Use a Decide to send tokens to activities by case and by condition

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When creating a process flow in FlexSim,

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the Decide activity sends a token to one of two or more possible activities based on conditions that you define.

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From the Decide activity Quick Properties, you can define these conditions using many different methods,

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such as diverting tokens to specific activities by case and by condition.

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In this model, a process flow is already set up to represent shipments arriving with different types of items,

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and each type requires a different length of time to process.

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Items with longer times only need to be processed once, while items with shorter times need to be processed twice.

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Two different types of Decide activities are used in the process flow to execute this model—Decide by case and Decide by condition.

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In the ProcessFlow, click the first Decide—named Is Type 2?—to open its Quick Properties.

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This Decide is set up to query the type of item and then send it to its respective processor by case.

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Below the name, the Send Token To drop-down determines the logic used by the Decide.

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Here, it is set to Connector By Case.

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You also see the Connectors Out menu, with the Yes Connector selected,

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as well as a Name of Yes, a destination of Acquire Long Processing, and a Rank of 2.

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Click Edit Properties to view or set the specific criteria for each connector.

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For this example, the Case Function is set to token.Type.

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Under Setup Cases, Default is set to Connector 1, and Type 2 is set to Connector 2.

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This means that the Decide uses the token’s type to determine its path.

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Then, it sends Type 2 items to Long Processing, or the Yes connector,

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while it sends tokens with types other than 2 to Short Processing, or the No connector.

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After items finish Short or Long Processing, the next step in the flow is to keep track of how many times each item is processed.

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Click the second Decide activity—Needs More Processing?—to see that Send Token To is set to Conditional Decide.

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In the Connectors Out menu, the No connector is selected, which sends tokens to the Final Queue.

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Click Edit Properties to view or set the conditions for this activity.

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Here, the Condition field is set up to detect tokens that are not type 2, and to check for tokens processed fewer than 2 times.

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If both conditions are true, then the token enters connector 1, or the Yes connector.

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This returns the token to the Initial Queue to be processed a second time.

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If one or both conditions are false, then the token enters connector 2, or the No connector, and proceeds to the Final Queue.

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Reset and Run the simulation to see this in action.

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The items in Long Processing take longer, however they flow directly to the Final Queue.

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Items in Short Processing move more quickly, but return to the Initial Queue for a second round of processing.

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Now you can use a Decide activity in your process flow to divert tokens to specific activities, by case and by condition.