Sorter Induction Behavior

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Nikhil T asked Sep 17, '20 Ben Wilson commented Sep 24, '20

Sorter Induction Behavior

Hello- I wanted to simulate a unit sorter induction model. Filled totes arrive on the conveyor. I have shown 3 induct platforms. Totes have 25-30 items in them. The operators need to lift the first available tote. Operator then puts the tote on the grey gravity conveyors. After placing the totes, operators pick an individual item from the tote and induct on the green conveyor. I need a configuration to modify each operator's production rate. Operator 1 is inducting @ 20 items a minute, Operator 2 @ 16 items a minute and Operator 3 @ 18 items per minute. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank You. Sample-Induct.fsm

Software Version:

FlexSim 20.1.3

flexsim 20.1.3 sorter induction

sample-induct.fsm (56.8 KiB)

· 2

Nikhil T commented · Sep 18, 2020 at 08:24 PM

@jeff.nordgren Can somebody please look at this?

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Ben Wilson ♦♦ commented · Sep 24, 2020 at 02:49 PM

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Answer 1 · 2020-09-19T13:09:48Z

tannerp answered Sep 19, '20

@nikhil.t,

If I understand your question correctly, it sounds like you would like to set the operator's production "rate". I'm afraid that there's not a way to do this in discreet event simulation. This is because a rate is usually a metric that uses "time" as its denominator. In other words, you can't have a "rate" without a length of time. Discreet event simulation software happens based on events and not time. The "rate" is often something that discrete event simulation helps us learn, and is not always a good input.

So, my suggestion is that you calculate instead the average time per item that the operator can induct. That way, you can use that metric as the Process Time for the operator. The Process Time can be represented at the Processor or in Process Flow (as a Delay) and can be a statistical average to introduce some variability.

For example, if the operator can induct 20 items per minute. You can set the operator's process time to be an average of 3 seconds with a standard deviation of 0.5. This will, over time, average out to about 20 items per minute.

Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions.

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