Modelling a Supply chain

Hi All

I am doing my dissertation for a global FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) company. At present, the scope of simulation needs to address the movement of forklifts within the warehouse, from staging the goods and then loading them onto outgoing trucks. The trucks then transport the goods to another warehouse about 9 miles away. From there the goods are offloaded and stored in predetermined areas in the warehouse.

I am having trouble finding an object such as a truck or semi that will transport the goods, and how to simulate the movement of those trucks.
I am also looking for some suggestions as to how I can approach this problem, whether there are other similar models out there and if concept models exist that can explain the methodology more clearly. In the end, the goal is to see whether (given uncertainties) the inbound warehouse will be large enough to accommodate the trucks and their loads.

I would really appreciate any input! Thank you very much.

Any transporter wil do. So take the Taskexecuter, change the 3D object to make it look like a truck and increase the capacity to the nr of products (pallets, containers etc) that you want to transport and there you are.

The biggest problem with these kind of models is always the data. Because usually there are picks that have to be combined into orders that have to be combined into 1 or more pallets. This always makes this complex and you have write quite some algorithms.
If your goal is to look at the inbound warehouse, forget the outbound warehouse, generate trucks with a certain amount of pallets, containing a certain amount of products and let those arrive at the warehouse. This saves you lots of time trying to model the picking process which you don't need for the end result and which is more difficult to model than the place process.

Thank you Steven

I have a vast amount of data available, but I also am very new to Flexsim, and have very little programming experience. I have downloaded a few *.3ds models from the Sketchup website, yet I have had some trouble displaying them in Flexsim when trying to change object shapes in the Properties menu.

I have seen a "Flexsim" truck in one or two concept models - is there no way of obtaining that file to use in the simulation? Thank you!

Check out the download section on this forum. It looks like the highway model (http://www.flexsim.com/community/for...do=file&id=262) contains the truck.

Thanks, I have downloaded the model but don't know how to locate the actual truck shape, save that shape and then use it in another model?

Ok getting it out when it is included in the model seems complex. So I attached a wrl with the matching bitmaps. Have fun.

Thank you very much Steven!

I have used, as you suggested, a TaskExecuter and changed its appearance to that of the truck - I then set the offsets and sizes so that it is to scale. I have been trying to duplicate the functionality of a queue or transporter so that a forklift is able to load pallets onto the truck from a queue.
I have used the dispatcher and replicated the way in which my forklifts are able to offload pallets from a rack and loading them onto different conveyors. When i do this, however, my forlift assigned to load pallets onto the truck is stationary. I used centre port connections between my dispatcher>>queue and dispatcher>> truck and normal connection between forklift >> dispatcher. I also changed the properties to have the queue use a Transport connected by centre port. I haven't really used the TaskExecuter extensively - so I have 2 questions:

1. How do I set the TaskExecutor (Truck) to store pallets
2. How do I trigger a loaded Truck to move to a preset destination?

Many Thanks

Sounds as if you are looking for creating your own Tasksequences. But maybe there is another easy solution.
Could you please share an example model of what you are trying to do?

Hi Sebastian

I have actually changed my approach for this problem.
Instead of using a TaskExecutor object for the truck, I have created a Truck Flow Item in the Flow item Bin. Then, by using the Combiner, the truck is used as the Container Flow Item, I was able to "load" the truck with a Forklift by combining the Pallets with the Truck. The truck is then moved by use of a hidden conveyor object. I will still need to use some hard coding in the future for this model to define the vast number of different SKU's that will need to be transported. I will use an MPS (Master Production Schedule) as a "Demand Generator".

I will upload the model ASAP so you can see what I mean!

Rikus

Hi,
I am very new to flexsim and trying to use it for material flow simulation.
Can you please send the above model you have prepared. I have similar requirement for my project.

Thank you in advance...