As Simio continues to be the most advanced simulation and scheduling software on the market, we are excited to share with you our latest public and academic release. This release brings Version 8 to the market! It includes Simio Portal, server improvement, enrichment of the routing group element, new workstation features, a new book, many enhancement to the release step, and much more! Review an overview of what is new since Release 7.124.
The Release step now features a Release Quantity Type property that allows the step to either release all owned resources satisfying the selection criteria or release only a specific quantity.
The Server now includes the use of multiple task resources within a given processing task. In prior releases, we have enhanced the Server to include the Process Type property with ‘Task Sequence’ type processing.
Several properties have been added to the Server within the Other Task Sequence Options section including Task Resources Referenced Table Name and Branching Random Number Stream.
Within the Processing Tasks repeat group, a relational table may be referenced within the Resource Requirements section of properties.
With the addition of ‘Task Sequence’ type processing, the user is able to specify a number of processing tasks and required resources for each task. We have continued to enhance this feature and have added a Material Requirements section to the processing tasks. With this, the user may specify one or more materials or bill of materials that may be consumed or produced at each particular processing task.
The Routing Group element has been enriched to include two new properties that may optionally specify process names to be called during the destination selection process. The first, On Evaluating Route Request Process, allows the user to call the process during the destination node decision process. A token Return Value of less or equal to 0.0 from this process indicates that a particular entity isn’t eligible for the destination node. A second process, On Destination Node Assigned Process, will be executed once the destination node is assigned. Both of these options provide greater flexibility within this particular element.
The Produce and Consume steps have both been enhanced to allow the production and consumption of multiple materials or bill of materials within each single step by using the repeating property editor, Consume Materials.
With the addition of the repeatable type Produce and Consume steps that allows the user to specify multiple materials or bill of materials to produce and consume within each step. These features have been incorporated into the Workstation object and now have a Materials repeating property editor for specifying materials to consume and/or produce.
To keep the Combiner and Separator objects consistent with the Server object, as well as to provide additional functionality within those objects, several properties for Process Type (Specific Time or Task Sequence) and Processing Tasks repeating property editor. This allows for multiple processing tasks, along with any resource and material requirements, to be specified within each of these objects.
Within the Combiner, the processing tasks start after a batch has been formed. Within the Separator, the processing tasks are completed before the batch is split or entity copied.
A Relocate Object step has been added to the User Defined steps. This step may be used to instantaneously change the location of an object, including fixed objects and unconnected nodes, at runtime. When relocating or moving a fixed object, such as a Server or Workstation, the Include Associated Nodes property set to 'True' will move the object location (and animation) as well as nodes that are attached to the object.
The Route step has been enhanced to include a Required Materials repeating editor to include multiple materials (single materials and/or bill of materials) and quantities that will be reserved for consumption at a downstream location.
The Route step enhancement has been added within the Transfer Node object (and thus many other objects containing it) within the Standard Library. The Required Materials repeat group properties are available if Entity Destination Type is either ‘Select From List’ or ‘Use Custom Routing Group’. The Consumption Type, Material Name and Quantity properties are available for specifying multiple materials required/reserved prior to moving to the destination location.
The Route Request Ranking Rule property is available if using the ‘Select From List’ option for Entity Destination Type. For the ‘Use Custom Routing Group’ Entity Destination Type, the Route Request Ranking Rule property is available on the referenced RoutingGroup element.
For the Server, Combiner, Separator, Emptier, and Filler ‘Secondary Resources -> Other Resource Releases’ features, the user now has an advanced option property allowing the release ‘All’ owned resources of the specified type or a ‘Specific’ quantity.
Within the Task Sequences type of processing in the Server, Combiner and Separator objects, the Branch Type options are enhanced to include an Independent Probabilistic choice.
When executing a task sequence during a simulation run, the decision to conditionally or probabilistically select a task (branch) is made when all precedence dependencies for the task have been satisfied and it is time to either start or cancel the task. If the Branch Type is 'Conditional', then the task is performed if the specified logical condition evaluates to True. Otherwise, the task is canceled.
The 'Probabilistic' Branch Type may be used to identify the task as one of possibly several mutually exclusive alternatives at a probabilistic decision point. The sum of the branch probabilities at a probabilistic decision point cannot be greater than one. In the case of a 'Probabilistic' branch, a single task will be probabilistically selected from the set of candidate tasks (branches) that share the same immediate predecessor dependencies.
If the Branch Type is 'Independent Probabilistic', then the task's specified probability is independent of and thus not affected by other probabilistic branching. For example, if a decision point has two task branches each with an independent probability of 0.5 (50% chance), then that indicates either, both or neither branches might be required to occur. And the probability of both branches being required is (0.5)*(0.5) = 0.25 (25% chance).
The e-book Planning and Scheduling with Simio has been totally rewritten to reflect recent software changes and better explain the scheduling concepts and overview the scheduling features. New scheduling examples featured in the book have been added to the software as well.