topic Re: Linking SetupTime Table Values to an Item Label in FlexSim Forum

Linking SetupTime Table Values to an Item Label

dylan_r2 — Mon, 17 Dec 2018 15:03:18 GMT

[ FlexSim 18.2.2 ]

Hello, I would like to link the setup time values in my SetupMatrix to be equal to the value of a label placed on the item so that I can change the value of this label in the Experimenter and see the effect setup time has on capacity/throughput. I cannot figure out how to call out the label value from the table.

Re: Linking SetupTime Table Values to an Item Label

tanner_p — Mon, 17 Dec 2018 16:37:15 GMT

I think I would use the "By Global Table Lookup" for this. Am I understanding correctly that the label values will be on the items? You can reference the rows and columns like shown in the screenshot below:

Re: Linking SetupTime Table Values to an Item Label

dylan_r2 — Mon, 17 Dec 2018 18:12:54 GMT

@Tanner Poulton My SetupMatrix is a to-from matrix based on item type, because the setup time slightly differs for one item type depending on what item type was run before it. Is there any way to keep the to-from matrix and instead of "2.5" or "4" have it reference a label directly in the table? This would hopefully allow me to change the label, therefore changing the values that are referenced in the table for my experiments?

Re: Linking SetupTime Table Values to an Item Label

tanner_p — Mon, 17 Dec 2018 20:08:20 GMT

Oh, I think I misunderstood what you were looking for. So you would like the table values to be manipulated in different experimenter runs? Would it be possible to just use multiple tables? If not, because there's too many iterations, we can work on an alternative solution for this.

Re: Linking SetupTime Table Values to an Item Label

dylan_r2 — Mon, 17 Dec 2018 20:16:30 GMT

I would only need 3 labels I think, as there will only ever be 3 different setup times used in the table (in my table now those are .5, 2.5, and 4 hours), does this help? I can manipulate the table manually if need-be. I would like to avoid that so I can also change the number of shifts an operator will be working within experimenter and have all graphs/results output to one screen so it's easy to have a summary view of results.

Re: Linking SetupTime Table Values to an Item Label

tanner_p — Mon, 17 Dec 2018 20:33:42 GMT

If you only need the 3 variations, you could probably get away with creating "SetupMatrix", "SetupMatrix2", and "SetupMatrix3" and then changing which one the processor uses before each experimenter run. I know this is kind of tedious, but the other option I'm working on would involve a significant amount of code and additional objects.

If you had say, 10+ tables of setup times, it would probably be worth going the more complex route. I'll keep working with it to see if I can find any alternatives, though.

Re: Linking SetupTime Table Values to an Item Label

dylan_r2 — Mon, 17 Dec 2018 20:40:23 GMT

@Tanner Poulton

I used a similar method that I'm pretty sure you recommended for Operator Time Tables. How would I turn one setup matrix on/off for a simulation using the method with 3 separate tables? It sounds like that will be the most effective way to address my specific situation.

Re: Linking SetupTime Table Values to an Item Label

tanner_p — Mon, 17 Dec 2018 21:31:24 GMT

Here's a potential solution that should work as long as you have three distinct tables that you can access. (For demonstration purposes, I simply created two copies of your existing table.)

1. I created a label on Machine called "SetupMatrix" that will determine which of the three tables to use. It's declared as "1" in the sample.

2. The Setup Time function is now accessing one of the three tables based on the label "SetupMatrix" like this:

3. In your experimenter, you can select which of the three tables you'd like to use by simply changing the label on your machine. This is shown below:

Hopefully this helps and creating the three tables isn't too meticulous. I've attached the demo model below.

Model: setupmatrixexample.fsm