It seems I have taken quite long break to publish this first "Piece". Sorry for the long wait..

You might find this article both interesting as well as boring.. Boring! - as it would be mostly an article and not much in the display with images or videos.. Interesting! - again it depends how you look in the content..  Your valuable feedback is always an inspiration to do better in the next....

A simple approach in explaining the resource classifications in DELMIA V6.

Quick Look-back: The basic concepts of defining resource is there from a long time. When it was introduced in DELMIA V6, most of us (working on V5) was little puzzled in the initial days understanding the different types (classification) of Resources. A detailed description is there in the DS User Manual, however some of you & us may find it little complex to understand in the first go.

Well frankly speaking this is not at all complex when I started correlating with some of the live examples. If you are stuck in similar situation, my suggestion is to ask 3 BASIC QUESTIONS before defining any resources in V6....

How the tower crane picks the steel column from the ground and building the structure? (WHO, USING WHAT, WHERE):

In DS User Manuals, the resources have been classified based on WHERE THEY ARE USED? & IS IT PROGRAMMABLE? Both the questions are related. I will try to make it simple with below story. You can correlate all your use cases also with this simple example and define the resources easily in V6.

During the initial days of V6 while I was struggling to understand the basic concept of resource types, I decided to explain this with a real life non-robotic scenario. I got it while answering the above question (How the tower crane....?). While looking a construction site, I saw a Tower Crane is moving the steel column from the ground and building a structure and a man is operating the Crane.

I tried to ask myself the question, "If I have to make this a small solution in DELMIA V6, what would be the different pieces I need to join?".

BOOM!!! came the answer... we need to have a PPR structure in place - Product was quite simple (Steel Columns & the Structure), Process & Systems (Operations) seems not that difficult as I can see (Moving the Steel Column from Ground, Assembling the Steel Column to the structure)....

When it came to defining resources, I had to apply little caution.... I asked myself this three questions...

1. WHO is performing the task of moving the Steel Column?  - Initially you might think and would say TOWER CRANE... On carefully observing the scenario, I find TOWER CRANE would be wrong definition... Well in this case it's the OPERATOR.. So OPERATOR becomes my Execute/Working resource.

2. USING WHAT the steel columns are being moved? - Well its visibly clear now... TOWER CRANE. So it would come under the category of Non-Working resources.

3. WHERE is this action happening? - Not that difficult as in this case it would be the CONSTRUCTION SITE. So it will be falling under the category of Organizational Resource. You can have multi-structure organizational resource based on how you would like to classify.

So on rearranging the above structures, I could easily define the Resource Structure in V6.

CONSTRUCTION SITE (ORGANIZATIONAL RESOURCE)

-- OPERATOR (WORKING/EXECUTE RESOURCE)

-- TOWER CRANE (NON-WORKING RESOURCE)

 You can apply the same logic in most of the cases while defining resources in V6... Is not this simple?

From DS User Manual: DS User manual have detailed description of each resource and below portion is part of the same....

Working, Non-working, and Organizational Resources: Depending on how and where they are used, resources can be classified as working, non-working, or organizational. A working resource defines which resource executes an operation (for example, a robot, worker or conveyor). These are also known as 'who' resources. A non-working resource defines with what resource an operation is executed (for example, a tool device). These are also known as 'with' resources. An organizational resource defines a resource where an operation is executed (for example, a station, zone, line or workbench). These are also known as 'where' resources. 

Programmable and Non-programmable Resources: A resource is programmable if it can have a logic or behavior in context. A resource is non-programmable if it can have a logic or behavior in reference only or if it has no logic at all. A robot is programmable. For example, a robot program, which exists in a certain context, can be added to it .

.............For any resource definition (Tools, Robots, Control Device, Conveyors etc), first thing I consider is its application or usage.. "Will it be used or it is going to execute?"  Rest applying some logical common understanding the stucture can be easily defined in no time.

So remember to ask the three basic question before defining the resources (WHO, USING WHAT & WHERE)..

Cheers!