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SIMPROCESS User`s Manual Part B

1. Resource Proveties OOOO O General Cost Downtime Attributes Expressions n Name Mode Value red Help Cancer x Copy Metadata Remove x Undo Comment SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 34 Assign Activity Assign Activity The Assign Activity can be used to assign values to globally defined Attributes and local Entity instance and Entity Type Attributes The Assign can also change the priority of an Entity Changing an Attribute Value with the Assign Activity The Set Attribute list box of the Assign Activity is used to change the value of any global Attribute except globally defined Resource Attributes and local Entity instance and Entity Type Attributes Once an Attribute has been selected clicking on the Add button will open up the Assign Attribute Properties dialog rc Tp Assign Properties General Resources Attributes Expressions Event Logs Text Block Documentation Counts OK Name Assign10 V Show Name T Use Text Block Cancel A H Icon a Assign gt pea Help ___ Icon Set Default Z New Entity Set Entity Priority None ce NewResource Set Attributes Global Attributes Entity applianceWeight 1 0 Aga Entity Remove Entity Type Edit Resource Model Duration Before Assigning Value None i Units Hours Zs Collect Activity Statistics Collect Activity by Entity Statistics
2. If typing continues the list continues to narrow the options to the items that matched what is typed The example below shows the beginning of the list once Model has been typed SIMPROCESS Users Manual 49 Writing Expressions Accept Entity Expression Script Edit Define User Defined Attributes System Attributes A Expression Language System Methods _ ny Expression Language j Data Types Mathematical Operators Relational Operators Logical Operators Ej Language Constructs Description lt m r o Use Expression in File Refresh Save ao Done Validate Cancel E If Model NumInQueue is the item of interest it can be added to the text either by double clicking Model NumInQueue in the list or using the down arrow key to highlight it then pressing the Enter key Alternatively for this example if Model N is typed Model NumInQueue would be the only item in the list and Enter can be pressed to add it to the Expression text The following actions will cause the SSMPROCESS Expression Assistant to disappear e Adding an item from the list to the Expression text e A point in the typing is reached where there are no matching items e Moving the cursor by clicking in another part of the editable area e The Edit or Define menu is selected Use Expression in File is selected e Scrolling causes the cursor
3. Weekly Schedule V Monday 17 00 00 V Tuesday 17 00 00 V Wednesday 17 00 00 Thursday 17 00 00 Friday 17 00 00 Day of Week Start Time End Time E Sunday 00 00 00 00 00 00 23 59 59 23 59 59 23 59 59 23 59 59 23 59 59 OOOO oSOS E Saturday 00 00 00 00 00 00 4 lt gt 4 gt lt gt Ia gt Ilia gt Downtime Options Interrupt Activities Comment Start Downtime when Resource is Idle Release All Resources Start Downtime when Resource Queue Empty Cancel Help E Variable Weekly Downtime Schedule A Variable Weekly Downtime schedule allows the Start Time and End Time to be parameterized Selecting the Variable button causes the Variable tab to be visible The format is the same as the Fixed Weekly Downtime schedule except the SIMPROCESS distribution list is available for each Start Time and End Time Note that all the distributions are available however the values returned must be between 0 0 and 24 0 inclusive Thus the times must be REAL numbers where minutes and seconds are represented as the decimal portion of the number The time 12 30 00 would be 12 5 If the End Time is 0 0 24 0 is assumed The End Time can be less than the Start Time If so the downtime for the selected day crosses midnight Note though that the Start Time cannot equal the End Time unless both are
4. Resource AnyOne Member Reserve As Available Model All Members Number of Members None Maximum Wait for Resource Time Value None Time Unit Hours Release Entities In Process at Start of Downtime Comment To add a Model Attribute to the Requirements list select the desired Attribute from the combo box then click Add Model Attribute TeS OOOO O General Resources Expressions Event Logs Text Block Documentation Counts GBR Resource model attribute Add amp mY Resources Eb Model 1 Remove J Sales Rep Edit JR Service Rep i Customer Rep New Resource Help ce PEA Global Attributes LEi o Entity Type Model Attributes SeniceRepType M Requires Any One Member Reserve As Available Model All Members Number of Members None Maximum Wait for Resource Time Value None gt a Time Unit Hours X Release Entities In Process at Start of Downtime Comment Now the Activity has one Resource request represented by the Model Attribute SalesRepType Note that the icon in front of the Attribute name indicates that this is a Model Attribute instead ofa Resource When the simulation is run the value of SalesRepType is taken to be the Resource requested Since SalesRepType is a Model Parameter the value can be changed before
5. Ge aH EN Al Export Results Spreadsheet S Close ada Edit Re E l Add adds a new spreadsheet export Edit edits the selected spreadsheet export Copy creates a new spreadsheet export based on the selected spreadsheet export Remove deletes the selected spreadsheet export Undo restores a deleted spreadsheet export When Add is selected the following dialog displays SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 190 Defining and Executing Spreadsheet Exports r z eee O Y Name File Name Execute Options __ Execute before every replication __ Execute before first replication Execute after every replication __ Execute after last replication Execute after last replication using average of replication results Preview Spreadsheet before execution Create Spreadsheet ExportResultsSpreadsheet1 Add Sheet J Copy Sheet Rename Sheet Remove Sheet Reorder Sheets Add Value Change Value Entity Edit Resource Remove Activity Ber Resource Connector eS ky Connector Time Stamp Model Attribute Model Attribute ms Time Stamp Cost Text EJ Cost Value OLOIN IMM amp lwlmola System Method T Text System Method Sheet1 Be The Name for the spreadsheet export must be unique and is only used within the model to identify this spreadsheet export The
6. The Appendices are e Importing Version 2 2 1 Models e Activity Summary Table e SIMPROCESS File Structure e Statistical Distributions e Statistical Tools Glossary SIMPROCESS System Attributes and Methods e External Event Files e Simulation Results File e UML Interfaces e Running Models Without GUI e SIMPROCESS and External Java Classes Metadata Manual The Metadata Manual describes how to build and edit SIMPROCESS metamodels assign metamodels to a SIMPROCESS model and enter metadata in a SIMPROCESS model The chapters are e SIMPROCESS Metadata e SIMPROCESS Metamodel Editor e Assigning Metamodels e Entering Metadata e BPEL Metadata OrgModel Manual The OrgModel Manual describes how to build and edit SIMPROCESS Organization and Resource Models OrgModels and assign OrgModels to a SIMPROCESS model The chapters are e SIMPROCESS Organization and Resource Models e SIMPROCESS OrgModel Editor e Assigning OrgModels e Using OrgModels with SIMPROCESS CHAPTER 1 Reusable Templates and Libraries One of the most powerful features of SIMPROCESS is the reusable Template A Template is an Activity hierarchical Process Resource Resource Downtime or Resource Shift that is defined and reused over and over A Library is a collection of templates that can be saved and loaded during a modeling session SIMPROCESS provides a standard set of templates such as Activities Processes Resources Resource Downtimes and Resource Shifts Te
7. Model ProcessTimeHistogram CreatePlot Histogram Entity Processing Time Histogram Time in Minutes Number 10 0 AddPlotLegend This method adds a legend to a plot The syntax is AddPlotLegend Model ObjectAttribute Dataset Label Color Optional The first parameter is the Object Attribute that points to the appropriate plot Datasetis an INTEGER beginning with 0 that represents the set of data to which this legend applies Thus multiple data sets SIMPROCESS Users Manual 105 Creating and Controlling Plots With Expressions can be plotted on the same graph Label is a STRING and is the text of the legend Ifused Color must bea STRING and the Color mustbe one of the ones listed in the SIMPROCESS Color Table If Color is not used the plot will automatically assign a color to the legend and data set Note that legends will appear on the plot in the order in which the AddPlotLegend methods are executed AddPlotLegend Model ProcessTimeTrace 0 Orders Blue AddPlotLegend Model ProcessTimeTrace 1 Invoice Green AddPlotLegend Model ProcessTimeHistogram 0 Orders Blue AddPlotLegend Model ProcessTimeHistogram 1 Invoice Green ClearPlot This method removes all data from a plot The syntax is ClearPlot Model ObjectAttribute where Model ObjectAttribute is the Object Attribute that points to the appropriate plot DisplayPlot This method causes a plot to be
8. Defining and Executing Database Exports Executing SQL Statements Preset Execution The Execute Options section of the Export Results to Database dialog contains six options Execute before every replication Execute before first replication Execute after every replication Execute after last replication Execute after last replication using average of replication results Preview SQL before execution The options Execute before every replication and Execute before first replication cannot both be selected at the same time If Execute before every replication is selected then Execute before first replication is selected Execute before every replication will be deselected The same is true for Execute after every replication and Execute after last replication Execute after last replication using average of replication results is independent of the other options therefore it is not affected by any other selection This option uses the same results as the Standard Report and Simulation Results when Average of Replication is selected SQL statements that are selected for execution before a replication are executed just before the simulation begins Thus they are executed after any Start Simulation Expressions Similarly SQL statements that are selected for execution after a replication are executed after any End Simulation Expressions See Expression Activation Events for information on Expression execution When
9. Properties File should contain the name of the file with the database connection and location information This file must be located in the model s directory See SIMPROCESS and Other Databases for properties file and JDBC driver requirements Tabbing out of this field selecting another field orusing the Browse button to select the Properties File will cause SIMPROCESS to attempt to connect to the database specified in the Properties File field SIMPROCESS must be able to connect to the database in order to constructan SQL statementusing this interface An errormessage will display if a connection cannot be established with the database x Unable to connect to database for Export Results Database ExportResultsDatabase1 Cx If the connection is successful the Select Table section will display the non system tables defined in the database The database included with the Demos model DatabaseDemo was used for this SIMPROCESS User s Manual 176 Defining and Executing Database Exports chapter The Execute Options section is discussed below in Executing SQL Statements r pi Export Results to Database esl Name ExportResultsDatabase1 OK Cancel Properties File example properties i Execute Options Hep _ Execute before every replication __ Execute before first replication Execute after every replication Z Execute after last replication Execut
10. This is the Generate Activity Each appliance order is an Entity 2 The orders are processed and eventually make their way to a distribution center in the form of appliances This takes place within a subprocess The details are not important for this example 3 Appliances are shipped to customers from the distribution center A Batch Activity is used to ship appliances as a group Shipments arereleased when the total weight ofall appliances awaiting delivery reaches 5000 pounds In order to accomplish the objective of releasing the batch when a certain weight is accumulated do the following 1 Define Attributes to represent the weight Attribute of Entities define global Entity Attribute applianceWeight 2 Assign values to the weight Attributes 3 Accumulate and track the weight of Entities received at the Batch Activity define local Attribute at Batch Activity named batchWeight 4 Trigger the release of Entities if a specified weight is reached and prevent the release of Entities otherwise Build Process Flow Open a new model and place a Generate Activity Process Batch Activity and Dispose activity on the layout Connect the Activities Descend into the Process and connect the incoming Input Pad to the outgoing Output Pad The details of the Process are not important for this example SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 60 Example Batching Entities Based on Weight Initializing Entity Attributes First assig
11. OpenSpreadsheet Mode FileName where Mode is either Input or Output A spreadsheet file cannot be open for both reading and writing at the same time If FileName does not contain a path the preferred method the file s location will be the model s directory If the Mode is Input the file must already exist Two different file types are supported Workbook files which usually have the x1s or xlsx extension and Excel XML Spreadsheet files which usually have the xm1 extension When a spreadsheet is opened for Output and the file does not already exist SIMPROCESS will create a Workbook file that is compatible with any of the latest versions of Excel If FileName has the extension x1s an Excel 2003 compatible file is created If FileName has the extension xlsx an Excel 2007 compatible file is created Also the Workbook file is compatible with the Calc spreadsheet program in OpenOffice www openoffice org widely used with Linux and other platforms If a spreadsheet file opened for Output already exists and is an XML Spreadsheet SIMPROCESS will retain that format SIMPROCESS Users Manual 92 Interfacing With A Spreadsheet CloseSpreadsheet CloseSpreadsheet is used to close a spreadsheet file If opened for Output the file s contents will be written at this time This normally occurs at the end of a simulation End Simulation or End Run Expression The syntax is CloseSpreadsheet Model ObjectAttribute
12. All elements of a Process or Activity template can be viewed from the Library Manager Process templates include all the Processes and Activities that were a part of the Process Activity templates include the Activity itself Both types of templates contain other elements that were referenced by the Process or Activity placed in the Library These elements include Resources Resource Downtimes Resource Shifts Entity Types global Entity Attributes global Entity Type Attributes global Resource Attributes global Activity Attributes Model Attributes named distributions tabular distributions Functions Input Sources and Auto Fits distributions Note that code stored ina file for an Expression in a Process or Activity template or code stored in a file for a Function referenced is not included in the template The file references are included in the template but the template does not carry the files or their content with it The figure below shows a template named Process Calls in the Customer Service Library fi y Library Manager eS D Libraries Help Customer Service Process Calls HH Process Calls Resources Resource Downtimes Resource Shifts EntityTypes GlobalEntityAttributes GlobalEntityTypeAttributes GlobalResourceAttributes GlobalProcessAttributes Load G GlobalModelAttributes NamedDistributionList Unload TabularDistributionList E Functions Save AutoFits Spread
13. AnyTag e FreeResource Resourcel this operates the same as the previous e FreeResource AnyResource myTag e FreeResource AnyResource AnyTag SIMPROCESS User s Manual 72 Getting and Freeing Resources Using Expressions FreeResource AnyResource this operates the same as the previous These are the same combinations that are available in the Free Resource Activity The following example shows getting and freeing a Resource at a typical Delay Activity GetResource Sales Rep 1 FreeResource Sales Rep Combining Get and Free Expressions With Activities These system methods can be used with the Get Resource and Free Resource Activities Any Resource obtained with the GetResource system method can be released by a Free Resource Activity However itis important to note that tags used ina GetResource system method will not beavailable in a Free Resource Activity if those tags have not been used in a Get Resource Activity Likewise any Resource obtained with a Get Resource Activity can be released witha FreeResource system method SIMPROCESS User s Manual 73 Creating Resources Using Expressions Creating Resources Using Expressions For most models Resources are defined when the model is created using the Define Resources menu item See Resource Modeling Constructs This is done because the Resources that are required by the model are known when the model is created
14. For example to display a string showing the name of the Entity leaving a delay Activity as well as areal value showing the amount of time this instance of an Entity spent at the Activity and an integer showing number of Entities currently at that Activity enter the following three commands in the Expression builder of the delay Activity at the Release Entity entry point UpdateDynamicLabel MasterEditor num 0 Orange NumberIn UpdateDynamicLabel MasterEditor name 0 Aquamarine Entity Name UpdateDynamicLabel MasterEditor lastdelay 0 IndianRed LastDelay For more information on Expression builder terminology and syntax see SIMPROCESS System Attributes and Methods Note that both dynamic and static text font Attributes can be changed during simulation by selecting the text and editing its properties The change will take effect immediately after the Background Text dialog is closed and the simulation is resumed SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 85 Interfacing With A Database Interfacing With A Database Expressions can retrieve information from an SQL database and can modify an SQL database by inserting into tables deleting from tables and updating tables Knowledge of SQL is required since all queries to the database are SQL queries A sample model named DatabaseDemo spm is part of the ExpressionDemos directory Database System Methods There are seven database related System Methods which can be use
15. GetResourceStatistic Sales Rep resrcidle Avg 1 returns the average number of Sales Rep units idle across replications GetResourceStatistic Sales Rep resrcbusy Max 1 returns the maximum number of Sales Rep units busy for replication 1 GetResourceByActivityStatistic GetResourceByActivityStatistic returns the value of a statistic for a Resource that has Collect Resource By Activity Statistics selected either globally on the Resource properties See Default Performance Measures The syntax is GetResourceByActivityStatistic Resource Name Activity Name Value Type Replication where Resource Name is the name of the Resource and Activity Name is the name of the Activity Value Type can be Avg StDev Min Max Count or RunLength Replication is the replication desired or the average or sum of replications Some examples GetResourceByActivityStatistic Sales Rep Sales Avg 1 returns the average number of Sales Rep units busy at Activity Sales across replications GetResourceByActivityStatistic Sales Rep Sales Max 1 returns the maximum number of Sales Rep units busy at Activity Sales for replication 1 GetResourceByShiftStatistic GetResourceByShiftStatistic returns the value ofa statistic fora Resource that has Collect Resource By Shift Statistics selected either globally on the Resource properties See Default SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 101
16. Comment J The combo box in the Set Attributes field contains the names ofall the Attributes that the Assign Activity can access Selecting an Attribute from the pull down list and then clicking on the Add button will open the Attribute Assignment dialog where the Attribute value is specified Likewise by selecting an Attribute from the left side of the Set Attributes list and clicking on the Remove or Edit buttons an Attribute assignment can be removed or changed The Operation field contains the operators that can be used to change the value ofthe selected Attribute The supported operators are and equals addition subtraction multiplication and division SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 35 Assign Activity The Value field contains the value to be used with the Operation This can take the form of aconstant a Statistical Distribution a User defined Function or an Evaluate Evl Function User defined Functions can be found on page 83 of this chapter The Evaluate Function is covered on page 54 Attribute Assignment Attribute Model applianceWeight x Operation EA Value 1 0 g Each time an Entity enters the Assign Activity the Set Attribute commands are performed Important Ifthe Attribute selected for assignment is a local Entity or Entity Type Attribute arun time error will occur if an Entity enters the Activity that does not have the selected Attribu
17. E 120 115 110 L 1 L 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 o8 i Replication SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 107 Creating and Controlling Plots With Expressions SD SIMPROCESS Real Time Graph eel e File Edit Special Entity Processing Time Histogram El 3 0 Orders Invoice 2 5 2 0 Number in I 1 0L 0 in T 0 110 115 120 125 130 135 140 145 Time in Minutes SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 108 Summary Summary This chapter described how Attributes are used in SIMPROCESS and introduced Expression processing with a step by step example The following was discussed Attributes are variables of model elements whose value can change during a simulation run System Attributes are those built in to SIMPROCESS User Defined Attributes are cus tom defined by users Object Attributes identify the model element whose Attribute is being referenced Globally defined user Attributes are created for every model element of the same class Activities Resources etc Locally defined Attributes apply only to a single type of a model element Expressions are user written procedures which are invoked by SIMPROCESS at various events during a simulation run An introduction to the basics of this language begins on page 42 Object Attributes are used in Expressions to qualify Attribute references Numerous System Methods are available to add functions to Expressio
18. Schedule Valentine s Day Sale OK Cancel Entity use default mA Help Quantity use default v Duration 40 v Time Units Hours z Repeat Event 0 v se Infinite Comment E d A single event has the same parameters as a calendar cycle except that when the event begins cannot be specified A single event s starting date and time is dependent on the cycles that precede it in the pattern of cycles Once the event is active the generation occurs at the end of the duration Defining Inactive Time Periods The No Event cycle defines a period of time during which no Entities are generated for example a holiday or weekend The period of inactivity begins at whatever time SIMPROCESS invokes the No Event cycle Defining Specific Entity Generation Events in a File Entity generation events can be specified in an event file An event file is created with a text editor or some other means independent of SIMPROCESS such as a user written program With an event file a simulation can be run using data captured outside of SIMPROCESS For example most mail order businesses use computer systems to track customer sales information This information is storedin some kind of database This information can be extracted from the database and a series of entity generation events defined that precisely matches customer activity for an actual day week month etc Note that the database can also be read directly by SIMPROCESS See Int
19. See SIMPROCESS System Attributes and Methods for more information on System Attributes and System Methods The User Defined Attributes tab lists all the global Attributes defined in the model and any local Attributes defined for the Expression owner including the Type of the selected Attribute Double clicking an item on any of the lists causes the item to appear in the Expression text area at the cursor s location Expression Assistant The SIMPROCESS Expression Assistant displays a list ofitems that match the current set of characters being typed The list can hold any item contained on the four reference tabs described above User Defined Attributes and System Attributes other than Resource Attributes will also have the appropriate qualifiers Entity Model etc added In the example below M was typed As soon as M was typed the SIMPROCESS Expression Assistant displayed with all items from the four tabs SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 48 Writing Expressions that start with M The list is in alphabetical order sx mein NTs Edit Define User Defined Attributes System Attributes Expression Language system Methods r Expression Language H Data Types H Mathematical Operators GH Relational Operators H Logical Operators Hj Language Constructs PE Description tR RRR RRD a u r _ Use Expression in File Refresh 1 4 16
20. the Entity instance expression Interrupt Processing for that Entity is executed When the Entity re obtains the resources so processing can continue the Entity s Resume Processing Entity instance expression is executed If Release Entities In Process at Start of Downtime has been selected at the Activity then the Resume Processing Entity instance expression will not be executed since the Entity leaves the Activity If Interrupt Activities is not selected the selected units of the Resource will not go down until the Resource has been released Interrupt Activities also applies to Connectors with delays Connectors cannot acquire Resources but Entities SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 155 Resource Downtime traversing a Connector can have Resources obtained at a Get Resource Activity Interrupt Activities applies as described above for Get Resource Activities If animation is on Entities will pause on a Connector with a delay if a Resource carried by the Entity goes down due to Interrupt Activities Warning Results can be unpredicable and errors can occur if Interrupt Activities is used when an Entity is using multiple Resources that have different downtime start times e Release All Resources is only enabled if Interrupt Activities has been selected This option only applies if more than one Resource is in use by an Entity when a Resource interrupts the processing of Activities at downtime If Release All Resources is selected when the
21. 1 12 5 FALSE Atlanta 4 5 2008 15 Widget2 2 14 FALSE Miami 4 20 2008 20 Widget1 1 12 5 TRUE Los Angeles 4 20 2008 11 Widget2 3 14 TRUE Los Angeles To assign values from these columns to Attributes select the Attribute on the right then click the Add button r ml Attribute Assignment atibute EnttyNumassemblers Sheet Cancei FirstRow None n Column None v wai v Increment row for next value E Ee I The selected Attribute displays but is not editable As on the Spreadsheet tab enter the Worksheet name in the Sheet field the starting row value in First Row and the column value in Column Increment row for next value is selected by default When selected the next row in the spreadsheet is read for the next generation event Please note that the row is not incremented for every Entity generated but for every generation event For example in arrivals xls the first generation event generates 30 Widget1 Entities at midnight on 1 4 2008 Below First Row is set to 2 and Column is set to 4 Thus the Attribute Entity NumAssemblers REAL will be assigned the value 2 from row 2 and column 4 for all 30 Entities generated in that generation event The current row will be incremented to 3 when the next generation event occurs 2 18 2008 Deselect Increment row for next value if the row should not be incremented for every generation event If this were the case below then every Entity s NumAssem
22. Attributes for each Entity instance created by the simulation The originating Entity Type for the Entity instance is not considered So every Entity instance created by the simulation will have an instance of each Attribute listed on the Entity tab Attributes defined from the Entity Type tab are assigned to each Entity Type That is for all Attributes listed on the Entity Type tab there is one of each Attribute created for each Entity Type that all Entity instances originating from that type can reference Each tab shows the names of all Attributes of that type previously defined Ifno Attributes have been defined the list in each tab will be empty and the Edit Copy and Remove buttons will be inactive The Undo button activates when an Attribute is removed Select the Entity tab and click on Add to create anew Attribute gt Global Attribute Properties Name applianceWeight Mode Real E Cancel Value 0 Help Array Dimension 0 Model Parameter Comment Statistics Types Report Requests 2 Real Time Histogram Plot Real Time Trace Plot Real Time h Real Tin Standard Report SIMPROCESS Users Manual 29 User Defined Attributes In the Attribute Properties dialog Name can be anything except as noted below as long as the name has not been previously used for another Attribute of the same class of model element For new Attributes SIMPROCESS initializes the field with a
23. Downtime templates are created from the Resource Downtime list The Resource Downtime list displays all the resource downtimes defined in the model It is accessed from Resource Downtimes on the Define menu The Resource Downtime list has an Add Template button Gn pl Resource Downtime sm Type Empty z Sales Downtime Close Add Edit Copy Remove Add Template J a D i Select the Service Downtime and click the Add Template button This brings up the properties of the template H ry Resource Downtime Template Properties Name Senice Downtime mmiddiyyyy hh mm ss msec usec nsec Cance e Start 1 Gl Hep End E mam Schedules Weekday Mornings aaa Periodic v Weekday Evenings A Weekend Eaa Remove Add to Library Customer Service z L E The template properties are the Resource Downtime properties with the Resource assignments SIMPROCESS User s Manual 17 Defining and Editing Templates removed and the Add to Library option added As with the other template types if there has not been a Library defined the Resource Downtime template will go into the Default Library Resource Downtime templates display in the Type combo box on the Resource Downtime list dialog as long as the Library in which the Resource Downtime templates reside is loaded Adding Resource Shift Templates Resource Shift templates are created fr
24. Preview SQL before execution is selected and the model is being run within the SIMPROCESS application a dialog appears that shows the name of the SQL statement along with the actual SQL that will be executed The value place holders are replaced with the actual values z pi 2 SQL Preview a C Beoe _ INSERT INTO Results Resource Location PercentUtilization ResourceUnits VALUES SalesRep Chica End Preview ServiceRep Units Busy INSERT INTO Results Resource Location PercentUtilization ResourceUnits VALUES ServiceRep Chic Close Stop Simulation E A Clicking Execute closes the dialog and executes the SQL statements The End Preview button closes the dialog executes the SQL statements and disables SQL previewing for the remainder of the run The Close button closes the dialog and does not execute the SQL statements Stop Simulation closes SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 187 Defining and Executing Database Exports the dialog does not execute the SQL statements and ends the simulation If a particular SQL statement has an error the error will be displayed instead of the SQL fa ry SQL Preview SalesRep Units Busy Execute Error No statistics collected for SalesRep O End Preview ServiceRep Units Busy INSERT INTO Results Resource Location PercentUtilization ResourceUnits VALUES ServiceRep Chic Ci
25. ProcessingTime Max 1 returns maximum value across replications that is the maximum of the averages for each replication for the Attribute ProcessingTime GetCostStatistic GetCostStatistic returns the Variable or Absorption cost of a cost period See Setting Up Cost Periods The syntax is GetCostStatistic Period Name Cost Object 1 Cost Object 2 Cost Object 3 Optional Cost Type Value Type Replication where Period Name is the name of the period Cost Object 1 is the name of the first cost object Cost Object 2 is the name of the second cost object Cost Object 3 is only used when requesting an Org Node by Resource cost Cost Object 1 can be the name of a Resource an Activity or an OrgModel Cost Object 2 can be the name of an Activity an Entity or an Org Node If Cost Object 1is the name ofan OrgModel Cost Object 3 must be the name ofa Resource Thus the combination of Cost Object 1 and Cost Object 2 can be Resource Entity Resource Activity or Activity Entity The combination of Cost Object 1 Cost Object 2 and Cost Object 3 can only be OrgModel Org Node Resource Cost Type is either Variable or Absorption Value Type can be Avg StDev Min or Max for Replication 1 If Replication is 1 or greater the maximum value is returned no matter what is entered for Value Type Some examples GetCostStatistic Week1 Sales Rep Sales Variable Max 1 returns the maximum Resource b
26. STRING ZX Statistic Pe Resource Attribute ee System Attribute Cancel Expand All Ie Collapse All By Activity By Shift Remove Resource SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 183 Defining and Executing Database Exports The Remove button deletes the selected value The Move Up and Move Down buttons adjust the placement of the value in the Values list Where Clause When Update or Delete are selected as the SQL type the Edit Where and Remove Where buttons enable The Edit Where button adds or edits an existing Where condition The Remove Where button deletes any existing Where condition When Edit Where is clicked the Where Condition dialog displays Where Condition A S UPDATE Results SET Resource SalesRep Name Location Location Value PercentUtilization SalesRep Units Busy Avg ResourceUnits SalesRep CurrentCapacity Help Condition Type Select Columns Values Add Value Change Value Build Condition ID COUNTER Entit Edit s as Resource VARCHAR Attribute Condition Resource Remove Location VARCHAR source 2 Join Type PercentUtilization DOUBLE Activit Move Up AND ResourceUnits SMALLINT Move Down OR ga Resource La Connector ee m2 Model Attribute Time Stamp EJ cost value T tet Sa System Method 4 The SQL section displays the current value ofthe SQL statement There are two options fo
27. Spreadsheet tab SIMPROCESS User s Manual 128 Defining a More Complex Generate Activity m Spreadsheet Schedule for Generate1 Spreadsheet Lox Cancel 4Add Entity NumAssemblers xj Remove Edit Comment The Attribute list on the right will contain all Attributes that can be set from the current Generate Activity The list can contain Entity Entity Type Activity and Model Attributes Resource Attributes cannot be set here The Attributes in the list can be INTEGER REAL BOOLEAN or STRING Attributes The value read from the spreadsheet must match the mode of the Attribute receiving the value Note that INTEGER Attributes can only receive values from XML Spreadsheets typically xm1 files Workbooks x1 s or x1sx files only return REAL values even if the value in the spreadsheet 1s an INTEGER The arrivals xls spreadsheet contains four additional columns that have information required by the Entities Number Assemblers Required Processing Time per Widget Hours High Priority and Destination SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 129 Defining a More Complex Generate Activity Generation Quantity Entity Number Processing High Destination Date Assemblers Time per Priority Required Widget Hours 1 4 2008 30 Widget1 2 12 5 FALSE New York 2 18 2008 3 Widget2 3 14 FALSE Chicago 3 19 2008 16 Widget
28. The only parameter is the Object Attribute that was used in the OpenSpreadsheet system method that created the connection IMPORTANT On Windows output spreadsheet files are only fully released by CloseSpreadsheet when the output file was created by OpenSpreadsheet Thus if the spreadsheet is opened in a spreadsheet application like Excel and edited while SIMPROCESS 1s still running the changes made in the spreadsheet application can be saved However if OpenSpreadsheet opened an already existing spreadsheet file SIMPROCESS must be closed to allow changes made in the spreadsheet application to be saved ReadFromSpreadsheet ReadFromSpreadsheet gets information from a spreadsheet and places the information into a local variable or Attribute The syntax is ReadFromSpreadsheet Model ObjectAttribute Worksheet Cell Reference Variable Model ObjectAttribute is the Object Attribute that was used in the OpenSpreadsheet system method that created the connection Worksheet isa string identifying the specific worksheet Cell Reference is a STRING that identifies a particular cell of the Worksheet suchas A1 Variable represents a local variable or an Attribute that will receive the value read from the spreadsheet The Variable type INTEGER REAL STRING or BOOLEAN must match the type of the value returned A run time error will occur if the specified Worksheet does not exist or if a cell at the specified Cell Reference does not exis
29. This method is better since the duration ofeach Entity at the Delay Activity is calculated SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 52 Writing Expressions from the TimeFactor Attribute This is visible on the Properties dialog of the Delay rather than in an Expression Also there is no possibility of another Entity changing the value of the delay See the Evaluate Evl Function on page 54 for more detail The format would be similar for an Entity Type Attribute If the Attribute to be referenced was named TypeTime it would be used in the Expression of a construct other than an Entity as Entity Type TypeTime The same holds true for Attributes of other SIMPROCESS constructs as well An Activity Attribute called ActivAttr that is referenced in an Expression on a construct other than an Activity would be referred to as Activity ActivAttr A Model Attribute called ModAttr would be referred to as Model ModAttr User defined Resource Attributes can be accessed by an Expression from any other construct in SIMPROCESS and values can be assigned to those Attributes by using the syntax described above However User defined and System Attributes for Resources must beaccessed by using theResource System Method For instance to reference the number of units currently busy of the Resource called Resourcel1 use Resource Resourcel1 UnitsBusy These are just some basics of the SIMPROCESS Expression language See System
30. Travel Time et Entity Type Attribute Mode REAL 9 System Attribute 4 Increment Row This value was put in cell A2 SIMPROCESS Users Manual 193 Defining and Executing Spreadsheet Exports rn epon resus to soraan I a a Name Values ox File Name calls xlsx Browse Execute Options Execute before every replication __ Execute before first replication v Execute after every replication __ Execute after last replication V Execute after last replication using average of replication results v Preview Spreadsheet before execution Create Spreadsheet AddSheet CopySheet Rename Sheet Remove Sheet Reorder Sheets Add Value Change Value 1 s Activity 2 i Sut pea Resource Connector 3 Lo Connector 4 Time Stamp 5 ee Model Attribute Model Attribute 6 Time Sta 7 Cost sd 3 Text S Cost Value w 9 Ti 7 System Method T Text Sales Calls Senice Calls o Ss So the first time the Values spreadsheet export is executed the average Cycle Time for the Entity Sales Calls is placed in cell A2 The next time it is executed the value is placed in A3 and so on Use the Text button to enter a spreadsheet formula Executing a Spreadsheet Export Preset Execution The Execute Options section of the Export Results to
