Conveyor to send items based on number of items finished by the processor

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Hei Lam T asked Aug 1, '19 tannerp commented Nov 5, '19

Conveyor to send items based on number of items finished by the processor

phase-9-f1.fsmI want one of the highlighted conveyors to send items (6 each time) to the queue (the one that circled in the model) when the processor after the queue finished 6 items, and the highlighted conveyor which has highest content is the one that chosen to send items. I have no idea how this mechanism can be set.

I think of controlling the highlighted conveyors output ports (when the conveyor received an message, it open the output port and send 6 items, only one conveyor will send item each time and it is chosen based on the longest queue(i.e. the conveyor with highest content)).

How the message have to be sent and received? Do I need to use decision points? Or do I need to use a pull strategy for this logic?

Software Version:

FlexSim 17.2.5

decision points queue content send message port control how to stop and resume the items on conveyor

bcqay.png (781.7 KiB)

phase-9-f1.fsm (131.1 KiB)

Answer 1 · 2019-10-03T22:34:42Z

tannerp answered Oct 3, '19

Hi @Hei Lam T,

Sorry for the delayed reply. This was quite the challenging question for us! We've come up with a solution that can be implemented in your model. I'll do my best to explain everything happening here:

1) The items arriving on the conveyors enter an area which keeps track of each queue's length.

2) Area 1's decision point does not ever stop the items. When the items enter the Processor, it triggers a source in Process Flow, which collects these tokens until 6 items have processed at the Processor.

3) After 6 items have processed, the Assign Labels activity decides which DP has the longest queue waiting based on a label called, "dp_RestrictedContentArea" that counts the number of boxes in between the Decision Points on each conveyor.

4) The Custom Code activity in Process Flow sends an item from the DP with the longest queue and sets the label called, "stopItem" on that Decision Point to 0 so that items can freely pass. Meanwhile, each item that passes through increments a label called, "Count" until there have been 6 items. At this point, the DP label, "stopItem" is set to 1 again and the items are stopped based on this condition.

Hopefully this helps you create some logic that will work. Sorry, I didn't program it in your model because I don't know exactly how you wanted it.

Model: conveyor-example-send-6.fsm

areas.png (209.7 KiB)

item-processes.png (150.8 KiB)

longest-queue.png (39.5 KiB)

count-close-port.png (59.0 KiB)

conveyor-example-send-6.fsm (38.4 KiB)

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