How can I acquire only operators that are on shift?

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Aaron C asked Mar 20, '19 tannerp edited Mar 29, '19

How can I acquire only operators that are on shift?

I'm trying to do a simple test where an operator is acquired, loads a flow item onto a processor, and is released. I have only two operators, both on a different shift. When I acquire an operator, how can I tell it to only acquire the operator if they are "on shift"? Thanks in advance!

Software Version:

FlexSim 19.0.0

acquire resource operator and resource shift changes

Answer 1 · 2019-03-22T11:31:21Z

Aaron C answered Mar 22, '19 tannerp edited Mar 29, '19

Unfortunately, I'm unable to upload files due to the nature and security of our work. I know this is cumbersome, but if I may verbally describe two changes I made to @Isaac Litster's model, and describe an issue I found after, perhaps you can see a solution or flaw in my implementation!
1st change: Changed the operators time tables to Weekly repeat with 12 hour shifts mon-frid, and off completely sat-sun. (I didn't change anything to do with the functions involved with the tables) (Specifically, Op1 works 00:00-12:00 and Op2 works 12:00-24:00, Mon - Fri)

2nd change: Added a weekly repeat time table to "Stop" the Source on the weekends.

If you let the model run through a weekend, the Source resumes producing flow items, but the operators do not go back to work when they are supposed to. Operator 1 begins work on Monday morning, but Operator 2 does nothing from Monday noon - midnight. This appears to occur every Monday. After initially posting the question, I ran into this exact issue after trying a few different things.

Oh! And I also tweaked the source interarrival time to be "exponential(10,10,getstream(current)" just so that when things are running smoothly, the queue doesn't get backed up.

Thanks again for your help!

· 1

Aaron C commented · Mar 22, 2019 at 12:05 PM

As a side note, a colleague of mine found a work-around by setting the operator working times to 12 hour shifts on ALL 7 days, and having the processor scheduled to go down on the weekends (which of course, forces the operators to stop working on the weekends as well). While this works for our purposes, the aforementioned issue still may be a point of concern for other models.

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Answer 2 · 2019-03-21T19:37:39Z

Isaac Litster answered Mar 21, '19 tannerp converted comment to answer Mar 29, '19

Hi @Aaron C

One way you can do this is by using a Time Table in the Toolbox tab. There is a great tutorial in the FlexSim User Manual that can help you get started. Feel free to ask any other questions. I have attached a model below. Let me know if this is what you are looking for.

time-table-model.fsm

time-table-model.fsm (31.0 KiB)

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