31. a batch release is triggered by resetting MaxBatchSize the Attribute that sets the maximum number of Entities that can be held in the batch With the Activity about to be emptied of Entities thebatchWeight Attribute is reset to zero The OUTPUT statement in the Expression is there as an example of displaying information in the message dialog It is not needed by the model OUTPUT statements can be interspersed in Expressions in order to trace events during a simulation Displaying the value of batchWeight for instance verifies that the batch is really released when the weight exceeds 5000 0 5 Close the Accept Entity editor 6 Editthe Start Simulation event Enter the code below This causes the Batch Activity to wait for the logic in Accept Entity to cause a batch release MaxBatchSize 10000 7 Close the Start Simulation editor There is one more thing this model needs The maximum batch size must be reset again after the Entities are released Entities should not be released when the DISTRIBUTE ORDER batch reaches a certain number Only accumulating 5000 pounds of weight should trigger release As it stands now MaxBatchSi ze is set to the size of the previous batch accumulated at the Activity This was done to force a release of Entities when batchWeight reached 5000 pounds The number of Entities could reach the current MaxBatchSize again before accumulating 5000 pounds of weight To prevent that reset this Attribute to a number tha
32. a column has been selected the Add Value buttons enable Since the number of values must equal the number selected columns the Add Value buttons will only be enabled when at least one column is selected and the number of values listed in Values is less than the number of selected columns Press the Control key when selecting columns to select multiple columns In the example below four values must be entered since four columns are selected SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 178 Defining and Executing Database Exports ieotiaan ooo i Name ExportResultsDatabase1 _ Properties File example properties Browse Execute Options ol Execute before every replication Execute before first replication E Execute after every replication Execute after last replication T Execute after last replication using average of replication results Preview SQL before execution Create SQL Select SQL Type insert Select Table Select Columns Add Value RESOURCEINFO RESULTS Entity Change Value Edit Resource Remove Activity Move Up Connector Move Down Remove Where SSS dime Siamp Be Resource Model Attribute Update Delete Edit Where RESOURCEUNITS SMALL Lo Connector Cost O m2 Model Attribute Text D Time Stamp EJ costvaue System Method saL INSERT INTO RESULTS RESOURCE LOCATION PERCENTUTILIZATION RESOURCEUNITS VALU
33. a must for first time SIMPROCESS users This manual can also be used for evaluation purposes The chapters are e Business Process Modeling With SIMPROCESS e Installation Building Your First Model With SIMPROCESS e Evaluating Alternatives With SIMPROCESS e Demonstration and Reference Models User s Manual The User 5 Manual is divided into four parts with each part being a separate file Part A is an excellent reference for beginners and casual users This part contains detailed documentation of the basic and intermediate functions of SIMPROCESS The chapters are e Process Modeling and Analysis with SIMPROCESS e SIMPROCESS Basics e Statistical Modeling Constructs e Activity Modeling Constructs e Resource Modeling Constructs e Graphical Modeling Constructs e Activity Based Costing e Statistical Output Reports Part B is a reference intended for advanced users of SIMPROCESS This part contains detailed documentation of the programming and library management functions in SIMPROCESS Professional Edition The chapters are e Reusable Templates and Libraries e Customizing a Model with Attributes and Expressions e More Advanced Model Building e Exporting Results Part C describes the integrated tools included with SIMPROCESS Professional The chapters are e Advanced Data Analysis SIMPROCESS Database e Experiment Manager OptQuest for SIMPROCESS SIMPROCESS Dashboards e Model Bundles e Custom Reports e Scenarios
34. and SIMPROCESS model elements are called Expressions An Expression is a user defined routine that runs within the larger SIMPROCESS program In effect SIMPROCESS checks at various points during a simulation run to see if there are any special instructions for it Ifso itruns the code Expressions accomplish simulation and modeling requirements for which standard SIMPROCESS processing does not support The SIMPROCESS Expression language is introduced first then how Expressions are implemented is explained SIMPROCESS Expression Language Basics The SIMPROCESS Expression language contains the basic features of any programming language Complex Expressions can be written in this language In the definitions that follow the word expression with a lower case e refers to a mathematical expression Expression with a capital E refers to the SIMPROCESS Expressions feature Types SIMPROCESS supports a limited set of data types The supported types are as follows BOOLEAN A variable that contains the binary values of TRUE or FALSE e REAL A variable that contains a real number e INTEGER A variable that contains an integer number e STRING A variable that contains an array of characters Types are specified in either one of two ways by declaring a variable local to the Expression such as the variables myReal and myString SIMPROCESS User s Manual 42 Writing Expressions myReal REAL myString STRING or by select
35. attribute here That way when capacity changes SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 154 Resource Downtime the units down will change as well Alternatively using Ev1 Capacity for the Number of Units Down accomplishes the same thing If the schedule is a global Downtime schedule that will be used with more than one Resource always use Ev1 Capacity since the Resource capacity can vary from Resource to Resource See Evaluate Evl Function on page 54 foradiscussion ofEv1 andsee System Attributes for a description of the Resource System Attribute Capacity IMPORTANT The Number of Units Down should not be larger than the number of units defined for the Resource e Downtime Duration is the length of time that the resource is unavailable In the above daytime shift example 16 would be specified in this field Duration Units is the time unit that applies to the Downtime Duration e Planned specifies that the period of unavailability is planned For example a vacation may be planned whereas sick time is not planned If unchecked then the statistics for downtime display as Unplanned downtime Downtime Options are used to set the rules for starting downtime see below Downtime Options are not available for Usage downtimes This is because the downtime is based on usage Therefore the check for the start of downtime does not occur until the resource is released Start Downtime when Resource is Idle option Sta
36. default name Value is the default initial value of this Attribute The value must correspond to the data type specified in the Mode field For instance 1 0 cannot be entered if the Mode is Integer If the Mode is Object the Default value is UNDEFINED An Object Attribute s value can only be set during a simulation run Anything entered in the Default field is ignored See Mode types below Mode is the data type of the Attribute Click on the arrow button to select either Integer Real String Boolean or Object Integer values are numbers without fractional or decimal parts Real values can contain fractional parts A String is any series of alphanumeric characters Boolean values can be either TRUE or FALSE An Object is a reference to another model element in the model a reference for Expression Language constructs or a reference to external Java classes For example during a simulation an Object Attribute can point to an Activity in the model Array Dimension allows for Attributes to be set up as an array The default value of 0 means the Attribute is not an array Ifan array dimension is provided and the user wishes to reference the Attribute in the Expression language it must be done using an integer subscript e g myattribute 2 value The subscripted arrays are zero based meaning that a subscript of 0 refers to the first item in the array Model Parameter when checked means that every time the model is run a dia
37. dialog where the Expression describing the processing time is entered This example reads the Entity s processing time given by the Entity Attribute ProcTime and multiplies it by 1 5 This value would then be the delay time for the Activity Entity ProcTime could be typed in directly or selected from the Global Attributes list Once selected in the Global Attributes list the attribute can be added to the Expression by selecting Add Selection to Evl a 7 Distribution Details s Expression Entity ProcTime 1 5 System Attributes X Cancel Hel Global Attributes z p System Methods v View Add Selection to Evi SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 54 Expression Activation Events Expression Activation Events SIMPROCESS has a set of activation points at which it checks for the existence of Expressions and then runs those that it finds An Expression is assigned to an activation point at the time it is defined Eachactivation point corresponds toa simulation event and has aname identifying itto SIMPROCESS For example the start ofa replication is referred to as the Start Simulation event The Start Trial event marks the beginning of a single trial within a replication after warmup m Total Simulation Time Replication 1 Replication 2 Replication 3 Start Run Pal w End Run ra Warm up Period Steady State Period Start Simulation Start Trial End Trial End Simulation Some events can
38. example the initial value of an Attribute for an Entity can be set when the Entity is first generated Initialize Entity or when the Entity is released from a Generate Activity Release Entity But the value of an Entity Attribute cannot be set when the simulation first begins to run Start Simulation because no Entities have been generated at that point The table below contains a complete list of activation events Note that the order of the elements is the order in which the Expressions are executed SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 56 Expression Activation Events Model Elements Event Name Activation Point and Comments Active For Start Run The beginning of a simulation run Occurs Model only once no matter how many replications Start Simulation The beginning of the first replication before Model the warm up period if any If Reset Entity Types System is selected it occurs at the begin Resources ning of each replication All Activities Start Trial Beginning of a trial within the simulation Model after the warm up period if any Resources Entity Types All Activities Initialize Entity Creation allocation of an Entity This typically occurs in a Generate Activity but may also occur in the Batch Transform Copy Split and Assemble Activities Entity Instances Entity Types Accept Entity Arrival of an Entity at an Activity or Pro cess Processes plus all Activities e
39. includes a line number Entering a very large number goes to the last line entering zero or a negative value goes to the first line entering a non numeric value causes an error message to be displayed Note that the current position of the cursor is displayed in the lower right corner of the dialog just to the right of the Save button The first number is the line number and the second number is the position within the line The last two items on the Edit menu are Expression Assistant and Validate Attributes both described below Expression Assistant turns the SIMPROCESS Expression Assistant on or off When Validate Attributes is selected global Attributes in the Expression are checked to determine if they have been defined in the model The status of both will persist across SIMPROCESS sessions The Define menu is used to create delete or modify global Attributes The menu items are Entity Attributes Entity Type Attributes Resource Attributes Activity Attributes and Model Attributes Selecting an item displays the same Global Attribute Definitions dialog as the Define Global Attributes menu item with the appropriate tab selected see page 29 Once the dialog is displayed any tab can be selected When the dialog is closed the User Defined Attributes tab described below is updated to reflect any changes Note that changes to global Attribute definitions are not reflected in the Expression text The Validate button below the
40. occur many times during a simulation The Start Trial andEnd Trial events occur once during each replication of a multi replication simulation If the simulation contains only asingle replication these events occurjust once The Start Simulation andEnd Simulation events occur once during each replication ofa multi replication simulation if Reset System is selected in the Simulation Run Setting dialog Otherwise the Start Simulation event occurs just once at the beginning of the first replication The End Simulation event occurs at the end of the last replication These are specified on the Expressions tab of Process Activity Resource and Entity Type dialogs Delay Properties General Resources Attributes Expressions EventLogs Text Block Documentation Counts OK Cancel Hep Start Trial Help Accept Entity Eat Get Resource PEE New Entity Free Resource n Release Entity New Resource End Trial Global Attributes End Simulation z Entity Entity Type Resource Model Comment d SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 55 Expression Activation Events Start RunandEnd Run are Model Expressions only menu Define Model Expressions or the Define Model Expressions button on the Model Toolbar These Expressions are executed only once no matter how many replications are run Start Run is the very first Expression executed and End Run is the very last Expression executed T
41. placed in the database in a table named ProcessTimes The simulation time the Entity entered the Process was stored in an Entity instance Attribute called StartTime SQLString STRING time REAL time SimTime Entity StartTime SQLString INSERT Into ProcessTimes ProcessTime VALUES REALTOSTR time WriteToDatabase Model DatabaseConn SQLString SIMPROCESS User s Manual 9 Interfacing With A Spreadsheet Interfacing With A Spreadsheet Expressions can retrieve information from an Excel compatible spreadsheet and can modify a spreadsheet by inserting new Worksheets values and formulas A sample model named SpreadsheetDemo spm is part of the ExpressionDemos directory Spreadsheet System Methods There are four spreadsheet related System Methods which can be used in Expressions See SIMPROCESS System Methods e OpenSpreadsheet e CloseSpreadsheet e ReadFromSpreadsheet e WriteToSpreadsheet OpenSpreadsheet OpenSpreadsheet is used to create a connection between SIMPROCESS and an Excel compatible spreadsheet file This must be done before any other spreadsheet related System Methods are used the Start Run Expression isa good place to use it Before using the method an Attribute must be defined normally a Model Attribute of type Object See User Defined Attributes on page 28 This Attribute will be used as a reference to the spreadsheet The syntax is Model ObjectAttribute
42. row of the Result Set The current row is set by GetNext The syntax is Variable GetResult ResultSetName Field Variable can be an Attribute or a local variable ResultSetName is the user selected name SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 88 Interfacing With A Database given to a Result Set by aReadFromDatabase Fieldis the field from the database column of the Result Set that has the desired value The type of the value returned INTEGER REAL BOOLEAN or STRING to Variable must match with the type of the Variable Note that only INTEGER REAL BOOLEAN and STRING values can be placed in a Result Set DisposeResultSet DisposeResultSet disposes of a Result Set created by the ReadFromDatabase statement Result Sets are disposed automatically when GetNext returns FALSE This usually happens when GetNext is used in a WHILE loop Result Sets are also automatically disposed when the same Result Set name is used in anotherReadFromDatabase statement Using GetNext with an IF statement may leave a Result Setremaining in memory DisposeResultSet ensures a Result Set is eliminated from memory DisposeResultSet ResultSetName SQL Tips When writing to or reading from MS Access or MS SQL Server databases table names should be enclosed in square brackets See the examples in the section Database Example Also if writing a date time string to a Date Time field in MS Access the date time string should be surrounded by the ch
43. that downtime schedule type The Downtime Schedule dialog changes in appearance depending on the Schedule Type selected e If Schedule Type is periodic the downtime occurs at intervals of time indicated in the Time Between Downtimes field If the Schedule Type is calendar the downtime occurs at the time specified e For Time Between Downtimes in a Periodic schedule specify a statistical distribution or constant For a Calendar schedule specify a date and or time e IfSchedule Type is Weekly a list of the days of the week appears Selecta day from this list SIMPROCESS User s Manual 153 Resource Downtime hl f Periodic Downtime Schedule Schedule Name Periodict Schedule a Cance Time Between Downtimes 24 0 E Hep Time Unit Hours x Number of Units Down Evi Capacity F Downtime Duration 16 0 cca Duration Units Hours z v Planned Downtime Options Start Downtime when Resource is Idle Interrupt Activities Release All Resources Start Downtime when Resource Queue Empty Comment Schedule Name is the name assigned to the downtime period This name appears in the Downtime list box e Time Between Downtimes defines the time at which the resource becomes unavailable For Periodic schedules this field is labeled Time Between Downtimes and contains either a statistical distribution or a constant If a distribution is specified the resource will be unavailable at rando
44. the Resource to use The ExpressionType must be Start Simulation Start Trial Get Resource Free Resource Start Downtime End Downtime End Trial orEnd Simulation ExpressionType is case sensitive ExpressionFile is the complete name of the text file that contains the Expression code No path is needed since the file must reside in the model s directory The example below expands the previous example to include Expressions In this example the proportion of time that the Resource is fully used needs to be determined A global Resource Attribute named MaximumUse of type INTEGER has been defined Time weighted statistics were selected for the Attribute In getresource txt is the following code IF UnitsBusy Capacity MaximumUse 1 ELSE MaximumUse 0 END IF The following code is in freeresource txt MaximumUse 0 These files are used in the code below sql STRING name STRING units REAL cost REAL costType STRING timeUnit STRING SIMPROCESS User s Manual 78 Creating Resources Using Expressions downtimeType INTEGER sql Select Name Units from Resource Table where RunId INTTOSTR Model RunId ReadFromDatabase Model Database Set sql WHILE GetNext Set name GetResult Set Name units GetResult Set Units CreateResource name units FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE sql Select Cost CostType TimeUnit from Cost Table where Resource n
45. the simulation to meter type graphic The range for the meter must be set with Set Plot Properties Real Time Thermometer Plot tells SIMPROCESS to plot the Attribute value changes as they occur during the simulation to thermometer type graphic The range for the meter must be set with Set Plot Properties Standard Report tells SIMPROCESS to write the statistics to the standard report file Click on OK to accept the options selected or click on Cancel to exit without setting resetting any options SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 31 User Defined Attributes Global Attribute Definitions Entity Entity Type Resource Activity Model E ciose _ Array Model Size Parameter applianceWeight Real 0 0 0 af Name Mode Value Edit f Copy Remove Local i J An existing user Attribute can be copied by selecting the Attribute in the table and then clicking on the Copy button The Global Attribute Properties dialog is displayed with the options and defaults set to the values of the copied Attribute To remove an existing user Attribute select the Attribute from the table and then click on the Remove button The Undo button will restore an Attribute definition that was removed The Local button is on every tab except the Model tab Model Attributes are only global Selecting Local brings up a dialog that displays all model elements of the same type
46. the start of the simulation see SIMPROCESS User 5s Manual 40 Variable Resource Usage Running a Simulation with Model Parameters Thus the value of SalesRepType must be the name of a Resource defined in the model or a run time error will occur The units can be varied in the same way as a Resource in the Requirements list by clicking the Edit button The Remove button removes the Attribute from the Requirements list and places the Attribute back in the combo box Note the same Model Attributes that are available to specify Resource usage are also available in Free Resource Activities to specify which Resource to release The Model Attributes are listed with the Resources but include Model along with the Attribute name See Free Resource Activity formore information on using the Free Resource Activity Release Action Properties Name Release Rep OK Free All Allocations With Cancel Tag any tag NA and Resource Model SalesRepType kA New Resource v Consumable resources will be consumed SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 41 Writing Expressions Writing Expressions The previous section discussed how to define user Attributes This section discusses how to use them For Attributes to be useful they must be able to be accessed and changed during a simulation run SIMPROCESS provides opportunities to do this at many points during a simulation The instructions written to process Attributes
47. to leave the editable area Note that the Expression Assistant will reappear if the cursor location has not changed and the cursor redisplays in the editable area Simply selecting an item on one of the four tabs will not cause the Expression Assistant to disappear but adding an item to the Expression Text from one of the four tabs will cause it to disappear Expression Text Highlighting The Expression Editor highlights certain items in various colors and styles Data types are displayed in bold green type INTEGER REAL etc Mathematical operators etc relational operators SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 50 Writing Expressions lt etc logical operators AND OR NOT and language constructs IF FOR etc are displayed in bold blue type Plain green type is used to display quoted strings System methods are displayed in bold dark red type for example SimTime OUTPUT and comments are displayed in bold italicized gray type suchas this is a comment The Boolean constants TRUE and FALSE use bold Magenta type as well as square brackets and the enclosed text for example Model ArrayAttribute 10 Expression Editor Size and Font Size The size of the Expression Editor dialog as well as the font size of the Expression text can be changed Click on any side of the Expression Editor and drag to enlarge or reduce The Expression text defaults to a font size of 12 This is displayed below the text area in the field t
48. up a dialog where the template options can be set amp pi Template Properties Label Process Calls Cancel Layout Icon Z Defaulticon X Cancei o e Icon Set Default X fe Library Toolbar Parameters M On v Custom Toolbar Icon Toolbar Icon 2 Process A Icon Set Default z Toolbar Label Process Calls Menu Parameters V On Menu Owner Processes Add to Library Customer Service A Label is the name of the template that will be stored in the selected Library Layout Icon is the icon that will display when the template is used in a model Library Toolbar Parameters determine the Library Toolbar settings If On is checked the template will appear on the Library Toolbar The Library Toolbar is on the right side of the screen If Custom Toolbar Icon is selected the Toolbar Icon list is active The icon for the template on the Library Toolbar is selected from the Toolbar Icon list The Toolbar Label is the tool tip that will appear when the mouse is over the icon Menu Parameters determine the menu placement of the template If On is selected the template will appear on one of the Create sub menus with the name from the Label field Menu Owner sets the sub menu for the template One of the current sub menus can be used or a custom menu name can be entered Asshownabove Oncanbe selected for both Library Toolbar Parameters and Menu Parameters However On must be selected for at
49. value entered for Name is not written to the spreadsheet File Name should contain the name of the spreadsheet file The allowable file extensions are xls xlsx and xml The type of spreadsheet file created is based on the file extension If the name of the file is entered without a path the file will be created in the model s folder The Browse button can be used to locate an already existing file Note that if the file already exists it will be overwritten Multiple spreadsheet exports can write to the same spreadsheet file The Execute Options section is discussed below in Executing a Spreadsheet Export Building a Spreadsheet Export The Create Spreadsheet section consists ofa spreadsheet emulation an Add Value section and a Change Value section Spreadsheet The spreadsheet portion defaults to one sheet named Sheet with 100 rows and 26 columns There are five buttons associated with the spreadsheet portion SIMPROCESS Users Manual 191 Defining and Executing Spreadsheet Exports Add Sheet adds a new sheet to the spreadsheet Add Sheet x Sheet Name Sheet2 Number of Rows 100 Cancel Number of Columns 26 Enter the desired Sheet Name The name of the sheet must be unique Change Number of Rows and Number of Columns as desired No matter what value is entered for Number of Columns the actual number of columns for the new sheet will be multiples of 26 So if 10 is entered fo
50. visible The syntax is DisplayPlot Model ObjectAttribute The parameter is the Object Attribute that points to the appropriate plot There is no error if the method is executed and the plot is already visible Plots can also be displayed by using the Report menu Report Display Real Time Plots or the Display Plots button on the tool bar DisplayPlot Model ProcessTimeTrace DisplayPlot Model ProcessTimeHistogram PlotValue The method adds a data point to a plot The syntax is PlotValue Model ObjectAttribute Dataset X Value Y Value Trace only The first parameter is the Object Attribute that points to the appropriate plot Datasetis an INTEGER beginning with 0 that represents the set of data to which this data point belongs X Value and Y Value can be INTEGER or REAL Both values are required for Trace plots Only the X Value is SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 106 Creating and Controlling Plots With Expressions used with Histogram plots PlotValue Model ProcessTimeTrace 0 Replication OrderTime PlotValue Model ProcessTimeTrace 1 Replication InvoiceTime PlotValue Model ProcessTimeHistogram 0 OrderTime PlotValue Model ProcessTimeHistogram 1 InvoiceTime i Al S SIMPROCESS Real Time Graph SE File Edit Special E m fet ES Entity Processing Time Trace RE T T T T T T T 145 L Orders Invoice 140 135 o D 5130 125 E
51. would result in an error Note that an unqualifiedreferenceto the AttributeName refers to the name of the currentmodel element RECEIVE ORDERS If that is the Attribute of interest the Attribute does not have to be qualified Object references can be stacked to gain access to variables that may not be within the scope of the current object but may still be of interest in an Expression For example the following Expression snippets are valid uses of object references from within an Activity Expression under the Accept Entity event OUTPUT In Self Name Entity Entity Name SIMPROCESS User s Manual 66 Example Batching Entities Based on Weight produces the name of the Activity and the name of the current Entity OUTPUT In Self Name Entity Type Entity Type Name produces the name of the Activity and the name of the current Entity s type OUTPUT In Self Activity Name Entity Activity Activity Entity Name produces the name of the Activity and the name of the current Entity Notice in the third OUTPUT example the object reference to the current Activity is stacked In other words the Object Self points to itself and the Activity object also points to the current Activity This is basically a circular reference and does not really do anything other than slow down the simulation and confuse anyone that may read the Expression something like Activity
52. 0 0 since 24 0 will be assumed for the End Time In the example below the Attributes Model StartTime and Model EndTime are used to set the Start Time and End Time of each selected day However different parameters can be used for each selected Day of Week Start Time and End Time SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 165 Resource Downtime F 5 er ae Schedule Name Evenings OK Schedule Cancel Number of Units Down Evi Capacity v famm Help V Planned Fixed variable ven Weekly Schedule Day of Week Start Time End Time E Sunday None None v 4 E Monday Evi Model StartTime bd Evi Model EndTime iv Tuesday Evi Model StartTime v Evi Model EndTime 4 noon us V Wednesday Evi Model StartTime Ewtodetenatimey ua V Thursday Evi Model StartTime Evi Model EndTime v Ea Friday Evi Model StartTime v Evi Model EndTime v E Saturday None v None X Downtime Options Start Downtime when Resource is Idle F Interrupt Activities Release All Resources C Start Downtime when Resource Queue Empty Comment Defining a Usage Downtime Sometimes a resource should be unavailable after use As an example consider the scenario where the resource is a rental car When the rental car is released after use the resource must be unavailable for some time to represent the time required to clean maintain and refu
53. 12 The major difference is that duration of the cycle is not defined in terms of start and end dates That is because the start time is under the control of the cyclical schedule of which the cycle is a part Duration is how long this cycle is in effect A number can be entered or a value selected from the pull down list for this field Time Units specifies the time unit of the Duration The starting time of the event is determined by the following factors The Generation Start date of the cyclical schedule e The position of this cycle in the Schedule of Events in the Cyclical Schedule detail dialog e The Duration of the cycles that precede this one Count Limit sets a maximum number of Entities that may be generated during this cycle A value of 0 indicates no limit The Both must be reached check box if marked specifies that both the Duration and Count Limit must be reached before the cycle completes SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 119 Defining a More Complex Generate Activity Note that selecting Both must be reached can result in a cycle of unknown duration This happens if the Count Limit is not reached before the end of the Duration period In that event the cycle continues until either the Count Limit is attained or the Generate Activity Generation End is reached Repeat Eventtells SIMPROCESS how many times to repeat execution of this cycle IfInfinite is selected SIMPROCESS will keep repeating the cycle until the sch
54. 3 New Resource pS la p bm Clerk 4 C 7 JR Factory Driver Global Attributes Model Attributes J Supply Driver SalesRepType X e Add Model Attribute Enti Type Requires Resource Any One Member Reserve As Available l Model All Members Number of Members None v Maximum Wait for Resource Time Value None v l a Time Unit Hours z E Release Entities In Process at Start of Downtime Comment L J During the simulation run if the units of Resource requested is larger than the Resource capacity the Entity will not proceed since there will never be more units available than capacity This will not occur when using consumable Resources Ifthe Resource is consumable the Entity will continue when more Resource units are available Also if a fractional number of units is requested and fractional usage was not selected for the Resource an error will occur Varying Resources There may also be times when it is useful to vary the Resources assigned to an Activity While the units requested can change from Entity to Entity within a simulation run the actual Resources assigned can only change from run to run Resources can be varied on the Resources tab by using Model Attributes Under the Requirements list are a Model Attributes label a combo box and an Add Model Parameter button These are normally disabled but are enabled when the model contains Model Attributes of type String that are also designated as Mo
55. 6 to that row number thus resulting in a row number of 1 The C portion refers to a column and is also an offset computed against the column number of the cell into which the formula is being written An offset value ofzero is usually omitted butthe column offset in this formula could also be written as C 0 It is therefore possible to refer to any row and column by using appropriate offset values And since this form is relative the addition of rows and columns to the worksheet would cause the result of the formula s calculation to change As when using standard cell references the colon character indicates a range The cell at the opposite end of the range is identified in the same manner as the first In this example the ending cell s row is the formula s row 27 added to the offset value 2 or 25 The column number just as with the previous reference is the same as that of the formula since an offset of zero is omitted SIMPROCESS User s Manual 94 Interfacing With A Spreadsheet If the resulting XML spreadsheet containing this formula were then opened in Excel the formula bar would show the same thing for cell A27 as in the Workbook file SUM A1 A25 And the cell would display the same numeric result as the Workbook assuming that both had the same values written into the cells being summed Absolute cell references are much easier to determine than the relative form when writing to XML spreadsheet files A form
56. Accessing Statistics During Simulation Performance Measures The syntax is GetResourceByShiftStatistic Resource Name Shift Name Value Type Replication where Resource Name is the name of the Resource and Shift Name is the name of the Resource Shift Value Type can be Avg StDev Min Max Count or RunLength Replication is the replication desired or the average or sum of replications Some examples GetResourceByShiftStatistic Sales Rep Day Shift Avg 1 returns the average number of Sales Rep units busy for shift Day Shift across replications GetResourceByShiftStatistic Sales Rep Day Shift Max 1 returns the maximum number of Sales Rep units busy for shift Day Shift for replication 1 GetTimeStampStatistic GetTimeStampStatistic returns the value of a time stamp that has either Collect Statistics selected on the time stamp definition or has a real time plot selected for the time stamp See Real Time Plots The syntax is GetTimeStampStatistic Start Key Stop Key Value Type Replication where Start Key is the starting key of the time stamp and Stop Key is the stopping key of the time stamp Value Type can be Avg StDev Min Max Count or RunLength Replication is the replication desired or the average or sum of replications Some examples GetTimeStampStatistic start stop Avg 1 returns the average of the time stamp with the start
57. Activity Activity Entity Namecouldalsohavebeenused whichis the same result but is even more confusing The Expression language allows this feature so that access can be gained to certain objects when appropriate Consider the following example from within a Resource Expression under the Get Resource event OUTPUT In Self Name Activity Entity Name Activity Entity Name produces the name of the Activity and the name of the current Entity in that Activity The above statement gains access to the Entity in the Activity that is assigning the Resource When using the stacked object references pay closeattentionto what isthe current state of the model Consider the following example for an Entity Expression under Initialize Entity event OUTPUT In Self Name Activity Activity Name produces an error The above OUTPUT statement produces an error since there is no Activity object in scope at the time an Entity is initialized An Entity must be accepted into an Activity before the above statement would work This is a good example of being aware of the state of the simulation when referencing objects Other common mistakes are using the Resource object references for example Resource myResource Activity Name from within an Activity Expression before the Get Resource event has occurred or Sibling and Child references without considering the state of the Siblings and Children for example Sibling Del
58. Applied to Resource Sales Downtime Service Downtime Deselect All Resource Shifts can also be accessed while defining a local Resource Downtime Selecting the Resource Shifts button on the Downtime tab of the Resource Properties dialog displays a dialog that lists the Resource Shifts defined in the model The Resource Shifts that are applied to the Resource are selected and can be modified Resource Shifts can be edited by selecting the Edit Shifts button Resource Shifts Shifts Applied to Resource Sales Shift SelectAll Ex Service Shift Deselect All Edit Shifts Global Resource Downtime Global Resource Downtimes can be applied to any Resource in the model Select the menu item Define Resource Downtimes or click the Define Resource Downtimes button on the Model Toolbar Resource Downtime x Type Empty Close dit m Copy Remove SIMPROCESS Users Manual 149 Resource Downtime SIMPROCESS comes with three predefined Resource Downtime templates that are listed in the Type combo box on the Resource Downtime list dialog e Empty Default Resource Downtime with no Downtime scheduled e Night Shift Includes a Downtime schedule that causes a Resource to only be available from 11 p m to 3 a m and from 4 a m to 8 a m Monday through Friday nights Standard Shift Includes a Downtime schedule that causes a Resource to onl
59. Both must be reached Generate schedule field 113 C calendar event See events calendar calendar schedule 113 Count Limit of entity release 113 cyclical schedules 116 118 123 defining 116 118 123 See also sequence of events types 117 D Database examples 89 interfacing with 86 91 system methods 86 92 Date field in calendar events 120 Duration field 119 E Entities using entity attributes in an expresssion 53 entities cyclical generation 116 generation generation schedule in event file 122 none generated reasons for Recorder 172 Time Stamps vs Recorder Objects 172 tracking arrival and departure times 172 event cycles Repeat tie 118 repeating scheduling of 121 122 types 116 117 event files 122 all defined option 123 checking syntax of 123 entity types selecting 123 identifying to SIMPROCESS 123 new entities specified in 124 Event Logs 171 172 Recorders 172 Time Stamps 170 events calendar 113 121 Date field 120 trigger point 120 changing sequence of 117 118 Count Limit Duration 119 duration of 119 inactive periods 122 Move 117 moving 117 No event 122 number of times executed 118 Repeat Event 120 repeating 11 scheduling of 121 sequence of 117 single event 122 upwards option 118 Expressions 25 42 65 Language Basics 42 Using Attributes in 52 external data using 122 external files 122 F file input to Generate activity See event files Generate Ac
