2 Entities with different process times through Server

[BKerr]

Hi All,

It's been a while since I have last used Simio and I have an issue that I think should be simple. I have two entities running on a production line, one gets processed by a server and the second entity type moves through the same server almost like a conveyor with no processing. I can work around this by adding another conveyor around the server, but in real life the product does flow through this server and eats at it's capacity. Is there anyway to set up different processing times for multiple entity types on a server?

 

Thanks,

Brendan

[CWatson]

You can do this in several different ways. If you simply have 2 entity types, an easy way to do it would be with a Math.If statement within the Processing Time property. For example, Math.If(Is.Red, 2, 4) - given you had 2+ entity types, the ones that have the entity name 'Red' would process for 2 minutes (or time units specified), all others would process for 4 minutes (time units). You can have multiple Math.If statements (Is.Red,2, Is.Green,4, Is.Blue, 5, 6), for example. Of course, you can use more complex values than 2, 4, 5 for processing times. 

A more flexible way would be to store the information within a table. That is, have a data table that includes the names of all the entity types in an Object Reference type (Entity) property. Then, within that column, set the Auto-set Table Row Reference property to 'True'. This way, when an entity of a given type is created, it has a reference to the row associated with its name automatically.

Then, have another column of type expression (so you can specify a distribution, etc.) which includes the server processing times for each entity type. Then, within the Server, reference TableName.ServerProcessingTimeName as the processing time. 

[BKerr]

Thanks so much! I didn't know you could do "if" statements, that really opens up my simio world!

 

Thanks again for the timely reply.