Modeling Machine Repair Crew in SIMUL8

[rwilcox]

In SIMUL8, how do I go about modeling a situation like: We have a repair crew of 3 mechanics responsible for repairing any of a bunch of machines that go down. How should this be modeled? Thanks.

[rwilcox]

And how do I model the idea that if machine B breaks down when all the repair people are busy fixing machine A, and then machine C breaks down when all the repair people are still busy fixing machine A, when A is fixed they should repair C next -- it's higher priority to fix even though B was waiting for a repair person longer?

[srajanna]

I think you can do this by setting the priority value for each work station. The higher the priority value, the more important the work center is in getting resources. In you example the priority value for Machine C will be higher than Machine A and B.

Thanks

[rwilcox]

srajanna, thanks! That explains how work centers compete for resources (e.g. a repair mechanic). Now, suppose work items which have accumulated in a queue might go to either of two work centers. Does this same priority number control which work center is allowed to grab the work item from the queue if both are "idle and eager to work"?

[ewilliams]

Yes. If the Storage were connected to 2 work centers downstream, one of priority X and one of priority Y > X, the work center of priority X (lower) would receive a work item only when one was available in the storage and the work center of priority Y was not idle (e.g. busy, in changeover, off-shift, down).