60. CESS Scheduling of Event Cycles on page 121 The Date and Time needed depends on the Calendar Type schedule selected e Yearly Enter a date and time of day but do not specify a year Entity generation begins if the simulation reaches the specified date and time during this cycle SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 120 Defining a More Complex Generate Activity e Monthly Specify a day of the month and time of day e g the first of the month at noon Entity generation begins if the simulation reaches the specified day and time while the cycle is in effect e Weekly Select a day of the week from a list that appears when Weekly is checked off and a time of day Entity generation begins if the simulation reaches that day and time during the cycle e Daily Specify a time of day Entities are released if the simulation reaches this time of day while the cycle is in effect e Hourly Specify the minutes and seconds of an hour Entities are released if the simulation reaches this time of day while the cycle is in effect e Date Specify a specific date and time Entities are released if the simulation reaches this date and time while the cycle is in effect SIMPROCESS Scheduling of Event Cycles Calendar cycles must be carefully placed within the Sequence of Events If the trigger time specified in the Date and Time field has already passed when SIMPROCESS invokes a cycle entity generation may not occur For example assume a c
61. Comment L a Thus every Entity will get one and only one unit of the Resource However there may be instances where the amount of Resources needed would be different for each Entity This is true many times when using consumable Resources such as fuel Any type of Attribute may be used to set these levels Entity Entity Type Resource Activity or Model When Attributes are used they must be provided in the Evl distribution function such as Evl Model myattribute The Evl function gives added flexibility since mathematical functions can be used with the Attributes Evl Model myattribute Entity myEntityattribute SQRT Activity myActivityattribute is an example In addition to Attributes any statistical distribution may be used Use Edit to modify the existing requirement definition and then enter the Attribute that will have the unit information The Attribute SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 37 Variable Resource Usage must be a real or integer type Attribute Units of Resource Required bez Units Ev Entity FuelUsed Ge cance r gt Delay Properties General Resources attributes Expressions Event Logs Text Block Documentation Counts OK i E ET Cancel Requirements E Resource model Attribute Fuel Evi Entity FuelUse Add E J Resources Help m Bb Modet 2 Remove _ E Cierk1 a Eat H Cierk2 o NewEnty i 7 Je F Clerk
62. ES Thedisplayed SQL now includes the selected columns The order of the columns in the SQL willalways be the same as the order of the columns in the Select Columns section no matter the order in which the columns were selected Adding Model Component Values Use the Add Value buttons to add values to the Values list Other than the Cost Text and System Method buttons all buttons display a similar dialog On the left is a list or tree view of the type of item Entity Activity etc and once an item has been selected on the left the right pane displays a list of values for that item The list can contain statistical values and user defined or System Attribute values Statistical values are marked with a Sigma icon z and Attribute values are marked with the appropriate Attribute icon In this example since the first selected column will hold the name of a Resource the Resource button is selected SIMPROCESS Users Manual 179 Defining and Executing Database Exports Resources S J DatabaseDemo E F SericeRep Units Busy Units Down 2 Units Planned Down Z Units Unplanned Down Units Reserved 28 PercentUtilization 22 Name 2 CurrentCapacity 22 LastDowntime 29 NumberWaiting 2 startDowntime 2 UnitsBusy 28 UnitsDown BO 1b tniteteln Seat a Statistic Type Ava StDev Min Max Mode NONE Statistic og es Resource Attri
63. FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE sql Select Cost CostType TimeUnit from Cost Table where Resource name ReadFromDatabase Model Database WHILE GetNext CostSet cost GetResult CostSet costType GetResult CostSet timeUnit GetResult CostSet SetResourceCost name cost END WHILE END WHILE SetResourceDowntime A globally defined Resource Downtime see Global Resource Downtime on page 149 can be CostSet CostType TimeUnit timeUnit applied to a Resource using the SetResourceDowntime command As withCreateResource SetResourceDowntime can only be used in the Start Run Expression The full command is SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 76 Creating Resources Using Expressions SetResourceDowntime ResourceName STRING DowntimeName STRING TheResourceName parameter is thename ofthe Resource to which the DowntimeName willapply Note that a global Downtime cannot be applied more than once to the same Resource The example below expands the previous example to include Downtime sql STRING name STRING units REAL cost REAL costType STRING timeUnit STRING downtimeType INTEGER sql Select Name Units from Resource Table where RunId INTTOSTR Model RunId ReadFromDatabase Model Database Set sql WHILE GetNext Set name GetResult Set Name units GetResult Set Units CreateResource name un
64. However there are times when the design of the model requires thatthe model be configured from an outside source such asa database In this instance the number of resources and their characteristics may not be known until runtime In this scenario the model is typically run without the SIMPROCESS Graphical User Interface GUI using the SIMPROCESS Dispatcher or other methods for running a model apart from the SIMPROCESS GUI See Running Models Without GUT There are four system methods for creating and configuring Resources CreateResource SetResourceCost SetResourceDowntime and SetResourceExpression SIMPROCESS System Methods summarizes the methods SetResourceCost SetResourceDowntime and SetResourceExpression can be used with Resources created using CreateResource or with Resources defined when creating the model Define Resources These system methods are not intended for the novice user The proper use of these system methods requires indepth knowledge of simulation modeling and SIMPROCESS CreateResource This statement creates a new Resource within a SIMPROCESS model CreateResource can only be used in the Start Run Expression Define Model Expressions or the Define Model Expressions button on the Model Toolbar Resources cannot be created during a trial or between replications The full command is CreateResource Name STRING Units REAL Fractional BOOLEAN Consumable BOOLEAN ResourceStats BOOLEAN ResourceByActiv
65. Legend ClearPlot DisplayPlot and PlotValue These methods give the modeler complete control over plots As with all other plots plots created through expressions are saved automatically in the plots directory within the model s directory The code examples show below and the two plots at the end of this section are from the SIMPROCESS demonstration model SplitJoin spm Also ExpressionPlots spm is in the ExpressionDemos directory CreatePlot This method creates a Trace or a Histogram plot The syntax is Model ObjectAttribute CreatePlot Type Title X Axis Label Optional Y Axis Label Optional Bin Width Optional where Type is Trace or Histogram Bin Width must be an Integer or Real value and must be greater than zero If Bin Width is omitted a Bin Width of 1 0 is assumed This method returns the created plot to an Attribute with a Mode of Object See Creating a User Defined Attribute on page 28 All parameters must be of type STRING Even though the axis labels are optional there must bean X Axis Label ifthereisaY Axis Label Use fortheX Axis Label to only label the Y axis Note that this method does not cause the plot to display Just as with plots defined from the Report menu Expression Plots can be populated before being visible Unlike menu defined trace plots the X axis cannot be a date axis Model ProcessTimeTrace CreatePlot Trace Entity Processing Time Trace Replication Time in Minutes
66. Method Examples for more detail If Validate Attributes on the Edit menu is selected Attributes in Expressions that are prefixed with Entity Entity Type Activity Resource ResourceName orModel are validated when Validate or Done is selected If there are validation errors when Done is selected after the error dialog is closed another dialog displays offering the option to close the Expression Editor even though there are potential Attribute errors This may be necessary if the Expression references Attributes created using the CreateAttribute statement Depending on how CreateAttribute was used false Attribute validation errors may occur SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 53 Evaluate Evl Function Evaluate Evl Function The simplest use of an Expression is with the Evaluate Evl function This function supports a single line Expression That Expression can contain any of the System Methods System Attributes User defined Attributes and Operators that are supported at the Activation Events level described in the next section The Evl function can be found on any of the combo boxes where the standard distributions and User defined Functions are listed An example using the Evaluate function is a system with a processing time Delay that is a function of an Entity Attribute Select the Ev1 1 0 function on the Duration Value field from the Delay Activity s Properties dialog Clicking the Detail button will open an Evaluate
67. N Sales Calls Service Calls Cancel an 3 i When a sheet is selected the Move Up and Move Down buttons enable Adjust the ordering as desired Note that ifthere are other sheets for the same file in separate spreadsheet exports there is no guarantee as to the order in the actual spreadsheet file Adding and Modifying Values When an empty cell is selected the buttons in the Add Value section enable Values are added and modified in the same manner as when creating SQL statements See Adding Model Component Values Adding Cost Values Adding Text Values Adding System Method Values and Modifying a Value When a cell with a value is selected the buttons in the Change Value section are enabled The difference between adding or modifying a value fora SQL statement and for a spreadsheet is for all values other than text values there is an Increment Row option If this option is selected every time the spreadsheet export is executed the row in which the value is placed is incremented by one The example below shows a value with Increment Row selected m Select Entity Value Sales Calls Number Created Statistic Type o Number Disposed ral awg 2 Number In System gt StDev Number Processing ie 2 Number Waiting E _ Min Number On Hold Ws Oma 2 Number Traveling z Cycle Time Processing Time S Wait Time ZX Statistic Hold Time ea
68. Processes still are designated as Master Processes any copies pasted in the model are updated as well Remove deletes the selected item Ifa Library is selected the Library and all templates in the Library are deleted If a template is selected then only that template is deleted from its Library Load brings a Library that has been previously saved into the current SIMPROCESS session The templates can then be used to build models All Libraries will be shown in the Library Manager A dot by the Library means the Library has not been loaded A folder by the Library means that it has been loaded Simply select the desired Library and click Load Library Manager d Libraries Help Customer Service Load Unload Save Import Export Unload removes a Library from the current SIMPROCESS session There will be a prompt to save the Library if it has not been previously saved Save saves a template Library for future use When the Library Manager or SIMPROCESS is closed there will be a prompt to save Libraries if there are Libraries that have not been saved Unsaved Library Changes 2 Save changes to Libraries No Cancel SIMPROCESS User s Manual 12 Defining and Editing Templates Import imports a Library file that was exported by another SIMPROCESS user Export exports a Library file that another SIMPROCESS user can import Template Structure
69. Resource goes down all Resources in use at that Activity are released The Resource that is scheduled to go down is placed in a down state and the other resources are available for another Entity to use Note that this applies only to Resources assigned at the Activity that is interrupted Ifa resource was obtained at another Activity such as a Get Resource Activity no Resources will be released Those Resources will remain in a busy state during the time the Resource that is down remains down Thus Release All Resources only applies when all the Resources in use at an Activity were obtained at the Activity If Release All Resources is not selected none of the other Resources in use at the Activity will be released They will remain in a busy state while the Resource that went down remains down Note that the Release Entities In Process at Start of Downtime option on the Activity resource usage dialog overrides the Release All Resources option If the Release Entities In Process at Start of Downtime option is selected the Entity is released from the Activity at the start of the downtime causing the release of all other Resources in use by the entity at that Activity Start Downtime when Resource Queue Empty does not allow a Resource to go down until all Entities waiting for that resource have been serviced For example if there are three Entities waiting for a Resource because that Resource is busy and downtime is scheduled to start the Re
70. SS Expression Output Dialog with the OUTPUT statement This is useful for tracking the value of Attributes as a simulation proceeds The OUTPUT statement has the form OUTPUT expression For example OUTPUT Just assigned a weight to Entity OUTPUT Current batch weight batchWeight In the second example the value of Attribute batchWeight is displayed following the text Current batch weight The literal string and Attribute name are separated by a comma so the actual batchWeight value will appear next to the string SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 46 Writing Expressions 4 SIMPROCESS Expression Output Just assigned a weight to Entity a Current batch weight 1523 44 Save Clear Cancel Expression Editor Editing any Expression activation event brings up the Expression Editor shown below On the right is the text area for entering the Expression The dialog contains two menus Edit and Define The Edit menu includes the traditional Undo Redo Cut Copy Paste and Select All items It also includes Find Replace and Go To items any of which display a dialog containing Find Replace and Go To Line tabs The Find and Replace features include matching case whole word searching search up down direction selection and a Replace All command The Go To Line tab allows movement directly to any given line number of the expression text which can be useful when a validation error message
71. SS User s Manual Table of Contents CHAPTER 3 More Advanced Model Building s ccccccsorssccsssscssecescsssccscoes 110 Defining a More Complex Generate Activity ssscessees 111 Resource Downtime ies sicsccsincsesssecsessctsssicdecsvedconsesscvcdeoonieasenucdses 148 Resource Shifts ictccsiseesisca sted cececates oscsesiaaveniat tc steteasbuscecssuaterccencte 168 Event LOS ss cscssscosssesesudsaceatcbedussasaoicesedasstspecdosussscnenetentassavsuceesesee 170 CHAPTER 4 Exporting Result scasciacieisscvssceisassiviconndsussisassudedssaieacopaswsotnsacctsact 174 Defining and Executing Database Exports sssssssoees 175 Defining and Executing Spreadsheet Exports s0ss00e 190 SIMPROCESS User s Manual 4 Organization of the SIMPROCESS Documentation Set The SIMPROCESS documentation set consists of four manuals gt Getting Started With SIMPROCESS SIMPROCESS User s Manual e SIMPROCESS Metadata Manual SIMPROCESS OrgModel Manual All of the manuals can be opened directly from the Help SIMPROCESS Manuals menu Also each manual includes this section which provides links to the chapters in every manual Press the Control key when clicking any link to open the linked file in anew window For Windows systems in order for links between manuals to work properly Adobe Acrobat or Acrobat Reader must be used to view the manuals Getting Started The Getting Started With SIMPROCESS manual is
72. Shifts button on the Model Toolbar r Resource Shift s Type Empty x Close Add cal Add Template The Add Template button on the Resource Shift list dialog creates a Resource Shift template that can be saved ina Library When the Library is loaded the Resource Shift templates in the Library are added to the Type list See Adding Resource Shift Templates on page 18 for more information on creating Resource Shift templates To create a Resource Shift select the template for the shift from the Type list and click Add There will only be one template Empty if no other Resource Shift templates have been loaded from a Library The Name field will have a default name which can be changed SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 168 Resource Shifts la h Resource Shift Properties Name Shift1 OK Number of Units Available Evi Capacity v Cancel Weekly Schedule Help Day of Week Start Time End Time TT New Resource _ Sunday 00 00 00 00 00 00 g Monday 00 00 00 00 00 00 E Tuesday 00 00 00 00 00 00 Wednesday 00 00 00 00 00 00 E Thursday 00 00 00 00 00 00 Friday 00 00 00 00 00 00 E Saturday 00 00 00 00 00 00 Downtime Options Start Downtime when Resource is Idle Interrupt Activities Release All Resources Start Downtime when Resource Queue Empty Apply Shift to Resources J Resources ar Customer Service I Exp
73. Spreadsheet dialog contains six options Execute before every replication Execute before first replication Execute after every replication Execute after last replication e Execute after last replication using average of replication results e Preview Spreadsheet before execution The options Execute before every replication and Execute before first replication cannot both be selected SIMPROCESS Users Manual 194 Defining and Executing Spreadsheet Exports at the same time If Execute before every replication is selected then Execute before first replication is selected Execute before every replication will be deselected The same is true for Execute after every replication and Execute after last replication Execute after last replication using average of replication results is independent of the other options therefore itis not affected by any other selection This option uses the same results as the Standard Report and Simulation Results when Average of Replication is selected Spreadsheet exports that are selected for execution before a replication are executed just before the simulation begins Thus they are executed after any Start Simulation Expressions Similarly spreadsheet exports that are selected for execution after a replication are executed after any End Simulation Expressions See Expression Activation Events forinformation on Expression execution When Preview Spreadsheet before execution is select
74. Start Date and End Date of a simulation run see Run Settings Normally Start and End remain empty When empty the downtimes will apply to the whole simulation period For example if the simulation is scheduled to run for the year 2004 and the down time should apply only to the month of January then a Start of 1 1 2004 and an End of 2 1 2004 should be entered Keep in mind that if the simulation run dates are entirely outside of the period defined for the downtime schedule the downtime schedule will not apply to that simulation 3 Define the daily hours during which Shift 1 workers do not work Their weekday work shift is from 9 to 5 so they are unavailable from 5 00 p m to 9 00 a m the following day Schedule Name can be anything For this example it is OffShift For Schedule Type select Calendar and then select Add Select Daily for Type For Time the starting time of the downtime period enter 7 under HH 1700 hours 5 p m and 0 under MM and SS Milliseconds Microseconds and Nanoseconds may be left blank In the Number of Units Down field enter the number 3 This is the number of clerks on Shift 1 SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 158 Resource Downtime Remember that the resource Units of Clerks is 5 so 3 of the 5 will be unavailable during the period being identified Downtime Duration is 6 0 the number of hours since the Duration Units is set to Hours between the end of one work day and the beginning o
75. TH SPSYSTEM simprocess jar SPSYSTEM SPRemote jar export CLASSPATH rmiregistry In a UNIX shell script using the C shell or a derivative setenv CLASSPATH SPSYSTEM simprocess jar SPSYSTEM SPRemote jar rmiregistry Sample batch files and scripts are located in the SPUser SampleFiles directory SPUser is located in the SIMPROCESS working directory see SIMPROCESS Working Directory The sample batch and script files are intended to be run from the SSMPROCESS installation directory but can be modified to run from other locations Administrator privileges may be required if they are run from the SIMPROCESS installation directory SPServer SPServer instantiates a single object called SPServerFactory SPServerFactory creates instances of aserver for each simulation that has an external schedule SPServerFactory keeps track of which server instance is associated with which simulation Thus the user only needs to interface with SPServerFactory through a set of public methods The user is responsible for creating the interface to SPServerFactory If RMI Registry is running on the same system as SIMPROCESS select Tools Remote Start SPServer to start SPServer To start SPServer from a command line in the directory in which SIMPROCESS was installed type the command jre bin java classpath SPSYSTEM simprocess jar SPSYSTEM SPRemote jar com caci remote SPServer use backslashes and semicolons on Windows Once the command has been exe
76. The Library Manager is used to create load save remove edit import and export Libraries of templates Using The Library Manager Library Management The Library Manager is the primary tool for managing templates Before creating templates a Library should be created When no Libraries exist the Library Manager is empty z Library Manager Libraries New creates a new Library in which templates can be stored A dialog for entering a name appears SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 10 Defining and Editing Templates Library Name Customer Service Load at Start Select Load at Start to have this Library automatically loaded when SIMPROCESS starts When OK is selected the new Library appears in the Library Manager This new Library is empty at this point but templates can now be stored in it JE Libraries Customer Service Edit Update Remove Load Unload Edit allows the editing of the Library name if a Library is selected If a Process or Activity template is selected Edit allows the editing of certain template options Update is enabled if a model is open and the selected item in a Library is a Master Process see Master Processes Update updates any Processes in the model that were created from the selected Library SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 11 Defining and Editing Templates item Also if any of these
77. There are basically two ways to use object references in variables define local script variables of type ANYOBJ or define SIMPROCESS user defined variables of type Object Note that both of these applications allow the variable to be setup as an array just like any other variable type Consider the following examples this expression is placed in the Accept Entity event of an Activity that has two local attributes defined Attributel is a String and Attribute2 is of type Object myobj ANYOBJ myobjarray 5 ANYOBJ myobj Self points to the Activity the script is in myobjarray 0 Activity Entity points to the current Entity in the Activity myobjarray 1 Sibling Delay6 points to a sibling Activity called Delay6 SIMPROCESS User s Manual 68 Example Batching Entities Based on Weight myobjarray 2 Resource myResource points to a Resource defined in the model Self Attributel hello dolly Self Attribute2 myobjarray 0 points to the Activity Entity object assigned to cell 0 of myobjarray above Self Attribute2 myobjarray 1 now points to the sibling Delay6 assiged above myobj Attributel hey mister replaces the value in attributel with the new string hey mister since myobj also points to self see above myobjarray 4 myobj Entity Type points to the Entity type of the current Entity in the current Act
78. Those items can be edited from the list Note that by definition Input Sources refer to files that are external to SIMPROCESS External files are not included in templates Thus additional files must be included separately and any Input Sources created by adding a templated item to a model may need to be modified to ensure the locations of the external sources are correct in the Input Source definitions Templates also allow portions of one model to be used in another model However since templates carry references to the Entities Resources and Attributes used those items remain referenced in the Activities Those references do not have to be redefined in the new model SIMPROCESS User s Manual 22 CHAPTER 2 Customizing a Model with Attributes and Expressions SIMPROCESS provides a wide range of predefined model elements and statistical options but every business Process is unique in some way There will betimes when flexibility isneeded to model complex situations and the built in functions of SIMPROCESS may be inadequate In those cases Attributes and Expressions can be defined For example a typical SIMPROCESS model for an appliance manufacturer s distribution Process might include a batch Activity where customer orders are collected for shipment Products may be shipped on a predetermined schedule or when the total number of pending orders reaches a certain number The SIMPROCESS Batch Activity readily handles these s
79. Time X a Evi Model EndTime mm J Wednesday Evi Model StartTime Evmodel EnaTime ac Z Thursday Evi Model StartTime X ma Evi Model EndTime X ia 7 Friday Evi Model StartTime Evimodel EndTime Saturday None v None v F Defining Cyclical Schedules Use the cyclical schedule to define a detailed sequence of entity generation cycles For example a week day by day or a year month by month could be described A unique period such as the holiday rush leading up to Christmas could be defined where entity generation behavior differs markedly from the rest of the year A cyclical schedule is defined as a series of cycles Each cycle describes a different entity generation SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 116 Defining a More Complex Generate Activity sequence In a sense the cycle series is like a schedule of its own But unlike the schedules defined for the Generate Activity as a whole cycle events are processed sequentially not in parallel Since one cycle follows another order is important Cycles can be repeated as many times as is needed The following types of cycles can be defined e Periodic A constant or statistical distribution defining the time interval between events e Calendar Entity generation events scheduled at intervals based on the calendar i e weekly monthly etc e Single Event A one time entity generation event e No Event A period where no Entitie
80. Units from Resource Table where RunId INTTOSTR Model RunId i ReadFromDatabase Model Database Set sql WHILE GetNext Set name GetResult Set Name units GetResult Set Units CreateResource name units FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE END WHILE Oncea Resource has been created other characteristics can be set Cost Downtime and Expressions Note that local Resource Attributes cannot be created through Expressions However global Resource Attributes can be used by Resources created using CreateResource Most likely other global Resource Attributes would be created to hold information about the Resource such as ID or Description The value of these Attributes would be obtained from the external source SetResourceCost SetResourceCost is used to set the value of a Resource cost See Activity Based Costing Anonconsumble Resource can have four types of cost three of which are variable and one that is fixed A consumable Resource can have two types of cost both of which are variable This system method is not limited to the Start Run Expression It can be used at any point during a simulation run However changes to cost values made during a run will not take effect until a new cost period begins The full command is SetResourceCost ResourceName STRING Cost REAL CostType STRING TimeUnit STRING ResourceName is the name of the Resource to which the Cost applies The Cost must be grea
81. User s Manual Part B Advanced Functions and Features SIMPROCESS Release 5 CACI EVER VIGILANT Copyright 2002 2015 CACI INC FEDERAL All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced by any means without written permission from CACI The information in document is believed to be accurate in all respects However CACI cannot assume the responsibility for any consequences resulting from the use thereof The information contained herein is subject to change Revisions to this publication or new editions of it may be issued to incorporate such change SIMPROCESS is a registered trademark of CACI INC FEDERAL Table of Contents Organization of the SIMPROCESS Documentation Set ss0008 5 CHAPTER 1 Reusable Templates and Libraries sscccceesscsssssssccsssssscssscoeees 8 Library Concepts eessesseeseossossoeseesoossossoeseossossoeesossoosoessosseosoesoses 9 Defining and Editing Templates eeseeseessoesoessessoesoosoossessoesossse 10 Editing Templates sseesooesooesooesssesssesssoessoossoossosesssesssosssosssosssos 20 Advantage of Templates Over Copy Paste ssscssscsssesees 22 CHAPTER 2 Customizing a Model with Attributes and Expressions 23 Introduction to Attributes and Expressions ssesssoesoosssoes000 25 Using Attributes in SIMPROCESS eeesooessossssssssesssecesosssossose 27 User Defined AttributeS seeseessess
82. a resource is unavailable Resource Downtime can be defined locally or globally A Resource can have multiple global and one local Resource Downtime Each global Resource Downtime for a particular Resource and the local Resource Downtime for the Resource operate independently Thus each can have different Start and End dates and times and each can have different Schedules Local Resource Downtime Local Resource Downtime is defined on the Downtime tab of the Resource properties dialog Downtime defined on the Downtime tab of a Resource properties dialog will only apply to the Resource currently being edited rc Resource Properties s General Cost Downtime Attributes Expressions mmiddiyyyy hh mm ss msec usec nsec Start u a me End li a rae Schedules d Add Periodic z Global Downtimes Resource Shifts Comment Cancel Metadata x A The global Resource Downtimes can be accessed while defining a local Resource Downtime There is a Global Downtimes button on the Downtime tab ofthe Resource Properties dialog that displays a dialog that lists the global Resource Downtimes defined in the model The global Resource Downtimes that are applied to the Resource are selected and can be modified The global Resource Downtimes can be edited by selecting the Edit Downtimes button SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 148 Resource Downtime ple Global Downtimes Downtimes
83. address Note that the Naming lookup method throwsaNotBoundExceptionandaMal formedURLException so this command must be within a try block The class com caci remote SPServerFactoryInterface has these public methods for communication with SIMPROCESS models public double getSimTime String modelName throws RemoteException public boolean generateEntity String modelName String generate SIMPROCESS User s Manual 14 Defining a More Complex Generate Activity String schedule double time int quantity Object attributes throws RemoteException public boolean stopSimulation String modelName throws RemoteException getSimTime returns a double representing the current simulation time The time unit of this number is the simulation time unit specified in the Run Settings Its single parameter mode1Name is the name of the simulation model the same as its filename without the spm extension generateEntity returns a boolean indicating success or failure Its parameters are as follows modelName is the name of the simulation model the same as its filename without the spm extension e generate is the name of the Generate Activity e schedule is the name of the External schedule within the Generate Activity e entity is the name of the Entity to create e time is the simulation time at which the generation event should occur e quantity is the number of Entities to generate for th
84. adsheetML format and rules there are some necessary limitations in what SIMPROCESS is able to handle Some of these are listed below e When horizontal cell merging is used the ReadFromSpreadsheet statement should correctly recognize this fact and locate a requested cell if present However ReadFrom Spreadsheet will not recognize vertically merged cells i e those merged across mul tiple rows and WriteToSpreadsheet will not respect any merging of cells Excel or a compatible program may be unable to read the resulting XML file e Protection of any kind is not recognized Using WriteToSpreadsheet will cause new worksheets or cells to be created if not present regardless of any protection settings e Array formulas are not supported e Styles cannot be manipulated directly in SIMPROCESS However with the exception of those relating to protection any styles already present in an existing XML spreadsheet file should not be affected by writing to the file using WriteToSpreadsheet SIMPROCESS User s Manual 95 Interfacing With A Spreadsheet e SIMPROCESS may have difficulty with any XML spreadsheet file that uses namespace prefixes in a way that differs from what appears in Microsoft s publicly available Spread sheetML schema The schema does not use prefixes on any of the elements of its XML And it uses a small set of prefixes in a consistent manner on the attributes found on XML elements XML which uses namespace prefixes on e
85. ager Close J Libraries Help Customer Serivce E Process Calls Generate Calls New Service Process n Edi Jpdate Remove Load Unload Save import L i Below are the template properties for Sales Process Any property can be changed except the Library owner That field is missing To place the template ina different Library itmust be added to that Library SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 20 Editing Templates Label Sales Process Layout Icon Z Defaulticon Icon Set Default Library Toolbar Parameters v On M Custom Toolbar Icon Toolbar Icon E Process Icon Set Defautt Toolbar Label Sales Process Menu Parameters v On Menu Owner Processes E SIMPROCESS User s Manual 21 Advantage of Templates Over Copy Paste Advantage of Templates Over Copy Paste Portions of models can be copied from one model and pasted into another model However the copy action only copies the Activity Connector structure References to Entities Resources Resource Downtimes user defined distributions Input Sources Functions or Attributes within the Activities are not carried because those items may or may not exist in the model in which the paste occurs This means all those references must be redefined in the new model When this occurs a dialog will appear after the paste that lists the items that have invalid references
86. alue Initialization Attribute Value Initialization User defined Attributes can be initialized at several places ina SIMPROCESS model The following procedure shows how SIMPROCESS sets Attribute values along the simulation time line When the simulation is started SIMPROCESS will 1 Initialize Attributes to the values that are specified in the Attribute Definition dialog 2 Execute the reset system mechanism if the Reset System option is selected and Do Not Reset Before Each Replication is not selected reset Attribute to the values specified in the Attribute Definition dialog 3 Execute any Start Simulation Expressions Attributes can be set to different values in these Expressions After a replication is complete SIMPROCESS may reset Attribute values for the next replication If the Reset System option is selected in Run Settings SIMPROCESS will continue on the nextreplication starting from item 2 as listed above Otherwise it will start from item 3 SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 59 Example Batching Entities Based on Weight Example Batching Entities Based on Weight This example describes a method of releasing Entities based on weight an Attribute that SIMPROCESS is not inherently aware of The model depicts the product distribution Process of an appliance manufacturer Here is a simplified view of the model j oim RECEIVE ORDERS PROCESS ORDERS DISTRIBUTE ORDERS 1 Appliance orders are received from customers
87. ame ReadFromDatabase Model Database CostSet sql WHILE GetNext CostSet cost GetResult CostSet Cost costType GetResult CostSet CostType timeUnit GetResult CostSet TimeUnit SetResourceCost name cost costType timeUnit END WHILE sql Select DowntimeType from Downtime Table where Resource name ReadFromDatabase Model Database DTSet sql WHILE GetNext DTSet downtimeType GetResult DTSet DowntimeType DowntimeType of 0 indicates no downtime IF downtimeType 1 SetResourceDowntime name StandardShift ELSIF downtimeType 2 SetResourceDowntime name NightShift END IF END WHILE SetResourceExpression name Get Resource getresource txt SetResourceExpression name Free Resource freeresource txt END WHILE Resource Usage Since the Resources required for the model are not defined when the model is created it is impossible to assign Resource usage on an Activity s Resources tab Thus the GetResource and FreeResource system methods must be used page 71 The modeler must know which Activities SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 79 Creating Resources Using Expressions will require Resources but the modeler does not have to know which Resources will be required or the quantity of the Resources that will be required For example the Accept Entity expression of the Activity could contain GetResource Entity ResName Enti
88. aracter For example SQLString STRING SQLString INSERT Into ModelInfo RunDateTime VALUES SystemDateTime SystemDateTime returns the date and time of the underlying system in the formatMM DD YYYY HH MM SS During execution the SQL would appear like this INSERT Into ModelInfo RunDateTime VALUES 02 01 2015 10 45 52 Also ensure all string values are surrounded by single quotes Database Errors When an error occurs during any database operation check the simprocess 1og and simprocess err files for error information The information in these files can be useful in finding solutions These files are located in the SIMPROCESS working directory see SIMPROCESS SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 89 Interfacing With A Database Working Directory Database Example The following are several examples on how to use the database System Methods They are categorized by Expression type The SQL format is for MS Access so the table names are enclosed in square brackets Start Simulation Example This example assumes two real Model Attributes CallTime and WrapUpTime have been defined Each of the Model Attributes have an array size that is equal to or larger than the number of values returned by the query The values are placed in array Model Attributes because the values need to be referenced throughout the simulation Also an object Model Attribute DatabaseConn was defined for the connection Not
89. ase until SIMPROCESS is closed WriteToDatabase can also be used with predefined SQL statements See Exporting Results for more information on defining SQL statements and executing with WriteToDatabase GetNext GetNext controls the position within a Result Set Result Sets are simply tables of data The columns are the fields requested in the SQL query For instance if the query was SELECT CallTime WrapUpTime FROM Times thecolumnsin the Result Set wouldbeCal1lTimeandWrapUpTime GetNext sets the row of the Result Set So GetNext is used in conjunction with GetResult GetResult gets a value from the table Result Set once the row has been set When a Result Set is first created by aReadFromDatabase the row pointer in a Result Set is pointing to before the first row Thus GetNext must be called before GetResult The syntax is BooleanVar GetNext ResultSetName BooleanVar is any Attribute or local variable defined to be a BOOLEAN TRUE is returned if the next row exists FALSE if not at the end ResultSetName is the user selected name given to a Result Set by aReadFromDatabase Note that GetNext only moves forward through the rows Going backwards is not possible The only way to go back to the beginning of a Result Set is to execute again the ReadFromDatabase that created the Result Set GetResult GetResul1t assigns a value from a Result Set to an Attribute or local variable in the model The value comes from the current
