Task 4. What-If Scenarios

Introduction

In this tutorial task, you will improve energy use in the system by changing the schedule of the Filling and Packaging lines:

Filling may work one shift a day without causing issues to Packaging. This allows maximizing its operation during sunlight.

You will use Experimenter to define and compare different scenarios.

Performance Measures

To compare energy use in different scenarios, define the Performance Measures to be compared. Energy-related performance should be considered in the context of the system's overall performance. In this tutorial task, define the following performance measures:

Name	Value	Display Units
Production	Input statistics of the Sink object.	items
CarbonEmissions	The sum of Carbon Emissions across all Energy Sources. In the Performance Measure popup, use the Sampler button and click on the Carbon Emissions bar chart. Aggregate by Sum:	gCO2eq
ConsumedEnergy	The sum of Energy Output across all Energy Sources. In the Performance Measure popup, use the Sampler button and click on the Energy Output bar chart. Aggregate by Sum.	kWh

Name

Value

Display Units

Production

Input statistics of the Sink object.

items

CarbonEmissions

The sum of Carbon Emissions across all Energy Sources.

In the Performance Measure popup, use the Sampler Sampler button and click on the Carbon Emissions bar chart. Aggregate by Sum:

Sampler Menu

gCO2eq

ConsumedEnergy

The sum of Energy Output across all Energy Sources.

In the Performance Measure popup, use the Sampler Sampler button and click on the Energy Output bar chart. Aggregate by Sum.

Sampler Menu

kWh

By the end of six simulation days, the Performance Measures table should look approximately like this:

Performance Measures Table

An Alternative Filling Schedule

Create a new Time Table tool named FillingSchedule2 and configure it as follows:

FillingSchedule2 should have a total of 4 × 8 = 32 hours working, 8 consecutive hours per day, starting at 8:00 on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Set Mode to Weekly Repeat. For the rest of the time, choose Down State 12 scheduled down. Add Filling as its member in the Members tab. Unset its Enabled checkbox.

Model Parameters

You will need one Model Parameter for each Time Table that needs to be turned on or off. In this tutorial task, you will need two of them:

Name	Value Type	Value Reference	Value OnSet Trigger
FillingSchedule1	Binary	FillingSchedule1 Time Table	Enable or Disable
FillingSchedule2	Binary	FillingSchedule2 Time Table	Enable or Disable

Only one of these parameters should be set to 1. The other should be 0.

Model Parameters in Energy Use Simulations

There are many hypotheses to explore using simulation with Flexcon Helios. Determine the variables of your model and define Model Parameters accordingly.

If the power consumed in the system changes according to system configuration (e.g., machinery operating at different speeds or parts of the system being switched on or off), simulate different consumption levels with different Energy Use Policies, enabling them one at a time.

To switch an Energy Use Policy on or off with a Model Parameter, create a Binary model parameter, set its reference to the Energy Use Policy, and choose Enable or Disable as its On Set trigger.
If the duration of time a consumer object stays in some state changes, so will its energy consumption in that state, even if the Energy Use Policy remains the same.

To control timing and duration of operations, define Model Parameters that change the process model itself (e.g., Arrival Schedules of a Source object, Setup and Processing Time of Processors, Time Tables, MTBFMTTR profiles). This is no different from the normal use of Model Parameters and Experimenter.

In this tutorial, you will control when each part of the production line operates by creating an additional Time Table.
If availability or performance of an Energy Source changes (e.g., comparing solar power use in winter and summer scenarios), one way to achieve this is by creating two or more Energy Sources and switching them on and off with object stops (either through a Time Table, MTBFMTTR tool, or by stopping unused Energy Sources from Flexscript).

Enable or disable Time Tables and MTBFMTTR tools as in normal FlexSim simulations.

Experimenter Setup

Open Experimenter and set up a job to run for 518,400 seconds (six days) with two scenarios. One scenario should activate only FillingSchedule1, and the other only FillingSchedule2.

Run this Experimenter job and view the results. Production and ConsumedEnergy should be the same in both scenarios (indicating that changing the schedule did not negatively affect productivity), but CarbonEmissions should be reduced:

Feel free to define and explore other scenarios: such as what is the system performance in winter, or if there is a better Packaging schedule.

Conclusion

You have completed the basic Flexcon Helios Tutorial. To explore other energy use simulation features, see the Flexcon Helios Overview.