Addressing Strategies

The addressing strategy affects how carriers are distributed for a certain operation and is used to control the work load within a station group.

Even Split

This attempts to even out the work load across all the stations. If two or more stations have the same work load, the system will pick one at random.

Relative Split

This is a variant of even split that will distribute the carriers relative to the capacity on the station, so all stations will be filled to the same relative degree.

With normal Even Split, the system balances rail load with absolute numbers.

Example:
Station 1001: 🟢🟢⚪⚪
Station 1002: 🟢🟢⚪⚪⚪⚪

These are considered to have an equal load, since both have 2 carriers. However station 1002 is only using 1/3 capacity while 1001 is using 1/2 capacity.

With this strategy, the relative capacity is considered, so instead

Station 1001: 🟢🟢⚪⚪
Station 1002: 🟢🟢🟢⚪⚪⚪

Are now considered to have an equal load, since they are both 1/2 filled.

Lazy Split

This is a variant of Even Split that will first prioritize rails on the same line as the carrier being routed, then split evenly. If there is no space on rails on the current line, it will consider rails on other lines.

Waterfall

Fill up the first station in the station group, then move on to the second and so on. Always prioritize sending to stations by the order that they appear in the station group.

Station 1001: 🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢
Station 1002: 🟢🟢⚪⚪⚪⚪
Station 1003: ⚪⚪⚪⚪⚪⚪

Waterfall with criteria

Match a certain criteria, e.g. color, to the same station and rail as much as possible, then fill up the stations in order of their position within the station group. If a new color appears, it will go to the next empty rail when possible.

Station 1001: 🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢
Station 1002: 🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡
Station 1003: 🔴🔴🔴⚪⚪⚪
Station 1004: 🟢🟢⚪⚪⚪⚪
Station 1005: 🟡⚪⚪⚪⚪⚪

Spread Split

The spread split strategy will attempt to spread products having different criteria between stations, and send products with matching criteria to the station with the lowest rail load. In other words, if more than one station has products with a certain criteria the system will attempt to split new products with matching criteria evenly between those two stations. If two or more stations have an equal work load, the system will pick one at random.

Station 1001: 🟢🟢🟢⚪⚪⚪
Station 1002: 🟡🟡⚪⚪⚪⚪
Station 1003: 🔴🔴🔴⚪⚪⚪
Station 1004: 🟢🟢⚪⚪⚪⚪
Station 1005: 🟡🟡⚪⚪⚪⚪

Stack Split

The stack split strategy will attempt to spread out products with different criteria between stations, but group products with matching criteria on the stations with the highest rail load. In other words, once a station has received a product with a certain criteria the system will try to fill that station with products having matching criteria.

Operator Addressed

If you want to let the operator decide what station the carrier should next go to, you can use this addressing strategy. In case there is no operator to enter a destination, the system will instead fall back to Even Split strategy.

The destination is set by entering terminal commands on the sending station.

Set the next destination for the carrier currently in work position

Set the default destination for this station, will apply to all carriers that pass through the current station

Clear the default destination

If the operator attempts to send off a carrier without setting the destination, a Routing Error will be displayed on the terminal screen and the carrier will not leave the work position.

Addressing Criteria

The Addressing Criteria is used in combination with the Addressing Strategy to control how the products should be grouped together on the recieving rail. Can be one of the following.

• Article Number (set on Article)
• Order Number (set on Order)
• Criteria (Color, Size etc, set on Order Line)
• Customer (set on Order)
• Order Date (set on Order)
• First Manufacturing Date (set on Order)
• Delivery Date (set on Order)
• Order Line Number (set on Order Line)

Addressing Criteria can be optionally set for Waterfall, but is required for Spread Split and Stack Split.

How Work Load is Measured

The system setting Split Workload Unit is used to determine how the work load should be measured. It can be one of

• Carriers - Balance total number of carriers
• Pieces - Similiar to carriers, but tries to balance the number of products instead, since one carrier can potentially contain more than one piece.
• SMV - Balance the total SMV to each station. In practice this will result in fewer carriers with high SMV and more carriers with low SMV.
• Piece Rate - Same as SMV, but uses the Piece Rate value instead.

Work Load Limit

In some cases you may want every available station to reach a certain minumum work load before the addressing strategy activates. This is controlled by the system setting Split Workload Limit. The unit for this setting is specified by "Split Workload Unit", e.g. SMV (total minutes) or number of carriers.

The work load limit will only be effective on Stack Split or Spread Split addressing strategies.

Examples

Example 1: Comparison Even split, Waterfall, Spread split, Stack split

Carriers to send
🟢🔴🟢🔴🔵🔵🟢

Recieving rail content:
1001 -⚪⚪⚪⚪
1002 -⚪⚪⚪⚪
1003 -⚪⚪⚪⚪
1004 -⚪⚪⚪⚪

Possible outcome with even split

1001 - 🟢⚪⚪⚪
1002 - 🔴🔵⚪⚪
1003 - 🟢🔵⚪⚪
1004 - 🔴🟢⚪⚪

Expected outcome with waterfall

1001 - 🟢🔴🟢🔴
1002 - 🔵🔵🟢⚪
1003 - ⚪⚪⚪⚪
1004 - ⚪⚪⚪⚪

Expected outcome with waterfall on color

1001 - 🟢🟢🟢⚪
1002 - 🔴🔴⚪⚪
1003 - 🔵🔵⚪⚪
1004 - ⚪⚪⚪⚪

Possible outcome with spread split or stack split on color

1001 - ⚪⚪⚪⚪
1002 - 🔴🔴⚪⚪
1003 - 🔵🔵⚪⚪
1004 - 🟢🟢🟢⚪

Example 2: Comparison Spread split and Stack split

Carriers to send
🟢🔴🟢🔴🔵🔵🟢

Recieving rail content:
1001 -🟢🟢⚪⚪
1002 -⚪⚪⚪⚪
1003 -⚪⚪⚪⚪
1004 -🟢⚪⚪⚪

Possible outcome with spread split on color

1001 - 🟢🟢🟢⚪
1002 - 🔴🔴⚪⚪
1003 - 🔵🔵⚪⚪
1004 - 🟢🟢🟢⚪

Possible outcome with stack split on color

1001 - 🟢🟢🟢🟢
1002 - 🔴🔴⚪⚪
1003 - 🔵🔵⚪⚪
1004 - 🟢🟢⚪⚪

Example 3: Comparison Even split and Lazy split

Carriers to send
🟢🔴🟢🔴🔵🔵🟢🔴

Recieving rail content:
1001 -⚪⚪⚪
1002 -⚪⚪⚪
2001 -⚪⚪⚪
2002 -⚪⚪⚪

Possible outcome with even split

1001 - 🟢🔵⚪
1002 - 🔴🔴⚪
2001 - 🟢🔵⚪
2004 - 🔴🟢⚪

Possible outcome with even split

1001 - 🟢🔴🔵
1002 - 🔴🟢🔵
2001 - 🟢⚪⚪
2002 - 🔴⚪⚪