Nodes (Organizational Structure)
In Capex Strategy, the organizational structure, referred to as Nodes in administration settings, defines the scope of a project as configured in the Base Alternative. This hierarchy plays a vital role in user permissions, asset modeling, and strategic planning by mirroring how your organization is structured in the real world.
Structure Overview
Nodes represent organizational units such as companies, divisions, regions, plants, or specific production areas. Permissions are inherited top-down, so a user with access at a higher node will automatically have access to all subordinate nodes and production units beneath it.
While most of the structure is fully customizable, the Group level is fixed and serves as the top-level anchor for all Capex Strategy projects.
Hierarchy structure
Capex Strategy supports a flexible, tree-like structure with five levels:
Group (fixed, top level)
Division (required, customizable)
Middle-level nodes (multi-layered, customizable)
Production unit nodes (sites, mills, plants)
Sub-industry nodes (specific process areas within a site)
Fixed Levels
Group (highest level – fixed)
This level represents the parent company or overall organization and is fixed in the system. All permissions set here cascade to all underlying nodes.
Example: GlobalTech Inc.
Customizable Levels
Division (first custom level)
Directly below the Group level, each project must include at least one Division node. This level is customizable and typically represents a major operational branch, such as a region, subsidiary, or business segment within the parent organization.
Think of the Group as the parent company, and Divisions as its subsidiaries or major branches. This setup allows large organizations to reflect their legal or operational structure accurately within Capex Strategy.
Example:
Group (Parent Company): GlobalTech Inc.
Division (Subsidiary): GlobalTech Europe GmbH
Middle-level nodes
You can define as many intermediate levels as needed to represent your actual structure, such as regions, countries, departments, or business units.
Example:
GlobalTech Inc. (Group)
└ GlobalTech Europe GmbH (Division)
└ Western Europe (Middle-level - Region)
└ Germany (Middle-level - Country)
└ Frankfurt (production unit)
└ Stuttgart (production unit)
└ France (Middle-level - Country)
└ Lille (production unit)
└ Lyon (production unit)
└ Netherlands (Middle-level - Country)
└ Eindhoven (production unit)
└ Rotterdam (production unit)
A user with access to Western Europe will automatically have access to all underlying nodes, including all production units in Germany, France, and the Netherlands.
Production unit nodes (sites, mills, plants)
Production unit nodes typically reflect physical locations where production activities are performed. These may include factories, mills, plants, offices, research labs, or other operational sites.
Each production unit represents a distinct geographic and operational unit and serves as the base for:
Asset assignments
Capex tracking
Cash flow modeling
A single production unit may contain multiple departments, technologies, or production lines, and can support one or more sub-industry nodes for further categorization.
Example: Frankfurt is a production unit representing an integrated pulp and paper mill. Under this site, two sub-industry nodes are defined:
Pulping – for operations related to raw fiber processing
Paper production – for the manufacturing of finished paper products
Each sub-industry allows separate capex tracking and financial modeling, while still being tied to the same physical site.
Subindustry Nodes - Paper, Pulp, Tissue, Smelting,
Sub-industry nodes exist beneath production units and represent specific production processes or technology areas.
They allow organizations to:
Tie assets and investments to specific process blocks in the cash flow model
Enable detailed financial analysis
Support fine-grained access control
Example: Example use cases
A paper mill with both pulping and paper production lines uses sub-industries to assign assets and capex to each line separately. Each sub-industry links to its own process block in the cash flow model.
A steel plant might split investments between smelting, rolling, and finishing areas, each represented as a sub-industry node tied to specific model inputs.
Common sub-industry examples
Pulp & Paper
Pulping
Paper production
Tissue production
Packaging board
Recycling & deinking
Metals & Smelting
Ferrous smelting (e.g., steel production)
Non-ferrous smelting (e.g., aluminum, copper, zinc)
Precious metal refining (e.g., gold, silver, platinum group metals)
Casting & molding
Rolling & finishing
Ore concentration & processing
Chemical Processing
Petrochemical production
Polymerization
Fertilizer production
Solvent recovery
Catalyst manufacturing
General Manufacturing
Assembly lines
Precision machining
Injection molding
Textile weaving
Food processing
Energy & Utilities
Biomass power
Thermal energy (e.g., gas or coal-fired generation)
Hydropower
Nuclear energy
Renewable energy (e.g., solar, wind modules)
Water treatment
Waste handling
Permissions and Access Control
The hierarchical structure ensures efficient permission management. Access granted at a higher node automatically includes all subordinate nodes and production units.
Example:
A user with access to Europe Region can access:
All countries under Europe (e.g., Germany, France)
All production units in those countries (e.g., Frankfurt Mill, Rotterdam Plant)
A user with access to Germany will only see the production units within Germany.
Customizing your hierarchy
While the Group level is fixed, you can fully customize:
The Division structure (required starting level)
Any number of middle-level nodes
As many production units and sub-industries as needed
This flexibility allows your organizational hierarchy in Capex Strategy to reflect your real-world structure, no matter how complex.