Separating and combining

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Håkon L asked Nov 16, '22 Håkon L commented Nov 21, '22

Separating and combining

Hi!

I am supposed to make a simulation of a job shop productionline with some degree of ETO, where some key components need to be matched up with not just any compatible component, but with a specific compatible component, with the same ID. Basically some components are made customer/project-specific, so even though one potentially makes 100 of the same component, some of them are tied to a specific project - How to make sure the right one is picked?

So I have heard that one way to make sure Flexsim knows what components to match, is to basically for every combiner - create a splitter earlier in the process so that when components are combined they are in flexsim basically joined back together as they were earlier in the process..

I hope someone understands what I'm trying to describe, because I am wondering if there are any other ways to achieve the same? I was thinking like maybe using ID-numbers and a match-function.The problem with the split/combine-approach i've described over, is that one does not just need to make a simulation of the actual production line, but one must also make a "dummy-line" with splitters to make the combiner work as intended...

In the added picture I've tried to draw the progress of the work and the components that constitues component C in the drawing.
Green - input/output from machine/process
Red - Processes
Blue - Machines

What I aim to do is make a model in flexsim of progress that leads to component C, however I am very uncertin how to set it up, as this is not a map of how the manufacturingfacility is organized, but how the flow of work is set up..

In advance - thanks for the help!
HL

Software Version:

FlexSim 22.2.2

job shop combining splitting eto

processflowbycomponents.png (49.8 KiB)

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Joerg Vogel commented · Nov 16, 2022 at 10:31 AM

I’m still not convinced what you want to achieve. Time of arrival, production time total, process time of stations, waiting times?

You can start with a combined structure of totes that you fill during your process time. You can easily follow your product in a simulation model. You could watch progress by tote color. But you could build also a more abstract model, which depends more on data at tokens and items in structures like labels.

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Håkon L Joerg Vogel commented · Nov 21, 2022 at 02:14 PM

First I want to make a good representation of the flow of the work i've added a picture of, in form of a model in flexsim. Second I want to find rules which optimises the routing of the work. So far it looks like the bottleneck will be 'Machine 12', so it seems likely that I will have to find a smart way of prioritizing the flow through that machine. (Machine 12 is used the most and has the longest processing time of all the machines)

However there are many ways to improve the flow, but the question is what is the priority? The idea is that this model is supposed to represent how a ETO/Job-assembly manufacturer can optimize its productionline. I have got an idea for a rule, which is to prioritize the components with the least slack with regards to customer delivery date. In other words the component with the longest slack will be downprioritized.

Does this help? or are there other data I should describe?

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Answer 1 · 2022-11-18T19:37:36Z

Adam C answered Nov 18, '22 Håkon L commented Nov 21, '22

Here is a concept model that matches like you are asking. It uses a bit of process flow to make the secondary component with matching labels to the key component. You can use a separator but this does let you have them be different classes of flowitems.

The key component pulls its matching secondary component from a list once it enters the KeyComponent queue. Once a match is pulled, a bit of custom code moves both objects into the combiner through the correct ports. You can see in Queue1 that the two components have matching 'PartNo' and 'OrderNo' labels.

Component_Matching.fsm

component-matching.fsm (43.0 KiB)

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Håkon L commented · Nov 21, 2022 at 02:45 PM

Thank you, I will take a look at this tonight and get back to you tomorrow.

It sounds like this is a vital piece of the total package I want to set up :)

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Answer 2 · 2022-11-16T08:08:08Z

Lars Christian J2 answered Nov 16, '22 Jason Lightfoot commented Nov 16, '22

There are several ways to do this. I would suggest using lists and potentially ProcessFlow if you are comfortable with that. See this tutorial for an example: Tasks using lists

To provide you with more guidance, it would be helpfull if you post a data structure with dummy data.

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Jason Lightfoot ♦ commented · Nov 16, 2022 at 01:13 PM

In @Håkon L 's other post we suggested tables to define the process with the assumption that there may be many parts with different processes for which you would not wish to create a process flow for each.

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