90. ast row is encountered before the end of the simulation the schedule suspends operation Use Database for Entity overrides the Entity field Enter the appropriate column from the SQL Query in the Entity Column Name field Just as in the SQL Query a Model Attribute can be used in Entity Column Name to parameterize the field Only Entity names defined in the model should be in the database If a value read does not correspond to an Entity defined in the model a runtime error will occur Entity names are case sensitive Use Database for Quantity overrides the Quantity field Enter the appropriate column from the SQL Query in the Quantity Column Name field Again just as in the SQL Query a Model Attribute can be used in Quantity Column Name to parameterize the field The values in the designated column should be numeric If the value read is not an INTEGER the value will be rounded to the nearest INTEGER Use Database for Interval overrides the Interval field Enter the appropriate column from the SQL Query in the Interval Column Name field As with the other two options a Model Attribute can be used in Interval Column Name to parameterize the field If the values in the designated column are interarrival times make sure Column contains Date Time is not selected Also the Time Unit selected for the default Interval field applies to interarrival times read from a database If the values in the designated column are date and time values the Time Uni
91. at identifies a particular cell of the Worksheet such as Al Value is the value to bewritten to the specified cell Value canhave the type INTEGER REAL STRING or BOOLEAN If the requested Worksheet and or cell do not exist SIMPROCESS will create them Formulas can be written to a spreadsheet For SIMPROCESS to recognize a formula the Value parameter must be a STRING and must begin with e g SUM A1 A20 Note that formulas written by SIMPROCESS will not produce a value in the cell until the spreadsheet has been opened in Excel or another compatible spreadsheet program However if the spreadsheet is a Workbook the formula will be evaluated if the spreadsheet is opened for Input and the cell is read by SIMPROCESS XML Spreadsheet Formula Cell References As mentioned earlier Wri teToSpreadsheet can write formulas to a spreadsheet When writing to an XML Spreadsheet there are two methods of referring to cells in formulas XML Spreadsheets can use cell references of the type RC The WriteToSpreadsheet statement for placing SUM A1 A25 formula into row 27 and column A using the RC format is WriteToSpreadsheet Model ObjectAttribute Worksheet A27 SUM R 26 C R 2 C The R 26 C portion refers to a cell that is 26 rows above the one in which the formula appears That is its location is relative to that cell at row 27 in the above example and its row number can be discovered by adding the bracketed value 2
92. ation that does not apply to a Daily schedule such as the date and year is ignored As with all schedules Start End can be used to further define the effective period for a Calendar generation schedule Adding a Weekly Schedule A Weekly schedule is similar to a Periodic schedule in that the schedule defines a constant or statistical distribution of entity generation events The difference is that the Weekly schedule allows the entity generation events to be restricted to certain days of the week and certain time periods of the day Note that this Weekly schedule is different from a Calendar Weekly schedule A Calendar Weekly schedule only generates a certain quantity of entities once a week on a specified day and time This Weekly schedule generates multiple times based on a periodic interval restricted to certain days and times To add a Weekly schedule select Weekly under Schedule Type on the Generate Activity Properties dialog and then click on Add See the Periodic schedule definition page 112 for information on Schedule Entity Quantity Interval Time Unit and Start End There are two options on the Weekly schedule Fixed and Variable SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 114 Defining a More Complex Generate Activity Fixed Weekly Generation Schedule Use the Weekly Schedule portion to select each Day of Week for which the Entity Quantity and Interval apply When a Day of Week is selected the Start Time and End Time for that d
93. ay activate Enter the Start Time and End Time for entity generation for that Day of Week If both Start Time and End Time show 00 00 00 entity generation will occur for the complete day 24 hours If End Time shows 23 59 59 it is assumed that 00 00 00 for the next day is intended and the final second will be added to the entity generation period If the Generate at start of first interval check box is selected an entity will be generated at the Start Time of each active Day of Week If the check box is not selected a random value based on the Interval and Time Unit will be added to the Start Time for the first entity generation of each active Day of Week pi weekly Schedule for Generate1 Schedule Weekly2 Cancel Entity use default y Hep Quantity use default v imc Interval 4 0 k Time Unit Hours v Start End v Generate at start of first interval Fixed Variable Weekly Schedule Day of Week Start Time End Time Sunday 00 00 00 00 00 00 V Monday 08 00 00 17 00 00 aJ lt gt vV Tuesday 08 00 00 17 00 00 v Wednesday 08 00 00 17 00 00 4 gt a gt fo n gt f gt 4 gt vV Thursday 08 00 00 17 00 00 gt v Friday 08 00 00 17 00 00 4 Saturday 00 00 00 00 00 00 ee Variable Weekly Generation Schedule A Variable Weekly schedule allows the Start Time and End Time to be parameterized Selecting the Variable bu
94. ay6 Entity Name may produce an error if there is no Entity current in the Delay6 Activity SIMPROCESS User s Manual 67 Example Batching Entities Based on Weight Object references are very powerful but can be confusing It is recommended that the simplest form possible of object reference be used in Expressions and that objects be accessed from the most obvious point of scope i e placing the Expressions behind the appropriate events The use of object reference also applies to the Child Parent and Sibling references Any number of object references can be stacked and return appropriateresults unlessaChildorSibling is referenced that does not exist ora Parent is referenced from the top level diagram all of which will return an error and terminate the simulation The following example would work in a Process Expression as long as it was invoked from a Process that is at least three levels deep has a Sibling named Delay6 and a Child named Delay7 OUTPUT In SelfName Sibling Sibling Delay6 Name Child Delay7 Name two parents up Self Parent Parent Name L produces the name of the Activity the name of Delay6 the name of Delay7 and the name of the parent s parent of the current Process There are certain cases where it may be necessary to use object references as variables to gain further control over what Attributes can be accessed or to provide some flexibility in an Expression
95. be generated based on the Periodic schedule only and the assigned spreadsheet can be used just for setting Attribute values Adding a Database Schedule The Database schedule allows full or partial generation events to be read froma database It is essentially a Periodic schedule modified to allow database entries to override the Entity Quantity and Interval There are two tabs Database and Set Attributes The Database tab sets the generation properties and the Set Attributes tab allows user defined Attributes to be set when Entities are generated The Start End option operates the same as for all other schedule types Refer to page 113 for a description of Start End SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 131 Defining a More Complex Generate Activity f A Database Schedule for Generate1 Database Set Attributes a Schedule Database Cancel Help Entity use default Quantity use default v DE Start End Interval 1 0 v Time Unit Hours NA Properties File Browse SQL Query L Use Database for Entity Entity Column Name E Use Database for Quantity Quantity Column Name __ Use Database for Interval Interval Column Name Column contains Date Time Comment L E _ Database Properties Properties File must contain the database location connection information It is the name of the properties file that contains the JDBC url and dri
96. begins after work on Friday remember that the time between 5 p m Friday and 9 a m Saturday was accounted for in the OffShift period In the Number of Units Down enter the number 3 This is the number of clerks on Shift 1 Downtime Duration is 48 0 Select the Planned check box i Calendar Downtime Schedule Schedule Name Schedule Type Date and Time Day of Week Number of Units Down Downtime Duration Duration Units Downtime Options Interrupt Activities Comment x Start Downtime when Resource is Idle Weekend Shift 1 Weekly x PET hh mm ss msec usec nsec 09 00 00 Saturday Z aap be ass Hours z V Planned Release All Resources Start Downtime when Resource Queue Empty Click on OK when finished 6 Add the weekend Downtime period for Shift 2 Change Downtime to 74 00 Number of Units Down to 2 and name the schedule Weekend Shift2 7 Finally time unavailable due to illness will be defined Illness is more complex to model than weekends or overnights because it occurs randomly Random downtime is handled by specifying a frequency distribution instead ofa fixed interval oftime Frequency distributions will be introduced here to complete the example Defining a Random Downtime Illness is unplanned Employees are going to get sick but when it will happen who it will happen to or how long they will be out is unknown However reasonable estimat
97. blers Attribute would receive the value from row 2 and column 4 SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 130 Defining a More Complex Generate Activity The Attributes Ent and Entity Des Attribute Assignment s Attribute Entity NumAssemblers aa Sheet Entity Arrivals Cancel FirstRow 2 He Column 4 X aman M Increment row for next value E A ity ProcessingTime REAL Entity HighPriority BOOLI tination STRING read from columns 5 through 7 respectively j Spreadsheet Schedule for Generate1 Spreadsheet Set Attributes Entity NumAssemblers Ada Model SalesRepType aa C H I Entity Destination Entity HighPriority Entity ProcessingTime Edit EAN Unlike Entity generation from a spreadsheet reading an empty cell for an Attribute value does not cause Entity generation to stop If a cell is empty no value is assigned to the Attribute Also in this example the values for the Attributes were from rows and columns corresponding to the Entity generation sheet rows and columns That does not have to be the case Each Attribute reads independently from the Sheet First Row and Column specified for the Attribute Thus the locations of the values for the Attributes can be independent of the Entity generation information Finally since the Spreadsheet schedule by default is a Periodic schedule Entities can
98. bute ee System Attribute By Activity By Shift Remove wag Resource When an item on the left is selected the available values are displayed Ifa statistical value is selected the Statistic Type section enables The statistical types are Avg Average StDev Standard Deviation Min Minimum and Max Maximum Note that no statistics are available until after the simulation starts All Attribute values return the value of the attribute at the time the SQL statement is executed Mode enables when an Attribute is selected It displays the type of the Attribute STRING REAL etc Some dialogs include extra buttons in order to select statistics that are tied to another item in the model For example when Collect Resource by Activity Statistics is selected either globally see Default Performance Measures or locally see Defining Resources and Units Busy is selected the By Activity button enables Similarly when Collect Resource by Shift statistics are selected globally or locally and Units Busy is selected the By Shift button enables 2 Units Planned Down Units Reserved Units Unplanned Down sea toa vs Mode REAL X Statistic os E gt Resource Attribute ee System Attribute Clicking By Activity displays a dialog that shows the Activities that have Resources assigned Clicking By Shift displays a list of the Shifts defined in th
99. can be specified precisely Select the Generate Entities option that indicates which of the entity types referenced in the event file are to be generated Defined in the model tells SIMPROCESS to generate Entities for every event record that specifies an entity type already defined in the model e Selected in the list tells SIMPROCESS to generate Entities only for the types highlighted in the entity type list SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 123 Defining a More Complex Generate Activity Car Add Type Attributes Truck Add Type SUV Add Type Van Add Type Motorcycle Add Type as gt m e Ifthe event file refers to an entity type that is not defined in the model it flags the type name For example Van Add Type e Selecting this type will cause SIMPROCESS to add the entity type to the model Ifthe entity in the event file refers to entity instance attributes that have not been defined in the model this is flagged as well For example Car Add Type Attributes e Note that attributes are tied to Entities Entity instance attributes cannot be added without adding the entity type To select the entity types to be used e Highlight the listed type name To highlight several types press and hold the Ctrl key while clicking on each item e To deselect a type click on it again while pressing the Ctrl key Saving Events The option Save events in model determines whether the event file is need
100. can only appear as the first object reference qualifier for the statement SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 70 Getting and Freeing Resources Using Expressions Getting and Freeing Resources Using Expressions There are two system methods for getting and freeing Resources GetResource and FreeResource SIMPROCESS System Methods summarizes the methods These system methods provide the same basic capability as the Get Resource and Free Resource Activities See Get Resource and Free Resource Activities The main difference is that with the GetResource system method the Resource requested can be different for every Entity The Get Resource Activity assumes each Entity entering the Activity requires the same Resources Thus if different Resources are needed the Entity must be routed toa different Get Resource Activity that requests those Resources The demonstration model H20 spm which is included in the SIMPROCESS installation compares the usual method of obtaining resources with the GetResource system method The model is described in Chapter 5 of the SIMPROCESS Getting Started Manual Demonstration and Reference Models GetResource GetResource can be used in several Activities that can acquire Resources Get Resource Delay Branch Transform Gate Synchronize and Assign Activities The Expression to geta Resource must go in the Accept Entity Expression of the Activity GetResource may not be used in an Entity Entity Ty
101. cating with SIMPROCESS In order to do this the application must obtain a reference to SPServerFactory However since SPServerFactory is remote to the application a Stub representation of SPServerFactory must be used instead Stub classes are provided by RMI and serve as references to the methods of SPServerFactory that are available remotely Because SPServerFactory was created according to RMI conventions it implements a Java Interface containing the methods that may be invoked by the remote application Therefore the usual way to refer to it is by using the name of that Interface SPServerFactoryInterface That is cast the item returned from the RMI Registry to the name of the Interface The code fragment below is from an example remote application and shows the SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 140 Defining a More Complex Generate Activity traditional way to refer to SPServerFactory import com caci remote import java rmi import jJava rmi server public class ExternalApp public static void main String args SPServerFactorylInterface spServer null boolean goodEvent false try spServer SPServerFactoryInterface Naming lookup rmi localhost SPServer catch Exception e e printStackTrace System out The name localhost can be replaced with any valid entry that will resolve to the system on which SPServerFactory is running including an actual Internet Protocol
102. cenarios with the Quantity to Batch and Release Threshold options But suppose the dispatching ofa shipment depends on the total weight of the appliances that have been accumulated How is this situation modeled SIMPROCESS User s Manual 23 Add weight of current order item to total weight of all orders received Is total weight over E Release Shipment the max allowed Customizing reports is another area where flexibility might beneeded SIMPROCESS provides several reports that track the flow of Entities through a model The values for how many Entities ofa particular type each customer order for example are processed during simulation or the average amount of time an Entity takes to make its way through the simulation are available in the Standard Report But suppose the percentage of orders that are shipped by a promised delivery date service level is needed to measure success in attaining service goals Two advanced SIMPROCESS features Attributes and Expressions provide the ability to handle these and many other situations SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 24 Introduction to Attributes and Expressions Introduction to Attributes and Expressions Attributes Attributes are user defined and built in variables of model elements whose values can change during the course of a simulation run For example for a Batch Process where Entity release depends on the weight of the Entities received an Attribute is
103. ch generation event x gt i An Attribute can beset based on aquery specified on the Attribute Assignment dialog When Use separate query is selected SQL Query and Execute query for each generation event enable If Execute query for SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 136 Defining a More Complex Generate Activity each generation event is not selected default the query specified in SQL Query is executed once against the database connection specified in the Properties File field on the Database tab As with the query on the Database tab the query fora specific Attribute can be parameterized using Model Attributes The column name entered in the Column field must be returned by the query in SQL Query A gain the value for the Attribute will be the same for every Entity generated for that generation event The row of the result set returned from a query specific to an Attribute is only incremented for each generation event Note that there is no guarantee that the row of the result set on the Database tab will stay in sync with the rows of results sets for specific Attributes If the generation event had a quantity of zero the rows of Attribute specific result sets will not be incremented since there were no Entities generated for the generation event Select Execute query for each generation event if the query should be executed every time a generation event occurs and at least one Entity is generated This is useful if the same value is requi
104. cuted SPServerFactory is available through the Java RMI Registry using its bound name of SPServer To run RMI Registry and SPServer on a host other than the host on which SIMPROCESS is running SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 139 Defining a More Complex Generate Activity and or to specify a TCP port other than the default 1099 make the appropriate changes in the Run Settings The sample files to start RMI Registry and SPServer can be copied from SPUser SampleFiles to the appropriate system EE ___ __ Time Server Remote Transfer Random Numbers Run Settings Cost Periods Debug Traces Simulation Period Cancel mmiddlyyyy hh mm ss msec usec nsec He Start 01 01 2014 2 00 00 00 000 000 000 End 01 01 2015 F 00 00 00 o00 2 ooo 0004 T warmup Every Replication Number of Replications 1 E Reset Random Number Streams Warmup Length 0 M Reset System Warmup Time Unit Hours X V verify Model on Run Simulation Time Unit Hours X RMI Host localhost RMI Port 1099 ee Running The Simulation With the above steps complete the simulation can be started The simulation must be started before the external application attempts to communicate with SIMPROCESS If not an error will occur and the simulation will be terminated SPServerFactory API When the simulation is running the external or remote application can begin communi
105. d If the End Time is less than the Start Time the time period is assumed to cross midnight For example if for Sunday the Start Time is 22 00 00 and the End Time is 06 00 00 then the downtime starts at 10 00 PM on Sunday and ends at 6 00 AM on Monday See Defining Downtime Schedules of Resources on page 152 for information on Number of Units Down Planned and Downtime Options SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 163 Resource Downtime Schedule Name Schedule Mornings amp Weekends Number of Units Down Evl Capacity v Planned Fixed Variable Fixed Variable Weekly Schedule Day of Week W Sunday W Monday W Tuesday J Wednesday Thursday M Friday Saturday Start Time End Time 00 00 00 23 59 59 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 00 00 08 00 00 gt gt AD 08 00 00 00 00 00 gt EP Em E E E E E 00 00 00 23 59 59 EM E Downtime Options Start Downtime when Resource is Idle Interrupt Activities Release All Resources Start Downtime when Resource Queue Empty Comment SIMPROCESS User s Manual 164 Resource Downtime Schedule Name Schedule Number of Units Down Fixed C Variable Evenings Evi Capacity gt cen V Planned OK
106. d be a RETURN statement such as RETURN Entity Time Activity Factor where Entity Time and Activity Factor are Attributes Each time this Function is called it will return the value of the multiple of the two Attributes Note that REAL INTEGER BOOLEAN or STRING values can be returned Also the value received by the caller is always a REAL even if an INTEGER value followed the RETURN The Name entered for the User defined Function will appear in every combo box in the model where a statistical distribution can be entered Also User defined Functions can be used in Expressions by using the Function system method See SIMPROCESS System Methods When a User defined Function is called by the Function system method values can be passed to the Function directly without using Attributes Local variables must be defined to accept the incoming values The local variables must benamedArg1 Arg2 ArgN andthe types of the local variables INTEGER REAL etc must match the incoming values Also the local variables must be defined in order Thatis Arg1 must be defined before Arg2 and so on The text ofa Function can be stored in an external file See Expression Editor beginning on page 47 for a discussion of that option SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 83 Dynamic Labels Dynamic Labels There are two types of background text in SIMPROCESS static text and dynamic labels Static text is used for annotating the model layout and
107. d in Expressions See SIMPROCESS System Methods e OpenDatabase e CloseDatabase e ReadFromDatabase e WriteToDatabase e GetNext e GetResult e DisposeResultSet OpenDatabase OpenDatabase is used to create a connection between SIMPROCESS and a database This must be done before any other database System Methods are used the Start Run Expression is a good place to use it Before using the method an Attribute must be defined normally a Model Attribute of type Object See User Defined Attributes on page 28 This Attribute will be used as a reference to the database connection The way to identify the database is through a database properties file This file should be similar in content to the sProcDB properties file in the SPUser directory This file isused to connect SIMPROCESS to the database thatcomes with SIMPROCESS Note Donotmodify sProcDB properties Copy the file before making changes Below is the contents of sProcDB properties jdbc drivers net ucanaccess jdbc UcanaccessDriver jdbc url jdbc ucanaccess SPUser SimProcDB mdb jdbc username jdbc password Simply change each of the properties to reflect the protocols needed for the system When using a SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 86 Interfacing With A Database database properties file the syntax is Model ObjectAttribute OpenDatabase PropertiesFileName where PropertiesFileName is the name of the database properties file The pref
108. dar under Schedule Type on the Generate Activity Properties dialog and then click on Add rc Calendar Schedule for Generatel Schedule Calendar2 i Cancel i Entity use default v a Help Quantity use default v Calendar Type Yearly v Start End mm dd hh mm ss msec usec nsec Date and Time me m Comment x SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 113 Defining a More Complex Generate Activity The following types of entity generation schedules can be specified in the Calendar Schedule dialog e Yearly Entities are generated once every year on a particular date e Monthly Entities are generated on a specific day in each month e g Lst of the month e Weekly A certain time of day on the specified day of the week e g Monday Tuesday e Daily Every day generated at the specified time e Hourly Every hour generated at the specified time e Date A specific date and time This event will occur only once at the specified date and time The Calendar Schedule dialog changes in appearance depending on the Type of schedule selected e If Calendar Type is Weekly a list of the days of the week is added to the dialog e The heading above the Date and Time field changes to prompt for the information required for the Type schedule selected For example ifa Daily entity generation schedule is selected a time of day must be entered in the Date and Time field Any inform
109. ded into the Expression Editor so the syntax of the Expressioncanbechecked using the Validate button Expressions edited in another editor should always have the syntax checked before running the simulation If the syntax error is caught at run time the simulation will stop If the Validate button shows there are errors the Expression can be modified in another editor the file re saved and then the Expression reloaded using the Refresh button Clicking the Done button checks the syntax before closing the Expression Editor However unlike when the expression is stored in the model the option to close with errors is available If the Use Expression in File check box is deselected the text of the Expression becomes editable However if the editor is closed with Use Expression in File deselected the Expression becomes a part of the model If Use Expression in File is reselected before closing the editor any changes made are lost since Expressions are only read from the specified file Changes to the Expression must be done and saved to the file in another editor Expressions can be copied from the SIMPROCESS Expression Editor and pasted into another editor by highlighting the desired text and using the Copy and Paste commands The Save button saves the current Expression to a text file Using Attributes in Expressions The value of an Attribute may be useful in the calculation of an Expression for a different construct than that for which the Attr
110. del Parameters See Creating a User Defined Attribute on page 28 for information on creating Model Attributes SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 38 Variable Resource Usage To illustrate consider the model created from the tutorial in the SIMPROCESS Getting Started Manual As Is spm located in the models Demos directory There are two Resources defined in the model Sales Rep and Service Rep The Sales Rep Resource is used for the Sales Delay Activity and the Service Rep Resource is used for the Customer Service Delay Activity The tutorial also has an alternative Instead of two different Resources for Sales and Customer Service the alternative uses one Resource called Customer Rep To run the alternative a Customer Rep resource must be defined as seen in To Be spm in the models Demos directory Also either the model has to be edited to remove the assignment of Service Rep and include the assignment of Customer Rep or a new alternative for Process Calls must be created that uses Customer Rep instead of Service Rep and Sales Rep See Alternative Sub Processes for information on Process alternatives Another way to run the two alternatives is to vary the Resource requests by creating Model Attributes for each Resource For example see the Attribute definition below The Attribute is named SalesRepType The Mode is String and the default Value is Sales Rep which is the name of one of the Resources Note that Model Parameter
111. der Properties FileName recorder bt vV All Entities Entities fo A Add J gt Remove AA Add al On Entry gt Remove All On Exit Cancel 4 Time Stamps 3 Choose to record arrival times On Entry or departing times On Exit of the Entities in this Process Activity 4 Select the Entities to record If the All Entities check box above the list box is selected all Entities in the list box will be recorded 5 Choose OK to leave the dialog when finished entering data confirming the current selections The Cancel button rejects the current dialog selections 6 TheEventLogs tab shows the defined Recorders either On Entry or On Exit along with current SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 173 CHAPTER 4 Exporting Results This chapter discusses exporting results to Databases and Spreadsheets Insert Update and Delete Structured Query Language SQL statements and output spreadsheets can be created for execution before during and after simulation runs The demonstration model DatabaseDemo spm in the Demos directory was used for this chapter Database and Spreadsheet sections The model was modified as necessary to demonstrate various features There is also the model SpreadsheetDemo spminthe Demos directory that demonstrates the spreadsheet export feature SIMPROCESS User s Manual 174 Defining and Executing Database Exports Defining and Executing Database Exports Selecting Report Expor
112. does not change during simulation Dynamic labels as their name implies are updated during simulation and are used to display information about changing properties of model elements One way to update dynamic labels is through the UpdateDynamicLabel method in Expressions See Background Text for a discussion of the other way to update dynamic labels BackgroundText Properties Static Label Alignment ee ites i Left cancer Center Hep Right Dynamic Label Properties Name numwaiting Id 0 Set Value Mode Integer v Width 10 L Entity value Precision 3 Resource Activity Connector __Time stamp _ Mosel ates Font Attributes Font Name Serif X Size 18 X Color H black X v Bold Italic Angle 0 0 v Comment L a To update a dynamic label using Expressions the dynamic label must have a unique combination of Name and Id number Usually Id number will be 0 unless two dynamic labels have the same Name The name typed into the Name text box will not appear on the layout It will only be used to reference the label from the Expression builder The type of value with which the dynamic label will be updated must also be selected The choice between String Integer and Real is made in the Mode combo box If the value of the dynamic label is Real Width and Precision must be specified in the corresponding value boxes Width is the total number of digits that will be shown for the displa
113. downtime schedule some of the periods during which a sales clerk is not available for work will be defined Note that this is a local Resource Downtime schedule If multiple resources followed the same downtime schedule then the Resource Downtime should be defined globally This downtime will account for e Daily off hours the 16 hours of each 24 hour day that a person is not scheduled to work e Weekends e Sick days A complete model would also need to account for lunch hours vacation time and unplanned time off jury duty personal days acts of nature etc For this example assume that sales clerks operate in two shifts The first shift composed of 3 clerks works from 9 to 5 The second shift consisting of 2 clerks works from 2 to 10 SIMPROCESS User s Manual 157 Resource Downtime 1 Ifthe Resource dialog is not already displayed click on the Define menu bar item and then select Resources Select Clerks from the list of resources and then click on Edit Click on Downtime m x al Resource Properties Generat Cost Downtime Attributes Expressions mmiddiyyyy hh mm ss msec usec nsec Cancel Start u E Help End u aa asm Document Schedules Metadata lt add Periodico Global Downtimes l Resource Shifts J Comment 2 Ifnecessary set the Start and End dates The Start and End dates are used in conjunction with the
114. ds listed do not require any inputs and return either a STRING or a REAL value When a System Method is selected a Description of the value returned is displayed Note that the values returned by these System Methods are independent of the replication The value that is returned is the value at the moment the SQL is executed Select System Method System Methods BasicDateTime DateTime DayOfWeek SystemDateTime SystemTime TimeOfDay Description Return current simulation time in the Simulation Time Unit set in the Run Settings REAL Modifying a Value The buttons in the Change Value section are used to modify an existing value in the Values list Selecting an existing value will cause the Edit and Remove buttons to enable If there is more than one value the Move Up and Move Down buttons will also enable The Edit button opens the appropriate dialog for the selected value For example if SalesRep Name is selected in the Values list and Edit is clicked the following displays E Resources S J DatabaseDemo ia R ServiceRep Sle Resource Va Capacity Units Idle f Avg Units Busy Z Units Down StDev Statistic Type Units Planned Down Units Unplanned Down Units Reserved Se PercentUtilization CurrentCapacity 22 LastDowntime 2 NumberWaiting 22 startDowntime 22 UnitsBusy 22 UnitsDown BO initetdla Min Max Mode
115. dule item select it from the Schedule list click on Edit and then modify the parameters on the Downtime Schedule dialog Click on OK to accept the changes The Add button updates the Schedule list box to include the schedule just defined The OK button finalizes the changes made to the Downtime Schedule The Cancel button exits the Downtime Schedule dialog without accepting any schedule changes made SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 167 Resource Shifts Resource Shifts Unlike Resource Downtime a Resource Shift determines whena resource is available Resource Shifts can onlybe defined globally They are simply another way to define downtime SIMPROCESS assumes Resources are always available unless downtime is applied A Resource Shift results in downtimes being created so the Resources to which the Resource Shift applies are down during time during which no Shift applies to the Resources and are partially down if the Shift does not require all units of the Resources A Resource can have multiple Shifts Even though each Shift operates independently of every other Shift if a Resource has mutliple Shifts assigned those Shifts are combined into one set of downtimes for the Resource One advantage that Resource Shifts have over Resource Downtimes is that Resource by Shift statistics can be collected see Resource Statistics Resource Shifts are defined by selecting Resource Shifts from the Define menu or by clicking the Define Resource
116. e after last replication using average of replication results Preview SQL before execution Create SQL Select SQL Type Select Table Select Columns Values Add Value Change Value Insert RESOURCEINFO I Entit Ed RI T Update Resource Remove Delete ctivit Move Ur Edit Where onnecto Move Down Remove Where e Stam mt TENSA ag Resource Model Attribute Lk Connector ee m Model Attribute Time Stamp System Method s le Cost Value saL yp INSERT INTO T Tex g0 System Method E c 4 Building SQL Statements All the sections under Create SQL are used to build the SQL statement The SQL section at the bottom displays the SQL as it is being built Select SQL Type offers three options Insert Update and Delete Select the type of SQL statement to build When Update or Delete are selected the Edit Where and Remove Where buttons enable These buttons are describe below in Where Clause When Insert is selected the SQL begins with INSERT INTO When Update is selected the SQL begins with UPDATE and when Delete is selected the SQL begins with DELETE FROM Insert and Update statements are built exactly the same way First a table is selected then the columns are selected then values are added for the selected columns An Update statement should also include a Where clause When Delete is selected the only section that is enabled is Select Table When a table is selected from the Select Table
117. e model see Resource Shifts SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 180 Defining and Executing Database Exports m hii H Select Activity S Select Shift S DatabaseDemo OK Day Shift OK Top Layout Swing Shift altt Cancel Night Shift Cancel atii Sales lt atii Customer Senice Help J Help Expand All ga Uses Resources i I ell e a Once a By item has been selected the By Activity and By Shift buttons disable and the Remove button enables The Remove button removes the By selection and enables the By Activity and By Shift buttons if the appropriate conditions exist The select value dialogs displayed by the Activity and Connector value buttons include a By Entity button This button enables when any statistic is selected and Collect Activity by Entity Statistics is turned on globally or turned on for the selected Activity or Connector 4 r o Select Entity So R Service Calls K _ Adding Cost Values Clicking the Cost value button displays a dialog that provides various lists or trees that are needed to identify a cost value SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 181 Defining and Executing Database Exports la pi gt Select Cost Value Select Cost Category Select Resource Select Entity SelectCostPeriod Select Cost Type Statistic Type Reso
118. e that in the SQL query double quotes are required around the table name Times Table for MS Access Double quotes can be placed in strings by using SQLString STRING count INTEGER Model DatabaseConn OpenDatabase MyDatabase SQLString SELECT CallTime WrapUpTime FROM Times Table WHERE Month 12 ReadFromDatabase Model DatabaseConn Times SQLString count 0 WHILE GetNext Times Model CallTime count GetResult Times CallTime Model WrapUpTime count GetResult Times WrapUpTime count count 1 END WHILE End Simulation Example This example just shows closing a connection CloseDatabase Model DatabaseConn Accept Entity Example In this example an Entity enters an Activity and gets its delay time from the database This assumes the WHILE loop in the Start Simulation example was not performed SQLQuery STRING IF GetNext Times SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 90 Interfacing With A Database Entity Delaytime GetResult Times CallTime ELSE will read again to start over if no more times are found SQLQuery SELECT CallTime WrapUpTime FROM Times Table WHERE Month 12 ReadFromDatabase Model DatabaseConn Times SQLQuery IF GetNext Times Entity Delaytime GetResult Times CallTime END IF END IF Release Entity Example This example shows writing to a database The processing time of the Entity for the Process is
