Work Item Tracking

Work Item Tracking provides a step by step log of every move of a work item or resource to help verify behavior in your simulation.

Enable Tracking for Work Items

To access the Work Item Tracking feature:

  1. Navigate to the Advanced Tab of the ribbon
  2. Select the Work Items dropdown
  3. Select Move by Move Work Item Tracking

Work Item Tracking

This will launch the Work Item Tracking dialog. This dialog will display a step by step log of all events and times that a work item or resource was involved in for the duration of the simulation run.

You will need to enter the Unique ID for the work item or resource in order to enable the tracking:

Work Item Tracking - Dialog


Finding the Unique ID for a Work Item

To track an individual work item, you must first retrieve the Unique ID for that work item. To do so, you will need to pause the simulation and locate the work item in an object.

  1. Select the object that the work item is currently in. This may be an Activity, Queue, or Conveyor.
  2. Select the Properties Tab from the ribbon
  3. Select the Current Contents button to view all contents in the object
  4. Find the work item you are looking for in the list of work items
  5. Select the Other tab at the bottom of the Work Item Information Dialog
  6. Note the Unique Identifier for that work item

Work Item Tracking - Find Unique ID

Once you have the Unique Identifier, open the Work Item Tracking dialog using the steps above.


Tracking a Work Item

Now that you have found the Unique Identifier for a work item, follow the steps below to begin the tracking:

  1. Enter the work item's Unique Identifier
  2. Select “OK” to close the dialog
  3. Reset the simulation
  4. Run the simulation
  5. Re-open the Work Item Tracking feature to view the results

Work Item Tracking - Results

Right-click on the results to copy them to your clipboard.

The log provides a step-by-step account of the history of the work item, providing the simulation time as well as the location of each event the work item took in the simulation.


Finding the Unique ID for a Resource

You can also use this feature to track the location and events of a specific resource object. This is particularly useful if you are holding and releasing resources at certain stages of the simulation.

Similar to finding the Unique ID for a work item, you can do the following to find the unqiue ID for a resource:

  1. Pause the simulation once a resource is at a particular object. Select the object - Navigate to the Properties Tab of the ribbon
  2. Select Current Contents
  3. In the list, find the work item that the resource is processing or holding onto
  4. Select the Resources tab at the bottom of the Work Item Information Dialog
  5. Note the Unique ID of the resource type

Work Item Tracking - Resource ID

You can now use this Unique ID value to track the resource.


Tracking a Resource

Now that you have found the Unique Identifier for a work item, follow the steps below to begin the tracking:

  1. Enter the work item's Unique Identifier
  2. Select “OK” to close the dialog
  3. Reset the simulation
  4. Run the simulation
  5. Re-open the Work Item Tracking feature to view the results

Work Item Tracking - Resource Results

Right-click on the results to copy them to your clipboard.

The log provides a step-by-step account of the history of the resource, providing the simulation time as well as the location of each event the resource performed in the simulation.