Accumulating Entities without Batching Them

Modeling How-To's > Modeling Activities > Accumulating Entities without Batching Them

Accumulating Entities without Batching Them

Accumulate a specified quantity of entities before allowing them to continue processing.

The model used for this example, as well as all of the modeling "how-to" examples, can be found in the ProModel Solutions Café (http://www.promodel.com/solutionscafe/howto/). A video demonstrating this solution can be found here.

Solution

Define a buffer by dragging a buffer onto the layout or by right-clicking on a layout shape and converting it to a buffer.
In the buffer dialog, select Accumulate as the Batching Type.
Enter the quantity to be accumulated (notice that this can be a constant or a variable).

Example

Boxes of finished goods are placed on an accumulation Conveyor until 10 boxes have been accumulated. Then they are moved one at a time by a Handler to a Shipping area for loading onto a carrier. The move time for each box is 20 seconds.

Solution

The Conveyor dialog is shown below.

The routing dialog is shown below showing the Handler resource being used 20 seconds for each box.

The Accumulate batching option for Conveyor causes 10 Boxes to accumulate before moving on.