How to put Task executers to an state like allocated idle or unhired when pushed to a list and keep them in that state until they get pulled from that list again?

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sanaz karamimoghaddam asked Nov 13 2016 at 10:34 PM sanaz karamimoghaddam commented Nov 14 2016 at 11:52 PM

How to put Task executers to an state like allocated idle or unhired when pushed to a list and keep them in that state until they get pulled from that list again?

Hi!

I create TEs and push them to a List (TE Pool), then I want to pull them out of that list and "hire" them as needed. At some point the process flow, I might need to unhire some TEs after they have completed a job and send them to the TE Pool again. Later, I need to hire them again based on need. Since I want to get information about the TEs idle time when they are hired, I need to separate the time that they are idle and unhired from the time that they are hired and sitting idle. For that I thought of putting them in a state other than idle, when they are in that TE Pool. But when I push them to the list, I can't get the token to pass the push activity and go to the next activity which is custom task and is supposed to keep it in that state, since the token remains in the push activity until it is pulled again. I would appreciate any suggestion on how to do this.

Software Version:

FlexSim 16.2.1

push and pull list te states

Answer 1 · 2016-11-14T16:23:19Z

Sam Stubbs answered Nov 14 2016 at 4:23 PM sanaz karamimoghaddam commented Nov 14 2016 at 11:52 PM

I'm not sure I entirely follow what it is you're asking, however, your Push to List activity will not go on to the next activity until it has been "Pulled" from the List (unless you tell it otherwise in the options, but that sounds like it would mess up the logic in the other parts of the model) If you want a different state to measure TEs who have been pulled from the list and are "idle vs those who are still on the list waiting and are idle: I would add a Custom Code activity after you Pull the TE from the list, but before the other logic of that TE. And then in the custom code set the state of the TE to "Busy." Would that work? Or am I not understanding your question correctly?

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sanaz karamimoghaddam commented · Nov 14 2016 at 4:40 PM

Hi @Sam Stubbs, Thanks for responding. In regard to token staying in the push activity, I did add use max timer with time time to be 0.01, and the option that keeps info on the list even after the token leaves and I haven't noticed a problem yet because after the push activity, the subflow usually finishes. I would appreciate it if you could let me know if there is a way that it can mess up the logic of the model.

Regarding the state of the TEs, I wanted the TEs to have a separate and different state when they are in that list because I wanted to use the default statistics to report idle time, traveling time, and utilization when the TE are pulled and working. However, because the time that the TEs are in that list waiting to be pulled, is also considered idle time I cannot use those stats.

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Sam Stubbs ♦ sanaz karamimoghaddam commented · Nov 14 2016 at 9:29 PM

Like I said, you should be able to set a Custom Code that sets the state of the TE before they are pushed onto the list. And then have a Custom Code that switches it back to Idle or whatever AFTER they are pulled again from the list. That way, their state will be whatever you set it to while they are on the list, and then it will be reset back to default after they are pulled. Does this work as a solution?

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sanaz karamimoghaddam Sam Stubbs ♦ commented · Nov 14 2016 at 11:52 PM

Yes it does. Thanks.

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