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mUg24 avatar image
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mUg24 asked Felix Möhlmann commented

Adapt special Picking process to PF

I need help with the model of a distribution center where orders of different quantities arrive (This is noted at the assign labels of the process flow).

Although I know how to do the picking one by one box (using process flow), in my project I need the operator to transport 2 boxes per time.

As an example, if the order has 11 boxes, the operator must make 6 trips (order/2 + remainder of order/2).

Could you help me adapt the process flow? (It has to be using a process flow because this process is part of a larger system I already have programmed in PF)

Picking 2x2.fsm

FlexSim 24.2.0
order picking
picking-2x2.fsm (50.2 KiB)
5 |100000
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1 Answer

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Felix Möhlmann answered Felix Möhlmann commented

Create half as many sub-flow tokens (rounded up). And load up to two items in the subflow. "array.pop()" removes and returns the last element in the array. You can use this to work through all items in the array one by one. A simple check whether there are still elements in the array after removing one decides whether to load a second item or not.

picking-2x2_1.fsm

This of course means the array will be empty after moving all pulled items. If you need to reference them later make a copy of the array first ("array.clone()").


picking-2x2-1.fsm (51.7 KiB)
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mUg24 avatar image mUg24 commented ·
Can you help me adapt to transport 5 items per time. Thank you!
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Felix Möhlmann avatar image Felix Möhlmann mUg24 commented ·

I'll do you one better and show an example of how to load as many items as the operator's "Capacity" property allows. Which in turn an be changed via the parameter table.

picking-x.fsm

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picking-x.fsm (52.2 KiB)
mUg24 avatar image mUg24 Felix Möhlmann commented ·
Thank you very much, the process flow works, but if the order quantity is 1 the model stops because the token remains in an infinite loop. It seems like token.pop() doesn't work when the initial length of the array is 1.
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