How to model operators removing 5% of product from a conveyor?

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Amanda Van Sant asked Apr 3, '17 Amanda Van Sant edited Apr 4, '17

How to model operators removing 5% of product from a conveyor?

Trying to model a fruit sorting process. For fruit sorting need 5 people to stand and observe fruit or items moving on a conveyor to check for quality. Sorters remove 5% of fruits or items from the conveyor. So I need 5 operators to remove items and send them to trash or a sink from a single conveyor. In real life the sorters would not move up and down the conveyor but would monitor 3 ft of width along the conveyor. I may need to split the conveyor up into 5 parts and assign an operator to a single conveyor but I am really not sure. Any help would be appreciated and if you need more information don't hesitate to ask.

operators conveyor system

Answer 1 · 2017-04-03T18:06:41Z

Jeff Nordgren answered Apr 3, '17 Amanda Van Sant edited Apr 4, '17

@Amanda Van Sant

Attached is a sample model that does what you describe.

In the Source, in the OnExit trigger, I determine that 5% of the flowitems will be bad. Then out of those 5%, I assign an itemtype between 1 and 5. That will determine which of the operators will pull the "bad" flowitem from the conveyor. This method assumes that 5% of the total flowitems will be bad, NOT 5% at each Operator station.

Then in each of the DPs on the conveyor, if the itemtype going through that DP is 1 (for DP1), 2 (for DP2), etc. it will be pulled from the main conveyor and placed onto the small conveyor by each Operator.

I display the total number of flowitems that have entered each Sink and then calculate the % that are "bad" at any given time.

Take a look at the model and see if something like this would work for your situation.

conveyorpickingsample-jn1.fsm

conveyorpickingsample-jn1.fsm (29.4 KiB)

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Amanda Van Sant commented · Apr 03, 2017 at 10:48 PM

@Jeff Nordgren Thank you this is very helpful - I am struggling with connecting the DP's to the dumping conveyors. Am is missing something there? Also, it could be a graphics issue. I am working in parallel w/ a Mac and when I first started the graphics were too high for my mode of operation and I couldn't connect any objects until I lowered graphics.

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