Use queue strategy for a resource in Process flow that is in numeric mode 2024

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Mark S2 asked Jul 16, '24 Logan Gold commented Jul 24, '24

Use queue strategy for a resource in Process flow that is in numeric mode 2024

Hello,

Rebooting this question from years ago (the comments have disappeared):

https://answers.flexsim.com/questions/42068/use-queue-strategy-for-a-resource-in-process-flow.html

I would like to have a resource in Numeric Mode so it can be dynamically updated during the simulation run, however the queue strategy is greyed out for this option.

Is there a way to have a Numeric resouce but also assess a queue strategy?

thanks!

Mark

Edit:

I found this is the manual, but I have no idea what it means:

What does each entry in the array mean? What's the difference between the two example arrays? How can I then update this array during the simulation run (e.g. I want to increment or reduce the number of resources available every hour).

Software Version:

FlexSim 24.2.0

queue strategy numeric resource

1721178015655.png (31.0 KiB)

· 1

Logan Gold ♦♦ commented · Jul 24 at 03:48 PM

Hi @Mark S2, was Felix Möhlmann's answer helpful? If so, please click the "Accept" button at the bottom of the answer. Or if you still have questions, add a comment and we'll continue the conversation.

If we haven't heard back from you within 3 business days we'll auto-accept an answer, but you can always comment back to reopen your question.

0 ·

Answer 1 · 2024-07-17T06:35:24Z

Felix Möhlmann answered Jul 17, '24 Felix Möhlmann commented Jul 17, '24

As the section from the documentation says, if a Resource is used with a non-numeric reference it behaves like a list, enabling the use of pull query and queue strategy.

I would recommend to just use a list directly or a zone. The zone is a bit quicker to set up and you can simply change the maximum allowed content to control how many tokens can be present in a Process Flow section. However increasing the maximum content will not allow already waiting tokens to enter, so you'd need to re-release them to the Enter Zone activity.

Here a list would have an advantage, because pushing some dummy value to the list would allow a waiting token to pull it and continue without any other actions being necessary. Though managing the amount of values on the list would be a bit more work to set up.

Of these options I would prefer the zone. You can write a user command to update the max. content setting and re-evaluate any waiting tokens. Once you have that it's very quick to setup (potentially even faster than a resource because you don't have to deal with labels to which the resource is assigned).

variable-capacity-zone-fm.fsm

variable-capacity-zone-fm.fsm (30.3 KiB)

· 2

Mark S2 commented · Jul 17 at 05:17 PM

Hi Felix,

Thanks for your quick response! I am actually running version 24.0.2, would you mind re-attaching a model that I can open?

So is an array not an option for what I am trying to do?

Thanks!

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Felix Möhlmann Mark S2 commented · Jul 17 at 05:48 PM

I'm not 100% if the array couldn't also be made to work, but it's probably initialized only on reset. I'm reasonably sure that using a zone is going to be easier.

variable-capacity-zone-fm-24-0.fsm

Please take care to select the correct version when posting a question next time. :)

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variable-capacity-zone-fm-24-0.fsm (29.9 KiB)

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