General Description

This model represents a warehouse. The general process flow is as follows:

1. Products are generated and processed at the finish machine.
2. A forklift picks up the products for storage.
3. A second forklift picks up the stored products from the storages to the shipping dock.
4. Products are loaded into a truck for shipment.

* This example uses a subclassed server ‘MyServer’.

Detailed Description

Initializing the Storage Areas

We initialize the Storage Areas with and Initial WIP. Each storage area has its Initial WIP defined in a
table, Table1. To create these entities at the beginning of the run, we add a OnRunInitialized Process in
the Process window. The process searches Table1, creating a seperate token for each row. These
tokens exit through the found branch and create the amount of Product defined in the ‘InitialWIP’
column. Then we assign a small processing time, signifiying this product has already been stored for a
period of time. And then we transfer to the storage areas.

Storing the Product

The warehouse contains 12 storage areas. The products are picked up by a forklift after being processed
by the Finish machine, which is a Server. The forklift knows where to drop the products by setting
PickUp node Entity Destination Type to ‘Select From List’ where the list includes the input nodes of the
storages. The drop off is done randomly by setting the Selection Goal to ‘Random’.

Storage Areas

As the storages share the same processing time, initial capacity and external view, we decide to model
these storages as a subclassed server ‘MyServer’ to avoid repetitive value settings. The External View
and the default values for the ‘ProcessingTime’ and ‘IntialCapacity’ properties were altered in the
MyServer’s Definitions tab, Properties panel, so that when placed in the model, it is prepopulated with
the correct values and symbol.

Shipping

The products are picked up from the storages by a second forklift that delivers them to the shipping
truck. The forklift is triggered through setting the storage area’s output node’s Ride on Transporter
property to ‘True’. The products are dropped off at a Server with zero processing time where they are
loaded onto a conveyor to the shipping station that is modeled as a Sink.

Useful Tips

Note the use of polylines to define the path decorator of the forklifts circuits.