Making seperator process time average of 1000s regardless of batch size

Question

question

Felix H asked May 12 2020 at 3:34 PM Felix H commented May 14 2020 at 6:32 PM

Making seperator process time average of 1000s regardless of batch size

Hi, I am trying to get a Seperator to determine the process time so that the queue content will be cleared in an average of 1000 seconds. I've tried to set the process time = 1000/ current.inObjects[1].stats.input.value, so that the total process time is 1000 seconds regardless of the batch size. This works fine for the first batch, however as the next batches arrives the input value of the current.inObject increases respectively, which again reduces the total process time for each batch.

So is there a better way to do this? I want the seperator to use an average of 1000 seconds on each batch regardless of the batch size. I figured that resetting the input stats on the current.inObject after each batch might work, but i dont know how to do that. In addition, the input stats might be of interest later on, so resetting stats might not be the best solution.

Thank you!

Seperator_Process_Time.fsm

Software Version:

FlexSim 18.0.10

global table process time flexsim 18.0.10 seperator average

seperator-process-time.fsm (30.7 KiB)

______

Cookie preferences

Your privacy is important to us and so is an optimal experience. To help us customize information and build applications, we collect data about your use of this site.

May we collect and use your data?

Learn more about the Third Party Services we use and our Privacy Statement.

Strictly necessary – required for our site to work and to provide services to you

These cookies allow us to record your preferences or login information, respond to your requests or fulfill items in your shopping cart.

YES

Improve your experience – allows us to show you what is relevant to you

These cookies enable us to provide enhanced functionality and personalization. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we use to deliver information and experiences tailored to you. If you do not allow these cookies, some or all of these services may not be available for you.

YES

NO

Customize your advertising – permits us to offer targeted advertising to you

These cookies collect data about you based on your activities and interests in order to show you relevant ads and to track effectiveness. By collecting this data, the ads you see will be more tailored to your interests. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

YES

NO

Are you sure you want a less customized experience?

We can access your data only if you select "yes" for the categories on the previous screen. This lets us tailor our marketing so that it's more relevant for you. You can change your settings at any time by visiting our privacy statement

Your experience. Your choice.

We care about your privacy. The data we collect helps us understand how you use our products, what information you might be interested in, and what we can improve to make your engagement with Autodesk more rewarding.

May we collect and use your data to tailor your experience?

Explore the benefits of a customized experience by managing your privacy settings for this site or visit our Privacy Statement to learn more about your options.

Answer 1 · 2020-05-12T17:32:19Z

tannerp answered May 12 2020 at 5:32 PM Felix H commented May 14 2020 at 6:32 PM

Hi @Felix H,

If you already know the outcome of your simulation (the separator takes 1000 seconds to process a batch), then what is it that you're measuring? This sounds like it could be solved using a math equation.

That said, what you're doing almost works, but I don't think it will be accurate since it's a dynamic value. I added a trigger that increments a "BatchSize" label on the queue. You can then use this to calculate the processing time. The "BatchSize" label is reset when the queue is empty. Let me know if this does what you expect it to do.

separator process time help.fsm

separator-process-time-help.fsm (31.2 KiB)

· 7

Felix H commented · May 12 2020 at 9:33 PM

Hi @tanner.p,

Thank you! The "BatchSize" label does exactly what I need. I dont know the outcome of the simulation yet. The seperator process time is just a minor, but important, part of a bigger model.

1 ·

Felix H commented · May 13 2020 at 4:43 PM

Hi again @tanner.p,

I've implemented your BatchSize solution to my model and i thought it worked. But just now i got a clock overflow error and i dont know why. I tought maybe the error occurs because of the equation for process time at the seperator; "1000 / current.inObjects[1].BatchSize", and that when the BatchSize reaches 0 the equation is impossible. But i cant seem to get around it. Have you done anything in the model that i didnt notice? Or have you experienced this issue before?

Thank you in advance.

0 ·

tannerp Felix H commented · May 13 2020 at 5:55 PM

@Felix H, It's possible that the error could have occurred because the function tried to divide by 0. If you could post the model that's throwing the error, I'm happy to take a look at it. There's probably a more robust way of triggering changes on the "BatchSize" label than what I initially put, so I can look at that as well.

0 ·

Felix H tannerp commented · May 14 2020 at 10:45 AM

Hi @tanner.p,

I managed to fixed the problem. I accidentally used the wrong trigger on the seperator, where I used onEntry for the resetting command instead of OnProcessFinish. So the clock overflow error makes sence. Thank you anyways.

0 ·

Felix H commented · May 14 2020 at 12:19 PM

@tanner.p, do you know if its possible to use a decide activity in processflow to determine weither it is content on a queue with a spesific label or not? Let say i have 3 different items on the queue with 3 different destinations, is there a way to check if the queue contains an item with a spesific destination? It would be perfect if I can use current.subnodes.length but also add the spesific destination-label of the item.

0 ·

tannerp Felix H commented · May 14 2020 at 3:24 PM

@Felix H,

Yes, that is possible. You could do a loop using the Decide activity itself or you could use a Custom Code activity and create a loop within it. Essentially, you'd parse through each item and check its label value against the destination label that you are checking.

Example:

//Begin for loop or decide activity
for(int i = 1; i <= MyQueue.subnodes.length; i++)  {
  
  //Check if label exists on item for each i item
  if(MyQueue.subnodes[1].MyLabel == "MyDestination")  {
    return 1;
  }
  else  {
    return 0;
  }
}

Hopefully this helps!

0 ·

Felix H tannerp commented · May 14 2020 at 6:32 PM

It works perfect! Thank you again, @tanner.p.

1 ·

question