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You can create a customized server, where you can store the entities in the processing station, with processing time as zero and at the output node of the server make the ride on capacity as true. Also in add on process trigger for transport request you can choose the waiting for vehicle by stacking number. Stacking_RideRequest.spfx

If you mean that an entity should not advance to the next location unless it is available: Try using Node Lists when routing entities to the next location. Lists automatically block the entity from moving forward if the destination server is not available. 1. Create a node list in Definitions>Lists 2. Set the input and output buffers to 0 on your servers 3. On the output nodes, set Entity destination type to "Select From List" and choose the node list. If you mean you have a group entities that are processing at different servers and none in that group can advance until all are processed: Use a Wait step and event. After each entity finishes, trigger the wait step to wait for an event. After the last entity finishes, fire the Event. You will probably also use a Decide step to separate the non-last entities (wait for event) from the last entity (fire event).

Hi Ryan, Thank you for the corrections. As always, spot-on advice, that is very appreciated. I do have a few follow up questions. - Do I set the Initial Sequence property to 'Sequence1' or do I need to tell it the row too? 'Sequence1.Sequence'? Sequence 1 is working, but just wondering. - In the SimBit, Entity Follows Sequence With Relational Tables, there are three types of Entities that all flow through the same source with the Source Property, Table Row Referencing, pulling from the JobTable with the Row Number 'JobTable.ProductMix.RandomRow.' For my model, I have two different entities and the source Bldg is supposed to pull BOTH entities with the Table Row Referencing, "JobsTable" with Row Number: "JobsTable.NumberWorkers.RandomRow." But when the model is run, only one entity is ever used. The Table has an ExpressionProperty of Random.Triangular(3,6,9). Is that the problem? The SimBit's table was an actual number. I tried replacing the Expressions with actual numbers and the Entity switched to use the other one but I am still not able to get half the 34 to be one Entity and the other half to be the other Entity. - How do I get the Vehicle to carry its max capacity? The capacity is set to 6, and it only carries up to 4 entities around at any time. This is incorrect, as the Entities are supposed to be grouped into work teams of Random.Triangular(3,6,9) for their initial Source output move. Afterwards they can be individuals or work teams. The Bldg has the Entity Type defined as the JobsTable.Specialty so it should pull from one or the other (like the below mentioned SimBit), and the with Entities Per Arrival Set at 35; and the Entities themselves are set to a population maximum of 17 each and I get a Runtime error of maximum number exceeds limit for the entities. Why doesn't it hit the limit and then pull from the other Entity? - I'm confused about the network you mentioned above. I thought the nodes had to be linked directly (output to input node). So the busy nodes have a lot of paths radiating out from them and it makes it a little messy. Is there a cleaner way to show the routing? Thank you,

Hi M_A, The sequences in your table are never assigned to the entities before or as they are created. Assigned the sequences by selecting the entity instances in the Facility view, and set the Initial Sequence property under Routing Logic to 'Sequence1'. Also, the Entity Destination Type property on all of your Transfer Nodes, including the outputs nodes of all Servers, must be set to 'By Sequence' in order for the entities to follow the sequence appropriately. Here are a few other things I noticed while looking over the model: All of your Servers only have the capacity to process 1 entity at a time, so for your case only one employee can work in that area at one time. As soon as each employee is done working they will request a pick up 1 at a time. May not be what you are looking for here. The processing times at the Servers aren't linked to the table. You can link them by setting them to 'Sequence1.ProcessingTime'. Be sure to set the appropriate units in the column properties of ProcessTimes. It is hard to see the network that is available for the Vehicle, so one more thing to check is that the Vehicle has all of the needed paths to pick up and drop off the entities. Thanks, Ryan

Hi Ryan, -The model gets stuck at about an 1 hour into it. Can't get it past the vehicle going back to the 'Bldg,' as seen when I track the vehicle. -The distributions are all random triangular with set parameters in the Sequence1 Table. The idea was that the 35 people/Entities would arrive at the Bldg Source and as Entities the JobsTable would assign a random triangular number of workers to a job and then start ferrying them per the sequence in the Sequence1 Table from the Key Column from the Bldg. The vehicle can carry 6 people but it seems to only carry 4 at a time. Also, the ferrying is completed at about an hour and the vehicle just stops at the Bldg with 4 passengers. Instead, it needs to continue ferrying by having the entities 'call' the vehicle to their location to continue the route sequence, through LunchBreak, and then get eliminated at the EndOfShift node. 11May.v2.spfx

Hi M_A, It is difficult to determine what could be causing this without seeing the model. Here are a few things I suggest investigating: Ensure that your model run time is set run long enough for all of your entities to flow through your system. To test this, I would set your model run time to Infinity, and create 1 set of 35 employees. Then see how long it take for the model to cycle through all entities. You may be able to use some Animation at this step to see where the entities are getting stuck. Along with #1, I suggest turning on the Model Trace and reviewing the steps taken for each of your employees and the bus. If you are using an unbounded random distribution (for example a normal distribution) for any of your processing times, then the result of that distribution could be something very large. You should be able to see if that is the case within your Model Trace review as well. Lastly, make sure all of your Transfer Nodes are set to route By Sequence and require the bus for transport. Hope this helps. Thanks, Ryan

With several servers, entities only wait in one queue, while the rest of them are empty. How can I settle it to make them go to the emptiest ones? I thought it was by changing the outbound link rule of the output node from "shortest path" to "by link weight" but it's still not working. Thanks!