119. each GetResource request is treated in the same manner as if each referenced different Resources For example assume the following statements are in the Accept Entity expression of an Activity SIMPROCESS Users Manual 71 Getting and Freeing Resources Using Expressions GetResource Resourcel 1 GetResource Resourcel 1 If the acquisition rule is Any One Member then only one unit of Resource will be acquired since each statement is considered a Member If All Members is selected then two units of Resource will be acquired Note that if Resource1 only has one unit defined then the above statements will generate a runtime error if All Members or Reserve As Available which requires all members are selected FreeResource FreeResource can be used in several Activities that can release Resources Free Resource Delay Branch Transform Gate Synchronize and Assign Activities Just like GetResource FreeResource must be used in the Accept Entity Expression of the Activity and FreeResource may not be used in an Entity Entity Type or Resource Expression Both of these methods must go in the Accept Entity Expression because these methods set up the requests for the events to occur while the Entity is processing in the Activity Therefore order within the Accept Entity Expression does not matter A FreeResource system method for a particular Resource can come before the GetResource since this is occurring when the Entity i
120. eases the building blocks available for model construction In addition to providing a repository for storing categories of modeling constructs the Library Management facilities can be used to customize defaults for model elements that are built into SIMPROCESS statistical distributions Activity parameters etc Processes and Activities that are used frequently can be kept on the Library Toolbar for quick access Processes and Activities that are used less frequently can be accessed through the Create pull down menu See File Menu for information on using a model s Group ID with templates In summary Libraries e Are repositories for model building constructs created by the user e Facilitate reuse of Processes Activities Resources and Resource Downtimes e Allow placement of Processes and Activities on the Library Toolbar and the Create menu e Allow the grouping of Processes and Activities in user defined templates e Facilitate importing and exporting of customized model elements for use in other models or by colleagues SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 9 Defining and Editing Templates Defining and Editing Templates The Define Templates pull down menu provides access to various options for manipulating templates The two functions available under this pull down menu are Add and Library Manager Add displays a dialog for adding a Process or Activity to a Library Library Manager brings up the SIMPROCESS Library Manager
121. ed and the model is being run within the SIMPROCESS application a dialog appears that shows the name of the spreadsheet export along with the actual values that will be written to the spreadsheet Every sheet is available for inspection f mI gt Spreadsheet Preview A B re End Preview 1 Close 2 0 29364498531318634 3 Stop Simulation 4 5 6 ti 8 9 an 4 m gt Sales Calls Service Calls k ae ee I Clicking Execute closes the dialog and writes the values to the spreadsheet The End Preview button closes the dialog writes the values to the spreadsheet and disables spreadsheet previewing for the remainder of the run The Close button closes the dialog and does not write the values to the spreadsheet Stop Simulation closes the dialog does not write the values to the spreadsheet and ends the simulation If a particular value has an error the error will be displayed SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 195 Defining and Executing Spreadsheet Exports fj a Spreadsheet Preview l Execute A B C End Preview Close _ Stop Simulation _ ary gt nN Error No statistics collec olalrsiaian a w a gt 4 m gt Sales Calls Service Calls a Pi The column can be expanded to see the full
122. ed except for the Model Attribute button This selection means that the entire Where condition except for the WHERE keyword is contained in a String Model Attribute SIMPROCESS Users Manual 185 Defining and Executing Database Exports UPDATE Results SET Resource SalesRep Name Location Location Value PercentUtilization SalesRep Units Busy Avg ResourceUnits SalesRep CurrentCapacity Select Columns Add Value Change Value ID COUNTER IResource VARCHAR Location VARCHAR PercentUtilization DOUBL amp ResourceUnits SMALLINT Entity l Resource Remove Activity Move Up Connector Move Down Time Stamp So System Method Only one Model Attribute can be added Once a Model Attribute has been added the Model Attribute button is disabled UPDATE Results SET Resource SalesRep Name Location Location Value PercentUtilization SalesRep Units Busy Avg ResourceUnits SalesRep CurrentCapacity WHERE SalesRepWhereCondition Value Condition Type Build Condition Attribute Condition Join Type AND gt oR Select Columns Values ID COUNTER Resource VARCHAR Location VARCHAR PercentUtilization DOUBL amp ResourceUnits SMALLINT SalesRepWhereCondition Valud Resource Activity Connector Time Stamp Model Attribute Cost Text System Method SIMPROCESS User s Manual 186
123. ed for simulation The option defaults to not selected Not being selected means the event file will be read at simulation time Thus the file is required to run the simulation If the option is selected then the events are saved as a part of the model and the file is not needed for simulation However saving events as a part of the model could significantly increase the size of the model file and increase the amount of time needed to load the model If events are saved the Read Event File button must be exercised if the event file changes Otherwise the simulation will not run with the events from the new file Note that if the events are not saved and the event file changes the events for the simulation will change But doing this without intentionally reading the event file using the Read Event File button assumes that the Entities and attributes used in the new file are the same as the previous file Adding a Spreadsheet Schedule The Spreadsheet schedule allows full or partial generation events to be read from a spreadsheet SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 124 Defining a More Complex Generate Activity Spreadsheet Schedule for Generate es SetAtrbutes Schedule Spreadsheet6 Fiename miian E Entity use default a4 m Quantity use default X i Interval 1 0 v i Time Unit Hours v E Use Spreadsheet for Entity Entity Location Sheet First Row None v Column None v E Use Spreadshe
124. edule s Generation End date is reached e The Entity Quantity and Interval fields are used the same way they are in the Periodic Schedule detail dialog see page 112 Defining a Calendar Cycle A calendar cycle defines entity generation events for a specific date or that repeat on either an hourly daily weekly monthly or yearly basis r x Calendar Event for Cyclical3 Schedule Holiday Rush Cancel Entity use default Quantity use default v Calendar Type Daily K hh mm ss msec usec nsec Time 09 00 00 Comment i L The dialog above shows a calendar cycle representing four days leading up to a festive holiday when people are rushing to buy gifts for their loved ones It s a daily schedule beginning at 9 a m Note that there is no duration on calendar events They will operate as long as possible For the example above since it is a Daily schedule it will generate every day at 9 o clock Thus any events listed after the Daily event in the Cyclical schedule will not execute since the Daily event will keep generating As with the periodic cycle the start time of a calendar event is determined by the cyclical schedule in which the cycle is defined However entity generation is not triggered until the time that is indicated in the Date and Time field If the trigger point is not reached while the cycle is in effect no Entities are generated For a further explanation see SIMPRO
125. el The same Expression file can be used with multiple models but this is discouraged since itis best ifthe Expression file is stored in the model s directory Storing an Expression file in the model s directory shows clear linkage between an Expression file and a model An Expression file must be an ASCII file Ifa word processor is used to create the file make sure the file is saved in text format Note that when using Expression Search if the Search For field is empty the Expression Search will find any item that has an Expression whether stored in the model or stored in a file but searches for specific text ignore Expressions in files To use an external file for an Expression select the Use Expression in File check box and enter a file name in the adjoining text field If the file name does not have a path included the file is assumed to be in the model s directory If a path is included it must be a complete path SIMPROCESS will not create the file entered in the text field The file must be created by an editor independent of SIMPROCESS When there is already a file assigned the text of the Expression file is loaded into the Expression Editor when the editor opens If the file is assigned after the editor opens the Refresh SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 51 Writing Expressions button can be used to load the Expression Expressions from files are not editable in the Expression Editor The text of an Expression in a file is loa
126. el the car A Unit Based Usage downtime schedule can model this scenario To define the Downtime schedule for rental car usage 1 Add a Usage Schedule Type 2 Select Unit Based for Usage Type 3 Usage Before Downtime sets the number of units that must be used before downtime occurs The arrow next to the Usage Before Downtimes field displays a list of statistical dis tributions No change is needed since the default of 1 0 is correct This means every unit of the rental car resource will go down for a period of time when released 4 Set Number of Units Down to 1 0 SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 166 Resource Downtime 5 Select the Normal distribution Nor for Downtime Duration The Downtime Duration rep resents the time required to prepare the rental car for another use Enter 1 5 for the Mean and 0 5 for the Std Dev 6 Leave the Duration Units at the default value Hours y f Usage Downtime Schedule ej Schedule Name Rental Car Prep _ ox Schedule Cane e Usage Type Unit Based v Hep Usage Before Downtime 1 0 v Time Unit Hours v Number of Units Down 1 X maa Downtime Duration Nor 1 5 0 5 v mamn Duration Units Hours z V Planned Comment E l Modifying a Downtime Schedule Removing existing Schedule items from a Downtime Schedule is simple open the global or local Downtime Schedule highlight the Schedule item to delete and click on Remove To change a Sche
127. em action or return a value from the underlying system One commonly used function is SimTime which returns a Real number containing the current simulation time For a list of System Methods available in SIMPROCESS refer to SIMPROCESS System Methods Expression Language Statements IF condition ELSIF condition ELSE condition END IF WHILE condition END WHILE FOR expression TO DOWN TO expression BY expression END FOR RETURN possible return value EXIT with WHILE or FOR loops OUTPUT SIMPROCESS Expression language syntax 1 The SIMPROCESS Expression language is case sensitive An Attribute named Applianceweight is not the same Attribute as the Attribute referred to as applianceWeight All built in language elements are in capital letters IF END WHILE etc Each Expression language statement ends with a semicolon The exceptions to this are lines that begin with IF ELSIF ELSE WHILE and FOR Comments can be included in Expressions by enclosing them in curly brackets For example This is a comment SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 45 Writing Expressions Do not end a comment line with a semicolon 5 Basic conditional logic has the form IFa lt b x C ELSIF a lt c x d END IF For example IF batchweight gt 2000 MaxBatchSize 100 batchWeight 0 ELSIF batchweight gt 1800 MaxBatchSize 110 END IF Messages can be displayed in the SIMPROCE
128. equal to the number of replications defined for the simulation A value of 1 for Replication indicates to use the average of replication results If the simulation is running and the requested replication is the same as the current replication the value of the statistic or Attribute at the time of the request is used If the SQL statement is executed immediately after a replication or for a replication previously completed the final value for the requested replication is used Note that if the requested replication is not currently running or has not SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 188 Defining and Executing Database Exports yet run there will be no error If not requesting average of replication results the System Attribute Replication can be used to return the current replication number For example WriteToDatabase SalesRep Units Busy Replication As with the automatic execution of SQL statements if Preview SQL before execution is selected and the simulation is being run within the SIMPROCESS application a dialog will appear that shows the actual SQL to be executed Example See the demonstration model DatabaseDemo spm in the Demos directory for an example of the use of this feature SIMPROCESS User s Manual 189 Defining and Executing Spreadsheet Exports Defining and Executing Spreadsheet Exports Selecting Report Export Results Spreadsheet displays dialog for managing spreadsheet exports
129. erfacing With A Database on page 86 Eachrecord in an event file defines one entity generation event To learn how to define entity generation events see External Event Files Use the External File schedule to identify an event input file to SIMPROCESS SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 122 Defining a More Complex Generate Activity File Schedule for Generate1 x Schedule File2 _ Event File e Read Event File Hep Entities in File Start End Generate Entities Selected in the list D Defined in the model Save events in model Comment L a To identify the event file click on the Browse button to the right of the Event File box Use the resulting dialog to find and select the file The Read Event File button causes SIMPROCESS to read the event file checking for syntax errors and building a list of the entity types and attributes referred to in the file The Read Event File button must be clicked to complete the definition of the event file Refer to page 113 for a description of the Start End option Identifying Entity Types to be Generated An event file can contain records referring to many different entity types An event record can even refer to a type of entity that has not yet been defined in the model and to entity instance attributes that have not been defined in the model Which entity types SIMPROCESS should generate during simulation
130. erred location for a properties file is the model s directory An alternative location is the SPUser directory If not in one of those two locations the PropertiesFileName must include the complete path to where it can be found If the connection is successful the Attribute will contain a reference to the connection Note that the connection is only valid for the model that created the connection If another model needs to use the same database that model must create its own connection CloseDatabase CloseDatabase is used to close a connection to a database and disposes all open Result Sets This normally occurs at the end of a simulation End Simulation or End Run Expression The syntax is CloseDatabase Model ObjectAttribute The only parameter is the Object Attribute that was used in the OpenDatabase system method that created the connection ReadFromDatabase ReadFromDatabase gets information from a database and places the information into a Result Set GetNext andGetResult are used to assign the data from a Result Set to Attributes or local variables in the model The syntax is ReadFromDatabase Model ObjectAttribute ResultSetName SQLQuery Model ObjectAttribute is the Object Attribute that was used in the OpenDatabase system method that created the connection ResultSetName is a unique string identifier for the Result Set created by the query SQLQuery is a string and is the query that creates the Result Set Norma
131. error message or the contents of the cell will display by hovering the mouse tip over the cell As when executing SQL statements if Execute is clicked spreadsheet values with errors will be ignored Even if the preview does not show any errors an error still may occur during execution If this happens a warning message will display If OK is clicked on the warning message the simulation will stop with an error condition If Continue is clicked any remaining spreadsheet values are written to the file and the simulation continues or ends normally Expression Execution Spreadsheet exports can be executed throughout a simulation using the WriteToSpreadsheet Expression statement Usually the OpenSpreadsheet Expression statement must be executed first to open a spreadsheet file Then a reference to that spreadsheet file must be used with the WriteToSpreadsheet statement See Spreadsheet System Methods for a discussion of all spreadsheet related Expression statements However a spreadsheet export created through this interface can be executed by the WriteToSpreadsheet statement The syntax is WriteToSpreadsheet Name STRING Replication INTEGER where Name is the name given to the spreadsheet export and Replication is the simulation replication Replication must be greater than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to the number of replications defined for the simulation A value of 1 for Replication indicates touse t
132. ert Deselect All R Hardware Sales Rep BE Intern EE Resource I Serice Rep B Software Sales Rep a 5 The properties for a Resource Shift are very similar to the properties for a Weekly Resource Downtime schedule page 162 Thetwo primary differences area Resource Shiftdefines Number of Units Available instead of Number of Units Down and there is no Planned option All downtime associated with a Resource Shift is planned downtime The Number of Units Available which defaults to the defined capacity of the Resource applies to the whole Shift Thus if the number of units for a shift varies by day multiple Shifts must be defined In the Weekly Schedule set the Start Time and End Time for each selected Day of Week The same rules apply to Start Time and End Time that apply when defining a Weekly Resource Downtime schedule End Time can only be 00 00 00 if Start Time is 00 00 00 Both being 00 00 00 represents a complete 24 hour day Midnight is assumed when 23 59 59 is used for End Time If the End Time is less than the Start Time the time period is assumed to cross midnight For example if for Sunday the Start Time is 22 00 00 and the End Time is 06 00 00 then the shift starts at 10 00 PM on Sunday and ends at 6 00 AM on Monday The Downtime Options are the same as for Resource Downtime See Defining Downtime Schedules of Resources on page 152 for a discussion of these Finally select the Resources to which
133. es can be made based on past experience To define the Downtime schedule for sick days SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 160 Resource Downtime 1 Add a Periodic Schedule Type A Periodic schedule is used to describe events that occur at varying intervals of time 2 Time between Downtimes describes the interval period Assume that in a typical month one of the five employees comprising the Clerks group will be out sick for a period of time Moreover assume that while a month is typical the time between bouts of illness can be as little as three days or as much as a year To reflect this specify a triangular distribution Click on the arrow next to the Time Between Downtimes field to display a list of statistical distributions Scroll through the list to the default definition for Triangular distributions It reads Tri 0 0 5 0 10 0 There are three parameters in this definition Minimum value most frequent value Mode and Maximum value Values are in the Time Unit selected Select Tri from the list Click on the box to the right of the arrowhead next to the Time Between Downtimes field This displays a dialog for defining the parameters of the distribution F 7 Distribution Details Minimum 0 0 Cance Mode 5 0 Help Maximum 10 0 s View l Stream 1 i The following assumptions have been made Typically there is a clerk out sick every 28 days This is the most likely
134. es in an expression 53 Model Attributes defined 28 using in an expression 53 Model Parameters 30 Move command events 117 118 N no entities generated reasons 111 No Event schedule 122 P periodic schedule 112 R Recorder Objects output file recorder msg 172 Recorders Definition of 172 Release Begin 111 113 Release End 111 113 Repeat Sequence events 118 Resource Downtime adding template 17 Resources adding template 15 Downtime Schedule 152 167 variable usage 37 S Schedule of events 117 schedule of Generate activity 111 sequence of events Both must be reached 119 calendar entity generation start time 120 entity generation start of 121 start time 120 definition periodic 119 120 Both must be reached 119 start time 119 single event 122 Spreadsheet interfacing with 92 96 System Attributes 27 T Template defining 10 Templates adding 14 Defining and Editing Templates 10 editing 30 resource 15 resource downtime 17 structure 13 Time Stamps Assembled Entities 171 assigning 171 Batched 171 Definition of 170 passing to an output entity 171 Transformed Entities 171 Viewing Reports 171 trigger point of calendar event 120 U Use default 112 User Defined Attributes 28 and Assign Activity 35 assigning values to globally defining 29 33 initializing values 59 locally defining 34 User Defined Functions 83
135. estimate The minimum period between illnesses is 3 days The maximum period between illnesses is 1 year 365 days SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 161 Resource Downtime m l Distribution Details Minimum 3 Cance Mode 28 l Help Maximum 365 View Stream 1 Click on OK 3 Set Time Unit to Days 4 Set Units Down to The Units number of clerks of this resource is 5 The frequency of downtime applies to one clerk at a time not all five 5 Downtime Duration is another variable random event For this model assume that a clerk is unavailable for at least 24 hours one sick day and no more than 10 days ata time with most absences lasting two days Following the procedure described in step 2 define a triangular distribution with these parameters Downtime Duration Tri 1 0 2 0 10 0 1 v D Select Days for Duration Unit 7 Set the Schedule Name to SickTime 8 The downtime is not planned so leave the Planned check box blank 9 Leave Interrupt Activities unselected 10 Click on OK to add the definition to the Schedule list Click on OK to accept the entire Downtime Schedule Defining a Weekly Downtime Fixed Weekly Downtime Schedule The Weekly Downtime schedule is good for resources where availability is based on a schedule There SIMPROCESS User s Manual 162 Resource Downtime are two options available on a Weekly schedule Fixed and Variable An employee wor
136. et for Quantity Quantity Location Sheet First Row None Column None v E Use Spreadsheet for Interval Interval Location Sheet First Row None v Column None Sai Column contains Date Time Comment The Spreadsheet schedule is essentially a Periodic schedule modified to allow spreadsheet entries to override the Entity Quantity and Interval There are two tabs Spreadsheet and Set Attributes The Spreadsheet tab sets the generation properties and the Set Attributes tab allows user defined Attributes to be set when Entities are generated The Start End option operates the same as for all other schedule types Refer to page 113 for a description of Start End Spreadsheet Properties The File Name field contains the name of the spreadsheet file The spreadsheet can be a Workbook file or an XML Spreadsheet If no path is included the file is assumed to be in the model s directory It isrecommended that the file be located in the model s directory Ifthe model and its directory are moved SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 125 Defining a More Complex Generate Activity the File Name field will not need to be changed The File Name field must be populated Note that Spreadsheet schedules created in earlier versions of SMPROCESS do not enforce this requirement A Model Attribute of type STRING that contains the name of the file can be used in the File Name field The Entity Quantity Interval and T
137. etCostStatistic e GetEntityStatistic e GetResourceStatistic e GetResourceByActivityStatistic e GetResourceByShiftStatistic e GetTimeStampStatistic e GetTotalCostStatistic The value of the statistic can be obtained for a specific replication or the average or sum ofreplications can be obtained The value of a specific replication can only be obtained if that replication has been run oris in the process of running For example the value for replication 2 is not available ifreplication 1 is the replication currently running Also the average and sum of replications are not available if only one replication is run A value of 1 returns the average of replications and a value of 2 returns the sum of replications GetActivityStatistic GetActivityStatistic returns the value of a statistic for an Activity that has Collect Activity Statistics selected either globally or on the Activity properties See Default Performance Measures The syntax is GetActivityStatistic Activity Name Statistic Value Type Replication where Activity Name is the name of the Activity or Process and Statistic is the statistic type desired The key words for the statistics available are found in Appendix G See Statistic Types Value Typecan be Avg StDev Min Max Count or RunLength Replication isthereplication desired or the average or sum of replications SIMPROCESS Users Manual 97 Accessing Statistics During Si
138. ey words for the statistics available are found in Appendix G See Statistic Types Value Type can be Avg StDev Min Max Count or RunLength Replication is the replication desired or the average or sum of replications Some examples GetEntityStatistic Sales Calls tokentotalborn Max 1 returns the total number of Sales Calls Entities that were generated in replication 1 GetEntityStatistic Sales Calls tokendelay Avg 1 returns the average Sales Calls cycle time across replications GetEntityStatistic Sales Calls tokenholdlevel Max 1 returns the maximum number of Sales Calls Entities that were in a hold condition for replication 1 GetResourceStatistic GetResourceStatistic returns the value ofa statistic for a Resource that has Collect Resource Statistics selected either globally or on the Resource properties See Default Performance SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 100 Accessing Statistics During Simulation Measures The syntax is GetResourceStatistic Resource Name Statistic Value Type Replication where Resource Name is the name of the Resource and Statistic is the statistic type desired The key words for the statistics available are found in Appendix G See Statistic Types Value Type can be Avg StDev Min Max Count or RunLength Replication is the replication desired or the average or sum of replications Some examples
139. f Do Not Reset Before Each Replication is selected The Attribute maintains its current value Statistics Types and Report Requests refer to statistics collected for Attributes during a simulation run These statistics are used in SIMPROCESS reports Note that no statistics can be collected for Entity instance Attributes or Attributes that have a Mode of String Boolean or Object Observation Based and Time Weighted refer to the way statistics are collected Observation Based tells SIMPROCESS to collect statistical data without considering the amount of time an Attribute maintains a particular level Each time the value of an Attribute changes the new value is added to a running total Time Weighted provides time weighted statistics That is the length of time an Attribute remains at a particular value is factored into the statistical data when the average value is calculated Real Time Histogram Plot tells SIMPROCESS to plot the Attribute value changes as they occur during the simulation run Real Time Plot using a Histogram type graphic The plots can be saved printed resized and re read from prior saves using the menu on the Plot dialog Real Time Trace Plot tells SIMPROCESS to plot the Attribute value changes as they occur during the simulation run to a trace type graphic The trace plots can be manipulated similar to the Histogram Plots Real Time Meter Plot tells SIMPROCESS to plot the Attribute value changes as they occur during
140. f the next Unavailability occurs at regularly scheduled times so select Planned Leave Interrupt Activities unselected since the clerks finish their current tasks before going down Click on OK when the definition is complete OffShift is added to the Schedule list G al Calendar Downtime Schedule Schedule Name Offshiftt Schedule Cancel Type Daily MA Hep Help hh mm ss msec usec nsec Time 17 00 00 Number of Units Down Evi Capacity gt m Downtime Duration 16 0 v Duration Units Hours y v Planned Downtime Options Start Downtime when Resource is Idle Interrupt Activities Release All Resources Start Downtime when Resource Queue Empty Comment L a 4 Define the off shift period for the two Shift 2 workers Add another daily downtime sched ule Change Time to 22 00 Number of Units Down to 2 and name the schedule OffShift2 Then click on OK 5 Define downtime periods to account for the weekend Begin with Shift 1 For Schedule Name call it Weekend Shift 1 Schedule Type is Calendar The Type is Weekly A weekend occurs once every week When adding a Weekly schedule a list box with the days of the week appears on the dialog Day of Week is Saturday For Date and Time enter 9 under HH and 0 under MM and SS Again Milliseconds Microseconds and Nanoseconds may be left blank SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 159 Resource Downtime If a typical weekend
141. fixed every SIMPROCESS Users Manual 152 Resource Downtime n time units or random sampled from a statistical distribution The Calendar schedules are calendar based with downtime occurring on particular dates or days of the week time of day etc Types are Yearly Every year on a particular date and time Monthly A specific day in each month e g 1 of the month Weekly A certain time of day on the specified day of the week e g Monday Tuesday Daily Every day beginning at the specified time Hourly Every hour beginning at n minutes past the hour Date A specific date and time The Weekly schedule allows downtime to be defined for every day of the week There are two options on the Weekly schedule Fixed and Variable The start times and end times on a Fixed Weekly schedule are set when the schedule is defined and cannot be changed A Variable Weekly schedule allows parameters to be used for the start and end times Thus the start and end times change based on the values of the parameters There are two types of Usage downtime Unit Based and Time Based A Unit Based schedule is based on the number of units of the resource that have been used The amount of time the units were used is not considered The Time Based schedule considers the amount of time the resource has been busy When adding a new downtime schedule or editing an existing one a dialog will display that contains the parameters for
142. g v ao Cancel E nee V Collect Statistics Comment SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 170 Event Logs Entry and Exit Event Logs to Processes Activities Once Time Stamps have been defined specify the Process or Activity where they will be attached to the Entity The Time Stamp can be added to the Entity upon entry into and or exit from the Process Activity Time stamps are then added to Entities that traverse this process during simulation execution To add a time stamp 1 A Time Stamp must first be defined using the procedures starting on page 170 2 Using an Activities Process Properties dialog select the Event Logs tab 3 Using the Type combo box select Time Stamp and press the Add button The Time Stamp Properties dialog appears as shown below la A TimeStamp Properties Z All Entities l Cancel Entities l Help Al Add Sales Calls Senice Calls Remove 44 Add All On Entry i Remove All On Exit E Pi 4 Select either one or more individual Entities by using the Add lt button Check the All Enti ties box to stamp every entity in the model 5 Choose either the On Entry or On Exit check boxes for the Time Stamp 6 Select a Time Stamp Key in the combo box which contains the predefined time stamp labels 7 Press the OK command button and notice the Time Stamp report name in the Event Logs list box Passing Time Stamps Between Entities When an ent
143. have Cloned Entity selected When this option is selected Entity Type and Quantity are enabled Select the Entity Type and Quantity that are to traverse this connector The Entities that are created are exact clones of the original Entity that was generated The cloned Entities have the same priority and any Attributes that were set during generation are also copied This action occurs for every Entity that is generated based on the generation schedules The New Entity button can be used to define new Entity Types All Entities that exit the Generate Activity whether created by a generation schedule or cloned based on Connector settings cause the execution ofthe Release Entity Expression Also cloned Entities are included in the statistics of the SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 145 Defining a More Complex Generate Activity Generate Activity 5 7 Connector Properties sa Name Conn18 General Start End a Show Name Help Auto Label Output Entity r Generated Entity New Entity Cloned Entity Entity Type Entity19 X C Document Quantity 2 v Metadata Display Line Width 100 X Line Style Solid Duration Travel Time Distance Divided By Rate Value None v Distance None Rate None Units Hours X Units Hours v Collect Connector Statistics Collect Connector by Entity Statistics Comment 4 When using multiple Connectors the Generate Activity functions
144. he Process Process4 GetActivityByEntityStatistic Process4 Sales Calls bytokenin Max 2 returns the number of Sales Calls Entities that entered the Process Process4 in replication 2 Although other Value Types are available the maximum value is the value of interest since the number of Entities entering are just counted GetAttributeStatistic GetAttributeStatistic returns the value ofan Attribute that is being monitored for statistics On the Attribute properties either Observation Based or Time Weighted must be selected for Statistics Types and at least one of the Report Requests must be selected See Globally Defining an Attribute SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 98 Accessing Statistics During Simulation from the Menu on page 29 The value returned will be based on the Statistic Type selected on the Attribute properties Observation Based or Time Weighted The Attribute name must be unique among the user defined Attributes that are being statistically monitored The syntax is GetAttributeStatistic Attribute Name Value Type Replication where Attribute Name isthe name of the Attribute Value Type can be Avg StDev Min Max Count or RunLength Replication is the replication desired or the average or sum of replications Some examples GetAttributeStatistic ProcessingTime Avg 1 returns average value for the Attribute ProcessingTime for replication 1 GetAttributeStatistic
145. he average of replication results Ifthe simulation is running and the requested replication is the same as the current replication the value of the statistic or Attribute at the time of the request is used If the spreadsheet export is executed immediately after a replication or for a replication previously completed the final value for the requested replication is used Note that if the requested replication is not currently running or has not yet run there will be no error SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 196 Defining and Executing Spreadsheet Exports If not requesting average of replication results the System Attribute Replication can be used to return the current replication number For example WriteToSpreadsheet Values Replication As with the automatic execution of spreadsheet exports if Preview Spreadsheet before execution is selected and the simulation is being run within the SIMPROCESS application a dialog will appear that shows the actual values to be written to the spreadsheet Example See the demonstration model SoreadsheetDemo spm in the Demos directory for an example of the use of this feature SIMPROCESS User s Manual 197 A activities Assign 35 Batch system attributes of 27 Generate 147 interrupting 157 Local Attributes 34 using activity attributes in an expression 53 Assign Activity 35 Attribute Value Initialization 59 Attributes 25 Model Parameter 30 System 2 User Defined 28 B
146. hese Expressions are particularly useful for opening and closing files that are needed throughout the simulation See Methods OpenFile CloseFile ReadFromFile and WriteToFile for information on opening and closing files The Start Simulation and Start Trial Model Expressions are executed before the Start Simulation and Start Trial Expressions of Entity Types Resources Activities and Processes The End Simulation and End Trial Model Expressions are executed after the End Simulation and End Trial Expressions of Entity Types Resources Activities and Processes Events related to Entities and Resources can occur numerous times throughout a simulation trial For example an Entity s arrival at an Activity is a simulation event called Accept Entity so called because the Entity is being accepted into the Activity This can occur thousands of times during a long simulation once for each Entity that arrives at the Activity Activity Process Time gt Accept Entity Get Resource Free Resource Release Entity Every Expression is associated witha specific SIMPROCESS model element Select the model element that requires customized processing specify the event at which the processing is to occur and then write the Expression to do the processing Example Batching Entities Based on Weight on page 60 describes this Process in detail Not every event is available as an activation point for every model element For
147. ibute was defined For instance the duration ofa Delay Activity could take the value of an Attribute of the Entity currently at the Delay Activity To do so the Expression on the Activity must access the value of the Attribute on the Entity This is accomplished by referring to the Entity Attribute with the prefix Entity followed by the name of the Entity Attribute Using the duration example above for an Entity Attribute called TimeFactor the duration that each Entity that carries the TimeFactor Attribute will spend at a Delay Activity can be set with the following statement NextDelay Entity TimeFactor By placing the above statement inthe Accept Entity activation event fora listing of activation events see Expression Activation Events beginning on page 55 on the Delay Activity the value of the System Attribute NextDelay will take the value of the TimeFactor Attribute The result is for each instance of an Entity reaching this Activity its processing time at that Activity is determined by the value of the Entity Attribute TimeFactor that each instance of the Entity carries However this assumes that there is no wait for Resources If an Entity has to wait another Entity could enter and change NextDelay before the first Entity is able to process The preferred method is to use the Evaluate function in the Duration Value field on the Delay Activity to return the value of the Attribute TimeFactor
148. ime So leaving the Generation Start End fields blank ensures that the schedule is in effect for the entire simulation run Defining Schedules for a Generate Activity The Generate schedule identifies the entity generation pattern defined for an Activity When a new schedule item is defined it is added to the Schedule list box Schedule Aada Periodic X Edit o 3 3 D amp 3 oils 5 Each Schedule identifies an entity generation pattern of a specific type e Periodic A periodic schedule generates a specified quantity of Entities at the endofa specified time period e Calendar Generates Entities according to a calendar schedule daily weekly monthly etc Weekly A schedule that allows generation intervals for every day of the week This schedule differs from a Calendar Weekly schedule See description below for details e Cyclical A detailed sequence of when Entities are generated SIMPROCESS Users Manual 111 Defining a More Complex Generate Activity e File A schedule defined in an external file Spreadsheet A schedule defined in an external spreadsheet Database A schedule defined in an external database External Generates Entities based on inputs from an external source External schedules are a plug in capability that can be licensed separately from CACI Schedules are processed in parallel If there are two schedules that overlap in time SIMPROCESS pr
