Best object to optimize the space in a queue of items by an operator

Question

question

Joerg Vogel asked Jul 21, '17 Joerg Vogel edited Jul 31, '17

Best object to optimize the space in a queue of items by an operator

I am looking for an object, which gives me the correct statistic values and I can manage with the least source code by myself. I have a queue of items. New items are added at the end. The oldest items are released at the front. I want to close the gap at the front by a taskexecuter. The taskexecuter should transport the items in the queue to the front of the object I am looking for. You can see the action of the taskexecuter in the animated picture below. The model uses a pallet to store the items in the queue object.

Many thanks in advance. I hope I get several hints which objects I can use for this problem.

Software Version:

FlexSim 17.1.4

queue strategy line storage optimize queue

defragment-line-storage.gif (1.1 MiB)

· 1

Sam Stubbs ♦ commented · Jul 24, 2017 at 03:08 PM

Hmm. It's a good question, and an interesting scenario. Just a thought off-hand that I haven't explored thoroughly yet, but could you use a conveyor instead of a queue. Conveyors already have a linear stacking effect like that, the tricky part would be getting the item to stop and start visually in conjunction with a task executer.

1 ·

Answer 1 · 2017-07-31T12:25:36Z

Joerg Vogel answered Jul 31, '17 Joerg Vogel edited Jul 31, '17

A queue object stores items which a operator can put to another location. Important is that the item stays inside the queue to prevent that the statistic becomes wrong.

Without an operator the location is simply set by code. With an operator the item stays in the queue, too. But the operator transports then a drawsurrogate object to the destination. At the moment that the item is loaded the shape of the item becomes invisible and the drawsurrogate visible. When the operator unloads the drawsurrogate object the location of the item is set to the altered position, becomes visible and the drawsurrogate invisible. A nodefunction controlls the visibility and shape dimensions of the draw surrogate. The repositioning tasksequence calls this nodefunction and changes the values of the location of the item.

Attached is a model which sets the location of all items in the queue at the time stamp, when the first items enters the next object. The task sequence is created in the OnMessage trigger of the queue and you find therein the nodefunction at the bottom of the object tree.

reorder-queue-104.fsm (18.2 KiB)

question