Shopper at queues and processor - supermarket simulation

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Olga H asked May 12, '20 Jason Lightfoot commented Feb 6, '23

Shopper at queues and processor - supermarket simulation

In our Supermarket simulation, our shoppers stand at the processor at the bakery and hot-food stations, instead of at the counter. Is there any way to change this?

Then, at our tills, we have two schedules. The first is for Tills 1 and 2, the second for Tills 3 and 4. We have indicated to shoppers when these tills are closed, but they still enter the closed queue, realize it is closed, and then leave. How can we tell them not to enter the queue at all?

Lastly, we tried to make shoppers take items from the shelves and unpack it at the tills, but to no success. Help would be appreciated.

Thank you for the help @tanner.p

PicknPay Simulation.fsm

Software Version:

FlexSim 20.0.2

flexsim 20.0.2 queue strategy

picknpay-simulation.fsm (19.8 MiB)

· 1

Benjamin W2 commented · May 18, 2020 at 05:36 PM

Hi @Olga H, was tanner.p's answer helpful? If so, please click the red "Accept" button on their answer!

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Answer 1 · 2020-05-12T16:27:22Z

tannerp answered May 12, '20 Jason Lightfoot commented Feb 6, '23

The best solution for these questions is to use Process Flow, like what is demonstrated in the example model I provided in this question. I'll point out where each technique is demonstrated in the example model using pictures below.

There's not a lot of control when using the 3D alone, but with Process Flow, you can specify exactly where you'd like the customer to walk. This would help in the case of your first question in that you could specify that a customer should travel to the "Bakery_Queue" rather than to the "Bakery_" processor. Have you taken the time to go through Process Flow tutorials as found in the User Manual? I promise they'll make modeling much more straightforward!

The second question regarding the tills can be solved using a location resource list. When the customer needs a till, they attempt to pull one that is available from a list. This way, if the tills are not available, the customers will not try and pull them.

You can also use Process Flow to load/unload objects. I created a small example model that does this. Hopefully you can use this to learn more about how Process Flow works.

shopping unloading checkout example.fsm

supermarket-travel-example.png (11.8 KiB)

acquire-location-example.png (11.3 KiB)

shopping-unloading-checkout-example.fsm (58.3 KiB)

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pdfqspp commented · Feb 04, 2023 at 05:58 AM

@tanner.p could you please explain the sample model in detail?

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Jason Lightfoot ♦ pdfqspp commented · Feb 06, 2023 at 02:33 PM

Please do the online tutorials - especially for the People module.

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