149. ime Unit fields operate as on a Periodic schedule unless overridden by the three spreadsheet options below the Periodic fields e Use Spreadsheet for Entity e Use Spreadsheet for Quantity e Use Spreadsheet for Interval Selecting any option causes the Sheet First Row and Column fields for that option to activate The Use Spreadsheet for Interval option also has a check box Column contains Date Time that designates whether the column contains interarrival times or date and time information default All options assume the information is in a column starting at a particular row No empty cells are allowed For any option if an empty cell is encountered in the designated column the schedule stops operation Enter the appropriate Worksheet name in the Sheet field First Row is the starting row for the events The row number must be an INTEGER and must be greater than or equal to one The Column field contains the column number of the data As with the row number the column number must be an INTEGER greater than or equal to 1 So if the data is in column A starting at row 1 First Row would be 1 and Column would be 1 Note that the First Row and Column fields contain the distribution list Thus any distribution other than None can be used as long as the above criteria are met Spreadsheet schedules created in earlier versions of SSMPROCESS allow None as the selected distribution for First Row or Column but will error at runtime Use Spreadshee
150. imple too it requires only a single statement in each Expression But it is redundant in that Expressions must be defined for each type of Entity Defining an Expression for each Entity would be tedious and time consuming if there are many different types of Entities There are other options A weight does not have to be assigned to the Entities as soon as they are created SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 62 Example Batching Entities Based on Weight All that is required is the weight be assigned before the Entity reaches the Batch Activity where appliances are distributed DISTRIBUTE ORDERS In this model all Entities are generated by a single Generate Activity So an Expression can be defined in the Generate Activity that activates whenever an Entity is released Release Entity event This is the most efficient way to proceed One Expression handles the initialization of any Entity s applianceWeight 1 Double click on the Generate RECEIVE ORDERS Activity 2 Inthe Generate Activity Properties dialog click on the Expressions tab Five simulation events are listed The first Start Simulation will occur before any Entities are generated Start Trial will occur before any Entities are generated if there is no warmup period otherwise some Entities could be generated if Entity generation was scheduled during the warmup period Release Entity serves the purpose so highlight it and click on Edit 3 Enter the following lines in the E
151. in a similar manner to the Split Activity Ifa value is entered for Family Name on the Generate properties a Join Activity can be used later in the flow with that Family Name See Split and Join Activities Generate Activity Summary The Generate Activity generates the Entities that are processed in a SIMPROCESS simulation Thenumber of Entities generated at each generation event and the frequency ofentity generation events may be expressed as either constant numbers or statistical distributions Schedules of discrete entity generation events can be defined Schedules are classified as e Periodic A constant or statistical distribution of generation events per time unit e Calendar Daily weekly monthly etc events e Weekly Schedule for a complete week SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 146 Defining a More Complex Generate Activity e Cyclical A detailed sequence of generation events e File A schedule defined in an external file e Spreadsheet A schedule defined in an external spreadsheet e External A schedule that receives generation signals from an external application Cyclical schedules are further broken down into cycles each of which describes a different entity generation event Cycle events are processed sequentially This differs from other Generate schedules which are processed in parallel SIMPROCESS User s Manual 147 Resource Downtime Resource Downtime Resource Downtime determines when
152. ing the Attribute type from the Attribute definition dialogs The Attribute definition dialogs support the same types that can be declared locally in the Expression However the data type of Object is not supported in the Expressions ANYOBJ is used instead of Object Operators e Assignment Operator The assignment operator is used to assign a value to an Attribute For example x 15 assignWeight 1000 The colon preceding the equal sign is required An error will occur if it is omitted String values can be concatenated using the operator For example mystringl hello mystring2 dolly mystring3 mystringl mystring2 The string mystring3 now contains the value hello dolly String concatenation can also be used on functions that return string values such as the SUBSTR function For example mystringl SUBSTR 1 5 mystring3 dude The variable mystring1 will now contain hello dude e Compare Operator An equal sign without a preceding colon is used when comparing two values Thus the statement beginning IF assignWeight 1000 SIMPROCESS User s Manual 43 Writing Expressions compares the value of Attribute assign Weight to the number 1000 e Arithmetic Operators used in the SIMPROCESS Expression language are addition subtraction multiplication division DIV integer division and MOD modulus e Relational Operators include lt gt n
153. is checked Global Attribute Properties Name SalesRepType Mode String X l Cancel Value Sales Rep Help Array Dimension 0 v Model Parameter Do Not Reset Before Each Replication Comment Time Trace Real Time Meter Plot Time Thermometer Plot Standard Report x 4 Another Model Attribute is created called ServiceRepType with a default value of Service Rep As shown above in Varying Resource Units on page 37 the Service Rep Resource was specified as the Resource needed for the Customer Service Activity Instead of changing the modelor creating a Process alternative a Model Attribute can be used to specify the Resource request In the image below the Model Attributes section of the Resource tab is enabled This is because the two Model Attributes described above SalesRepType and ServiceRepType were added to the model Both have a Mode of String and each was designated as a Model Parameter SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 39 Variable Resource Usage Delay Properties General Resources Attributes Expressions Event Logs Text Block Documentation Counts Requirements BR Resource model Attribute Ad amp T Resources S J Model 2 Remove IR Sales Rep Edit BR Senice Rep New Entity IR Customer Rep P E Global Attributes Model Attributes 3 SalesRepType x t Add Model Attribute Requires
154. is generation event e attributes is a two dimensional array that specifies Entity Attributes and their values Theparameters entityand quantitycandefaultto the Entity and Quantity specified on the external schedule dialog A value of null or for entity will cause the default to be used A value of 0 for quantity causes the default quantity to be used The t ime parameter can default to the current simulation time by passing a value of 1 0 The attributes parameter should be nu11ifno Entity Attributes are included If Entity Attributes are included the first dimension of the Object array should be the number of Entity Attributes to be set at time of generation The second dimension should always be two The first value of the second dimension is the name of the Entity Attribute and the second value of the second dimension is the value of the Entity Attribute For example ifone Entity Attribute named IndexValue of type Integer is to be given a value when the Entity is generated then the code would include something similar to the following Object attributes new Object 1 2 attributes 0 0 IndexValue attributes 0 1 45 stopSimulation returns a boolean indicating success or failure mode1lName is the only parameter All methods throw a RemoteException SIMPROCESS User s Manual 142 Defining a More Complex Generate Activity External Application Example The code below is a simple example of an exter
155. is used to set the values of user defined Attributes when the Entities are generated Attribute values are retrieved from the same database connection specified in the Properties File field of the Database tab SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 134 Defining a More Complex Generate Activity Al i _ Database Schedule for Generatel Database Set Attributes Cancel add Entity NumWidget1 X Edit Starend Comment The Attribute list on the right will contain all Attributes that can be set from the current Generate Activity The list can contain Entity Entity Type Activity and Model Attributes Resource Attributes cannot be set here The Attributes in the list can be REAL BOOLEAN or STRING Attributes The value EGER read from the database must match the mode of the Attribute receiving the value Note that INT Attributes cannot receive values from databases Databases only return REAL values even if the value in the database is an INTEGER To assign values to Attributes select the Attribute on the right then click the Add button SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 135 Defining a More Complex Generate Activity cr A Attribute Assignment Attribute Entity NumWidget1 v Column Cancel Use separate query l Help SQL Query Execute query for each generation event E A The selected Attribute di
156. its FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE sql Select Cost CostType TimeUnit from Cost Table where Resource name E ReadFromDatabase Model Database CostSet sql WHILE GetNext CostSet cost GetResult CostSet Cost costType GetResult CostSet CostType timeUnit GetResult CostSet TimeUnit SetResourceCost name cost costType timeUnit END WHILE sql Select DowntimeType from Downtime Table where Resource name ReadFromDatabase Model Database DTSet sql WHILE GetNext DTSet downtimeType GetResult DTSet DowntimeType DowntimeType of 0 indicates no downtime IF downtimeType 1 SetResourceDowntime name StandardShift ELSIF downtimeType 2 SetResourceDowntime name NightShift END IF SIMPROCESS User s Manual 77 Creating Resources Using Expressions END WHILE END WHILE SetResourceExpression Expressions can be assigned to Resources created using CreateResource through the use of text files The SIMPROCESS Expression Language code must be in a text file ASCII that is located in the model s directory The code should be created and validated in SIMPROCESS before being saved to a file The SetResourceExpression statement links a text file to a particular Resource Expression The full command is SetResourceExpression ResourceName STRING ExpressionType STRING ExpressionFile STRING The ResourceName specifies
157. ity time information This means the event will occur at midnight of the specified date Time information must be included if generation at midnight is not acceptable such as 1 4 2008 08 00 00 Generation Quantity Entity Date 1 4 2008 30 Widget1 2 18 2008 3 Widget2 3 19 2008 16 Widget1 4 5 2008 15 Widget2 4 20 2008 20 Widget1 4 20 2008 11 Widget2 Note below that the values for each field Sheet First Row and Column can be different for each option Typically Column will be different across options unless different Worksheets are used SIMPROCESS User s Manual 127 Defining a More Complex Generate Activity Spreadsheet Schedule Spreadsheet1 FileName _ arrivals xlsx Entity use default Quantity use default Interval 1 0 Time Unit Hours v Use Spreadsheet for Entity Entity Location Sheet Entity Arrivals First Row 2 Column Use Spreadsheet for Quantity Quantity Location Sheet Entity Arrivals First Row 2 Column 2 Use Spreadsheet for Interval Interval Location Sheet Entity Arrivals First Row 2 Column 1 Column contains Date Time Set Attributes Properties The Set Attributes tab is used to set the values ofuser defined Attributes when the Entities are generated Attribute values are retrieved from the same spreadsheet specified in the File Name field of the
158. ity Start by selecting the first Entity on the list and then press Edit 3 Every refrigerator order Entity that is generated needs to be initialized so select the Entity Expressions tab Entity Type Properties bhs General Entity Attributes Entity Expressions Entity Type Attributes Entity Type Expressions canca Help Help J Accept Entity n Interrupt Processing Edit Document Resume Processing Release Entity Dispose of Entity Remove etadata Comment E 5 4 Six simulation events are listed on the Entity Expressions tab These are the points during the simulation at which SIMPROCESS checks for Expressions which apply to Entity instances The event needed is Initialize Entity which is the point at which an Entity is first generated initialized Highlight Initialize Entity and click on Edit 5 SIMPROCESS invokes the Expression Editor and opens an Expression script dialog Add just one line to the text dialog applianceWeight 1000 0 This assigns a value of 1000 0 to applianceWeight 6 Close the editor Follow the same procedure for each of the Entities in the model but assign them different weights Assign a weight of 100 0 to television order and 10 0 to toaster order 8 Click OK when finished Defining the Expression When an Entity Is Released The method described above works fine to initialize the applianceWeight Attribute of Entities It s fairly s
159. ity can go in any type of Expression When executed it decreases the capacity of the Resource as units of the Resource become available If the number of units to decrease are less than the number of units idle then the decrease happens immediately If not then the capacity units are decreased as units go to idle Note that if the request for decrease is larger than the current capacity SIMPROCESS will reduce the capacity to zero However SIMPROCESS will keep track of the number of units not yet decreased For example if Resource has a capacity of 3 and the capacity is decreased by 4 then the capacity of Resourcel is zero Then if the capacity of Resourcel is increased by one the capacity of Resourcel will still be zero This is because there was one unit of decrease still not applied to Resource 1 The full command is DecreaseCapacity Resourcel 2 The first parameter must be a String It is the name of the Resource to decrease The second parameter must be an Integer or a Real Even though the second parameter can be a Real the number of units to decrease cannot be fractional even if the Resource is a fractional Resource DecreaseCapacity is nota substitute for the consuming of consumable Resources Consumable Resources will be consumed when released It is not necessary to use a system method DecreaseCapacity is intended for non consumable Resources SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 8l Setting Maximum Resource Wait With Expressio
160. ity enters a Clone Split or Transform Activity a new instance of an entity type leaves that Activity The Original entity when it leaves a Clone or Split Activity will continue to carry Time Stamps that were defined upstream on the entity The Clone Entities will not by default carry those Time Stamps defined on the Original entity Clone Entities can also inherit the Time Stamps of the Original entity On the Properties dialog of the Clone Activity simply click on the Copy Time Stamps check box This will cause each instance of the Clone Entities to carry the Time Stamp information inherited from the Original entity To specify that the Clone Entities resulting from a Split Activity inherit Time Stamp information from SIMPROCESS Users Manual 171 Event Logs the Original entity edit the Properties of the connector s emanating from the Clone pad Now click on the Copy Attributes button This will open the Copy Entity Fields and Attributes dialog This dialog contains the same Copy Time Stamps check box described above r Dl Copy Entity Fields and Attributes z Copy Global Entity Instance Attributes Sl Canea P gt Remove Copy Entity Priority a The Properties dialog of the Transform Activity has a Copy Attributes tab that works the same as the dialog from the Copy Attributes button on the Split connector When an entity carrying a Time Stamp is Batched or Assembled the output entity
161. ityStats BOOLEAN ResourceByShiftStats BOOLEAN The first parameter is a String and must be a unique Resource name The second parameter sets the starting capacity of the Resource The parameters Fractional Consumable ResourceStats ResourceByActivityStats and ResourceByShiftStats must be TRUE or FALSE Fractional Resource usage is allowed if the Fractional parameter is TRUE The Resource will be consumed when released if the Consumable parameter is TRUE Note that consumable Resources created with CreateResource can only be replenished by using the IncreaseCapacity system method Resources created at runtime will have statistics collected if Collect Resource Statisitics or Collect Resource by Activity Statistics are selected on the Statistics Collection dialog Report Define Global Statistics Collection see Default Performance Measures Statistics will also be collected if ResourceStats ResourceByActivityStats and or ResourceByShiftStats are set to TRUE The ResourceByShiftStats parameter is SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 74 Creating Resources Using Expressions optional If omitted FALSE is assumed For example consider a scenario where the Resources for a model are stored in a database The following code in the Start Run Expression reads the database and creates the Resources RunId and Database are Model Attributes which were previously initialized sql STRING name STRING units REAL sql Select Name
162. ivity myobjarry 5 myobj produces an error since myobjarray has only cells 0 4 defined the subscript is out of bounds Type checking is done on the assignment of variables where possible This is to prohibit assigning basic type REAL INTEGER STRING etc variables to Object type variables Likewise itprecludes assigning object references to basic types The following lines in the same script above would produce errors and the simulation would terminate myobj hello dolly produces an error because myobj is of type ANYOBJ and hello dolly is of type String Self Attributel Entity produces an error because Attributel is of type String and Entity is of type object Note as seen in the examples above that type checking is not done between object type variables For example if an Entity object is assigned to a variable defined as an object an Activity or Resource SIMPROCESS User s Manual 69 Example Batching Entities Based on Weight object can be assigned to that same variable without causing any errors However the Expression may not work properly if the variable should contain an Entity object reference and another object type has been assigned to it There are a few special rules on object references Self and Model object references can only be used as the first reference in an Expression statement Something like myobj Self Activity Self results in an error since Self
163. k schedule is a good example of a Fixed schedule The Weekly Schedule can be use to schedule the unavailability of the employee Consider a Resource that represents an employee that works 0800 to 1700 Monday through Friday Thus the employee resource would be unavailable on weekends and mornings and evening of weekdays Two Weekly schedules would set the appropriate downtime Below is a Global Resource Downtime that shows two Fixed Weekly schedules f Resource Downtime Properties m Name Employee Downtime mmiddiyyyy hh mm ss msec usec nsec Cancei e Start n l i _ Hep End i i New Resource Schedules Mornings amp Weekends l dada Periodic X Evenings e Remove Apply Downtime to Resources k waa SelectAll i Deselect All a E Resource E l The first schedule Mornings amp Weekends contains the downtime for each weekday morning and the weekend Each Day of Week is selected in this schedule The second schedule Evenings contains the downtime for each weekday evening Only the weekdays are selected for this schedule Note that Saturday and Sunday on the Mornings amp Weekends schedule and each weekday on the Evenings schedule has 23 59 59 as the End Time When 23 59 59 is encountered in the End Time field the last second is added so the downtime continues to midnight of the following day If both Start Time and End Time contain 00 00 00 then a full 24 hour day is assume
164. key start and stop key stop across replications GetTimeStampStatistic start stop Count 1 returns the number of observations of the time stamp with the start key start and stop key stop for replication 1 GetTotalCostStatistic GetTotalCostStatistic returns the total Variable or Absorption cost of a Resource Entity or Activity The syntax is GetTotalCostStatistic Name Cost Type Value Type SIMPROCESS Users Manual 102 Accessing Statistics During Simulation Replication where Name is the name of the Resource Entity or Activity If the Name is Total the value returned is for all Resources Cost Type is Variable or Absorption Value Type can be Avg StDev Min or Max for Replication 1 If Replication is 1 or larger the maximum value is returned no matter what is entered for Value Type Some examples GetTotalCostStatistic Sales Rep Absorption Max 1 returns the total absorption cost of the Sales Rep Resource for replication 1 GetTotalCostStatistic Customer Variable Max 1 returns the total variable cost of the Customer Entity for replication 1 GetTotalCostStatistic Total Absorption Max 1 returns the total absorption cost of all Resources for replication 1 GetTotalCostStatistic Total Variable Avg 1 returns the average total variable cost of all Resources across replications Statistic Errors If the statistic requested is no
165. king the Upwards option before clicking the Move button Repeat Sequence tells SIMPROCESS how many times to repeat execution of the pattern of cycles If Infinite is checked SIMPROCESS will keep repeating the cycle pattern until Generation End is reached Note about Repeat Sequence A value of 0 in the Repeat Sequence field tells SIMPROCESS to run through the list a single time without repeating it A value of results in two passes through the Sequence of Events the initial run through and one repetition Do not confuse the number of repetitions with the number of passes through the list Refer to page 113 for a description of the Start End option SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 118 Defining a More Complex Generate Activity Defining a Periodic Cycle A periodic cycle defines a constant or statistical distribution of entity generation events To define a periodic cycle ina cyclical schedule select Periodic from the list of Schedule types and then click on Add Periodic Event for Cyclical Schedule Periodic1 Entity use default v Quantity use default P am Interval 1 0 v scm Time Unit Hours Z V Generate at start of first interval Event Duration 24 0 v Time Units Hours nA Count Limit None e E Both must be reached Repeat Event 0 cea _ Infinite Comment Defining aperiodic cycle is similar to defining a periodic schedule see page 1
166. least one of the two The Library that this template should be added to is selected from the Add to Library list Ifno Library has been created then the template will be added to a Library named Default which can be renamed Adding Resource Templates Resource templates are created from the Resource list The Resource list displays all the resources SIMPROCESS Users Manual 15 Defining and Editing Templates defined in the model It is accessed from Resources on the Define menu The Resource list has an Add Template button Hardware Sales Rep Intern Service Rep Software Sales Rep Zu Defined in OrgModel Hardware Sales Rep J _ Fractional Usage Consumable Collect Resource Statistics Collect Resource by Activity Statistics Collect Resource by Shift Statistics Metadata The template properties are simply the Resource properties with the Add to Library option added As with the other template types if there has not been a Library defined the Resource template will go SIMPROCESS User s Manual 16 Defining and Editing Templates into the Default Library Resource templates display in the Type combo box on the Resource list dialog as long as the Library in which the Resource templates reside is loaded Adding Resource Downtime Templates Resource
167. lements and uses different prefixes than those seen in the schema is perfectly valid provided it is compliant with the schema But upon opening any XML spreadsheet Excel changes its namespace usage to match the form seen in the SpreadsheetML schema That form is the only one SIMPROCESS cur rently supports Therefore the safest thing to do before allowing ReadFromSpread sheet and WriteToSpreadsheet to operate on an XML spreadsheet file if it may have been manipulated by any other program is to open it in Excel and save it again This usually has the additional side effect of recalculating any formulas present e The SpreadsheetML schema is complex and likely to continue evolving in the future There may be other features which will not function correctly with SIMPROCESS SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 96 Accessing Statistics During Simulation Accessing Statistics During Simulation There are times when it is useful to obtain the value of statistics during a simulation For example the value of certain statistics can be used to alter simulation flow values can be placed into a user defined database or statistical values can be used in optimization Any statistic collected during the simulation run can be accessed This is done using various System Methods See SIMPROCESS System Methods There are ten System Methods for accessing statistics e GetActivityStatistic e GetActivityByEntityStatistic e GetAttributeStatistic e G
168. lex Generate Activity date and time specified in the Run Settings see Simulation Period is no longer active Normally if there are no more simulation events to process then the end simulation event which is based on the ending date and time specified in the Run Settings is executed When an external schedule is present and there areno more simulation events to process the simulation suspends execution until an external schedule is signaled to generate Entities Note that simulation time does not advance while simulation processing is suspended There are three ways to stop a simulation that contains an external schedule The first is to manually stop the simulation using the Stop button the F9 key or Simulate Stop The second way is to route Entities to a Dispose Activity that has a maximum entity count set see Dispose Activity When the maximum has been reached the simulation will stop The final way is to call the stopSimulation method of SPServerFactory page 140 Three actions must be accomplished before the start of the simulation in order to use an external schedule The last two can be done before SIMPROCESS is started and can remain operational even though SIMPROCESS is closed and reopened e Create the external schedule in a Generate Activity Start the Java RMI Registry e Start SPServer External Schedule Setup Use the External schedule dialog to set the default Entity and Quantity i gt Ex
169. lly the query would start with the SELECT command Write ToDatabase WriteToDatabase is used to modify the tables of the database Nothing is returned The syntax is WriteToDatabase Model ObjectAttribute SQLQuery CheckWarnings Model ObjectAttribute is the Object Attribute that was used in the OpenDatabase system method that created the connection SQLQuery is a string and is the query that modifies the tables SIMPROCESS User s Manual 87 Interfacing With A Database of the database This query can start with INSERT UPDATE or DELETE CheckWarnings is an optional boolean parameter which defaults to TRUE if omitted When TRUE the check for SQL warnings occurs One or more warnings will causeaSIMPROCESS runtime error CheckWarnings only needs to be used when SQL warnings should be suppressed FALSE Note that WriteToDatabase can slow the simulation as table sizes increase Also be careful when using WriteToDatabase if there is the possibility the simulation will be stopped early by user intervention Updates to the database can lag behind the simulation Thus if the simulation is stopped early there is the potential that the CloseDatabase command would be executed before all the WriteToDatabase commands have finished The consequence would be an error that could possibly crash SIMPROCESS Omit the CloseDatabase command if this scenario might occur If the CloseDatabase command is omitted SIMPROCESS will not release the datab
170. log will open allowing new initial values to be entered for the Attribute Only global user defined Attributes can be set as Model Parameters If a Comment is entered for the Attribute this will appear in the Description field of the Model Parameters dialog when the Attribute is selected Model Parameters can be changed during a simulation run by selecting Change Model Parameters from the Simulate menu Note that changing the value of Model Parameters during a simulation run may or may not affect the simulation For instance if the Model Parameter is used to set the number of units of a Resource changing the value of the Model Parameter will have no affect on the simulation since the units of a Resource are set at the beginning ofa simulation run However changes to Model Parameters used to control entity flow or used for time durations will affect the simulation If the Model Parameter is an Entity instance attribute only Entities created after the change will reflect the change SIMPROCESS User s Manual 30 User Defined Attributes There is another option that does not appear on the properties dialog for global Entity Attributes Do Not Reset Before Each Replication is a property of global Entity Type Resource Activity and Model Attributes If Reset System is selected on the Run Settings Simulation Period all Attributes other than Entity Attributes are reset to their initial value before each replication This does not happen i
171. m intervals based on the distribution sampling Ifa constant is specified the resource enters a period of Downtime every n time units For example to model a dayshift that works from 9 am to 5 pm and is off the rest of the day specify 24 in this field and select Hours for the Time Unit This means that every 24 hours i e every day at 5 pm the resource becomes unavailable For Usage schedules this field is labeled Usage Before Downtime and contains either a statistical distribution or a constant Except for the first values values from statistical distributions are obtained at the end of each downtime If Unit Based is selected for Usage Type Time Unit will be disabled This is because time is not considered for Unit Based downtime However units are considered for Time Based downtime For example iftwo units of a resource are in use for the same one hour period then the amount of time the resource was in use is two hours one hour for each unit For all other schedules this field is labeled Date and Time or Time and contains a date and or time Date is specified as a 2 digit month 2 digit day and 4 digit year Time of day ranges from 0 to 2400 hours Downtime of the resource begins at the time specified Number of Units Down is the amount of capacity units to be made unavailable This value can be variable For instance if all the capacity of the resource is to go down and an attribute was used for resource capacity use that same
172. messages from SPServerFactory or one of the server instances willbeinthe file server Loginthe SIMPROCESS working directory Ifthe error occurred within SIMPROCESS the error messages will be in simprocess log or simprocess err SIMPROCESS User s Manual 144 Defining a More Complex Generate Activity also in the SIMPROCESS working directory See SIMPROCESS Working Directory Multiple Generate Connectors A Generate Activity can have more than one exiting Connector When there are multiple Connectors one and only one of the Connectors must be designated to carry the Entity that was generated by the Generate Activity no matter the type of Entity generated This is done by selecting Generated Entity on the Connector properties Thus if there is only one Connector leaving from the Generate Activity it must have Generated Entity selected fa PI Connector Properties Name Conn17 OK General start Ena Cancel Show Name Help Auto Label Output Entity Generated Entity New Entity Cloned Entity Entity Type Entity10 me Document Quantity 1 0 X Metadata Display Line Width 100 A Line Style Solid v Duration Travel Time Distance Divided By Rate Value None Distance None v Rate None kd Units Hours bd Units Hours Collect Connector Statistics Collect Connector by Entity Statistics Comment L Pi All other Connectors exiting the Generate Activity must
173. mplates provide the ability to set default parameters for SIMPROCESS provided items For example specialized Resources such as Tellers Loan Officers Branch Managers can be defined in the Resource Library for Business Process Modeling ina financial services business A Library could also contain templates that may represent competing models of the Business Processes that are being compared Many different Templates can be created and loaded into the system when they are needed Customized Processes Activities can be added to the Library Toolbar for easy reuse and or added to the Create pull down menu SIMPROCESS User s Manual 8 Library Concepts Library Concepts The SIMPROCESS Template and Library feature supports the reuse and organization of the various constructs used in building models Thedevelopment of specialized objects organized into Libraries is encouraged Overtime the Libraries of objects will grow With a large set of Libraries of reusable model building blocks new models can be built faster For example a set of Processes Warehouse Manufacture Transport and Resources Trucks People etc relevant to the Distribution domain can be created and saved to a Library named Distribution These can then be used to quickly build distribution models Libraries built can be saved and loaded during the modeling session as they are needed The import and export features enable the sharing of Libraries with colleagues and incr
174. mulation Some examples GetActivityStatistic Process4 tokenlevel Avg 1 returns the average number of Entities in Process4 for replication 1 GetActivityStatistic Process4 tokendelay Max 1 returns the maximum Entity cycle time for Process4 for replication 1 GetActivityStatistic Sales tokenwaitdelay Avg 1 returns the average across replications of the Entity wait for Resources in the Activity Sales GetActivityByEntityStatistics GetActivityByEntityStatistic returns the value ofa statistic for an Activity and that has Collect Activity By Entity Statistics selected either globally or on the Activity properties See Default Performance Measures The syntax is GetActivityByEntityStatistic Activity Name Entity Name Statistic Value Type Replication where Activity Name is the name of the Activity or Process Entity Name is the name of the Entity and Statistic is the statistic type desired The key words for the statistics available are found in Appendix G See Statistic Types All the statistic types for Activity by Entity statistics start with by Value Type can be Avg StDev Min Max Count or RunLength Replication is the replication desired or the average or sum of replications Some examples GetActivityByEntityStatistic Process4 Sales Calls bytoken delay Avg 1 returns the average cycle time across replications of the Entity Sales Calls in t
175. n a value to the applianceWeight of each Entity generated during a simulation This can be done as soon as the Entity is created Then when the Entity reaches the Batch Activity add its weight to arunning total and compare this total to the maximum allowable weight The points in the simulation where Expressions need to be activated are e Entity initialization e Receipt of the Entity by an Activity Entities are initialized by SIMPROCESS at the Initialize Entity event Entities are received by an Activity at the Accept Entity event Initialize Entity Accept Entity a a l Ee gt or OT D RECEIVE ORDERS DISTRIBUTE ORDERS PROCESS ORD Defining the Expression at Entity Initialization To assign an initial value to an Entity s applianceWeight define an Expression for each type of Entity in the model The Expression is a single assignment statement e g applianceWeight 1000 0 to be executed when the Entity is first generated the Initialize Entity event 1 From the Define pull down menu select Entities f Entities Name Icon Priority Preempt _Entity Stats Close 1 Sars refrigerator order BlackDot television order BlueDot 1 jtoaster order GreenDot D a E Add SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 61 Example Batching Entities Based on Weight 2 This model contains three Entity types An Expression must be defined for each Ent
176. nal application communicating with SIMPROCESS In this example Remote is the name of the model Remote spm The for loop runs from to 10 For and 2 the generateEntity method specifies all the parameters except quantity The generateEntity method for 3 4 and 5 specifies all the parameters The generateEntity method for 6 through 10 only specifies the model generate and schedule parameters The remaining parameters are set for defaults The generateEntity method after the for loop calls the StopSim schedule This schedule is set to generate a StopSim entity which enters a Dispose Activity with a maximum entity count of 1 thus stopping the simulation See Demonstration and Reference Models for instructions on running this example The code ExternalApp java is in the SPUser SampleFiles directory Also in the SPUser SampleFiles directory is ExternalApp2 java This application is exactly the same as ExternalApp java butituses stopSimulation to end the simulation ExternalAttributes java is the same as ExternalApp java but it sets the value of four Entity Attributes when Entities are generated The Attribute values are displayed using OUTPUT statements in the Release Entity Expression of the Generate Activity in Remote spm package com caci demo import com caci remote import java rmi import java rmi server public class ExternalApp public static void main String args SPSe
177. nd u j New Resource Schedules ne Weekday Mornings l dadd Periodic ov Weekday Evenings Weekend Ecis Remove Apply Downtime to Resources E J Resources l E J Customer Service Sees All IR Expert Deselect All Hardware Sales Rep Ef Intern amp Resource R Service Rep Software Sales Rep Selecting the New Resource button displays the dialog that manages the Resources of the model Hardware Sales Rep Intern Service Rep Software Sales Rep au Defined in OrgModel Note that when a Resource is edited from the Resource Downtime Properties dialog the Global Downtimes button on the Downtime tab is disabled This is because the global Resource Downtime list is already open Likewise when a Resource is editied from the Resource Shift Properties dialog the Resource Shifts button on the Downtime tab is disabled Note that the Global Downtimes button and the Resoure Shifts button will also be disabled when defining a Resource template SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 151 Resource Downtime la Resource Template Properties Generat Cost Downtime attributes Expressions mmiddlyyyy hh mm ss msec usec nsec Cancel J Start u Fd m Help End a Document Schedules PENTE add Periodic dit Help Comment E Defining Downtime Schedules of Resources Global a
