Operator task assignment

Greeting,
I'm trying to model a situation where an operator feeds a conveyor number of itemflow until a certain limit has reached. He would than move to another feed conveyor and do the same. I can do that for small model with close input and output, but the final model has over 30 flow conveyor, and it would be difficult to do it that way. Is there a hold the operator at a certain location until he is released. Attached model describe what I'm trying to accomplish.
Thanks in advance.

Hello George,

you are looking for the method around TASKTYPE_UTILIZE and freeoperators(obj. dispatcher).

Jrg

Hi Jrg,
I tried the Utilize in the task sequence, but the operator doesn't get released even when I included free operator after dispatchtasksequence. Am I coding it incorrectly or is there something missing.
Thanks
George

Hello George,

executing tasksequences has allways something to do with the runtime.
The time you dispatch a tasksequence isn't the time the Tasksequence will be executed. Maybe it will be the next event or it will be an event in the future. You don't know. If you use an utilizetask the freeoperators command must allways be executed later, or your taskexecuter stays in the utilzetask for ever. In your modell you use a key in your utilize task: the item . That is okay. But you must use the same key to unlock the operator from his ongoing utilize task in the freeoperators command. You can send this key as number to the source and free there the operator OnMessage.

I have changed your model a bit.

Jörg

Hi Jrg,
Thanks for your quick response. I see what you're saying with the freeoperator timing. What actually I'm trying to get is to utilize the operator to load conveyor2 with let say 6 items when the stock on the conveyor reaches a count of 2. That means he should load from source1 4 consecutive times before he's released to the next assigned task. TASKTYPE_UTILIZE didn't get me there. I tried to place the inserttasks in a loop, but some funny stuff start happening. Is there a way to utilize that operator from a certain source for a number of trips before releasing him.
Thanks again Jrg

George,

I understand that when a given conveyor's content is down to 2 you want to trigger a refill, however I'm wondering how much visibility the operator has of the upstream flow from the "sources".

1. Should the operator also wait for a group of 4 (from your example) items before committing to transport the first of the group?
2. OR, in your larger model will you have infinite supply where the sources currently are?
3. OR, do you want the operator to load the first as soon as he can, then wait while the item moves on to the conveyor and then look upstream to see if there is another item before moving-on to the next mission. Note, time is wasted with this logic.

The difficulty with transferring a group of items to the conveyor is that it only receives one item at a time. So, the approach may change depending on your answer.

Hi Kris,
The source (we can assume is being replenished continuously). By the time the TE picks up an item from the source, another one should appear in the source content. I don't know if a hidden queue would make any difference since the supply (source) always has an item that is ready to be transported.
Thanks
George

I added a CALLSUBTASK to the standard tasksequence. The OnMessage of the operator holds the decision to continue feeding the conveyor, if so the operator is given a UTILIZE task with the conveyor as the involved (key). The operator's queue strategy was changed to Prioritize By Distance. Finally the OnExit triggers the refill.

Thanks Kris.

In order to get it to work with a team, I had to search for the operator that is waiting at the appropriate conveyor in the Pass To of the dispatcher.