Rockwell Automation Arena Packaging Users Guide - Manual (Page 51)

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Scheduled Stops dialog
D ESCRIPTION
The Scheduled Stops dialog box defines scheduled downtimes (e.g., maintenance) for
machines, conveyors, or palletizers. Scheduled stops are different from failures in that
these downtimes are “planned” and do not impact cost or utilization statistics.
R EMARKS
The check box for stoppage operators can be overridden by the Disable Operator
Constraints option in the Simulate module.
Arena Packaging generates the stops in the Scheduled Stops repeat group sequentially as
they are listed. If the simulation duration is greater than the sum of the Time Before Stops
and Stop Durations, you can repeat the list by checking the Repeat the Stops operand.
During a scheduled stop, the state variable of the equipment is set to Stopped.
Scheduled stops can only occur when a piece of equipment is running (i.e., the speed
factor and run speed of the module are greater than zero). If Arena Packaging generates a
scheduled stop for a piece of equipment and that equipment is currently stopped (i.e.,
blocked, failed, or in a changeover), the scheduled stop waits until the equipment begins
running before setting the state variable to Stopped and beginning its downtime. The
length of the Stop Duration is not affected.
The downtimes of scheduled stops are not included in operating costs or utilization
calculations.
Sensors dialog
D ESCRIPTION
The Sensors dialog box may be used to define sensors for accumulating conveyors. The
sensor locations are defined offset from the conveyor length, in terms of either distance
from the downstream end of the conveyor or a percentage of the total conveyor length.
Once a sensor has been activated, it may either take actions, create a discrete entity, or do
both.
R EMARKS
Automatic sensors are included that will block the upstream machine (set its speed factor
to 0) when the conveyor becomes full. If the Automatic Upstream Restart option is
checked on the main dialog box, another sensor is provided that will restart (restore the
speed factor) of the upstream machine when the conveyor becomes empty. If you want the
upstream machine to restart sooner, simply add a sensor at the appropriate position and
specify that it restart the upstream machine when it becomes uncovered.