Model 15 - Setup and Post-processing time

Goals of this lesson

  • Learn what setup and post-processing times are used for at resources and how to assign them

There are resources (typically machines) that need a specific amount of time to get set up before they can work properly. On the other hand, after finishing a task resources may need some time, before they can be used again (post-processing time).

Therefore you can assign setup or / and post-processing times for resources in IYOPRO.

We will use Model 15 to explain this feature. This model is quite simple. It contains one start event, one activity and one end event. Let’s assume we describe the process of a meeting, in which the boss of company X talks to the Division Managers to assess the company’s current situation. Also, let us assume, that the boss needs 30 minutes to get ready before the meeting, and that he needs one hour after the meeting to process all the information he has been given from his division managers.

How-to

Model 1516
Figure 1. Model 15 - Setup and Post-processing time

Approach

  • Select the activity

    • Assign the participants Boss of X and Division Managers to it (just like you learned it in the previous lesson)

  • Now go to the Organization Diagram X

  • Select "Michael" from the organization diagram

    • Under the simulation properties you will now see the options Setup time and Post-processing time (see Figure 3)

    • These are time spans, which can be set with the time editor, which you already are fond of

    • Set the following Distributions for:

      • Setup time: Constant Distribution with a constant value of 30 minutes or 0.5 hours

      • Post-processing time: Constant Distribution with a constant value of 1 hour

  • Further, we assume that they meet every work day

  • The duration of the meeting can be represented by a normal distribution with a mean value of 2 hours and a standard deviation of 30 minutes

Model 15 orga1
Figure 2. Model 15 - Organization Diagram
Model 15 resource properties
Figure 3. Michael’s simulation properties

Explanation

We assigned a setup time of 30 minutes and a post-processing time of 1 hour to the role Boss of X. So, now every process instance has to acquire one Boss of X and two Division Managers when it reaches the activity. After all resource needs are met, the Boss of X’s setup time starts, which means that the process instance has to wait 30 minutes before starting the activity. When the activity has been executed, the process instance moves on to the end event. The resource Boss of X is not available for other process instances yet, because it still has to post-process for 1 hour.

Report

See below for the run configuration, which we set up to receive the report statistics from below.

Please refer to the section Experiment Results for more information on the report specific data.

Run configuration

  • Stochastic Seed: 12345

  • Simulation start date: 1/1/2014 12:00:00 a.m.

  • Simulation stop time: 240

  • Simulation stop time unit: Hours

Report statistics

  • Figure 4 shows us the role Boss of X has been in use for 13.23 hours

  • But the interesting part is that it dedicated 3.5 hours for to set up and 7 hours to post-process before and after the execution of an activity

Model 15 resources
Figure 4. Resource statistics for Boss of X