topic Re: Automatic Gowning in FlexSim Forum

Automatic Gowning

maryamh11 — Sun, 17 Sep 2023 03:12:51 GMT

[ FlexSim 23.2.0 ]

Hi,

I want to establish shifts for RNs and MDs in the model below. Specifically, I'd like to implement a process where, following their lunch break and when commencing their shift the next day, the employees undergo the gowning process automatically. This means that after their lunch break, they will temporarily leave their workstations and spend their unscheduled/lunch time in a designated area. Upon returning, they will then go through the gowning process.

How is this feasible, given that one flow consists of tokens representing activities, while the other flow involves tokens representing worker instances (object flow)?

shiftscheduling-autogowning_1.fsm

@Felix Möhlmann can you take a look at this?

Re: Automatic Gowning

jason_lightfoot_adsk — Sun, 17 Sep 2023 15:48:44 GMT

Token's don't represent activities - they represent the state of a process invocation. In an object process flow and subflow they can be tied to an instance object. Your subflow doesn't use the instance to reference anything so your model already demostrates the answer to your question - it uses token labels exclusively.

Re: Automatic Gowning

maryamh11 — Sun, 17 Sep 2023 17:26:57 GMT

I don't understand, my model has not an automatic gowning in place thae way I want.

Re: Automatic Gowning

moehlmann_fe — Mon, 18 Sep 2023 06:58:41 GMT

You can implement the gowning as a part of the down behaviour.

The predefined down behaviours of the HC environment use a Process Flow to acquire the staff/equipment, move it to the break location and keep it occupied for the duration of the break. (Double click on the "Shift Schedule" node to open the Process Flow view.)

You could implement a similar system yourself. Or, which would be somewhat easier, use the predefined behaviours and alter the Process Flow to include the gowning at the end of the break.

Re: Automatic Gowning

maryamh11 — Mon, 18 Sep 2023 19:06:43 GMT

@Felix Möhlmann Thanks for your answer.

Actully this was just a sample model, the main model i'm working on is in the classical environment. I 'm wondering with the first approach you recomended is there any difference when I have operators attach to an object flow and the operators that will be acquired from a Resource through a process flow?

Also if I go with the first approach, meaning adding a new offschedule beahvior (that has gowning process upon return) under Down Behaviors can I update that Process Flow Node in Model Tree as well? I don't see Process Flow View in the Tree there?

I liked the first approach since only a group of my operators need to do gowning upon return, it's not a universal OffSchedule behavior.

Re: Automatic Gowning

moehlmann_fe — Tue, 19 Sep 2023 06:22:28 GMT

For the most part, an Object Flow works just like a General Process Flow. The key differences are:

- Sources will create a token for each instance object (except Event Triggered Source if it listens for an event on the instance object)
- Resources and Lists can be set to Local. Meaning each instance has its own independent copy of that resource.
- The instance object being accessible through current in any activity's code.

Having an object flow does not "acquire"/"reserve" the instance object in any way. If it is attached to other flows as a resource, those can still acquire it separately. As such, you should make sure that the Object flow acquires the instance object itself (from the resource in the other flow) before giving any tasks to it.

As I wrote: Double click on the Flow's node to open the Process Flow view.

In the default environment, you can still add new down behaviours. To use a Process Flow, you can use Token.create() to generate a token in at any point in a Process Flow (generally I do so in a "Start" activity).

DownBehaviourFlow.fsm

Re: Automatic Gowning

jason_lightfoot_adsk — Fri, 22 Sep 2023 12:55:38 GMT

Hi @Maryam H2, was Felix Möhlmann's answer helpful? If so, please click the "Accept" button at the bottom of their answer. Or if you still have questions, add a comment and we'll continue the conversation.

If we haven't heard back from you within 3 business days we'll auto-accept an answer, but you can always comment back to reopen your question.