hi, I have a question in FlexSim. I am doing a simulation for a bottle filling line, the source will provide a bottle every 2 seconds (for example 30 bottles per minute). The bottle will be carried by different conveyors with different speeds. My question is, Will the speeds of the conveyors change the number of the bottles per minute at the end of the process?
You will have a conveyor with a rate of bottles that is a minimum in your system. On Entry there will be a bottleneck. On exit there will be a gap between your bottles. This special conveyor is responsible for the output of your system.
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The speeds of the conveyors won't impact the rate (bottles per min) at the end of the system as long as there are no times where the flow of the bottles coming into the system are blocked from entering (which would change the input rate).
You can test this by using the Output / Hour chart and changing the interval to 1 minute. No matter the speeds of the conveyors, the output rate will remain the same as the input rate as long as the source is never blocked (after accounting for the initial time when no items are exiting).
Note that when in steady state, changes in speed will cause temporary changes in rate.
If you speed up a conveyor you will increase the rate downstream for the number of bottles on that conveyor, after which the rate will return to the steady state. When you then reduce the speed back to its original, the rate downstream will be lower when it's contents hit your measuring point before again stabilizing at the steady state rate.
Often you manage an accumulation in front of any pitch sensitive device so that you can control that pitch with a gap pulling screw mechanism and to absorb any rate changes you have caused by changing speeds while running.
As @Eric M says when in steady state.
Also note: faster speed gives a shorter travel time, more pressure in accumulation and a greater percentage free capacity (which can help giving you more of a buffer between machines).
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