To answer your question specifically with regards to the MultiEchelonSupplyChain example, the OnReplenishOrder process that you see in the process logic of the data table driven example is automatically executed by the Inventory elements when the inventory detects the need to replenish. Go to Definitions -> Elements and click on the Inventory elements and you will see where that process is being referenced. The ShippingReceivingLogic process is being executed when an entity enters any of the BasicNodes placed in the Facility View. For example, click on the DistributionCenter node and in the Add-On Processes -> Entered property you will see the name of that process befiling referenced. The TryFulfillOrder process is executed by the OnCustomerOrder process using an Execute step, which is in term triggered by a customer order arrival. Note that If you are trying to figure out where the name of a process is being referenced, you might go to Project Home in the ribbon UI and go to the Search window. And then search for the name of the process in the model, and it will show you the locations where it is being referenced.

Hi everyone For the competition this year, we have to make waves for the warehouse system and Simio has sent us a base model of the wave system (attached below) but I am unsure how to take the base model for the wave system that simio sent us and integrate it with my own model . So currently my shelves are all sources and there's specific weights going from the source to cater for if the item is for future/now, apparel /footwear, case/multi/single and if it's at the top or bottom shelf and the source produces around 30 entities at a time at certain time intervals and the vehicles will pick it up from the node and take it to its specific location.( I calculated all the weights : for example 70 percent of items are footwear and 30 percent are apparel, etc) Can anyone please suggest how I can integrate the wave system into my model ? ( I was thinking of somehow connecting the base model to my sources??) Thanks a lot BaseModel_May2020_StudentCompetition.spfx

Hi Mahe, In the case of delayin time of BasicNode14_Entered==50 the condition of NombreVehiculeInChat - NombreVehiculeOutChat < 3 is not satisfied and then 6th, 11th, 16th etc vehicle's node are set at BasicNode18. If you want to see what I mean in BasicNode14_Entered process, set delay8 step's delay time to 60.

I am trying to model a repair process. A major part of this process is the time to get the tools from their storage locations to the machine that needs repair. My thought was to have the tools be modeled as entities that a fork lift or worker has to go grab and bring back to the server. The problem is I need to wait for all those entities to be there before the server can start to process. Then I want to destroy the entities because they aren't actually being processed (only 1 entity would be processed as a representation). Does anyone have a suggestion on how this might be accomplished? Thanks.

You can just use a process with a WAIT step. On entity arrival you will fire and event and the process will go on. I also belive that a worker is derived from entity so you can use workers instead of entities. Or the best fitting thing is to use consume step to consume a material (the tools). And have two inventories for it (one near the machine, one in the warehouse of tools). There are some simbits with the basic inventory concepts.

Wait, actually this doesn't work. Check the attached model: Create a new ContainerEntity with a string state named whatever you like; Assign NewContainerEntity.NewStringState = Filler.Name when entering the filler. Use this expression any time you need the name of the last station that entity visited. Get Station Name.spfx

Hi all, I am wondering of there is a way to create something comparable to a"wait" resourcestate. Maybe by defining or monitoring the "waiting time" of a server. Thankyou in advance!

In order to see the entities accumulated on any path you should first transfer the created entities (which Adam mentioned above) out of the source object. The attached model shows one way of how you can achieve accumulated enities on any path. isThereInputBufferCapa.spfx

The recommended approach might vary by what you are waiting for. For example if the plane is a Vehicle that will come to pick up the passengers, then the easiest approach is probably to have a Server with 0 processing time. Entities will flow through it with no delay, but then wait in the outbound transfer node for the Ride requested. If you want to wait on something more arbitrary you could direct the entity that enters an outbound transfer node to Wait for an event. Then you would have to add some logic to Fire that event (unless it is one that is already automatically fired). You should post your questions inside the Simio Insider forum where we can post screenshots and examples to provide a more complete answer.

You can use seperate servers (each has 1 capacity) each represents individual firms. Create entities (raw products) via a data table where you should also include one column (a node property from object reference property) to represent where the created entity will be processed (as its destination). Then at the output node of the source object set entity destination type property to specific. Then set node name to Table1.NodeInstanceProperty1. The entities will be routed appropriately.

