Operator complete x amount of Task A, before completing y amount of Task B.

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Joseph L4 asked Jun 22, '21 Joseph L4 commented Jun 22, '21

Operator complete x amount of Task A, before completing y amount of Task B.

I am going to attach the file below, but basically I have an operator "Blade 65_Sawyer Ast" that has two tasks (A) Move pallets from rack "Wood Queue" to queue "In Feed", (B) Move processed wood from processor "Blade4" to queue "Out Feed". I am testing if there is a combination that maximizing output of a combiner "Jig 8_9" further down the line; for example, if completing Task A 9 times before then going to complete Task B 9 times. The reason I think this will help output is because once pallets are placed on queue "In Feed", an operator is not required to move them onto the processor "Blade4" or run the processor. So, completing Task A multiple times in a row, could generate a queue that builds in time for him to complete Task B. Let me know if you have any suggestions or if you are confused about the question. Thanks

roofTrussProcessEdit.fsm

Software Version:

FlexSim 21.1.4

operator assignment priority of working programming operator

rooftrussprocessedit.fsm (204.7 KiB)

5 |100000

Attachments: Up to 12 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 23.8 MiB each and 47.7 MiB total.

Answer 1 · 2021-06-22T19:51:35Z

Eric M answered Jun 22, '21 Joseph L4 commented Jun 22, '21

Hi @Joseph L4, this seems like a good situation for process flow. The idea is that there will be a two sets of tasks and a way to keep track of how many times each task is done. Then a decision can be made whether or not to switch to the other task. I set up the decision to reference the Parameters table and added two parameters where you can specify the number of cycles you want for each task.

I added two lists that will be used to keep track of the items in both tasks. The Wood Queue and Blade4 both have triggers that push their transport to these lists. In process flow, I pull from these lists when it's time to do that task. Because of this, the dispatcher is no longer needed for the transportation.

To explain a little more about the process flow, I created a token with a label referencing the operator. I also added two labels called TaskACount and TaskBCount to keep track of the cycles. When the token enters the TaskA sequence, the label will be incremented by 1. A decide activity at the end of the sequence will send the token back through the task until the label reaches the value set in the Parameters table. The same thing happens with Task B. I also reset the counting label for Task A when it loops through B and vice-versa so it will be back at 0 when it starts Task A again.

Let me know if you have any questions.

rooftrussprocessedit-em.fsm

rooftrussprocessedit-em.fsm (214.3 KiB)

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5 |100000

Attachments: Up to 12 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 23.8 MiB each and 47.7 MiB total.

Joseph L4 commented · Jun 22, 2021 at 08:28 PM

Eric, this is super helpful, thank you. You are VERY smart.

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