How to create tokens based off table schedule

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Travis P3 asked Nov 20, '19 tannerp commented Dec 2, '19

How to create tokens based off table schedule

Hello, I am very new to FlexSim and having problems getting started. I want to simulate a work cell and be able to change my daily schedule in a table. For example: I have a schedule of 25 parts to process that day. These 25 parts consist of 5 different types which require different process times. How do I create the tokens/labels to pull the qty and type from a table to begin? I am only concerned about a day at a time. I will change the numbers in the table to simulate a new day each time.

I have searched for tutorials or answered questions but can't find anything. Does anyone have an example I can use?

Thanks!

global table schedule source

Answer 1 · 2019-11-20T20:43:49Z

tannerp answered Nov 20, '19 tannerp commented Dec 2, '19

Hi @Travis P3,

There are a lot of ways to accomplish the scheduling of arrivals. It sounds like for your purposes, the easiest way would be to use a Source Activity (Could also be a 3D Source object) and put the values into the table like shown here:

It sounds like you won't have a lot of complex tables, but if you did, you could connect Excel files to the model so that the tables in FlexSim are imported from Excel files.

Once you've got the tokens created using Process Flow, you can create the items with a Create Object activity like in the image below. Make sure to apply the "Type" label from the token to the object at some point.

To handle Processing Time, you can do a case function in the Processor. You could also add Processing Time as a label and then look at that label directly when processing the object. Or you could look up the Processing Time in a table based on the Type label. I demonstrated all three of these ways in an example model, but there are more ways to achieve this as well.

Hopefully this helps. Let us know if you have further questions about this.

Model: item-creation-schedule.fsm

table-schedule.png (14.3 KiB)

object-assign-label.png (16.6 KiB)

item-creation-schedule.fsm (30.3 KiB)

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Travis P3 commented · Nov 21, 2019 at 03:43 PM

@tanner.p

That's exactly what I needed. Thanks!

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Travis P3 commented · Dec 02, 2019 at 04:41 PM

@tanner.p

Tanner,

I have my process times in a table based on Type label. I am pulling this from excel. How could I use a statistical distribution for these times instead of it being exact. Each type will still have a different time for the process. Here is my table right now:process-time.jpg

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process-time.jpg (26.0 KiB)

tannerp Travis P3 commented · Dec 02, 2019 at 09:42 PM

Hi @Travis P3,

I'd like to be sure I have your question right before I try and answer it. You mentioned a statistical distribution. Do you know what distribution you'd like to use? If so, you can still do a look up in a global table to identify the values for the distribution like in this example here:

In the example, the minimum is set by looking at the row (based on item Type) and subtracting 10. The maximum is set in a similar way, but adding 10.

I updated the previous model to demonstrate this: item-creation-schedule-with-stats.fsm

If you know what distribution you'd like to use, I'm sure we can find a way to still incorporate the item Type label. Let me know your thoughts and please tag me @tanner.p when you reply. Thanks!

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item-creation-schedule-with-stats.fsm (31.4 KiB)

global-table-for-stats-distribution.png (34.7 KiB)

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