Scheduled Arrival

A scheduled arrival brings entities in at exact times you specify, like appointments or incoming shipments. You can type the schedule by hand or import thousands of real arrival timestamps from a file.

Building a schedule by hand

Open the Scheduled Arrivals Builder. Each row is one arrival: Week #, Day, Time, and Quantity. Add rows as needed, and use + Add Logic on any row to give that specific arrival its own action logic (for example, to set an attribute on the entities it creates).

Importing arrivals from Excel or raw data

To load real arrival data, use Import Raw Arrivals in the builder. It reads a file (or pasted text) of timestamps and converts them into Week / Day / Time rows, up to about a million.

Steps:

1. Select the scheduled arrival, open the Scheduled Arrivals Builder, and click Import Raw Arrivals.
2. (Optional) Download Template for a ready-made spreadsheet with Timestamp, Quantity, and Codes columns.
3. Choose your source: pick a CSV or Excel file, or switch to Paste and paste rows. CSV loads through a fast bulk path; Excel is parsed in place.
4. Set the Date order (for example MM/DD) so ambiguous dates are read correctly.
5. Map your columns to the fields: Timestamp is required; Quantity, Codes, and any attribute columns (a_...) are optional.

6. (Optional) Manage Codes to map short codes in your data to attribute values (for example, a code that sets a processing time on the arriving entities).
7. Review the preview: the parsed rows, the week span, and how many rows could not be read.
8. Click Import arrivals. The imported data replaces any manual rows (a schedule is either typed or imported, not both), and it is saved with your model.

Action logic

A scheduled arrival has no route-level Action Logic tab. Instead, each row can carry its own action logic through + Add Logic, which runs on the entities that row creates.

LegacyHow this worked in the previous version

A scheduled arrival causes a quantity of entities to arrive at a storage or activity at set times such as appointments or incoming shipments. Multiple scheduled arrivals for the same time occur in the order in which they are defined.

**Arrivals [Time, Quantity] **The list of defined arrivals listing the quantity, the week number, the day of the week, and the time the arrivals begin to come into the system.

New This button allows you to create a new arrival based on the data held currently in the edit fields of the dialog.

**Delete **Allows you to delete the selected entry from the Arrival list.

Week **This is the week in the simulation when the arrivals are to occur (numbered from 1 in ascending order).

**Day **This is the day of the week on which the entities are to arrive.

**Time **This is the time of day that the arrival occurs. If more than one arrival is scheduled for the same time, the arrivals will occur in the order in which they were defined.

**Quantity **The number of entities to arrive at the scheduled time.

**Action **Although not required, you may enter Action logic for each scheduled arrival. This is useful for assigning a value or descriptor to an attribute at the time of arrival based on the particular arrival entry in the dialog. Select the arrival in the Arrivals list above and enter the logic in the Action text box. To learn more see Action Logic.

How To - Define an arrival schedule

• Click on the Define Schedule button to display the Scheduled Arrivals dialog. A default arrival is automatically created as shown on the previous page.
• To create an additional arrival click on the New button. (Edits to the quantity and time fields are updated to the currently selected arrival once you move to another field or press New.)

How To - Read in an arrival schedule from outside files

• Create scheduled arrivals with a quantity of zero for the number of arrivals anticipated.

• From the Tools menu select Export Data. Export the data to the chosen application.

• Open the exported file. Modify the Excel or Access File by adjusting the desired parameters and save.

• Press the file import button to import the changed data into ProcessModel.

A Note About Time

When you use the Daily Pattern arrival or Scheduled Arrival, you must understand that statistics, especially resource statistics, may be affected due to the way the clock works in ProcessModel. Each ProcessModel simulation begins at 12:00 a.m. (midnight) on Monday morning of the first week. Therefore, Daily Pattern or Scheduled arrivals may skew statistical results, especially with regard to resource and input and output queue utilization. The solution is the use of Shifts in conjunction with your Daily Pattern or Scheduled arrivals. For more information, see Schedules-Shifts & Breaks.

The maximum number of weeks allowed for scheduled arrivals is 213.

• Continuous
• Daily Pattern
• Ordered
• Periodic