Sorting to build

[Roger_Smith]

I finished my first modular (Fire Station) a few weeks ago

this is a >2000 piece build

there was only number 1 bags and number 2 bags

the first story I just dumped all the number 1 bags in a pile and built from there, it took ages to find any part

the second story I divided the bags into different colors and found the build to go much faster

I just built Fire Station aswell. It was my first new Lego build since my childhood, and also my biggest ever (hey, I thought, if you end up starting again, aim high :D), and I poured the contents of each bag into individual bigger and smaller bowls. For the first few steps of each storey, it was a bit confusing and time consuming to locate the right parts, but after a couple of steps I got the hang of which parts were in what bowl and from then on it was pretty smooth sailing.

I also noticed that apparently Lego avoids putting similar pieces in the same bag, for example 1x1 plates of one color hardly ever were in the same bag (and thus the same bowl) as 1x1 plates of the same color (or 1x1 clips or whatever). That helped a LOT.

[Andy D]

Does anybody here know how LEGO determines what parts go in what bag? It seems pretty random to me, as I seem to remember finding the same part-type in several different bags. I have not discovered the logic behind LEGO's organization. Seems the only way I can see the logic or part organization is when I organize them.

Thanks,

Andy D

Edited March 24, 2013 by Andy D

[ShaydDeGrai]

Does anybody here know how LEGO determines what parts go in what bag? It seems pretty random to me, as I seem to remember finding the same part-type in several different bags. I have not discovered the logic behind LEGO's organization. Seems the only way I can see the logic or part organization is when I organize them.

Thanks,

Andy D

This is pure supposition on my part (I've never been to the LEGO factory or heard any official explanation) but, as an engineer, I've seen robotic packaging systems at work and a few of the considerations that such line (typically) need to take into account are:

* The number of filling stations per line - the stations are usually fixed and each station only services one type of part so if your line only has 10 stations you can only put 10 different types of parts in a bag.

* Size of the bin/bag handler - the conveyance from one station to the next has a limited capacity and may vary between lines (one line does little bags, one does big and several do mid-sized etc.) To keep all the lines active sometimes it makes more sense to fill two smaller containers with identical parts and include both bags (even if it means one bag has an extra part or two because the master plan called of a odd number of part X) rather than to fill one big one with twice as many parts because the large capacity line is busy doing something else.

* The weight of parts vs. sensor calibration - when filling containers with odd shaped parts (bricks, tortilla chips, popcorn, etc.) most automated systems do so by weight. They know how much the bag weighed when it got to the station and how much the piece(s) to add weigh, so it adds (ideally one at a time in the case of bricks) parts until the weight of the bag is at or greater than (yea! free extras!) the target weight. For very light parts, calibration of the sensors can be tricky in that the sensors may have a range of accuracy that falls off as the bag gets heavier/more full (i.e. it's easier to detect a difference of a tenth of a gram in an empty bag than in one that already weighs half a kilo. This means that sometime it makes sense to have a "very small parts" line fill and seal a tiny bag and have a larger capacity line add that entire bag as an atomic part in a larger assembly process as bag of small parts, in its entirety finally weighs enough for the sensors on the bigger line to 'count' its addition accurately.

* Synchronized supply for multiple lines - as alluded to above, packaging lines don't just package raw materials, they also bundle smaller packing units into larger ones (either a bag of bags or a retail box that holds all the bags. One of the considerations when deciding which part gets packaged by which line, is the question of trying to get all the line outputs to the final output stage at the same time for final bundling. If a finished package needs one of A, B, C and two copies of D, you want to keep things balanced such that it takes roughly the same amount of time to stop at all the filling stations for lines A, B, and C and that line D runs in half the time of any of them. This might mean that six copies of part Y get added in line B instead of line A because A was taking too long and B had a free station and was (previously) faster.

If this sounds like an exercise in stacking live cats, it is (well, having tried to stack live cats and tune an assembly line I can tell you the cats are actually harder, the line at least is deterministic). Without knowing the capacity of the packaging facilities, it's easy to look at the output and think that it was random, but even as a complete outsider I can almost guarantee you that a lot of planning went into it. I just seems random because your needs/goals in looking for particular parts are completely orthogonal from the constraints that drove the packaging decisions of how to bundle those parts in the first place.

Automated packaging is somewhere between an optimization problem and an art form. And while I often curse the seemingly excessive bags of bags in the typical high end LEGO kit, I understand why they're packaged that way and, as an engineer, I appreciate the good job TLG does at making sure nearly every kit is complete and (in its own way) organized even if optimizing that packaging for the builder wasn't high on their priority list.

[jbabz84]

Hey my name is John im 28 and from Australia

Decided to get back into Lego after watching Toy Hunters and thinking about my old Lego and toys

I gave my Lego to my cousin but now have decided to take it back

I collected mainly Pirate lego from 1989-1994. I also collected a few City lego

Wondering if i can get your help. I still have all the original instructions for my Lego, but my cousins have taken all my sets apart

and left them in one massive box. I was wondering if you guys have any idea how i should seperate the pieces in order to make it easy to

put my old sets back together?

Should i seperate the colours? Style? or empty the whole box and find the pieces as i go

When i put them back together ill make sure to upload some pictures!

Cant wait

[Kivi]

Hi,

From my experience: unless there are at least thousand bricks mixed up, it would probably take you more or less the same time altogether whether you sort them first or find them as you go. If you intend to sort them I would suggest you start with colours and then with shapes though this probably won't be necessary once you have colours in place. Anyway, I'm pretty sure you'll have fun re-building all those sets, no matter how you're going to tackle it.

[Vincent Kessels]

Welcome to Eurobricks, John!

I would limit the sorting to a few color groups and per color group two size, large and small. This helps finding the small parts like 1x1 tiles. I would also keep the really big parts separate, and possible the minifigs and accessories. This all depends on the amount of lego, but more sorting would waste time sorting.

If you want to create your own models (MOC's) it's useful to sort per color and per element.

[LEGO Historian]

Welcome aboard John!!

It might be more fun buildiing for you if you first "parted out" the large pile of bricks/parts into separate set groupings.

There are 2 major sets of online LEGO databases that have an inventory of the parts for each set. They are Bricklink and Peeron.

Here's Bricklinks Pirates page....

http://www.bricklink...=S&catString=61

Click on the set you want to build... click on the "View Inv" (view inventory) in the upper right of the set page... and you can work from this to separate parts for the particular set you want to build. That's much easier than going thru the instructions... and going thru the big box of parts for every step. By separating the parts first... you will make the building part more enjoyable and less tedious.

Also, if you are missing a lot of parts to a specific set, you won't find out half way thru the build... you'll know in advance.

Cheers!

Edited April 9, 2013 by LEGO Historian

[jbabz84]

Cheers guys

Yeah i think seperate colour and size first

I have 3 days off starting from today, so ill be busy organizing the pieces

That Bricklinks page is very helpful

Heres to the building :D