Routings, the connectors between activities (and storages), define the direction and conditions for entity flow. In addition, an “activity” or “storage” may have multiple input and output routing connections. Entities do not move to the next activity or storage until capacity becomes available and the condition or rule for routing has been satisfied.
The General properties tab allows you to select the type of routing and set certain information specific to that type of routing. Finally, a common explanation follows for the remaining dialog tabs.
Common Properties Tabs
Cost
ProcessModel allows you to assign a cost to the routing of an entity from one activity or storage to the other. The cost is added to the pre-defined Cost attribute of the entity in the model after the move is completed.
All routing connections have a cost tab in their properties dialog. The identification of cost is optional and has no effect on the behavior of the model.
Cost per move The amount added to each entity after completing a particular routing. This cost (negative 1,000,000 to 1,000,000) adds to the pre-defined Cost attribute of the entity.
- To learn more about costs, see ProcessModel and Activity-based Costing.
Action
Develop customized behavior for entities that follow this route. In addition to the information set in the General tab, Action Logic extends routing capability. For example, action logic allows reporting of custom statistics, additional control on movement, resource selection, etc.
A routing’s Action Logic starts after securing capacity at the destination, meeting the condition of the routing, and (if needed) acquiring the resource. After the action logic completes, the routing move begins.
Name
The linkage tab (shown below) allows you to define connection names used when you are creating hierarchical models. For more information, see Hierarchical Modeling.
Connection name maps connections into and out of the activity representing the submodel. A link going into this activity will route the entity to a like-named link in the submodel. Likewise, a link from this activity receives entities from the submodel’s like-named link.
Routing Types
The following routing types are available:
And they are explained in detail on the following pages.