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Hello, I'm working on a problem where at some point a worker will transport a specific amount of pallets. Whereafter these pallets are processed by a server and a server wil process them. Once processed, a different worker (or the same worker) will move the pallets to the next server. How do I save these entities as a batch and let workers know how much pallets they can process? At the moment I have two approaches. One where I create a 'batch' as an entity and assign to it the amount of pallets. The 'problem' in that case is that I do need to count the amount of pallets at a server, since it has a certain capacity. And sometimes an initial batch whitch comes from a truck needs to be split to fit the capacity of workers. But once this would be fixed, the worker will always transport the right amount of pallets. A second approach that I have tried is to create the pallet entities normally, and assign a 'PalletHistory' in the modelEntity properties, but I find that after processing I can't find this palletHistory for the workers to get a sign of how many pallets to transport. Do any of you guys have an idea how I can approach this? Greetings

I have a problem with producing/consuming within my TaskSequence. I need multiple task operation (prepare -> work -> clean -> produce), where I'm also consuming/producing material defined inside my BOM table. When I'm trying to reference material requirements on the BOM table I get an error: "Could not determine the row to use in the referenced table or repeat group ...", references to the processing time and other parameters are working fine. If I set the task sequence reference to the BOM table, then material requirements works OK, but I could not add more than 1 task. I'm using version 15.241.27814 . Best regards, Žan

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I was inspired by the VehicleX3 (vehicle with operator) that was shared on this forum. I would like to use this type of VehicleX3 with an operator who is a worker to simulate a process where the operator is required to take breaks after certain periods of activity. To implement this logic, I think it would be helpful to have Reliability Logic for the worker object in Simio. This doesn't seem to be part of the standard library so I tried to create my own subclass version of Worker with the Reliability Logic "copied" from the Resource object. My attempt to implement this custom object seems to work as long as the custom worker object doesn't "move". If the custom worker object moves, I get the Runtime error "Possible infinite loop detected in process logic". Any assistance in getting the logic working properly, or pointing me to an existing custom worker object that has Reliability Logic incorporated would be greatly appreciated. I'm attaching my small example model to illustrate the error when the worker (P1) is required to move to the Dest1 server as a required secondary resource for processing. WorkerWithFailuresExample.spfx

Hi, I have a production line with 2 sources. The arrival of entity A in source 1 triggers an arrival of entity B in source 2. Entity A and entity B then enter their respective servers for a processing time. Entity A is processed at table_openings between 10 and 15 minutes with probabilities whereas Entity B is processed at table_MF for 10 minutes. The process type is task sequence. Both Entity join at a combiner. Entity A is the parent and Entity B is the member. Afterwards, the combined entity continue along the production line. I have expected processing times for each task at each server. Before starting a task, a process starts where a state statistic registers the state processing time of the entity. I also put list state to verify the schedule utilization. I have verified visually and the state value for processing time is correct for every station while the simulation is running. What I have observed is that the state statistic average processing time for the servers before the combiner is the expected value, however, all the other stations are 10 minutes off. The simio output has the right processing times for all the stations after the combiner but not for the two stations before the combiner. Moreover, the list state average time busy value are ok for all the stations after the combiner but again the station before the combiner, it gives the total number of minutes it was busy. Also, if i do the average of the state log observation for each station in excel afterwards, I get all the correct processing times. I am guessing it has something to do with the combiner, but I am lost. How can the processing time for table_MF be 10,48 when the processing time is a fixed 10 minutes in the facility window? Why is the list State MF and OP different from all the other list states? Thank you for your help!

Hi, I have a bottleneck at the end of my assembly line. I cannot dupplicate that station as my total number of workers is already high. Before hiring, I would like to try and reallocate and have satellite employees. I want to allocate my workers to that station when the input buffer has exceeded one entity. Every worker has to finish the entity they are presently working on at the other stations and the first workers that are done need to go the bottleneck station. The rest of the time, the workers can be allocated based on the smallest distance to the work stations. The bottleneck station usually requests 4 workers. That information is already set up in a table. When there is two entities in queue in that buffer, I want workers to be able to go finish the work and hence increase the processing time by X. I have tried a lot of different things, and all my data is stored in relational tables. Thanks!

