank Category will appear right after in the Tank Categories Page.

NOTE: When creating a New Deployment, the Tank Category can be selected, and all data related will be filled automatically (level thresholds; vessel; communication frequency).

SET UP THE LEVEL FORECAST BY TANK CATEGORY

PROBLEM

The tank level forecast mechanism uses the following defaults for the weighted average:

Period 1: 80% of the forecast uses the last 7 days of data

Period 2: 20% of the forecast uses the previous 23 days of data

These defaults are not configurable by the end user.

While this logic works well for several use cases. such as frequent high-turn tanks and residential customers, it may underperform in other use cases like poultry farms, grain dryers, or restaurants. This can lead to incorrectly predicting the next out-of-gas event.

SOLUTION

From the Tank Categories Settings Page, users can now configure the weighted average used for tank level forecasting by defining how many recent days to include and how much weight each period should have. When the "Last Fill" option is selected, no period of days is needed for Period 2.

These settings can be applied by tank category and by product group (e.g., LPG, Fuels & Lubes), allowing different weighted averages for distinct profiles (for example, residential vs. poultry farms) without affecting the global default.

If you update a tank category's forecast configuration, the tank level forecast will refresh the next time the forecast calculation runs, automatically using the new settings.

For clients already using tank categories, this is ideal and more flexible for future needs.

For clients not yet using tank categories, we will continue educating and promoting their value.

For tanks not assigned to any tank category, the defaults above will continue to be used.

OUTCOME

This flexibility helps align forecast behavior with each customer's actual consumption patterns, improving out-of-gas predictions, especially in edge cases. In practice, this reduces surprise runouts for complex profiles (such as seasonal or high-intensity commercial usage) and gives users more control over how forecasts respond to short-term changes.