178. nd local Resource Downtimes have the same format Both consist of Start and End dates and times and a list of Schedules All schedules in the Schedule list are active only between the times specified in the Start and End fields If no times are specified they will default to the Start and End of the model It is recommended unless the modeling scenario requires specific dates that the Start and End are left empty If the Start and End of the model are changed then the Start and End of resource downtimes are changed without having to re enter the dates and times Dialog Field Definitions e Start specifies the earliest time that the resource s downtime schedules are in effect This field uses a MM DD YY HH MM SS MSS USS NSS format The millisecond microsecond and nanosecond portions may be left blank Endis the time beyond which the downtime schedules are not applicable The same date time format as Start is used After this time the resource will not go down The Schedules list identifies the downtime periods defined for this resource When a new downtime period is defined it is added to this list Next to the Add button for the Schedule list box is a combo box containing the available down time schedule types There are three basic schedule types Periodic Calendar and Usage Calen dar and Usage downtime schedules have variations A Periodic schedule of downtime is one that occurs at intervals of time The interval may be
179. ns SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 109 CHAPTER 3 More Advanced Model Building This chapter discusses the advanced schedules of the Generate activity Resource downtime and Resource shifts Most real world scenarios do not operate at the same schedule 24 hours per day 365 days per year Thus the ability to vary entity generation and the availability of resources is critical SIMPROCESS User s Manual 110 Defining a More Complex Generate Activity Defining a More Complex Generate Activity A Generate Activity generates different types of Entities oritcan vary the schedule ofentity generation for a single entity type Specifying the Active Period of Entity Release The period that the entity release schedule is in effect can be limited by specifying Release Start and End dates To do this click on the Start End tab and specify the Start and End dates If Start and End dates are specified the Generate Activity will not produce Entities outside of that time period The Start and End dates work in conjunction with the Start Date and End Date of a simulation run So keep in mind that if the simulation run dates are entirely outside of the period defined for the Generate release schedule no Entities are generated during that simulation Ifa Generation Start date is not specified SIMPROCESS sets the Start time to correspond to simulation start time Similarly if Generation End date is blank it defaults to the simulation end t
180. ns Setting Maximum Resource Wait With Expressions The Resources tab of Activity properties dialogs allows a maximum wait time to be set see Adding Resource Requirements to Activities The maximum wait time is the maximum amount of time that an Entity will wait for the requested Resources to be acquired The same thing can be accomplished using the Entity System Attribute MaxWait see System Attributes If the value forMaxWait is greater than zero then the Entity will exit the Activity without processing if Resources have not been acquired by that time Note that the time unit that applies to MaxWait is the Simulation Time Unit specified in the Run Settings see Run Settings If greater than zero theMaxWait System Attribute overrides the Value set in the Maximum Wait for Resource Time section of the Resources tab of the Activity properties dialog MaxWait must be set in the Accept Entity Expression For example putting Entity MaxWait 25 in the Accept Entity Expression means that the Entity will wait at most 25 time units if the Simulation Time Unit is Hours then 25 represents 25 hours The value forMaxWait must be reset to zero when a maximum wait for Resources is no longer needed MaxWait is not reset automatically It is best to set MaxWait to zero in the Release Entity Expression of the Activity where MaxWait was used Entity MaxWait 0 0 When an Entity exits an Activity without processing the Entity Sys
181. nt meaning and data type Global and local Attributes for the same model element cannot have the same name All attributes global or local are managed using a table similar to Entities and Resources Changes to global attribute definitions from the table cannot be canceled Each table can be sorted by a particular column by clicking the column header Holding the Shift key while clicking the column header causes the sort to be in reverse order Creating a User Defined Attribute Global Attributes can be defined from the SIMPROCESS menu or from the dialog ofa model element SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 28 User Defined Attributes Local Attributes can only be defined from the dialog of a model element Globally Defining an Attribute from the Menu To globally define an Attribute from the SIMPROCESS menu select Global Attributes from the Define menu or click the Define Global Attributes button on the Model Toolbar The following dialog appears gt Global Attribute Definitions ms Entity Entity Type Resource i Activity Model g Close Hel Name Mode Value Er eu Add p J Size Parameter The Global Attribute Definitions dialog is used to add anew Attribute orto change copy or delete existing Attributes There are five tabs Entity Entity Type Resource Activity and Model Each tab represents model elements for which global Attributes can be defined Note that the Entity tab defines
182. o the left of the Done button Clicking the up or down arrows changes the font size by two Thus clicking the up arrow once changes the font size to 14 If an odd numbered font size is desired that value can be typed into the field but the arrows will still change the font size by two So if 11 is entered and the down arrow is clicked the new font size will be 9 The smallest allowable font size is 8 and the largest allowable font size is 36 For the current SIMPROCESS session when the Expression Editor is closed with Done or Cancel the current size of the Expression Editor will be used when the Expression Editor is opened again The selected font size is saved and reused across SIMPROCESS sessions Internal and External Expressions Expressions entered into the Expression Editor are saved as a part of the model file This is the preferred method of storing Expressions since copies made of the model file either external to SIMPROCESS or with Save As will automatically have any Expressions that were defined in the original model file all the capabilities of the Expression Search feature Expression Search are available and templates defined Defining and Editing Templates will also have any Expressions included in the original item being templated However Expressions can also be stored in external files This can be useful if the same Expression is used multiple places or if there is a need to change an Expression without opening the mod
183. ocesses both simultaneously Click on Add to define a new schedule or Edit to change the definition of the item highlighted in the schedules list box When adding a new schedule first identify the type of entity generation pattern by selecting from the Schedule Type combo box Copy duplicates the definition of the item highlighted in the Schedule list box Use this when two or more similar schedules are needed Remove deletes the highlighted schedule Adding a Periodic Schedule The Periodic schedule defines a constant or statistical distribution of entity generation events per period r X Periodic Schedule for Generatel s Schedule Periodic1 Cancel Entity use default v ii Help Quantity use default v i J Interval 1 0 gt heen Time Unit Hours x Starend v Generate at start of first interval Comment a m The Periodic Schedule dialog contains the following items Schedule Assign a meaningful name to the entity generation schedule The default name assigned by SIMPROCESS is the same as the schedule type in this case Periodic1 Entity specifies the type of entity to be generated by this schedule Use default tells SIMPROCESS to generate the type of entity indicated in the Generate Activity Properties dialog To specify a SIMPROCESS Users Manual 112 Defining a More Complex Generate Activity different type click on the pull down arrow for a list of entity
184. oesoessessoesoossessoesoesoosseesoesooesoese 28 Assion AGCUIVILY c5cs cciscsinvesstenosevanticesvencossetancsvecisinsoxsieneivecsaheesuedense 35 Variable Resource Usage cccssccccsscccssscsccsccscsssssesssscssssscesees 37 Writing Expressions e ssesssessoossoossooesssesssecesoossoossosesssesssesssosee 42 Evaluate Evl Function esesssesssecessscossssoossesocscesoseosssoossssoose 54 Expression Activation Events e sessoesoesseseoesoosseesoesoossoesoesooesosse 55 Attribute Value Initialization essoesooesoesoesooesoesoessoesossoeseossosse 59 Example Batching Entities Based on Weight s00sseeee 60 Getting and Freeing Resources Using Expressions 0 71 Creating Resources Using Expressions ccssccssscssssseseees 74 Changing Resource Capacity With Expression 0000 81 Setting Maximum Resource Wait With Expressions 82 User Defined Functions isscisscccessicccscsosccscescesosscescissescesencssacoosvecdes 83 Dynamic Labels sessoesoeseesoescoesoesoessoesossseseoesosssessoesoosseesoesoossosse 84 Interfacing With A Database ssessoesoesseseoesoossessoesoossossoesooesosse 86 Interfacing With A Spreadsheet eeseeseessoesoessesseseoesoossessossoosse 92 Accessing Statistics During Simulation ssccsssssssessseees 97 Creating and Controlling Plots With Expressions 105 MOUNT TNIEAT o A N EEEE 109 SIMPROCE
185. om the Resource Shift list The Resource Shift list displays all the resource shifts defined in the model It is accessed from Resource Shifts on the Define menu The Resource Shift list has an Add Template button f A Resource Shift Type Empty z Close Service Shift na Add Edit Copy Remove Add Template m SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 18 Defining and Editing Templates Select the Resource Shift and click the Add Template button This brings up the properties of the template Resource Shift Template Properties Name Sales Shift Number of Units Available Evi Capacity Weekly Schedule DayofWeek Start Time End Time v Sunday 12 00 00 S 18 00 00 V Monday 09 00 00 21 00 00 V Tuesday 09 00 00 A 24 00 00 V Wednesday 09 00 00 21 00 00 V Thursday 09 00 00 A 21 00 00 V Friday 09 00 00 2 21 00 00 v Saturday 09 00 00 S 18 00 00 Downtime Options Start Downtime when Resource is Idle Interrupt Activities Release All Resources Start Downtime when Resource Queue Empty l Add to Library E Customer Service BA ncrgorgpignoinoigaoigg J The template properties are the Resource Shift properties with the Resource assignments removed and the Add to Library option added As with the other template types ifthere has not been a Library defined the Resource Shift template will go into the Default Library Re
186. osg Stop Simulation 5 E If Execute is clicked SQL statements with errors will be ignored Even if the preview does not show any errors an error still may occur during execution If this happens a warning message will display Export Results Database Warning Cx Error occurred executing SQL specified in SalesRep Units Busy data exception invalid character value for cast Select OK or Go To to stop the simulation Continue If OK is clicked the simulation will stop with an error condition If Continue is clicked any remaining SQL statements are executed and the simulation continues or ends normally Expression Execution SQL statements can be executed throughout a simulation using the WritteToDatabase Expression statement Usually the OpenDatabase Expression statement must be executed first to create a connection to a database Then a reference to that database connection must be used with the WriteToDatabase statement See Database System Methods for a discussion of all database related Expression statements However a SQL statement created through this interface can be executed by the WriteToDatabase statement The syntax is WriteToDatabase Name STRING Replication INTEGER where Name isthe name given to the SQL statement and Replication isthe simulation replication Replication mustbe greater than or equal to and less than or
187. ot equal lt lt gt gt e Logical Operators are AND OR and NOT Logical operators may only be used with expressions that return a Boolean value For example IF x lt 10 0 AND y gt 20 0 Note that parentheses must be used with the NOT operator ifNOT is modifying any expression IF NOT z End The above example could also be written as IF z lt gt End Literals e A string of printable characters on a single line is enclosed in quotation marks The plain in Spain looks lovely in the rain e A boolean literal is entered as uppercase TRUE or FALSE myBool TRUE e An integer literal is entered as a whole number myInteger 67 e A real literal is entered as a whole number plus a decimal fraction or whole number plus a fraction myReall 67 myReal2 67 133 myReal3 0 345 Type Checking e The use of variables both those defined locally in the Expression and those defined as Attributes in Expressions will be checked for correct type on assignment statements For example the following code will produce a type mismatch by the Expression interpreter myReal REAL myString STRING myString Hello Dolly myReal myReal myString SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 44 Writing Expressions S Expression Error his Object Generate Phone Calls Add expression parameters not of same wee GoTo System Methods System methods are commands which result in a syst
188. pe or Resource Expression The full command is GetResource Resource Units Tag The first parameter must be a String and is the Resource name The second parameter can be a String Integer or Real This is the number of units of the Resource to acquire By allowing the second parameter to be a String distributions can be used The third parameter must be a String but it is optional This parameter corresponds to the tag used in the Get Resource Activity The tag defaults toany tag ifthe third parameter is omitted If multiple GetResource system methods are used at an Activity the Resources are obtained based on the rule set in the Resource usage of that Activity The rules are Any One Member All Members Reserve As Available and Number of Members The default is Any One Member Therefore if multiple GetResource system methods are used only one of the Resources will be acquired if the Resource acquisition rule has not been set to All Members No Resources have to be listed in the Resource usage dialog for the Resource acquisition rule to be set When requesting Resources on the Resources tab of Activity properties a particular Resource can only be added to the Requirements once Thus the selected acquisition rule always applies to different Resources However since a GetResource system method is equivalent to a Resource listed under Requirements if two GetResource system methods in the same Activity reference the same Resource then
189. periods so the only items that can be selected are cost type and statistic type Note that the maximum value is always returned no matter the selected Statistic Type unless the average of replication results is requested m gt ee aes Select Cost Category Select Org Node Select Cost Period Select Cost Type Statistic Type OK Resource By Entity J Assigned OrgModels Week1 Absorption awg Resource By Activity Jb DemosiCityOrganization Week2 Variable sp Cancel Activity By Entity EIJ Metropolis Citizens Week3 ee Help Org Node By Resource ei City Council Week4 C Min i Weeks rg Node Cumulative Cos Police eel Max Total i Municipal Court Total Bailiff xi m r Court Clerk Office Expand All Collapse All Adding Text Values Clicking the Text button displays a dialog that allows any sequence of characters to be entered There is norestriction onthe characters that can be entered When OK is clicked the string of characters entered is added to the value list If OK is clicked and no text was entered nothing is added to the value list SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 182 Defining and Executing Database Exports Adding System Method Values The System Method button displays a dialog witha small subset ofthe SIMPROCESS System Methods See SIMPROCESS System Methods fora full list of the available methods for use in Expressions The metho
190. plianceWeight value would be added to the total weight ofall orders waiting to be shipped another User Attribute The total weight would then be checked Ifit exceeds a certain value the Batch Activity would be forced to release a shipment One way to force a shipment to be released is to change the batch size to a value equal to the current number of Entities in the Batch Activity These values are available in System Attributes This chapter describes e Built in System Attributes e User Defined Attributes e How to write an Expression which uses User Defined Attributes and System Attributes SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 26 Using Attributes in SIMPROCESS Using Attributes in SIMPROCESS This section contains a closer look at Attributes and how they can be used in SIMPROCESS It starts with a look at the System Attributes built into SIMPROCESS and then goes on to a detailed discussion of User Defined Attributes System Attributes SIMPROCESS provides access to the state of a simulation through a set of built in variables These System Attributes provide information such as e The type of Entity currently in an Activity The number of Entities of a particular type that have been generated thus far in the simula tion The name of the Activity holding a particular Entity The type of Entity being generated by a Generate Activity A complete list of System Attributes is given in SIMPROCESS System Attributes and Method
191. r Condition Type Build Condition and Attribute Condition Build Condition When Build Condition is selected the Where condition is built by selecting columns and adding or modifying values in the same manner as described in Building SQL Statements If multiple columns are selected the Join Type selection determines how each column value combination is related For example if the Resource and Location columns are selected and the appropriate values are added for the columns the column value combinations are joined with AND when AND is selected as the Join Type SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 184 Defining and Executing Database Exports Where Condition saL UPDATE Results SET Resource SalesRep Name Location Location Value PercentUtilization SalesRep Units Busy Avg ResourceUnits SalesRep CurrentCapacity WHERE Resource SalesRep Name AND Location Location Value Condition Type Select Columns Values Add Value Change Value Build Condition ID COUNTER Bi SalesRep Name Entity Edit a 2 Location Value Attribute Condition Resource Remove Join Type PercentUtilization DOUBLE Activity Move Up AND ResourceUnits SMALLIN n Connector Move Down DOR Time Stamp ia PESMET Model Attribute Lo Connector Cost ee Model Attribute ms Text Time Stamp m r System Method ad Attribute Condition When Attribute Condition is selected all items on the dialog are disabl
192. r Number of Columns the actual number of columns will be 26 or if 30 is entered the actual number of columns will be 52 The maximum number of columns is 676 A to ZZ Note that the number ofrows and columns cannot be changed once the sheet has been added Also the number ofrows and columns defined here does not limit the number of rows and columns in the spreadsheet These values just define the working area within SIMPROCESS Copy Sheet copies the active sheet to a new sheet Copy Sheet Sheet Name Sheet12 OK Number of Rows 100 Cancel j Number of Columns 26 Copy Sheet functions in the same manner as Add Sheet except when OK is clicked the new sheet contains the same values as the original sheet The Number of Rows and Number of Columns can be changed If the original sheet has values outside of the defined rows and columns of the new sheet those values are simply ignored during the copy Rename Sheet renames the active sheet Rename Sheet Sheet Name Sheet1 Number of Rows 100 Cancel Number of Columns 26 Enter the new name for the sheet The new name must be unique Remove Sheet only enabled if there are two or more sheets Removes the active sheet Reorder Sheets only enabled if there are two or more sheets Allows reordering of the sheets SIMPROCESS Users Manual 192 Defining and Executing Spreadsheet Exports a 7 Reorder Sheets F
193. red forthe Attribute for every Entity generated the query is parameterized or the query includes functions or stored procedures Unlike columns used on the Database tab when the end of a result set is reached Entity generation continues but no values are assigned to the Attributes la A Attribute Assignment Attribute Entity HighPriority X Column HighPriority Cancel v Use separate query Help SELECT HighPriority FROM Orders SQL Query Execute query for each generation event Adding an External Schedule An external schedule allows a remote application to cause the generation of Entities within a SIMPROCESS model Thisisa plug in capability that can be purchased separately from CACI Typical uses for external schedules include connecting decision support or operational systems to a SIMPROCESS simulation model to see how a model is affected by the randomness of real work applications in use rather than just randomness from statistical distribution functions Other uses may include custom training software that allows students to interact with the simulation based on things they see occurring in the model hence influencing the remaining simulation An external schedule changes the normal operation of a simulation If SIMPROCESS detects an external schedule within a model and the appropriate license has been purchased then the ending SIMPROCESS User s Manual 137 Defining a More Comp
194. rt Downtime when Resource is Idle is the default downtime option This option specifies that Resource downtime will not start while the Resource is in use As soon as a unit of the Resource has been released and the downtime period has not passed that unit is placed in a down state for the remaining period of the downtime If the Resource is idle then downtime starts immediately e Interrupt Activities signals SIMPROCESS to interrupt the processing of any Activities that are currently using this Resource What happens to the Entities that are processing at an Activity that is interrupted is determined by the resource usage dialog of the Activity See Adding Resource Requirements to Activities If Release Entities In Process at Start of Downtime is not selected at the Activities Entities using the resource at these Activities have their remaining processing time saved and are placed at the head of the wait queue for the resource The Entity does not leave the Activity and will remain there until all ofits processing has completed Note that the Get Resource and Free Resource expressions for the Activities interrupted and the resource going down are not executed when the resource is released and re obtained due to downtime When Release Entities In Process at Start of Downtime is selected the entity is released thus any other resources obtained at the Activity are released When an Entity s processing is interrupted due to resource downtime
195. rverFactoryInterface spServer null boolean goodEvent false try spServer SPServerFactoryInterface Naming lookup rmi localhost SPServer catch Exception e e printStackTrace System out try if spServer null for int i 1 i lt 11 i double time spServer getSimTime Remote SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 143 Defining a More Complex Generate Activity time time 10 0 if i lt 3 f goodEvent spServer generateEntity Remote Generatel Externall Entity9 time 0 null else if i lt 6 goodEvent spServer generateEntity Remote Generatel Externall Entity6 time 2 nulls else goodEvent spServer generateEntity Remote Generatel Externall null 1 0 null end of inner if if goodEvent System out printin Generate event failed try Thread sleep 1000 catch Exception e end of for loop goodEvent spServer generateEntity Remote Generatel StopSim null 1 0 null end of outer if end of try block catch RemoteException re re printStackTrace System out end of main end of ExternalApp External Schedule Errors Ifthe call to get SimTime is not successful a 1 will be returned Ifthe callto generateEntity is not successful false will be returned Error
196. s The table entries below show the Attributes accessible from Batch Activities Object Name Type Get Description Set Batch MaxBatchSize INTEGER Both Number of Entities to batch Activities MinBatchSize INTEGER Both Number of Entities must be in a batch before it can be released MaxWaitTime REAL Both Time to wait before releasing an undersized batch 1 The MaxBatchSize Attribute is an integer value representing the maximum number of Entities to batch at a Batch Activity The current value of the Attribute can be retrieved and changed 2 The MinBatchSize Attribute is an integer value containing the minimum number of Entities a Batch Activity must hold before it can release a batched Entity 3 The Attribute MaxWaitTime specifies the maximum amount of time to wait before releasing the batched Entities that have met the Activity s MinBatchSize The value is a real number e g 1 0 7 5 etc representing the time unit selected for the maximum wait time The value of this Attribute can be retrieved and changed SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 27 User Defined Attributes User Defined Attributes Customizing a model begins with defining Attributes These Attributes can represent model element Attributes that are not built into SIMPROCESS such as Entity weight and size or skill level of a Resource Attributes can be defined in association with e Entity types or Entity in
197. s Entity Type applianceWeight This would work fine for this example But suppose that the weight of an order could be affected by some step in the Process being modeled and this needed to be reflected in the model For example a customer order could include accessories for an appliance e g cables and remote control for a television adding to the weight of the order In that case attaching the applianceWeight Attribute to each Entity instance allows the weight of each television order to vary which cannot be done if the Attribute belongs to the Entity s type Using Object Attributes in Expressions The code in this example uses an Expression language construct referred to as a qualified reference For instance Entity Name refers to an object named Entity and an Attribute Name SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 65 Example Batching Entities Based on Weight An object Attribute leads SIMPROCESS to the model element containing the Attributes of interest Unlike other Attributes the value of the object is not of interest only the values of its system or user Attributes Instep 3 the type of Entity being released by the Generate Activity was identified The System Attribute Name identifies the Entity type But a Name Attribute also identifies Resources and Activities So referring to Name alone is ambiguous In fact SIMPROCESS assumes the reference is to the model element that called the Expression the RECEIVE ORDERS Activit
198. s are generated e Cyclical A cycle within a cycle that is a more detailed breakdown within a schedule e g the various periods within a single day breakfast meeting coffee break lunch within a workweek described day by day x rc Cyclical Schedule for Generatel Schedule Cyclical3 Cancel Sequence of Events Help Ada Periodic mm Edit or ee StartEnd Upwards Repeat Sequence 0 Infinite Comment x Cycles are added to and modified from the Cyclical Schedule dialog The Sequence of Events dialog lists the cycle events defined for this cyclical schedule The events are listed in the order in which SIMPROCESS will execute them When a cycle is added SIMPROCESS places it at the end of the list The pattern can be rearranged using the Move command SIMPROCESS Users Manual 117 Defining a More Complex Generate Activity For example here is a list of cycles defined out of sequence i Cyclical Schedule for Generate1 Schedule Cyclical3 Sequence of Events my lt 4 lt 0 January Edit February March Gopi l Move Remove Repeat Sequence 0 Infinite Comment Periodic A Start End Upwards ae a ee Pi To move the April cycle to the end ofthe list highlight April and click on the Move button three times Each click of Move shifts the item down a row Cycles can be moved up in the list by chec
199. s being accepted into the Activity However since these system methods operate like the Activities of the same name the FreeResource for a particular Resource can be ina different Activity from the GetResource for that Resource If the FreeResource is in a different Activity the Resource will not be released until the Entity has completed processing in that Activity even though the FreeResource system method is in the Accept Entity Expression The full command is FreeResource Resource Tag TRUE The first parameter must bea String It is the name of the Resource to be released The second parameter must bea String as well This is the tag of the Resource to be released The third parameter is a Boolean thus only TRUE and FALSE are allowed For consumable Resources this determines whether the Resource should be consumed The third parameter is optional If omitted it defaults to TRUE meaning the Resource should be consumed This parameter has no effect on non consumable Resources The second parameter tag is also optional However if the second parameter is omitted the third parameter must also be omitted The tag defaults to any tag ifthe tag parameter is missing There are two keywords for this system method AnyResource and AnyTag These can be used in the place of the Resource parameter and the tag parameter So possible options are without the last parameter e FreeResource Resourcel myTag e FreeResource Resourcel
200. section the Select Columns section populates with the columns defined for the selected table The name of each column is followed by the data type of the column in parentheses SIMPROCESS User s Manual 177 Defining and Executing Database Exports moo ii il E Properties File Execute Options Create SQL Select SQL Type insert Update Delete Edit Where Remove Where saL Name ExportResultsDatabase1 example properties Execute before every replication _ Execute after every replication T Execute after last replication using average of replication results Select Table Select Columns Execute before first replication Execute after last replication Preview SQL before execution RESOURCEINFO RESULTS ID INTEGER RESOURCE VARCHAR LOCATION VARCHAR PERCENTUTILIZATION DG RESOURCEUNITS SMALL INSERT INTO RESULTS VALUES Add Value Entity Resource Activity Connector Time Stamp Mode Attribute Cost Text System Method il Change Value Edit Remove Move Up Move Down pra Resource Lo Connector m ki Model Attribute a D Time Stamp kJ Cost Value Note that the displayed SQL reflects the table selection The user must know which columns to select Inthe example above the ID column should not be selected as it is updated automatically when a record is added to the table Once
201. sheet Input Sources ae SA_Datahace Innut Sources Import Ww F The elements with a can be expanded to see the items included Elements without a were not included in the templated item A partially expanded view is shown below SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 13 Defining and Editing Templates m Libraries B E Customer Service Process Calls EHE Process Calls Sg att AA Select Call Type E Sales Process E Service Process AA Log Senice Call H Resources gt it Hardware Sales Rep Software Sales Rep iB Service Rep H Intern Expert Resource Downtimes Resource Shifts HE EntityTypes Edit Update Remove Load Unload Adding a Process Activity Template To create a Process or Activity template select the Process or Activity in the model and choose Templates Add from the Define menu Alternatively right mouse click on the Process or Activity and choose Add Template from the contextual menu Simulate Report Experiment Tools Window Help Entities Ctri E Resources Ctrl R Resource Downtimes Resource Shifts Distributions b Input Sources gt Functions Global Attributes Model Expressions Time Stamps Metadata d OrgModel gt Templates gt Process Model Description Library Manager SIMPROCESS User s Manual 14 Defining and Editing Templates This brings
202. source Shift templates display in the Type combo box on the Resource Shift list dialog as long as the Library in which the Resource Shift templates reside is loaded SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 19 Editing Templates Editing Templates Templates cannot be edited directly from the Library Manager However template Library parameters can be edited from the Library Manager Editing Templates Templates can only be edited within a model Thus the way to change a template is to open the original model from which the template was created make the necessary changes to the original Process or Activity then add the changed item to the Library If it is added with the same name it replaces the original If the item changed is a Master Process the Update button can be used to update models that use the template Alternatively the template can be added to a model modified and then added to the Library In this instance the original template is not replaced even if the same name is used Therefore Update will not change any Processes created from the original template Editing Library Parameters To change the Library options for a template select the template in the Library Manager and click the Edit button This will bring up the same properties dialog that appeared when the template was added to its Library The only difference is that the Library for the template cannot be changed H 7 Library Man
203. source downtime will not begin until all three Entities have obtained the Resource and processed Note that it is possible for a Resource to never go down if the time required to process the remaining Entities is greater than the Downtime Duration SIMPROCESS User s Manual 156 Resource Downtime Note about Release All Resources Care should be used when selecting this option If more than one resource is being used at the Activity and one of these resources that has the Interrupt Activities option and Release All Resources option turned on goes down several actions occur e Allresources being used by the entity that were obtained at the Activity are released This allows the resource going down to go down and the remaining resources are available for another entity to use The entity is placed at the head of the wait queue for each resource When the resource is available again the entity attempts to get all the needed resources If all are available the entity will continue processing with the remaining time If the current Activity is the only Activity where the resources that did not go down are used then all the resources should be reacquired immediately Ifnot then it is possible that the resources that did not go down were obtained by an entity at another Activity and are not available Thus the entity must wait until the other resources are released Creating a Downtime Schedule To demonstrate the creation of a
204. splays but is not editable If the query from the Database tab returned the column required for the selected Attribute enter the column name in the Column field As with the Database tab the Column field can be parameterized by using a Model Attribute The example query from the Database tab is SELECT DateOrdered NumWidget1 NumWidget2 NumWidget3 FROM Orders Since the DateOrdered column is the only column used on the Database tab the other columns are available for use on the Set Attributes tab As mentioned in the discussion on the schedule fields DateOrdered is also available for the Set Attributes tab if the database is not a Microsoft Access database If using Access and the same row value for the column is required on the Set Attributes tab the column must be retrieved with a separate query on the Set Attributes tab See discussion on Use separate query Please note that the result set row is not incremented for every Entity generated but for every generation event For example if a particular generation event generates 10 Entities the Attributes specified on the Set Attributes tab would get the same values for each of the 10 Entities generated This is because the row of the result set is only incremented for a generation event not for each Entity generated F ml Attribute Assignment ea Attribute Entity NumWidget1 kd a Column NumWidget1 Cancel Use separate query Help SQL Quen Execute query for ea
205. stances e Processes or Activities e Resources The Model itself How an Attribute is defined tells SIMPROCESS whether to create an instance of that Attribute for every model element of the same type e g Entities Resources or to just create the Attribute for a particular type of model element customer order Entities truck Resources In SIMPROCESS terminology Attributes are either globally defined or locally defined Model Attributes are only globally defined When an Attribute is defined globally an instance of that Attribute is automatically created for each model element of that class For example if the model contains Entities of different types ofappliances refrigerators televisions toasters etc anda weight value needs to be assigned to each Entity a global Entity Attribute could be defined appliance Weight SIMPROCESS creates an instance of that Attribute for every Entity in the model so every Entity has an appliance weight Attribute which can be referenced The only Activity concerned with weight is the Activity where Entities are batched In this case it makes sense to locally define an Attribute for that particular Activity When it s done this way no other Activity will have a weight Attribute automatically created for it Note that Attributes for different model elements can have the same name For example a global Attribute called appliance Weight could be defined for Resources It can have a completely differe
206. such as the number of Entities generated during the simulation These are called Get Only type System Attributes Information on the status of a simulation such as which Activity is processing an Entity or what type of Entity is being processed is also available through Get Only System Attributes See SIMPROCESS System Attributes and Methods for a complete list of System Attributes Expressions Attributes are a powerful simulation feature when used in conjunction with SIMPROCESS SIMPROCESS User s Manual 25 Introduction to Attributes and Expressions Expressions Expressions are user written statements that SIMPROCESS executes during a simulation run Expressions are defined at the point at which the Expression is to be evaluated for example at the beginning of the simulation or at the moment an Entity e g a customer order is received by an Activity e g order distribution In the case of the model where releasing of shipments depends on the total weight of orders such as appliances the following could be done 1 Define an Attribute called applianceWeight and set its value whenever an appliance order Entity is generated by SIMPROCESS The value to assign applianceWeight would be determined by checking the name of the Entity type e g dishwasher order television order This information is available from the System Attribute Name 2 When an Entity is received at the Batch Activity the Entity s ap
207. t Edit Metadata Copy Remove Undo Comment There are no local Entity Attributes defined for this Entity The Global button brings up the Global Attribute Definitions dialog with the appropriate tab active Since the Entity Attribute tab is selected on the Entity properties dialog the Entity tab will be active on the Global Attribute Definitions dialog Note that the Local button is missing since the Global Attribute Definitions dialog was opened from the properties dialog of a model element SIMPROCESS Users Manual 33 User Defined Attributes cow Ave Oto Entity Entity Type Resource Activity Model Close none we vae A Mota Defining a Local Attribute for a Model Element A local Attribute is defined for a single model element Entity Resource or Activity Local Attributes are defined from the properties dialog of the model element Note that Entity instance and Entity Type local Attributes are both defined from the Entity properties dialog Entity Attributes and Entity Type Attributes tabs The Resource and Activity properties dialog each have an Attributes tab Attributes defined locally exist only for the model element in which they were defined Local Attributes are managed in the same manner as the Global Attributes by using the Add Edit Copy and Remove buttons The Attributes tab for Resource properties is shown below
