Transporter Intercept Moving Item (On Conveyor) with Process Flow

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Adam C asked Aug 9, '19 Adam C commented Aug 12, '19

Transporter Intercept Moving Item (On Conveyor) with Process Flow

I have a small model where products flow along a conveyor. A component is loaded offline with a lift device, moved to the product once it is within the lift device's envelope and assembled to the product while it continues to move.The issue is the Travel activity moves the lifter (modeled as a transporter) to the item's location when the activity fired. The item has continued moving, so the lifter arrives at a spot now behind the item, rather than adjusting the destination as the item continues moving.

coord-concept.fsm

Software Version:

FlexSim 19.0.4

process flow conveyor transporter travel

coord-concept.fsm (62.8 KiB)

Answer 1 · 2019-08-09T22:55:31Z

Joseph Gillespie answered Aug 9, '19 Adam C commented Aug 12, '19

@Adam C

As far as I'm aware, there's not a way set up in FlexSim for Task Executors to be able to follow items. I was able to come up with a workaround that should work for you though.

I added a new Decision Point in the middle of the conveyor and had the transporter travel there after picking up the part. There, it waits for the item to arrive at the decision point and then begins travelling alongside it. At the same time it starts another process with a delay that will destroy the part after the delay finishes.

Here is my updated version of your model: coordconceptanswer.fsm

Let me know if you have any questions about anything in it!

coordconceptanswer.fsm (61.5 KiB)

· 2

Joseph Gillespie commented · Aug 09, 2019 at 11:00 PM

@Adam C

It looks like you've got it working really well on the crane side, another option would be just to copy that logic onto the transporter side as well.

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Adam C commented · Aug 12, 2019 at 03:48 PM

It is working well enough under deterministic conditions. It will be more challenging once variation is introduced and things are less synchronized. I will expand on what I have. Thanks for looking into this.

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