To Add Smaller Assembly Lines to feed Main Assembly line as well as Operators

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Abhay Bajpai asked Oct 24, '23 Abhay Bajpai commented Oct 30, '23

To Add Smaller Assembly Lines to feed Main Assembly line as well as Operators

Opinion needed. Since I am fairly new to FlexSim, and still learning every day, I thought I would get an expert opinion first before making any big changes to the current model.

I have the following model for an assembly line. I want to add the following features to the model:

1. I want some 'Created Parts' to be created in a smaller assembly line, feeding to the main assembly line shown in the picture below.

1.a. Should I repeat everything (process flow, tables etc) for the smaller assembly lines that eventually will feed the main assembly line?

1.b. What would be the logic to transfer the part from smaller assembly lines to the main assembly line?

2. I would like to add operators to each station on the conveyor. There will be a definite number of operators at each station (Station 1 will have 3 operators, Station 2 will have 2 operators....so on), and are solely responsible for parts in that station only. The flow item only moves to the next station when operators are finished installing the parts on the flow item.

ChampionHomes_V9.fsm

Software Version:

FlexSim 23.2.0

operators assignment assembly line

championhomes-v9.fsm (16.4 MiB)

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Answer 1 · 2023-10-25T13:38:33Z

Jason Lightfoot answered Oct 25, '23 Abhay Bajpai commented Oct 30, '23

Yes - use the same structure for the feeder lines - they are assembly lines just like the main line.

You will want to add something that tells that stations which parts it will create out of thin air and which are coming from another line (and which line). I would push parts at the end of each line to an AvailableParts list - maybe partitioned by the part number - so each cell can then pull the part and have it moved/processed/assembled as needed.

Ideally you'd have an assembly precedence diagram from which the cells allocate parts' sequence of operations can be derived if needed.

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Jason Lightfoot ♦♦ commented · Oct 25, 2023 at 08:40 PM

1) Yes similar to that. 1.1) Yes

For both of these you can be safe in the idea that a good data structure that defines the process will be the best start for any model architecture you choose - since it's just the facts of the operation. That data can then be used to build the model structure and relationships in different ways and optionally distribute the data for performance gains, but this data I would say is the foundation for your process and should be model independent. It should be the data your factory would understand and could use - not something FlexSim specific. Often this can come from industrial process planning software.

2) Cell - I meant station
3) You can assign them to a station as primary (fixed) operators or you can have them floating. You can create the relationship in a global table; by using a pointer label; by using a label containing an array of points; using port connections, or by using a dispatcher.

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Abhay Bajpai Jason Lightfoot ♦♦ commented · Oct 30, 2023 at 03:26 PM

Thanks for the confirmation regarding point 1 and point 2. I will play around with point 3 and get back to you to get your opinion. Thanks Jason.

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Abhay Bajpai commented · Oct 25, 2023 at 08:07 PM

1.) Regarding the precedence diagram, did you by any means recommend a similar data-driven approach like you did in this post pasted below?

https://answers.flexsim.com/question`s/139375/line-balancing-scenarios-via-experimenter.html

1.1) By "data-driven", do you mean an approach that queries & generates tables which then is used in the logic? Just like the model that you helped create earlier?

2.) What do you mean by the word "cell"?

3.) How do you recommend I assign operators to stations?

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