Hi Amine, I have defined a new process named process1 which is triggered by Input@BUFFER_ST_1.Entered event. Then, I used interrupt step (in process 1) to get one entity from processing station whenever process 1 is triggered. Note that I set the processing time of BUFFER_ST_2 server to infinity to hold entitys until Input@BUFFER_ST_1.Entered event is occured. I am not sure if setting this to infinity is a problem?. Other than this everything is ok and it seems it works. Buffer varianti trazioni V2.spfx

Please excuse a naive question from a newbie. Building a simulation for material flows in selective mining. Entities, "low_grade" and "high_grade", supplied at different rates by two sources, both go into a server (the mining machine) which passes them to a separator. I want the high_grade entity to go to a processing subsystem, and the low_grade entity to go to backfill (or a waste dump). Do I presume correctly that I should use a Separator for this? If so, how do I set it up to send the two entity types to different destinations ? At present, all seem to be going to the same destination. Instead of having different entities, could I use one entity type and assign grade values according to a probability distribution? If so, how would I then use a separator to send below-cutoff material to backfill?

Hello, I am trying to imitate what you can see in a factory. For example, I created a couple of materials that could be produced and consumed. Process: I created materials. For definitions, I created a produced material that will get the material from a table. Afterwards, I selected a task processing(sequence) under server. I added all the materials that needed to be produced. On task sequence I selected the materials tab to consume each material, but all the entities are running under 40 different materials. My desired output is to see only 1 entity running producing and consuming 1 raw material. Joshua

The manufacturing line I am trying to simulate has two servers whose behavior I am having trouble modeling. First, these two servers are in parallel. Second, these servers process units in batches of 14. Third, I need both servers to not start a batch until at least 14 units are present in queue. Lastly, I need to pool the queue for both servers into a single queue. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!

Hi, I want to generate one type of product with one interarrival time. I have one source and one model entity. However, this entity can have different lengths following probabilities. Depending on these properties, the processing times at the servers will be shorter or longer. I tried to assign a state to the entity before this entity exits the source so ModelEntity.Length becomes DataLength.prob.randomrow. where DataLength is a table with the different lengths and the probabilities associated with those Lengths. The only thing is that it is a property and not a state, but I do not know how to do it in another way. Afterwards, I have different processing times at the servers depending on the different characteristics of my entity. For example, server1 will have different processing times depending on the length. How can I reference to the good processing time say I have added a column to the table DataLength with the associated processingtimes according to the lengths? Finally, I would also like keep track of those different lengths generated and see what the model produced in the end. Thank you for your help, Emilie

A quick solution to force all entities to get dropped at the same place is to add an add-on-process when an entity is loaded. which Checks if the entity is the first item in the vehicle and if not set its destination node to the first item. Decide: Token.associatedobject==Token.ContextObject.Vehicle.RideStation.Contents.FirstItem If False -> SetNode: Token.ContextObject.Vehicle.RideStation.Contents.FirstItem.ModelEntity.destinationnode a more elegant solution would probably involve batching the entities into a bucket that would then get transported to the destination. Upload 11.1.21.spfx

I have 2 transports delivering entities to 3 servers. What should be happening is that Transport 1 loads entities to capacity (12) then moves to Server 1 and delivers all of the entities (12). Transport 2 should load 12 entities and deliver all 12 to Server 2. Transport 1 returns to Home Node and loads 12 more entities for delivery to Server 3... and so on. However, what is happening is that both Transports are loading 12 entities then moving to Server 1 and delivering 4 entities each, then on to Server 2 and repeat and so on. I have removed and added servers to confirm that for some reason the Transports are delivering 1/#ofServers of their total capacity, conducting all of their deliveries and then returning to home once empty. I have limited the timepath to each Server to only allow 1 Transport at a time, but then Transport 2 just waits at the Home Node until Transport 1 is on its way to Server 2. Then it moves to Server 1 and just ends up one node behind Transport 1 at all times. The dispatch logic: (Server1.InputBuffer.Contents.NumberWaiting <= 12)||(Server2.InputBuffer.Contents.NumberWaiting <= 12)||(Server3.InputBuffer.Contents.NumberWaiting <= 12); set at Smallest Value for Selection Goal; Selects from a List of all Server Nodes.

I've hunted through the forums and online and cannot seem to find a fix for my simple application. I have 1 worker operating multiple work centers (Simio server). He should finish all work at one "server" before moving on to the next server. Otherwise, his utilization goes down substantially due to him bouncing back and forth between the servers and walking all day. I.e. Server A: Parts in Que: 1,2,3,4,5,6 Server B: Parts in Que 1,2,3,4,5,6 Worker is doing A1, B1, A2, B2, A3, B3, A4, B4, A5, B5, A6, B6 with a walking time inbetween each part. I want worker to do A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, A6, walk, B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B6 I would prefer not to use constraint logic due to the complexity. I've read that somehow the solution seems to lie in setting the Secondary Resources "Repeat Group" status to false and attempting to use the "keep reservation" function, however I have not had any luck. I set the "keep reservation if" function to "ServerA.InputBuffer.Contents.NumberWaiting > 0" which in theory should fix the problem, however my worker continues running back and forth. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Jon

Hi, I have 6 entities arriving at exactly 8am each day. Each of the 6 entities will create a certain number of entities on arrival from their respective distributions. How do I model in my source? I cannot have multiple sources as each entity has its own server processing times. Please can you help? Thank you

Hello, a Server block has a property named "Off Shift Rule" This is normally set to "Suspend Processing", i.e. the server signs off at the end of the shift and abandons all the waiting work. If you want to finish the waiting work, choose the other option, "Finish Work Already Started" I suppose that's what you want.

