INDU6311: Simulation

Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering

Problem Set IV

Problem 1: Build an Arena simulation of the bank teller example we used in class. Specifically, there is one
teller. Customers arrive to the bank according to a stochastic process with exponentially-distributed inter-arrival
times with mean 5 minutes. The teller processes customer requests at a rate of 1 customer per 4 minutes, and the
services times are exponentially distributed. The bank is open for 8 hours each day.
(a) Implement the model in Arena. What is the average waiting time in the queue? What is the utilization of
the server?
(b) Add a graph of the queue length over time (Q(t) curve) and utilization of the server over time (B(t)
curve).
(c) Next, make 5 replications of the model (go to Run > Setup > Replication Parameters). Look at the result
reports, and compare the results between replications and compare them to the overall results. What do
you notice?
(d) Add animation to your model, including an image for both the customers and the teller.

Problem 2:1 Develop an Arena model for a simple serial two-process system. Items arrive at the system with a
mean time between arrivals of 10 minutes, with the first arrival at time 0. They are immediately sent to Process
1, which has a single resource with a mean service time of 9.1 minutes. Upon completion, they are sent to
Process 2, which identical to (but independent of) Process 1. Items depart the system upon completion of
Process 2. Performance measures of interest are the average number in queue at each process and the total time
in system of items. Using a replication length of 10,000 minutes, make the following four runs and compare the
results (noting that the structure of the model is unchanged, and it’s only the input distributions that are
changing):

Run 1: exponential inter-arrival times and exponential service times,

Run 2: constant inter-arrival times and exponential service times,

Run 3: exponential inter-arrival times and constant service times,

Run 4: constant inter-arrival times and constant service times.

Problem 3: Consider a loan application office where applications arrive with exponentially distributed inter-
arrival times with mean 1.25 hours; the first application arrives at time 0. Processing each application requires
four steps: first a credit check (this takes time but everyone passes), then preparing the loan covenant, then
pricing the loan, and finally disbursement of funds. For each application, the steps have to be done in that order.
The time for each step is exponentially distributed with mean 1 hour, independent of the other steps and of the
arrival process. Initially, the system is empty and idle, and we’ll run it for 160 hours (about a work month).
Output performance measures include the average and maximum total number of applications in process, and
the average and maximum total time, from entry to exit, that applications spend in the system, as well as their
time waiting for the next processing step to begin. There are four employees available (Alfie, Betty, Chuck, and
Doris), all equally qualified for any of the four steps, and the question is how to best deploy them.

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Kelton, W. D., Sadowski, R. P, and Swets, N. B., Simulation with Arena, 5th Edition. Chapter 4, Exercise 4-2.

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 INDU6311: Simulation
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Concordia University
Winter 2017

Approach (a): [Serial Processing] In this approach, each employee will be assigned to exactly one task, so that
Alfie will do credit checking (step 1), Betty will prepare all covenants (step 2), Chuck will price all the loans
(step 3), and Doris will disburse the funds (step 4).

Approach (b): [Parallel Processing] In this approach, each employee will perform all steps of an application.

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Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Concordia University

CREATE

PROCESS

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Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Concordia University

Model these two systems in Arena and determine whether Approach 1 or Approach 2 is more effective.

Problem 4:2 (Airline Terminal) Travelers arrive at the main entrance door of an airline terminal according to
an exponential inter-arrival time distribution with mean 1.6 minutes, with the first arrival at time 0. The travel
time from the entrance to the check-in is distributed uniformly between 2 and 3 minutes. At the check-in
counter, travelers wait in a single line until one of five agents is available to serve them. The check-in time (in
minutes) follows a Weibull distribution with parameters beta = 7.78 and alpha = 3.91. Upon completion of their
check-in, they are free to travel to their gates. Create a simulation model, with animation (including the travel
time from entrance to check-in), of this system. Run the simulation for 16 hours to determine the average time
in system, number of passengers completing check-in, and the average length of the check-in queue.

Uniform distribution Expression

Weibull distribution Expression

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Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Concordia University

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Concordia University

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Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Concordia University

Problem 5:3 (Airline Terminal) During the verification process of the airline check-in system from Problem 1,
it was discovered that there were really two types of passengers. The first passenger type arrives according to an
exponential inter-arrival distribution with mean 2.41 minutes and has a service time (in minutes) following a
Gamma distribution with parameters beta = 0.42 and alpha = 14.4. The second type of passenger arrives
according to an exponential distribution with mean 4.4 minutes and has a service time (in minutes) following 3
plus an Erlang distribution with parameters ExpMean = 0.54 and k = 15 (i.e., the Expression for the service time
is 3 + ERLA(0.54, 15)). A passenger of each type arrives at time 0. Modify the model from Problem 1 to
include this information. Compare the results with those of Problem 1.

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Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Concordia University

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Concordia University

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Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Concordia University

This distribution comes from the previous problem No 4 (called as Problem 1)

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Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Concordia University

Problem 6:4 (Healthcare Facility) An acute-care facility treats non-emergency patients (cuts, colds, etc.).
Patients arrive according to an exponential inter-arrival time distribution with mean of 11 (all times are in
minutes). Upon arrival they check in at a registration desk staffed by a single nurse. Registration times follow a
triangular distribution with parameters 6, 10, and 19. After completing registration, they wait for an available
examination room; there are three identical rooms. Data show that patients can be divided into two groups with
regard to different examination times. The first group (55% of patients) has service times that follow a
triangular distribution with parameters 14, 22, and 39. The second group (45%) has triangular service times
with parameters 24, 36, and 59. Upon completion, patients are sent home. The facility is open 16 hours each day.
Make 200 replications of one day each and observe the average total time patients spend in the system

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Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Concordia University

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Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Concordia University

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Concordia University

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Concordia University

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Kelton, W. D., Sadowski, R. P, and Swets, N. B., Simulation with Arena, 5th Edition. Chapter 4, Exercise 4-1. 3
Kelton, W. D., Sadowski, R. P, and Swets, N. B., Simulation with Arena, 5th Edition. Chapter 4, Exercise 4-5. 4
Kelton, W. D., Sadowski, R. P, and Swets, N. B., Simulation with Arena, 5th Edition. Chapter 4, Exercise 4-27.

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