What are the main elements used to build models?

Elements used in model building

Entities

Entities are the items being processed: calls, bug fixes, people, paperwork, electronic records, repair work, etc.

Arrivals

How Entities enter the model.

Activities

Where the work gets performed. Activities have capacity and have simple built-in queues before and after.

Storages

A queue with controls

Routes

Routings are the lines that connect activities. They provide the direction and conditions for entities flowing through a process.

Action Logic

This is the ability to drop in simple code within Arrivals, Activities, Storages, or Routes. Action logic provides a way to extend the capability of ProcessModel. Simple action logic might assign values to an attribute. More complex action logic might select different resources based on an attribute setting.

Resources

Resources limit production based on scarcity of availability, shifts, priority

Resource Connectors

A fast and simple method of assigning resources to work or movement of entities

Model Objects

Model Objects combine any or all ProcessModel elements plus external files to solve complex modeling problems. For example, a model object might import, analyze, and create distributions from raw data, then use entities, arrivals, activities, and action logic to represent patterns of arrivals – cutting the modeling time from hours to minutes. There are hundreds of model objects for all types of processes.

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