Set the Crew Size by Shift and Area?

[_aj]

[ FlexSim 25.0.3 ]

I am trying to build a model to easily change the crew size of each area and shift. What's the best way of doing this. My first thought was to build a dispatcher for each, but with 5 shifts and 15+areas, I was hoping there might be a better way that I am not thinking about. Any ideas?

	Machinist	Welder	Inspector
Shift 1	10	8	5
Shift 2	7	3	3

[moehlmann_fe]

You could do something similar to this. With one group/dispatcher per area. If you can determine which shift is about to end/start based on the time of day in the model, then you could potentially build this into a single time table. But using one time table per shift might ultimately be quicker to set up.

Similarly, it would be possible to assign the roles from a global pool of operators, but that will likely bring other problems with it when the shift changes. Like a machinist who is currently busy becoming a welder. Keeping them in separate groups also makes collecting utilization statistics per area much easier.

[_aj]

Thanks, but I don't believe this approach will work for my case.

[moehlmann_fe]

Can you provide some more detail on why it wouldn't work. That would make it easier to come up with other ideas that might better suit your needs.

[_aj]

I am hoping to be able to quickly change the numbers in the table (or switch reference tables) to see the results of manipulating the crew size of the different shifts. Crew size by shift does not always decrease.

[moehlmann_fe]

I don't see how this disqualifies the linked model as a possible solution? You can read the maximum value from the table and adjust the number of operators accordingly.

timetableswithtaskops-2.fsm

[_aj]

My question more revolves around how would you use the experimenter to test different crew sizes. I am unclear how this would be done with this model. I can see how I could just edit the table values and re-run the model, but I was hoping to be able to run each scenario of the model several times for more confidence.

[moehlmann_fe]

I would create one parameter per group and shift. The last of each group reads the values of the other two to determine how many operators are needed.

timetableswithtaskops-3.fsm

You can also use an expression type parameter to define the name of the qty table to use. But having each as a separate parameter has the benefit of having direct access to the values in the experiment results.

[_aj]

Ok. I was hoping there was an easier way than creating 75+ parameters.

[moehlmann_fe]

The time tables are set up to use the group names to refer to the correct parameter. So the difference between the parameters is really just the name and the reference of each third parameter.

As I said, using different global tables would also be an option, but can quickly become worse, depending on how many different parameter combinations you want to run.