208. t a cell which contains no data is not considered to exist Also if the spreadsheet is a Workbook and the requested cell contains a formula the formula is evaluated and the value returned Note that not all spreadsheet formula functions are supported A run time error will occur ifan attempt is made to read a cell that contains an unsupported formula In an XML Spreadsheet the value calculated by the formula will be returned if it already exists in the file if not a run time error will result Thus in an XML Spreadsheet the formula is not evaluated at run time IMPORTANT Excel stores dates and times as a number that represents the number of days since January 1 1900 This is only true for xls and xlsx spreadsheets XML spreadsheets contain the actual date time string Excel returns the number instead of a date and time The Expression function ConvertToDateTime can be used to create a date time String in the format MM DD YYYY SIMPROCESS User s Manual 93 Interfacing With A Spreadsheet HH MM SS The time portion is omitted if number only represents a date WriteToSpreadsheet WriteToSpreadsheet is used to modify a spreadsheet Nothing is returned The syntax is WriteToSpreadsheet Model ObjectAttribute Worksheet Cell Reference Value Model ObjectAttribute is the Object Attribute that was used in the OpenSpreadsheet system method Worksheet is a string identifying the specific worksheet Cell Reference is a STRING th
209. t Results Database displays dialog for managing SQL statements a Pi Export Results Database E A Add adds a new SQL statement Edit edits the selected SQL statement Copy creates a new SQL statement based on the selected SQL statement Remove deletes the selected SQL statement Undo restores a deleted SQL statement When Add is selected the following dialog displays SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 175 Defining and Executing Database Exports m D eonreusoomae M A Name ExportResultsDatabase1 Properties File Browse racial Ons E Execute before every replication Execute before first replication E Execute after every replication Execute after last replication o Execute after last replication using average of replication results Preview SQL before execution Create SQL Select SQL Type Select Table Select Columns Values Add Value Change Value Insert Entity Edit Update Resource Remove Delete Activity Move Up Edit Where Connector Move Down Remove Where o Time Stamp REE Model Attribute L Toned Cost ee Model Attribute Text ge 3 Time Stamp System Method tas FS Cost Value saL INSERT INTO T tex Bg System Method The Name for the SQL statement must be unique and is only used within the model to identify this SQL statement The value entered for Name is not passed to the database
210. t can not possibly be reached before accumulating 5000 pounds of weight 1 Inthe Expressions tab select Release Entity This is the event where the Entities are released from the batch Activity Press Edit SIMPROCESS User s Manual 64 Example Batching Entities Based on Weight 2 Enter the following statement MaxBatchSize 100000 3 Close the editor The model should now be ready to run An Alternative Method Using Entity Types This example works fine but there are alternative approaches as there often are when building models in SIMPROCESS A couple of alternatives have already been described for initializing the value of the applianceWeight Attribute Defining the Expression at Entity Initialization on page 61 versus Defining the Expression When an Entity Is Released on page 62 Another alternative involves defining the applianceWeight Attribute for Entity types instead of Entity instances In this example a weight Attribute was defined for every Entity instance in the model Every refrigerator order was assigned a weight of 5000 every television order 100 etc The assigned weights remained unchanged during the course of the simulation Another approach would be to define an applianceWeight Attribute for each Entity type and initialize itatthe Start Simulation event Then in the Expression defined at Accept Entity for the DISTRIBUTE ORDERS Activity the Entity s weight would be referenced a
211. t field is ignored If the column contains date and time information the column is assumed to be sorted in ascending order An out of order date and time will cause the schedule to stop Although unlikely the same database column can be used for quantity and interval as long as the database isnota Microsoft Access database Access does notallowa particularrow s value foracolumn to be retrieved twice It is more likely that a database column would be used again for setting an Attribute See the discussion below on setting Attributes for more information In the example below the database contains the generation time information since the Use Database for Interval option is selected SIMPROCESS User s Manual 133 Defining a More Complex Generate Activity a Database Schedule for Generatel Database Set Attributes SQL Query Schedule Database1 Entity Order x mm Quantity 1 0 gt ead Interval 1 0 v Time Unit Hours Properties File database properties SELECT DateOrdered NumWidget1 NumWidget2 NumWidget3 FROM Orders Use Database for Entity Entity Column Name Use Database for Quantity Quantity Column Name E Use Database for Interval Interval Column Name DateOrdered Column contains Date Time Comment Lox ___Cancet__ Set Attributes Properties The Set Attributes tab
212. t for Entity overrides the Entity field Only Entity names defined in the model should be in the spreadsheet Ifa value read does not correspond to an Entity defined in the model a runtime error will occur Entity names are case sensitive Use Spreadsheet for Quantity overrides the Quantity field The values in the designated column should be numeric If the value read is not an INTEGER the value will be rounded to the nearest INTEGER Use Spreadsheet for Interval overrides the Interval field If the values in the designated column are interarrival times make sure Column contains Date Time is not selected Also the Time Unit selected for the default Interval field applies to interarrival times read from a spreadsheet If the values in the designated column are date and time values the Time Unit field is ignored Note that if the column contains date and time information the column is assumed to be sorted in ascending order An out of order date and time will cause the schedule to stop The spreadsheet column that contains the date and time must be formatted with a Date or Time format In the example below arrivals xls contains the complete generation event information since all three options are selected All information is on the same Worksheet Entity Arrivals and all options start on the same row In the spreadsheet excerpt below the Generation Date contains no SIMPROCESS User s Manual 126 Defining a More Complex Generate Activ
213. t found a run time error will occur This will occur ifa statistic is requested for which no statistics collection was defined In the following example no statistics were collected for the Entity Sales Calls Expression Error Object Sales Process GetEntityStatistic function No statistics collected for Entity Software Sales Call Go To Another common error is to request the average ofreplication statistics when only one replication was run or when the first replication is running The average of replication can be requested during the simulation of replication 2 or higher or after all replications have been completed In the following example the average of replications 1 was requested during the simulation of replication 1 Expression Error Object Sales Process GetEntityStatistic function invalid replication parameter Average or Sum of Replications not available when running 1 replication or during first replication Requesting the statistic for a replication that is not currently running or has not yet run will not cause SIMPROCESS User s Manual 103 Accessing Statistics During Simulation an error The value zero will be returned SIMPROCESS User s Manual 104 Creating and Controlling Plots With Expressions Creating and Controlling Plots With Expressions There are five System Methods for plotting listed in SIMPROCESS System Methods CreatePlot AddPlot
214. te defined SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 36 Variable Resource Usage Variable Resource Usage The most flexible way to vary Resource usage is through the GetResource and FreeResource expression statements see Getting and Freeing Resources Using Expressions on page 71 However Resource usage can also be varied by parameterizing the Resource requests on the Resources tab of Activity property dialogs The number of units the Resource requested or both can be parameterized Varying Resource Units User defined Attributes can be used to request units of Resources Using an Attribute allows the units of Resource required by each Entity to vary For instance in the example from Chapter 5 of Part A Adding Resource Requirements to Activities an Entity needed one unit of the Service Rep Resource for that Activity F gt Delay Properties General Resources attributes Expressions Event Logs Text Block Documentation Counts OK Requirements Resource eo Model Attribute Cancel Service Rep 1 0 Add J Resources Help J Model 1 I Sales Rep l diia New Entity New Resource Hep Global Attributes Model Attributes Entity Ld Add Model Attribute L Entity Type J Requires Resource Any One Member Reserve As Available Model All Members Number of Members None Maximum Wait for Resource Time Value None v a Time Unit Hours z Release Entities In Process at Start of Downtime
215. tem Attribute EndWai t is set to TRUE Thus EndWait can be checked to determine whether an Entity exited an Activity without processing and the Entity can be routed appropriately Important As with MaxWait EndWait is not automatically reset to FALSE This must be done in an Expression once the current value of EndWait is no longer needed for Entity routing Entity EndWait FALSE For Activities that collect statistics Entity Counts for Entities that exit without processing are displayed inthe Total Not Processed category of the Activity Entity Count statistics page 254 in the Standard Report page 243 SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 82 User Defined Functions User Defined Functions A User defined Function will return the value of an Expression each time it is called from within the model This allows re use of a single function in multiple places in the model A value must be returned To create a User defined Function go to the Define menu and select Functions or click the Define Functions button on the Model Toolbar This opens a list box displaying any previously defined Functions The Expression Editor dialog opens for Add Edit and Copy The Name of the function must be unique across all Functions Standard distributions Tabular distributions and Auto Fits distributions See User Defined Distributions for information on defining Standard Tabular or Auto Fits distributions The final line of the Expression shoul
216. ter than or equal to zero For a nonconsumable Resource Cost Type can be PerEntity PerUnit PerTimeUnit or Fixed CostType can only be PerEntity or PerUnit for a consumable Resource When the CostType is PerTimeUnit the TimeUnit must be one of the valid SIMPROCESS time units Nanoseconds Microseconds Milliseconds Seconds Minutes Hours Days Weeks Months Years When the CostType is Fixed the SIMPROCESS Users Manual 75 Creating Resources Using Expressions TimeUnit must be Weekly Monthly Quarterly Half Yearly or Yearly If the CostType is PerEntity or PerUnit then the TimeUnit parameter can be omitted Ifincluded it is ignored The example below expands on the previous example In this example after the Resources are created the costs will be set The example assumes that the CostTypes retrieved from the database are in the proper format If this were not the case other logic would be required Also the time unit is retrieved for every cost type However as stated above this field is ignored by SetResourceCost if it is not needed sql STRING name STRING units REAL cost REAL costType STRING timeUnit STRING sql Select Name Units from Resource Table where RunId INTTOSTR Model RunId ReadFromDatabase Model Database WHILE GetNext Set name GetResult Set Name units GetResult Set Units Set sql CreateResource name units FALSE
217. ternal Schedule for Generatel Schedule Externat Lo Cancel J Entity use default v Help Quantity use default X Start End Comment l The Entity and Quantity specified on the dialog can be overridden by the external application Multiple external schedules can be specified in a single generate Activity or in different generate Activities Java RMI Registry The Java RMI Registry must be started before SPServer or the simulation is started This is because Java RMI is the protocol used to communicate between the external application and SPServer and SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 138 Defining a More Complex Generate Activity between SPServer and SIMPROCESS The RMI Registry program rmiregistry is located in the Java Runtime Environment JRE included with SIMPROCESS To start the RMI Registry locally select Tools Remote Start RMI Registry Note that once the RMI Registry has been started it will remain active until SIMPROCESS is closed Alternatively a batch file or UNIX shell script can be constructed in the SIMPROCESS directory because the RMI Registry program is required to have in its classpath the locations of files referenced by server processes Here are some examples of what should be contained in those files In a Windows batch file set CLASSPATH SPSYSTEM simprocess jar SPSYSTEM SPRemote jar rmiregistry In a UNIX shell script using the Bourne shell or a derivative CLASS PA
218. text area checks the syntax of the Expression without closing the editor The Done button checks the syntax of the Expression and if there are no errors closes the Expression Editor SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 47 Writing Expressions r gt Accept Entity Expression Script Edit Define User Defined Attributes System Attributes i Expression Language SystemMethods _ my Expression Language Data Types D Mathematical Operators Relational Operators Logical Operators 3 H Language Constructs Description E Use Expression in File Refresh Save 4 1 Done Validate Cancel g a 14 Expression Editor Reference Tabs On the left are four tabs Expression Language System Methods System Attributes and User Defined Attributes listing the items that can be included in the Expression The Expression Language tab lists data types operators and constructs of the SIMPROCESS Expression Language along with a description of the selected item The System Methods tab lists the System Methods available for SIMPROCESS along with the Arguments the type the system method Returns and a Description of the selected item The System Attributes tab lists the System Attributes defined for each simulation object in SIMPROCESS Included is the Get Set property of the Attribute the Type of the Attribute e g INTEGER REAL and a Description of the selected item
219. that have local Attributes For example the Local button on the Activity tab shows all Activities that have local Attributes defined Selecting an item on the left displays the local Attributes for that item on the right An item on the left can be edited by double clicking or by selecting the Edit button Note that from this dialog local Attributes cannot be defined for items that do not already have local Attributes F nm View Local Activity Attributes batchWeight Help Edit x i Click on Close when finished defining or modifying global Attributes Globally Defining Attributes from Dialogs All global Attributes other than Model Attributes can also be accessed from the properties dialog of the appropriate model element Entity Resource or Activity For example assume a model has three Entities defined refrigerator order television order and toaster order Selecting Entities from SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 32 User Defined Attributes the Define menu brings up the list of defined Entities BlueDot itoaster order GreenDot Editing the refrigerator order brings up the properties dialog The image below shows the Entity Attributes tab selected nye Popo O U Emiyeressions enin Tie m oe Entity Attributes si cance ae Name Mode Value Size lt Documen
220. the total weight of the items accumulated in the Batch Activity To determine the percentage of orders processed within a specified period of time Attributes need to track the processing time for each order the number of orders that meet the promised delivery date and the total number of orders processed Attributes may be used to e Alter the behavior of a Process by changing the value of an Attribute during a simulation e Communicate information such as Attribute values between two Processes in a model e Store data collected during a simulation run There are two categories of SIMPROCESS Attributes built in System Attributes which SIMPROCESS automatically creates and updates and User Defined Attributes which the user creates For example the number of Entities generated for each Entity type e g number of orders is automatically tracked and stored in a built in System Attribute named NumberCreated To track an Attribute such as weight which SIMPROCESS does not know about an Attribute called applianceWeight could be created Some System Attributes can be modified by users These are called Get Set type System Attributes Generally these are variables that control Process parameters such as the number of Entities to batch or amount of time of the next delay By modifying these System Attributes the behavior of the simulation can be affected System Attributes that cannot be changed include those that monitor statistics
221. this Shift applies SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 169 Event Logs Event Logs Time Stamps and Recorders are event logs supported in SIMPROCESS Time Stamping is a facility that SIMPROCESS offers for monitoring times between any two events For example start to finish time The three steps for using Time Stamps are Defining Time Stamps e Adding Entry Exit Event Logs to Processes Activities e Viewing Time Stamp Reports Defining Time Stamps A Time Stamp can be thought of as a label or key that contains the current simulation time This key is added to an entity by an Event Log when it either enters or leaves a Process or Activity Pairs of keys can be specified and Entity cycle times can be computed between them Time Stamping can be performed upon entry and or exit from an Activity Time Stamp specifications can be defined between two stamp keys enabling the monitoring of cycle time amp counts between two Time Stamps 1 Select Time Stamps from the Define pull down menu or click the Define Time Stamps button on the Model Toolbar 2 Select Add to define Time Stamp requirements 3 Define Start and Stop keys select the whether or not to Collect Statistics Results are avail able in the Standard Report or with View Simulation Results 4 Define as many Start and End keys as desired Press the Close button when finished f Time Stamp Requests Definition s Start Key Begin Processing v Stop Key End Processin
222. tivity 111 147 active period of entity release 111 Both must be reached 113 calendar schedule defining 113 complex definin 11 1 147 Count Limit 1 13 cyclical schedule defining 116 118 123 Daily schedule 114 Date schedule 114 defining complex 111 147 entities generated 112 entity release begin and end dates 111 events See sequence of events external event file external schedule 137 Hourly schedule 114 inactive periods 122 Interval 113 limiting number of entities generated 113 Monthly schedule item 114 periodic schedule defining 112 Release Begin 111 release dates and simulation dates 111 Release End 111 schedule calendar 114 Daily 114 Date 114 defaults 112 file input 122 Hourly 114 number of entities at each release 113 Use default 112 Weekly 114 schedule items adding 112 Both must be reached 113 copying 112 Count 113 Count Limit 113 defining 111 117 deleting 112 editing 112 entity categories 112 Interval 113 limiting number of entities 113 modifying 112 Monthly 114 periodic 112 removing 112 Yearly 114 Summary 146 time between entity generation events 113 Weekly schdedule 114 Yearly schedule item 114 Global Attributes defining 29 H historical data See also event files historical data using 122 I Initializing attribute values 59 J Java RMI 138 L Library Concepts 9 Management 10 Library Manager 10 Local Attributes defining 34 M model using Model Attribut
223. tton causes the Variable tab to be visible The formatis the same as the Fixed Weekly schedule except the SIMPROCESS distribution list is available for each Start Time and End Time Note that all the distributions are available however the values returned must be between 0 0 and 24 0 inclusive SIMPROCESS Users Manual 115 Defining a More Complex Generate Activity Thus the times must be REAL numbers where minutes and seconds are represented as the decimal portion of the number The time 12 30 00 would be 12 5 If the End Time is 0 0 24 0 is assumed The End Time cannot be less than the Start Time since the generation times for a particular day cannot cross midnight Also the Start Time cannot equal the End Time unless both are 0 0 since 24 0 will be assumed for the End Time In the example below the Attributes Model StartTime and Model EndTime are used to set the Start Time and End Time of each selected day However different parameters can be used for each selected Day of Week Start Time and End Time f Weekly Schedule for Generatel Sl Schedule Weekly2 Cancel Entity use default z Help Quantity use default cee Interval 1 0 X mm Time Unit Hours z Stawvend V Generate at start of first interval Fixed Variable Weekly Schedule Day of Week Start Time End Time Sunday None None v 7 monday Evi Model StartTime Evmodel EndTime a Z Tuesday Evi Model Start
224. ty ResQuantity FreeResource Entity ResName where ResName is a STRING Entity Attribute containing the name of the Resource and ResQuantity is a REAL or INTEGER Entity Attribute containing the number of units required Most likely the values of these Attributes would be set by an outside source SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 50 Changing Resource Capacity With Expressions Changing Resource Capacity With Expressions IncreaseCapacityandDecreaseCapacity are system methods that will change the capacity of a Resource during a simulation run SIMPROCESS System Methods summarizes the methods The methods apply to all Resources whether consumable ornot Thus IncreaseCapacity could be used to replenish a consumable Resource however the replenish to capacity option is not available Just as with consumable Resources the statistics for a Resource will reflect increases or decreases in capacity IncreaseCapacity IncreaseCapacity can go in any type of Expression When executed it immediately increases the number of units of the Resources The command is IncreaseCapacity Resourcel 2 The first parameter must be a String It is the name of the Resource to increase The second parameter must be an Integer or a Real Even though the second parameter can be a Real the number of units to increase cannot be fractional even if the Resource is a fractional Resource DecreaseCapacity Just like IncreaseCapacity DecreaseCapac
225. types to choose from Quantity is the number of Entities to be produced at each entity generation by this schedule Again use default refers back to the value in the Generate Activity Properties dialog See Defining a Basic Generate Activity for additional details on this field Interval defines the time between entity generation events for this schedule Start End defines the effective period for this schedule The times in the Start and End fields apply just to this schedule The Start and End dates for the schedule must be within the Start and End dates specified on the Generate Activity Properties dialog If a date is not entered for either Start or End the corresponding value if any in the Generate Activity Properties applies Count Limit sets the maximum number of Entities that can be generated by this schedule A Count Limit value of 0 indicates that there is no limit If the Count Limit is reached the Generate Activity may stop generating Entities for this schedule This depends on the setting of the Both must be reached and Generation End fields Both must be reached specifies that both the Count Limit and Release End date must be attained in order to terminate entity generation for this schedule If the Both must be reached field is not marked then reaching either Generation End or Count Limit terminates the schedule Adding a Calendar Schedule To add a schedule that generates Entities based on the calendar select Calen
226. ula such as SUM R1C1 R25C1 uses absolute row and column number references so that it too represents a formula that sums rows 1 through 25 of column 1 The key difference in this format is the lack of bracketed numbers so that the values are absolute row or column number references rather than offset values based on the formula s cell location Since absolute row and column numbers must be used here each must have a value of one or greater As a reminder when using ReadFromSpreadsheet to read a cell containing a formula from an XML spreadsheet its value will be returned if present However when a formula is written as described above using WriteToSpreadsheet the cell s new value will not be calculated until Excel or a compatible spreadsheet program opens the file recalculates the formula result and then saves the file to XML format with this new value in place Any attempt to reopen the XML spreadsheet file for input and read from the cell before that has occurred would result in a run time error Additional Spreadsheet XML Information Much more information on the format of XML spreadsheets formally known as SpreadsheetML Spreadsheet Markup Language is available from Microsoft Among the complex topics discussed in that documentation are matters such as XML namespace usage and the additional capabilities of this file format While it is possible to construct and manipulate these files using any tool that is fully cognizant of the Spre
227. urce By Entity Ef Resources R Sales Calls Week1 Absorption avg Eg pen amp Senice Calls Week2 Variable Gene SalesRep Week3 i be ServiceRep Week4 min Week5 ux Total Expand All Collapse All First select a cost category Resource By Entity is selected by default The cost categories Resource By Entity Resource By Activity and Activity By Entity are the same as those shown in the Standard Report and Simulation Results If one or more OrgModels are assigned to the SSMPROCESS model the cost categories Org Node By Resource and Org Node Cumulative Cost will also be listed See Using OrgModels with SIMPROCESS in the SIMPROCESS OrgModel Manual for information on using OrgModels with a SIMPROCESS model The next two cost object panes will populate based on the selected cost category Since Resource By Entity is selected the next two panes are Select Resource and Select Entity Select Cost Period contains a list of cost periods along with Total Select Cost Type contains Absorption and Variable See Activity Based Costing for more information on cost periods and cost calculations Unless the SQL statement will be using average of replication statistics Max should be selected as the Statistic Type When Org Node Cumulative Cost is the selected cost category there is only one pane for selecting a cost object Select Org Node The last cost category is Total This returns the total cost of all Resources across all
228. ver information and if necessary username and password The Properties File must be located in the model s directory See OpenDatabase on page 86 for more information on Properties Files A Model Attribute of type STRING that contains the Properties File can be used in the Properties File field SQL Query must contain the query that returns the sample data The query can be parameterized by using Model Attributes For example SELECT DateOrdered NumWidgets Widget FROM Orders can be changed to SELECT Model DateColumn NumWidgets Widget FROM Orders In this example Model DateColumn is a STRING Model Attribute that contains the name of the column to read The Entity Quantity Interval and Time Unit fields operate as on a Periodic schedule unless overridden by the three database options below the Periodic fields e Use Database for Entity SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 132 Defining a More Complex Generate Activity e Use Database for Quantity Use Database for Interval Selecting an option causes the associated field Entity Column Name Quantity Column Name or Interval Column Name for that option to activate The Use Database for Interval option also has a check box Column contains Date Time that designates whether the column contains interarrival times or date and time information default Valid Date Time formats are MM DD YY YY HH MM SS MM DD YY HH MM SS and YYY Y MM DD HH MM SS If the l
229. will not be aware of the Time Stamp The output entity must be unbatched in order to register the endpoint of the Time Stamp to do this for an Assembled entity turn on the Batch Component Entities check box on the Properties dialog of the Assemble Activity Differences Between Time Stamps and Recorder Objects Time Stamps measure time delays during a simulation How much time an entity spends at one or more Processes Activities is captured using Time Stamp keys Recorder Objects measure arrival departure rates at Processes Activities by recording how many Entities arrive depart a Process Activity over time The time between arrivals and departures can also be calculated using Recorders Recorders In addition to Time Stamps Recorders will write the arrival or departure time of an entity at a Process Activity into a file in the model s directory Any File Name without path may be entered defaults to recorder txt The file can be examined after the simulation to observe the actual times a specific Entity arrived or departed from specific Processes Activities 1 Using an Activities Process Properties dialog press the Event Logs tab The Event Logs tab lists the currently defined Time Stamps and Recorder objects either On Entry or On Exit SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 172 Event Logs 2 Using the Type combo box select Recorder and choose the Add button The Recorder Properties dialog appears as shown below k Recor
230. xcept Generate Entity Instances Get Resource Obtainment of a Resource by an Activity Resources All Activities except Generate Free Resource amp Dispose Interrupt Pro cessing Entity processing is interrupted by a higher priority Entity or by a Resource going down Entity Instances Resume Process ing Entity processing is resumed after interrup tion Entity Instances Free Resource Release of a Resource by an Activity Resources All Activities except Gener ate Get Resource amp Dis pose SIMPROCESS User s Manual 57 Expression Activation Events Event Name Activation Point and Comments Model Elements Active For Release Entity Release of an Entity from an Activity or Process Processes plus all Activities except Dispose Entity Instances once at the end of all replications Dispose of Dispose of an Entity Entity Instances Entity Entity Types Start Downtime Resource initiates a downtime Resources End Downtime Resources ends a downtime Resources End Trial End of a simulation trial Model Entity Types Resources All Activities End Simulation The end of a simulation replication Model Statistic collection for the replication ends Ban DRS at this point Rescue i All Activities End Run The end of a simulation run Occurs only Model SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 58 Attribute V
231. xpression dialog IF Entity Name refrigerator order Entity applianceWeight 5000 0 ELSIF Entity Name television order Entity applianceWeight 100 0 ELSE Entity applianceWeight 10 0 END IF These instructions check the name of the Entity being released at the Activity The name identifies the type of Entity A value is assigned to applianceWeight based on the Entity type 4 Close the editor 5 Click on Close and then OK Releasing Entities Based on Weight Two more Expressions are needed to complete the model In the first Expression check the weight of the Entities received at the batch Activity and trigger their release if the weight reaches a certain number 1 Double click on the DISTRIBUTE ORDERS Activity 2 In the Batch Activity Properties dialog click on the Expressions tab SIMPROCESS User s Manual 63 Example Batching Entities Based on Weight 3 There are eight activation events listed on the Expressions tab fora Batch Activity Accept Entity occurs when an Entity arrives at the Activity so highlight this event and click on Edit 4 Insert the following code batchWeight batchWeight Entity applianceWeight IF batchWeight gt 5000 0 MaxBatchSize NumberIn OUTPUT Batch weight is batchWeight batchWeight 0 0 END IF In this Expression the weight of the just received Entity is added to the total weight of all Entities received If the total weight exceeds 5000 0
232. y To avoid confusion in the Expression always qualify Attributes with the object name such as Entity Name Self Name Activity Name Self myattribute etc That is where object Attributes come in They identify the model element of interest The Entity object Attribute tells SIMPROCESS to look at the Entity being processed in the current Activity e An Attribute called Se1 points at the current model element that is the model element the Expression has been invoked from So Entity Name returns the type name of the Entity instance being processed at the RECEIVE ORDERS Activity while Sel Name_ returns the name RECEIVE ORDERS A qualified reference is also employed to set the User Defined Attribute applianceWeight Entity applianceWeight 5000 0 Now applianceWeight was specifically defined as an Attribute of Entities However this does not mean that any reference to this Attribute would be unmistakable that it can only refer to one thing But in fact the reference to applianceWeight must be qualified by an object reference This is because without specifying a qualifier SIMPROCESS assumes the reference is to an Attribute of the current model element In this case the current model element is the Generate Activity RECEIVE ORDERS since it is the model element which invoked the Expression There is no Attribute named applianceWeight associated with this Activity and an unqualified reference to applianceWeight
233. y Activity variable cost across replications for the cost period Week1 Sales Rep is a Resource and Sales is an Activity GetCostStatistic Week1 Sales Rep Sales Calls Variable SIMPROCESS Users Manual 99 Accessing Statistics During Simulation Min 1 returns the minimum Resource by Entity variable cost across replications for the cost period Week1 Sales Rep is a Resource and Sales Calls is an Entity GetCostStatistic Week1 Sales Sales Calls Absorption Avg 1 returnsthe Activity by Entity absorption cost forreplication forthe costperiod Week1 Sales is an Activity and Sales Calls is an Entity Since this is the value for a replication the maximum value is returned even though Avg is the Value Type GetCostStatistic Week1 CityOrganization Police Warrant Clerk 1 Variable Max 1 returns the Org Node by Resource variable cost for replication 1 forthe cost period Week 1 CityOrganization isan OrgModel Police is an Org Node and Warrant Clerk 1 is a Resource GetEntityStatistic GetEntityStatistic returns the value ofa statistic for an Entity that has Collect Entity Statistics selected either globally or on the Entity type properties See Default Performance Measures The syntax is GetEntityStatistic Entity Name Statistic Value Type Replication where Entity Name is the name of the Entity and Statistic is the statistic type desired The k
234. y be available from 8 a m to noon and 1 5 p m The Add Template button on the Resource Downtime list dialog creates a Resource Downtime template that can be saved in a Library When the Library is loaded the Resource Downtime templates in the Library are added to the Type list See Adding Resource Downtime Templates beginning on page 17 for more information on creating Resource Downtime templates Selecting Add brings up a global Resource Downtime dialog a al Resource Downtime Properties Name Downtme1 mmidd yyyy hh mm ss msec usec nsec Cancel Help J New Resource DE End I a cra Schedules aad Periodic z Edit Apply Downtime to Resources Resources SelectAll Customer Service n E Expert Deselect All F Hardware Sales Rep POEN i Intern Resource IF Senice Rep I Software Sales Rep g J The Downtime s Schedules must be defined and the Resources can be selected that will use this Downtime Global Resource Downtime properties include a list of the Resources defined in the model Apply the global Resource Downtime to Resources by selecting the appropriate Resources in the list Control click to select multiple Resources or click Select All to select all the Resources SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 150 Resource Downtime Sc mmiddiyyyy hh mm ss msec usec nsec Cancel Help Start u E
235. yclical schedule with a Generation Start date of January 1 2014 and a Generation End date of March 31 2014 The schedule contains the following Schedule of Events cycles e A periodic cycle event beginning on January 1 with a duration of 48 hours e A calendar cycle which is triggered monthly on the 2nd of the month The simulation begins at midnight January 1 The periodic cycle starts right away and lasts for 48 hours At this point it is midnight January 34 and the calendar cycle is implemented What happens during this period No Entities are generated by the calendar event for January Here is why 1 On January 34 of simulation time SIMPROCESS acts on the calendar cycle It checks the Date and Time value which is set to the 2 4 of the month at midnight and compares it to the current date SIMPROCESS determines that the trigger date has already passed and bypasses entity generation The next possible trigger point is on February ou 2 The calendar cycle continues until the end of the simulation or until the end of the active period for the Cyclical schedule Note that the Calendar event maintains control of the Cyclical schedule since there is no duration for the Calendar event SIMPROCESS User s Manual 121 Defining a More Complex Generate Activity Defining a Single Event Cycle A Single Event cycle describes a one time entity generation event 7 Single Event Event for Cyclical3 e
236. yed value including the decimal point while Precision specifies the number of digits after the decimal point that will be displayed If the Width is greater than the value being displayed it will be padded with spaces on the left side If the Mode is Integer then only the Width field needs to be set Note that the Value field does not have to be empty to use UpdateDynamicLabel The same dynamic label can be updated automatically and with UpdateDynamicLabel SIMPROCESS User 5 Manual 84 Dynamic Labels Once the dynamic label is defined it can be updated by making a function call to the UpdateDynamicLabel method inthe Expression builder This method requires the following five arguments in this order MasterEditor typed as shown reference to the main layout window name a string in quotes used to designate the dynamic label in the Name text box of Background Text dialog Make sure letter case is the same in both places ID number the integer in the Id box of the Background Text dialog text color a string in quotes of the color in which the text is to appear A list of color names is found in SIMPROCESS System Attributes and Methods As with name letter case must be as shown in the table This overrides the font color selected in the properties dialog value integer real or string value to display type must correspond to what was selected in the Mode combo box of the Background Text dialog

SIMPROCESS User`s Manual Part B

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