Active Conveyors using Time Table

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Amit Kulkarni asked Feb 5, '21 Amit Kulkarni commented Feb 5, '21

Active Conveyors using Time Table

In the example model, there are 16 conveyors connected to a input queue. My goal is to keep certain conveyors active during one shift. The number of conveyors active during a shift will vary. My initial approach is to use a time table to define "off-shift" conveyors. I understand that a new time table will be required for every shift if this approach is used. Is there a simpler way to accomplish this, like using a global table for all conveyors with parameters values 0 - meaning conveyor is off shift, and 1-meaning conveyor is active ?

Also, how do I prevent a flow item entering a conveyor that is off shift without having to remove its port connections? From Left, Conveyors 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6 are off shift in this example.

My end goal is to set up and analyze different scenarios easily where only certain conveyors are active and how it affects the throughput.

Conveyor_Time_Tables.fsm

Software Version:

FlexSim 21.0.2

conveyor flexsim 21.0.2 time table

1612553076376.png (44.2 KiB)

conveyor-time-tables.fsm (50.0 KiB)

Answer 1 · 2021-02-05T20:39:03Z

Benjamin W2 answered Feb 5, '21 Amit Kulkarni commented Feb 5, '21

Hi @Amit Kulkarni,

If you want to use time tables I would recommend a couple of changes.

Add the conveyor entry transfers to your time table Member functions instead of the conveyors. These should be the entry transfers on the conveyors that will be down for your defined shift.
For your down functions, use "Stop Input" and "Resume Input" instead of stopping the conveyor. This will not send any flowitems to the ports that are closed when they are down.
On your timetable, use a repeat function instead of a schedule. If your shifts are daily, I would recommend defining a daily repeat like this:

This way, you will only have to define one time table per shift.

There are other more explicit ways to do this, however I believe this would be the most straightforward way. Please respond if this doesn't meet your needs.

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Amit Kulkarni commented · Feb 05, 2021 at 08:43 PM

@Benjamin W2 Thank for the quick response. Just for my knowledge, can you elaborate more on other explicit ways to achieve this functionality that I can look into? I have a feeling that there would be instances in the future that will require similar functionality.

Many thanks!

- Amit

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Benjamin W2 Amit Kulkarni commented · Feb 05, 2021 at 09:13 PM

@Amit Kulkarni Sure, it depends on what you are trying to do. One way is to define a Global Table with your time schedule on it, then create a process flow that reads through your table and activates/deactivates your conveyors. It might look something like this:

Then you might have a process flow like this:

This process flow will read through the table, delay for a certain amount of time, then open/close the inputs on your entry transfers according to the table. I will attach the model if you want more details.

conveyor-time-tables (1).fsm

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conveyor-time-tables-1.fsm (57.2 KiB)

Amit Kulkarni Benjamin W2 commented · Feb 05, 2021 at 09:19 PM

Thank you! This is a very elegant approach!

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