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Aidan W avatar image
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Aidan W asked Aidan W commented

How to make operators focus on working a part?

Hello,

The way I have my model set up currently is there are multiple stations and shifts with different amounts of employees in each shift. Sometimes, the shift does not have enough people to occupy every station, which is as to be expected. However the reaction of the operators is as follows (assume 1 operator and two stations):

Operator picks Part A, puts it on Station A, Operator goes back and picks up Part B, puts it on Station B, Operator goes and works Part A to completion but doesn't transport it to next queue, Operator goes and works on Part B to completion then transports to queue, Operator goes back to Station A and transports finished part, repeat from start.

This pattern of operators finishing work but then prioritizing either filling a station with another piece of work or transporting finished work from a different station occurs at multiple points in my model. What I would prefer to happen is that the Operator picks a part, works it to completion, transports it, then repeats that cycle so that there isn't a load of "waiting for operator" or "waiting for transport" time at the stations. I've tried toying with the priorities of stations and the preempts of parts to no avail but it's also very possible I did not implement them correctly.

How can I go about making the workers prioritize working and moving the part they start instead of worrying about every station they are tied to?

An additional piece of information that may be affecting it is all operators concerned with that set of processors are connected to a Dispatcher that is in turn connected to each station in that set. For example, 6 operators in 3 different shifts are connected to a Dispatcher that is in turn connected to the 3 processors that the operators are responsible for and the queue they are responsible for transporting work from.

FlexSim 20.2.0
flexsim 20.2.0operatorsdispatcherstransportationpriority of working
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Benjamin W2 avatar image
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Benjamin W2 answered Aidan W commented

Hi @Aidan W,

It sounds like your operators are working on individual tasks instead of task sequences. I would recommend creating a task sequence, then dispatching the task sequence to your operators.

This tutorial should be exactly what you need, however if you still have questions feel free to reach out:

Tutorial Task 1.3 - Tasks Using Lists (flexsim.com)


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Aidan W avatar image Aidan W commented ·

How can I make it so my operators are needed for the processing of an item and upon completion move the finished part from the station to a queue? My goal is to set up a relationship between my operator groups such that one is able to continue the work from where the previous group finished, but the tutorial does not provide information on how to utilize the operators during processing time, only setup.

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Benjamin W2 avatar image Benjamin W2 Aidan W commented ·

@Aidan W I can see how that would be tricky. Check out this example model and see if it demonstrates what you are looking for. In the example I:

  • Create a new task sequence every time an item enters a queue
  • Assign the item's next processor and queue
  • Push the task sequence to a list
  • Have an operator pull and execute a task sequence from that list

This is a simple example, but you can add any custom logic where you pull the task sequences based on certain criteria using the SQL field in the pull from list.

TaskSequenceExample.fsm

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Aidan W avatar image Aidan W Benjamin W2 commented ·

With your example model, how can I assign the Processor label to be any processor from a group? For example how can I set the label to any of 3 processors, meaning the operators can take it to any of the 3 stations to work on it?

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