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The HinesCoflow is a modification of the classical coflow structure used in system dynamics [6, pp. 50f.]. The traditional coflow is a model of a stock's average quality (e.g., age, weight, price, income etc.) changing, as new entities with different characteristics u flow in while older entities flow out—in which case we assume, that the outflowing entities have an average quality [3, pp. 497-511].

The HinesCoflow makes use of the fact, that the average quality of the entities in the stock is diluted by inflowing entities of different quality, i.e., the process is a smooth with a variable time constant. The benefit of this formulation is, that the average quality of the stock is directly modeled by a stock, so that processes that change the average (e.g., gaining experience over the time of residence for a stock of workers) can be directly modeled as in- or outflows to the HinesCoflow.

Notes

• The component makes use of the compact StockInfoInput connector to collect the required information from a connected stock. For this to properly work out, inflows and outflows should not be mixed at a single StockPort (e.g., it is best practice to connect known inflows to the inflow and known outflows to the outflow port). In case of a bi-directional flow, only one bi-flow should be connected to any single StockPort—no additional flows should be present at that port (see notes for →AbsoluteSensor).

• Inflows and outflows changing the mean quality can be directly connected to the component (on either side; the markings for inflow and outflow are only suggestive).


• The optional StockInfoOutput (y_stockInfo) can be used to pass the stock information received from a connected stock onward to additional coflow components—or sensors.

Acknowledgements

The Hines Coflow is explicitly named after its creator, James Hines. More information can be found on his website.

See also

InformationLevel 

init	Value: InitializationOptions.FixedValue Type: InitializationOptions Description: Provide InitializationOptions (Free, FixedValue, SteadyState)
hasStockInfoOutput	Value: false Type: Boolean Description: = true, if a StockInfoOutput should be added to the stock
initialValue	Value: 0 Type: OutputType Description: Initial value for average characteristic