Track Flow Products throughput in FlowWorks

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jayez-325 asked Mar 22, '25 Patrick Zweekhorst commented Mar 31, '25

Track Flow Products throughput in FlowWorks

Hi everyone, I am working on a FlowWorks simulation and need to track the throughput of flow products. I want to pin this data to the dashboard for real-time monitoring.

What is the best way to track the number of flow products processed?

Also, how can I properly display this data on the dashboard? Any guidance on using FlexSim's dashboard widgets effectively for this purpose would be much appreciated!

Thank you in advance!

Software Version:

FlexSim 24.1.1

dashboards FloWorks statistic tracking flowprocess

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Arun Kr commented · Mar 24 at 07:26 AM

@Patrick Zweekhorst

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Patrick Zweekhorst commented · Mar 24 at 08:15 AM

@jayez_325 ,

I am looking into your question and I am not 100% sure I completely understand it completely. How does the graph need to look that you want to create?
Do you want to count how many products you process? Or how much for each product?

If you can provide a simple example model and explain a bit more which chart you want to make I am sure we can help you further on answers. Probably by listening to the OnProductChange or OnRateChange events of the FloWorks objects

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jayez-325 Patrick Zweekhorst commented · Mar 24 at 11:35 AM

Hi. I’m working on a fuel terminal simulation using the FloWorks module. I need help with two issues:

Model Validation:
- I have only one type of flow product in my model.
- I want to determine the throughput of this product to compare it with real-life data.
- Is there a way to extract this throughput information accurately?
Flow Truck Utilization Graph Issue:
- I added a utilization graph for the flow truck in the dashboard.
- However, after running the simulation, the graph doesn’t display any results.
- What could be causing this issue, and how can I fix it?

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.

fluidtransferproblem-1.fsm

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fluidtransferproblem-1.fsm (465.9 KiB)

Answer 1 · 2025-03-24T15:59:36Z

Patrick Zweekhorst answered Mar 24, '25 Patrick Zweekhorst commented Mar 31, '25

Hi @jayez_325 ,

Thank you for your extra comment.

For logging the throughput of the product you could for example use the Throughput Volume chart:

If you link your 3 tanks that serve as source of the product to this chart we are able to log how much has gone out. I noticed that this is a chart that you already have. This is not what you needed as an performance measure?

This chart updates every time a rate has changed. A similar chart can be made for the product that goes out of the model. But this would than be something you need to log by making a statistics collector that listens to the trucks (with product) being destroyed.

For your second question:

I noticed that you have already created a pie chart for your bowsers. This is also the best way of calculating the utilization. The utilization is shown in the middle of that chart. The utilization chart that you have added actually only makes sense for FlowProcessors.

You might have already noticed that not all relevant states show up in your pie chart. To get this I would use the set state function in your ProcessFlow when loading/unloading the trucks. That would look something like this:

Does this help for you? The utilization looks super low, but I am not sure if the correct amount of product is transferred, and if the correct transfer rates are used.

I added these states in the attached model. Feel free to post a comment if this was not exactly what you were looking for.

Patrick

fluidtransferproblem-1_1.fsm

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fluidtransferproblem-1-1.fsm (469.1 KiB)

1742830916391.png (8.0 KiB)

1742831035227.png (29.6 KiB)

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jayez-325 commented · Mar 26 at 07:38 AM

hi @Patrick Zweekhorst .

For the throughput, it is not really what I've been looking for as my performance measure, but this will do. However, for the utilization chart, it did show results for the loading arms utilization but not the utilization for the flowtruck. what do you think can be the best way for me to track the usage of the flowtruck?

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1742974507192.png (37.4 KiB)

Patrick Zweekhorst jayez-325 commented · Mar 27 at 09:10 AM

Hi @jayez_325 ,

How would the chart you wanted to make have looked like? If you can describe it or make a sketch of it we might still be able to create it.

For the utilization: A loadingArm and a FlowTruck are two different objects. The loading arm itself has flow running through it and the utilization calculates the max amount of flow the could have went through the loading arm versus the amount that actually got through the loading arm. For the truck the utilization would normally be calculated in a different way, since traveling is also part of the activities the truck does. That is way for the truck you would normally use the pie chart that you have, and the middle of the pie chart shows the utilization of the truck. The main thing missing there is the state of the truck when you are loading and unloading the truck. That is why tried to explain in my previous post. You can make the same chart for the loading arm work for the flow truck, but than you would need the sample the flow tank that is inside the flowTruck. However, I don't think this is a realistic chart for a FlowTruck.

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jayez-325 Patrick Zweekhorst commented · Mar 27 at 06:57 PM

for the throughput, i would like to make it in bar chart.

for the utilization: what type of chart and method that you recommend that is suitable to track the flowtruck activity. my main goal of the simulation is to know the utilization of the flowtruck. any recommendations on how do i achieve this would be appreciated.

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