How to set logic for two Operators to move totes off of three conveyor lines?

Question

question

Stephanie Y asked Jan 21 2020 at 4:37 AM Benjamin W2 commented Jan 27 2020 at 10:08 PM

How to set logic for two Operators to move totes off of three conveyor lines?

I have three conveyor lines that are transporting totes. Operators need to move totes from the conveyor line to the sink. There are two Operators that primarily stand at and work taking totes off the outside two conveyors. The middle Conveyor is shared by the same two Operators. When a tote comes down the middle line, I would like an Operator to transfer it only if they don't have work at their main line. At the end of each of the three conveyor lines I have a processor that I use to set the pace of the work.

Software Version:

FlexSim 20.0.0

conveyor transfer

______

Cookie preferences

Your privacy is important to us and so is an optimal experience. To help us customize information and build applications, we collect data about your use of this site.

May we collect and use your data?

Learn more about the Third Party Services we use and our Privacy Statement.

Strictly necessary – required for our site to work and to provide services to you

These cookies allow us to record your preferences or login information, respond to your requests or fulfill items in your shopping cart.

YES

Improve your experience – allows us to show you what is relevant to you

These cookies enable us to provide enhanced functionality and personalization. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we use to deliver information and experiences tailored to you. If you do not allow these cookies, some or all of these services may not be available for you.

YES

NO

Customize your advertising – permits us to offer targeted advertising to you

These cookies collect data about you based on your activities and interests in order to show you relevant ads and to track effectiveness. By collecting this data, the ads you see will be more tailored to your interests. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

YES

NO

Are you sure you want a less customized experience?

We can access your data only if you select "yes" for the categories on the previous screen. This lets us tailor our marketing so that it's more relevant for you. You can change your settings at any time by visiting our privacy statement

Your experience. Your choice.

We care about your privacy. The data we collect helps us understand how you use our products, what information you might be interested in, and what we can improve to make your engagement with Autodesk more rewarding.

May we collect and use your data to tailor your experience?

Explore the benefits of a customized experience by managing your privacy settings for this site or visit our Privacy Statement to learn more about your options.

Answer 1 · 2020-01-22T16:31:55Z

Braydn T answered Jan 22 2020 at 4:31 PM Benjamin W2 commented Jan 27 2020 at 10:08 PM

@Stephanie Y

preemption-example.fsm

Is this what you are looking for? If so, let me know and I will explain how I did it.

preemption-example.fsm (60.6 KiB)

· 2

Answer 2 · 2020-01-21T19:30:52Z

Jeff Nordgren answered Jan 21 2020 at 7:30 PM Joerg Vogel commented Jan 22 2020 at 7:01 AM

@Stephanie Y,

Attached is another sample model that is very similar to the one that @Jörg Vogel has already given you. Just maybe another way to see another solution that may help you decide how to use them in your situation. If you need further help, it would be helpful if you attached your model to your question so that we might be able to answer your question specific to your modeling needs.

Thanks.

stephanie-sample1.fsm

stephanie-sample1.fsm (53.0 KiB)

· 2

Answer 3 · 2020-01-21T07:01:38Z

Joerg Vogel answered Jan 21 2020 at 7:01 AM Joerg Vogel edited Jan 22 2020 at 6:49 AM

I don't know how you built your model logic. The basic approach depends on Center Object Connections and automatic created transport Tasksequences. The Tasksequences are dispatched to Task Executer or Dispatcher. They store the Tasksequences in Tasksequencequeues. A Dispatcher transfers a Taskesequence only to a Task Executer that is available to receive Tasksequences. This happens, if the Task Executers' Tasksequencequeue is empty and the current active Tasksequence has been finished.

A Dispatcher is connected to Task Executers by an Object Connection ("A"-Type).

ts-directly-or-by-dispatcher.fsm

ts-directly-or-by-dispatcher.jpg (111.4 KiB)

ts-directly-or-by-dispatcher.fsm (39.7 KiB)

· 1

Joerg Vogel commented · Jan 22 2020 at 6:32 AM

If I forget the terminology of FlexSim, then following happens.
The option Use Transport sends by default a transport job to an operator or dispatcher. An operator executes the first receiving job instantly, if he has nothing to do right now. Otherwise the job is queued. If first job is done, he looks for queued jobs by priority.
A dispatcher is only a manager of jobs. Operators are clients of the dispatcher. If an operator has nothing to do, he hasn’t any jobs queued nor he executes a job, then a dispatcher sends a single job to him.

In your case the connections directly to operators let them execute the transport jobs instantly and by priority. Only if an operator hasn’t got nothing more to do, the dispatcher will send a stored transport job to this operator.
In this scenario all jobs have got the same priority value, the distribution of jobs is depending only on the direct connection and over a dispatcher.

If you watch a running model, it looks like the priority logic doesn’t work as intended. An operator takes an item of the shared queue instead of an outer queue. It is a runtime problem. Because the operator has nothing to do at the destination of his last transport job, he waits there. An item arrives at the shared queue. He walks to the shared queue. While an item arrives at an outer queue, but he is already executing a job, this job must he finish before he can do anything else. You can force an operator to decide later which job he does, if you tell him that he has to go a nearer location where he gets his items. This is an option in the OnUnload trigger of an operator.

0 ·

question