How do I exclude scheduled downtime from Output / Hour dashboard statistics?

Question

question

Kevin M34 asked May 6, '22 Kavika F commented May 12, '22

How do I exclude scheduled downtime from Output / Hour dashboard statistics?

Hi there! I have shift patterns implemented in my FlexSim 2022 model using Time Tables. The down state for my time tables is 12-scheduled down. I am trying to track Output / Hour using dashboard statistics for certain processors, sources, & sinks. However, these dashboard statistics always include scheduled downtime (when output is 0) and throws off the actual output statistics for production hours.

How can I tell FlexSim / Output dashboard statistics collectors to ignore these scheduled downtime hours? I especially want this for Output by Hour time plots.

Thanks!

Software Version:

FlexSim 22.0.0

time table output per hour shift pattern

· 1

Kavika F ♦ commented · May 12, 2022 at 08:25 PM

Hi @Kevin M34, was Jordan Johnson's answer helpful? If so, please click the "Accept" button at the bottom of their answer. Or if you still have questions, add a comment and we'll continue the conversation.

If we haven't heard back from you within 3 business days we'll auto-accept an answer, but you can always unaccept and comment back to reopen your question.

0 ·

Answer 1 · 2022-05-06T17:42:44Z

Jordan Johnson answered May 6, '22 Jordan Johnson commented May 9, '22

Here's a demo model:

OutputPerHourExcludeDown.fsm

To replicate this in your model, you'll need to do the following:

Make sure you have a state table in the Toolbox, with the correct state settings
Add the user command in the demo model to your model. It calculates how long an object has been in one of the excluded states.
Install your Output per Hour chart, using the Install button on the Advanced properties panel.
Double click on the newest Statistics Collector to open its Properties window
On the Columns tab, edit the code for the Throughput column. The idea is to subtract off the time spent in any Excluded state. So you can use the user command to calculate that value in the Statistics Collector. If you have more than one Output per Hour chart, you can install it and edit the stats collector the same way.

Note that this doesn't really work for the Output by Hour time plot. Assuming your breaks are longer than an hour, it should naturally show those without change.

outputperhourexcludedown.fsm (49.0 KiB)

· 5

Kevin M34 commented · May 06, 2022 at 06:48 PM

Thanks for your help, Jordan! Your solution helps - it's a smarter way to do what I was doing already: manually calculating production hours and using that to average total output at the end of the sim.

However, I was still hoping for a solution which removes a certain state (scheduled down) from any statistics in the Dashboard. Especially for the Output by Hour time plot. I'm hoping to create a distribution of Output by Hour by exporting this data from the simulation (i.e. the average may be 15 but most of the time it's <7 with a short time of it >60). This would be a product of my MTBF MTTR settings.

Any ideas? I haven't found an easy way to eliminate the non-production hours from an export in Excel, either.

0 ·

Kevin M34 commented · May 09, 2022 at 03:56 PM

@Jordan Johnson For the getExcludedTime variable you created, how do I create a Time Plot for the value of that variable over time, hour by hour? I think that might get me what I'm after.

0 ·

Jordan Johnson ♦♦ Kevin M34 commented · May 09, 2022 at 04:25 PM

Here's an example model:

OutputPerHourExcludeDown_1.fsm

I set up a Statistics Collector with an event that repeats every hour. Then I record the current time, and the total time in an excluded state.

It seems like the statistics you want are outside the regular FlexSim features. I can add a request to the dev list to support the kind of charts you describe. In the mean time, consider learning more about the Statistics Collector; it creates a table, and you can then display the data in that table in a chart. There are several tutorials available:

https://docs.flexsim.com/en/22.1/Tutorials/AdditionalTools/Tutorial2StatsCollector/StatsCollectorOverview/StatsCollectorOverview.html

1 ·

outputperhourexcludedown-1.fsm (49.9 KiB)

Kevin M34 Jordan Johnson ♦♦ commented · May 09, 2022 at 04:40 PM

Apologies, I wanted to create a Time Plot for the current value of Throughput without excluded time - the value you created in 'Output Per Hour 1 Collector' - over the time of the simulation.

I'll try to look at the examples you've created and see if I can't work it out! Thanks for your help, @Jordan Johnson.

0 ·

Show more comments

question