FindItem not working with dynamic label

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question

Claire Krupp asked Jul 20 2021 at 1:12 PM Claire Krupp commented Jul 28 2021 at 2:56 PM

FindItem not working with dynamic label

I have three labels that I am searching for in a FindItem statement. The first two work perfectly, but when I try to use:

WHERE Status == "Dry"

it does not work. I have tried all kind of syntax changes, or making the "Dry" into a token.label value instead of a fixed string, but nothing works.

This statement does not give an error message, so I'm sure the syntax is correct, but it does not find the item - and I know they are in the rack because I also have a Global List which tracks them.

I'm wondering if the problem is that the pallet went in to the rack with Status == "Wet" and then it gets updated after it's drying time to "Dry". So in my List I need to use a dynamic label field. Perhaps the FindItem command has an internal list which does not accommodate dynamic fields?

I can't attach the model here since it is confidential, and too large to upload. (I could email it to the dev team if you need it.)

Can anybody shed some light on the problem? (I think I will have to do a regular Pull from my List and then use that to pick from the rack, but I would prefer to stick with the Storage System structure.)

Thanks!

Software Version:

FlexSim 21.1.4

flexsim 21.1.4 finditem dynamic text

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Answer 1 · 2021-07-20T20:25:07Z

Eric M answered Jul 20 2021 at 8:25 PM Claire Krupp commented Jul 28 2021 at 2:56 PM

Hi @Claire Krupp, the Find Item activity is reevaluated when a new item enters the rack (see "Find Item Process Flow Activity" at bottom of this page). Your model is probably not finding the item because there aren't any items entering the rack after the label change. Unfortunately, I don't know of a way to change the conditions for when it reevaluates the items.

One solution that could be an option is to use the "Max Wait Timer" in the Find Item activity and send it to a short delay that loops back into the Find Item activity. That way it would reevaluate at an interval you specify. It still won't find the item at the moment something changes to "Dry", though, which may or may not work in your situation. As you mentioned, lists are another option that would give you more control over the backorder reevaluations.

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Claire Krupp commented · Jul 22 2021 at 1:03 PM

Thanks @Eric M for the clarification. I will try those options to see if it will work.

I'm not sure it's the re-evaluate that's a problem however, since when I first search for the rack, it has already been set at "Dry" for a while, and I am sure other racks have entered since then, so I should be able to pick it right away.

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Eric M Claire Krupp commented · Jul 22 2021 at 9:39 PM

Hmm that's interesting. I wonder if something else is going on then. Would you be able to send me the model at eric.monson@flexsim.com?

Here's a little sample model I've been using to explore with (it may or may not be helpful to you). The token will pull a dry item immediately if there's one already in the rack, or it will wait until one changes to dry and another item enters the rack.

Rack dynamic label find item.fsm

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rack-dynamic-label-find-item.fsm (43.9 KiB)

Claire Krupp Eric M commented · Jul 28 2021 at 2:56 PM

Hi @Eric M sorry for the delay. I have made other changes which needed to be debugged before you could look at this. I will send the model shortly.

In the current version I am using a "Pull from List" instead of the "FindItem" and it works correctly, so I know that the "Dry" pallets are there and available at the time of the pull.

The FindItem I had been using is located nearby in the PF.

The first pull happens just after 4890 minutes - there is a breakpoint which will stop the model at that point. If you stop the model and then step through a couple times the token will appear in the Outbound section of the MH.

Another thing I noticed with the FindItem is that when I used only the static labels, it would give me a pallet, but it was never the oldest pallet, so it was not using FIFO, which was always the default in the past. Since I am using a simplified rack with long slots for this stage of development, I was wondering if this could have anything to do with pickRank? (And maybe pickRank is why the query is failing???)

Thanks for your help!

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