Hello together, would be very thankful for any advice: I have a sequence table with sequences according to their workstations: A - B - C - D If I only have one operator, they can just be done one after another. If I have 2 Operators A and B can be done simultaneously to C. How can I model this? The problem is probably, that the entity (batch) has to be splitted to let workstation A and C run at the same time. I tried it with process-add-ons like creating a second entity and transfer it to Station C. There might be a much easier solution?! Thank you in advance!

Depending upon your model logic, you may wish to use the Add-On Process Triggers in either a TransferNode/BasicNode object or a Worker object. If the worker's desired speed (which can be accessed with the WorkerName.DesiredSpeed state variable) changes at various transfer nodes in the model, you could use the Worker's Entered Node add-on process - then within that process, have a Decide step (or multiple ones) to check the node name, destination node and then Assign the desired speed as appropriate. If the worker's desired speed is pretty constant except for a few occasions, you could instead have the add-on process at a specific TransferNode through its Entered add-on process, where you already then know the location and just have to Assign the desired speed as appropriate (or perhaps Decide where the worker is going via destination node and assign).

Hi, I have model with multiple vehicles and servers in parallel. I made a process for my vehicles to wait for all the entities they carry to process before exiting. Now I would like to create a process for my vehicles to choose a server that is free (or has less number of entity processing). I have already tried to do so by selecting on the previous output node the entity destination to NodeList, and then Smallest value --> Candidate.Node.AssociatedStationLoad, but then my vehicle make a U-turn instead of dropping all entities at the same server. For my vehicle process I tried to put first a Search step : Collection type : NodeList Search Type : foward SearchCandidate.Server.Capacity.Allocated==0 Save Index found : not sure what to use ? Then I would like to set the next destination node of my vehicle to the one found by the search step, but I havn't found how to do it. Can someone be of any help ? Thanks in advance !

There are several ways of doing this. One way would be to write out (to a external spreadsheet OR an output table in Simio, depending on your Simio licensing) the exit time for each entity (and perhaps other entity specific property information, such as priority, etc. Then, you could use that same file (or copy of the output table results) as an input file for your second model. Alternatively, you could place each of these 'models' into a third 'model' in the project and connect them. This would require several changes - the first model (with the Sink output) would require the model to simply have a Transfer Node output - and then right-click the Transfer Node and select 'Bind to New External Output Node'. This will allow that model to then become an object in another model. The second model would also need to be revised to include a Basic Node input (instead of the Source input) where you would right-click on the Basic Node and select 'Bind to New External Input Node'. Finally, you would select New Model from the Project Home ribbon to start building your 'combined' model. On the left side of Simio, instead of selecting from the Standard Library of objects, you would select your Model1 and Model2 objects from the Project Library at the bottom. The TransferNode of Model1 can then be connected to the BasicNode of Model2 with a path. That is the basic concept - you may wish to look at SimBits under the category 'Building New Objects / Hierarchy' for more information.

Hey, I am modeling a system that has a large number of stations (e.g. 50). I created a Data Table with as Element column related to my Stations. I am transferring entities from a Source (and later from a Node) to the Stations and therefore I need to End Transfer. I would like to do this "automatically". That is, I don't want to create 50 processes where the triggering event is StationName.Entered I was trying to use the information from my Data Table: TableName[RowNumberRelatedToStation].ColumnNameOfStationElement.Entered I had a status label for: TableName[RowNumberRelatedToStation].ColumnNameOfTheStation. And this is actually showing the name of my Stations correctly. However, TableName[RowNumberRelatedToStation].ColumnNameOfTheStation.Entered is not working to trigger my Process to End Transfer. My guess is that Simio is converting the information into String and not Element and, hence, it does not recognize that Station.Entered happened. Any ideas if this should work or how can I make it work? Also, any other idea about how to End Transfer automatically are welcome. I have a solution that work, but I think it is an "ugly" one. So, I thought about asking if you may have a better solution.

The main problem I see with task sequences is I don't see a way to reschedule tasks for later. I used the "Token Wait Action: No Wait" setting on an execute step, then executed the Seize->delay->release process in that step. This does what I wanted. Thanks for taking the time to help.

One way to do this would be to start with a vehicle with the Initial Number In System property set to '0' or '1'. Then, in the OnRunInitialized process at start of simulation, use a Delay step then Create step to Create a new vehicle into the system (causing the number in system to be increased). Make sure to use a Transfer step to transfer the new Vehicle to the appropriate node upon creation. Keep in mind also that Vehicles can be created, but not destroyed. This will allow you then to stagger your vehicle start.

Check my attached model. Is that what you're looking for? I created a Expression Property in Object2 and set its value to the Object1_1 state. State Transfer.spfx