Simulation Setting: Hospital Situation: In a hospital setting tasks are done in a preferred order on a patient, currently using processing tasks functionality to accomplish this. However if a certain task can not be done due to a resource constraint they should continue with the task profile but queue the task to be done when available. For example: if a patient needs to be intubated but no qualified person is available, the patient should continue with the task profile but should continue with trying to seize a qualified person, and when they can the task could continue as normal. Is there currently a way to do this? Thank you.

Hi Jim, May be there are many possible ways to follow to get the information you want. But, I suggest you to use a search step for searching a server's (or any other object's) processing queue to get such information. You can search not only the server's processing queue but also the whole "entity population" to get whole state variable's defined on them at any arbitrary time thoughout the simulation run. All you have to do is to define additional expressions on search step. In the example file attached a simple model is developed to get entities' state variables residing at server1's processing queue. Here note that, you have to click button at arbitrary times. Then, if 3 or more entities exist at server1.processing queue, the search step founds the first 3 of them (since a forward search is performedin this sample model) then later an excel write step writes entities created time (you can get many state variables of entities written on the same excel file). You can change search limit, queue state name, include a match condition etc. If you want to get such information at the beginning or at the end of the simulation run you should use this same logic at appropriate processes (onrunending, onruninitialized etc...). Also, you can get these information written on either a database or an output table as well. Hope this helps? getting a snaphot of Entity WIP via a button.spfx entities_processing.xlsx

Hi Gocken, Thank you for your kind and quick response! I really like this use of a button! Unfortunately, I was not clear enough. As entities move through the system they carry quite a lot of state information. Our desire is at end or replication or an arbitrary time like a button click which a neat idea, to take an inventory of all the entities AND their states. This would mean capturing all the entities in each processing queue and through a write step. writing them out, either to an output table or a CSV. This operation is a bit complex. It does not seem one can search a processing queue to sequentially write out its members properties. I believe it is possible to maintain the residence of servers by maintaining that in a special output table which is tedious to maintain and set up. I greatly appreciate your response! Best Regards, Jim

Hi All, In examining a medical system, we have a requirement to log snapshots of the patient details being processed at specific points in time during experiment replications. For each server, we would like to know the state values for entities currently in processing in each functional area ( a mix of servers and storage queues). I suppose I am looking for an "Easy Button" which would quickly capture a Work In Process snapshot of the system. Are there any thoughts on accomplishing something like this? Any kind comments would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Jim

Hello! I need to block a specific server in my model, preventing this server from starting its the processing time. The conditions for this to happen are dictated by the following servers, according to a number. In this simplified model I made, if the entity went through the server M1, then this server will stay suspended until T4 finished its processing time. At the same time, M2 will have the same behavior. Following the above, the server just before M1 and M2, called Volvo, must not start its processing time if M1 and M2 are working or if either one is working while the other one has suspended its processing time due to T4 is working with the entity just went through. The thing is I already tried 2 approaches, the first one was through suspending the server called Volvo (Bloqueo volvo file), and resuming when T4 finished its processing time, but despites it is suspending Volvo's processing time, it doesn't resume it correctly. On the other hand, I tried using a waiting room that blocks the pass of entities trying to reach the Volvo server, but it works erratically (Bloqueo volvo cancha file). I would appreciate any suggestion or help of any kind. Thanks in advance. bloqueo volvo.spfx bloqueo volvo cancha.spfx

Hi Sebastian I've made you an example, hope you find it helpful. Rds. Processing Time Countdown.spfx

Hi, There is not a direct function to access how much Processing Time is left for an entity in the Processing Station, however you can use a workaround that I have attached in a model. The ability to access the function you are referring to in your post is on our Product Backlog, but not being able to access the direct function makes this difficult to achieve. Once you save off the time remaining in a ModelEntity level State Variable, you can use a separate process to compare the value to the "certain amount" that it could exceed and then perform other steps following that. All the best, Caleb CheckRemainingProcessingTime.spfx