Combiner target quantity taking variable quantity of items from two queues?

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Aaupadhye asked Jun 21, '23 Natalie White commented Jun 28, '23

Combiner target quantity taking variable quantity of items from two queues?

Hi all,

I was wondering how I would be able to update the combiner components list dynamically based off of how many items are in a specific queue. For example, if 5 items are routed to the queue, I want the combiner to have a target quantity of 5 items before it is passed through. If 7 items are routed to the queue, I want 7 items to be the target quantity. I tried using global table to accomplish this but either I completely misinterpreted how to use it or it is the wrong solution to this problem. Any help would be appreciated. For reference, I always want one box and x clothes items (spheres) in my model. I will attach my model.

WCOC Simulation Project.fsm

Software Version:

FlexSim 23.0.8

combiner target quantity

wcoc-simulation-project.fsm (48.1 KiB)

· 1

Natalie White commented · Jun 28, 2023 at 01:31 PM

Hi @Aaupadhye, was Julie Weller'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 comment back to reopen your question.

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Answer 1 · 2023-06-21T16:33:44Z

Julie Weller answered Jun 21, '23 Julie Weller commented Jun 22, '23

Hi @Aaupadhye! I took a look at this and the best (and likely only) way to do it would be to swap your combiner with a processor and use process flow! Here's a few posts that can help explain more about why that is and other methods of achieving your end goal:
https://answers.flexsim.com/questions/38747/how-to-update-the-combine-based-on-the-output-quan.html

https://answers.flexsim.com/articles/133869/example-model-opportunistic-combiner-process-no-po.html

I ended up just doing a simple list. On your Packing Station A I disconnected the 'A' connection (so if you still wanted to use the operator to transport you would need to add a task sequence) and swapped the combiner for a processor.

Next I had all items that arrived at the Packing Station A get pushed onto a new global list that I made called ClothingItems using the On Entry trigger like this:

After that in process flow I added an Event Triggered Source activity that was triggered by a pallet entering the new processor (also I swapped your boxes for a pallet just because pallet and totes's are packable/combinable but boxes aren't). In that source I assigned a new label to that token called pallet (this allows us to reference the pallet location later on):

I created a Global Table that just has this code snippet in it:

This allows us to get the current number of items in the queue to combine.

I then pulled from the ClothingItems list and referenced that table like so:

It's important to use a Max Wait time on this activity because it allows the pallets (which are doing the pulling so to speak) to move on if there's nothing to pull. Which is the same reason I changed the destination on the trigger for the time to send those tokens straight to a sink (destination #2)

Then I moved the token(s) I pulled into the pallet that was assigned at the beginning.

I may have messed up your Packing Station B logic so you might want to look at it, but here's the whole model!

wcoc-simulation-project (2).fsm

Does that answer your question?

1687364682451.png (12.1 KiB)

1687364827499.png (46.8 KiB)

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1687364945960.png (79.0 KiB)

1687365007596.png (10.9 KiB)

wcoc-simulation-project-2.fsm (55.0 KiB)

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Aaupadhye commented · Jun 21, 2023 at 06:01 PM

Hi Julie, this was great! I am also curious about the "task sequence" that you mentioned. If I wanted the operator to take each individual item from Packing station A and put it on the pallet before it is ready to be sent out, how would I do this?

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Aaupadhye Aaupadhye commented · Jun 21, 2023 at 06:26 PM

Just wanted to add, I want the pallets to stay in packing station B and have the operator only bring one of them to the processor, and after that have the operator then individually take the items from packing station A to the processor to be joined with the pallet and have the operator return back to their original position after all clothing items are combined with the pallet.

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Julie Weller Aaupadhye commented · Jun 22, 2023 at 04:48 PM

Hmm for that I would probably just work through the task sequence tutorial. They're pretty easy to implement and that would probably give you the most detailed explanation!

https://docs.flexsim.com/en/23.1/Tutorials/ProcessFlow/Tutorial2TaskSequences/TaskSequencesOverview/TaskSequencesOverview.html

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