This tab is part of the Equipment Data dialog (common to all equipment types). The dialog can be viewed when selecting the Equipment Data menu option from a unit procedure’s command menu.
From this interface (common to all Equipment tabs of all Equipment Data dialogs) you can:
1. Choose a common (shared) equipment resource or if already sharing equipment, request a dedicated equipment resource for this procedure.
2. Choose between Design vs Rating sizing mode, and
3. Request multiple sets of equipment units operating in staggered mode.
By default the application assumes that each newly created procedure is assigned a new equipment resource of the appropriate type matching the procedure type. If you later decide to force two procedure (of similar type) to share the same equipment resource, you must visit this dialog and from the upper left drop-down select (amongst all equipment of similar type currently existing in your process) the name of the equipment that you want to assign to the procedure. Notice that as soon as you choose a new name, the size variables (shown on the right-hand side) display the values of the selected resource.
You may also want to visit this dialog when you want to reverse your decision later if need be. In other words, if you have two procedures sharing the same equipment resource and later you want to have each one have their own, you need to click on the ‘Request New’ button (which will be active in case of procedures sharing equipment) and in the ’Name’ field type the name you wish to be given to the new equipment (note that equipment resource names must be unique across the entire process).
If you wish the application to size the host resource, then you chose design mode under the sizing option. In that case, SuperPro Designer will set the size of the associated equipment resource based on the most-demanding operation amongst all hosted procedures. Typically, there’s a maximum size value (set by the user) and if the sizing exceeds that value, the application will assume that multiple units (of equal size under the limit) will be needed.
If you know the size of the hosting resource, then you should chose rating mode under the sizing box. In that case, the right-hand side of the Equipment tab will have all the size-related variables (incl. the number of units) open for editing. When set in that mode, the simulation calculations of all of the operations hosted by the equipment resource use the size of the equipment as a constraint and if the conditions are such that this constraint is violated a warning will be issued. For instance, if setting the dimensions of a vessel, it turns out that the charged amount of material exceeds its volume a warning will be issued.
In order to reduce the ‘effective’ occupancy time of an equipment resource (per batch) you can request to have multiple sets of equipment operating in a staggered mode. If you chose this option then the application will provide default names for he extra equipment resources that are a combination of the prefix “STG0x >>” and the name of the resource, where ‘x’ is 1, 2, 3, etc. If you wish to provide specific names for those resources (as they will appear on the equipment occupancy chart and/or the equipment gantt chart) you can click on the “Names” button and edit the names of each of the staggered resources.