Dispatcher with 8 operators – only 4 are working, and nearest Source assignment issue

[tugba_aslanturk]

Hi everyone,

I have a model where 2 different Sources are feeding into the same Queues. There are 8 operators responsible for transporting boxes, and I connected them to a Dispatcher.

Problem 1: Only 4 operators are actually working, while the other 4 remain idle. I would like all 8 to be active.

Problem 2: After delivering a box, I want each operator to return to the nearest Source (based on distance). Currently, boxes are generated from Sources with random percentage distribution, but operators don’t automatically go to the closest Source after their task.

How can I fix both issues? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[kavika_faleumu]

Hey @tugba_aslanturk, maybe I can help here.

1. The Dispatcher's default setting is to pick the "first available" operator. That means, it goes down the list of Operators in the "Output Ports" and picks the first one that is available. That means the ones at the top will be used (regardless of distance) before the idle ones.

You can fix this by changing the Dispatcher's "Pass To" property to something like "Shortest Distance" or "Shortest Distance if Available". This will have the Dispatcher pick whichever operator is closest and give them the task.

2. If you want Operators to go back to its nearest Source, you'll probably need to implement some Process Flow. One approach is to put the Sources on a Global List and query whichever one is closest.

First, I put all the Operators in a group so I could create a token whenever one of them has finished an "Unload Task". I initiate a Global List of Fixed Resources with the 2 Sources in it.

One of the default fields is a "distance" field that calculates the distance from an item in the list to whoever pulled from the list.

Using this, we can pull a Source and have the Operator travel to it.

Attached is the example model. Hope this helps!