Change Over Time Tutorial

Change Over time is used to reflect things which happen in between an Activity processing Work Items, such as essential maintenance, refuelling, cleaning, or any other relevant step

What is the Default setting? By default, there is no Change Over time associated with an Activity. It is your choice whether or not to add this feature.

To access Change Over settings for an Activity, first select it, then choose ‘Routing In’ from the Ribbon. The far right tab on this Dialog is ‘Change Over’

Simul8 Change Over Time

Why can’t I just incorporate Change Over into the timing of my Activity?

You can do this, however Change Over offers further flexibility so you can tell your model how frequently maintenance is carried out; i.e. after a certain amount of time, or number of items processed. It gives you more options.

Change Over Options:

Option 1: ‘Every Nth Work Item'

Simul8 Change Over Time Nth WI

You can setup Change Over to occur after an Activity processes a certain number of items. In the example above, there is a 2 minute Change Over after every 5th work item is processed.

Option 2: Change Over When a Label Changes

Simul8 Change Over Time Label

Change Over can also be set up to occur when a Label changes. This could be in a painting process, for example, when the colour of paint changes and a machine needs to be cleaned and have the paint type changed. Simply select the ‘When Label Changes’ option, choose the label in question, and enter the associated timing on the left hand side of the dialog.

Option 3: Change Over after a certain amount of Working Time

Simul8 Change Over Time Working Time

Alternatively, Change Over can be set up to occur after a certain amount of time. This could be maintenance on a machine, such as refuelling, which may have to occur after a certain number of minutes. The example above shows a Change Over of around 25 minutes, which occurs every 2 hours.

See Also