Simulation Exercise Problems for Modelling in ARENA Software package

Problem 1(Group 1)

Develop a model of a simple banking system which involves two serial processes. Customers
arrive at the system (Bank) with a mean inter-arrival of 10 minutes, with the first arrival at
time 0. They are immediately sent to the Teller where initial process will be carried out with a
mean service time of 9 minutes. Upon completion, they are sent to the bank manager, where
the mean service time is 7 minutes. Customers will depart the system after meeting the bank
manager. Performance measures of interest are the average numbers in queue at each
processes and the average customer lead time. With the replication length of 10,000 minutes
and 5 replications, compare the results for the following input distributions:

(a) Exponential inter-arrival times and exponential service times

(b) Constant inter-arrival times and exponential service times

(c) Exponential inter-arrival times and constant service times

(d) Constant inter-arrival times and constant service times

Consider first 500 minutes as warm-up period. Show the result graphically.
Problem 2 (Group 2)

An Office that dispenses automotive license plates has divided its customer into categories to
level the office workload. Customers arrive and enter one of the three lines based on their
residence location. Model this arrival activity as three independent arrival streams using an
exponential inter-arrival distribution with mean 10 minutes for each stream, and an arrival at
time 0 for the first queue. The customers arrive to the second and third line only after 5
minutes from the start of the simulation. Each customer type is assigned a separate clerk to
process the application forms and accept payment, with a separate queue for each. Every
clerk process the customers with the same service time which follows uniform distribution of
(8, 10) minutes. After completion of this step, all customers are sent to a second clerk who
checks the forms and issues the plates. For this activity the second clerk takes the service
time of uniform distribution of (2.66, 3.33) minutes for all customer types. Develop a model
of this system and run it for 5,000 minutes, observe the average and maximum time in system
for all customer types combined. Consider first 500 minutes as warm-up period. Run the
model for 5 replications and show graphically the results for single replication and 5
replications.

A consultant has recommended that no need to differentiate customers at the first stage and
use a single line with three clerks who can process any customer type. Also because of
processing different customer types, the service time of each clerk is found to be slightly
increased and now the service time follows uniform distribution of (9, 11) minutes. Develop
a model of this system, run it for 5,000 minutes, and compare the results with those from the
first system.
Problem 3 (Group 3)

Outpatients arrive to a clinic with exponential inter-arrival time of mean 9 minutes. Let us
assume the first customer arrives to the system at time 0. Patients once they receive the token
from the receptionist will be joining the queue to get the service from the orthopedist. The
service time of orthopedist is exponentially distributed with mean 10 minutes. The
orthopedist takes a 5 min break after processing every 5 patients. After receiving the service
from the orthopedist, there is a 90% chance that the outpatients will move to the pharmacy
and the remaining 10% to leave the system immediately. There are two pharmacy technicians
in the pharmacy. Patients will be handled by any of the two pharmacy technicians with first
in first serve basis. Both of their performance level is identical where they process according
to uniform distribution of (6, 9) minutes. After that the patients will depart the system.

Develop and run the model with the replication length of 100 days and also consider the first
500 minutes as warm-up period. Clinic will be functioning from 6:00 pm to10:00 pm every
day. Observe the average lead time of the outpatients, average queue length of the patients
and the utilization of the orthopedist excluding the break time. Run the model with single
replication and six replications and show the difference graphically for the above mentioned
observations.
Problem 4 (Group 4)

Customers arrive at an order counter with exponential interarrivals with a mean of 10

minutes; the first customer arrives at time 0. A single clerk accepts and checks the orders and
processes payments, taking UNIF (8, 10) minutes. Upon completion of this activity, orders
are randomly assigned to one of two available stock persons (each stock person has a 50%
chance of getting any individual assignment) who retrieve the orders for the customers,
taking UNIF (16, 20) minutes. These stock persons only retrieve orders for customers who
have been assigned specifically to them. Upon receiving their orders the customers depart the
system. Develop a model of this system and run the simulation for 5,000 minutes, observing
the average and maximum customer time in system. Consider first 500 minutes as warm-up
period. Run the model for 5 replications and show graphically the results for single
replication and 5 replications.

A bright, young management trainee has recommended that they eliminate the assignment of
an order to a specific stock person and allow both stock persons to select their next activity
from a single first-come, first-served order queue. Develop a model of this system for 5,000
minutes, and compare the results to the first system. Animate your model.
Problem 5 (Group 5)

Toy boats arrive every 10 minutes and Toy cars arrive every 12 minutes. Each part is
inspected by an officer which takes exactly 15 minutes. The parts are then sent for painting
where toys of similar kind are painted in a batch of 5.The painting time is in a triangular
distribution of 10,15,20 minutes. After painting the parts are left for drying where it takes 10
minutes. Each part is again inspected and assigned labels which takes 3 to 4 minutes. After
inspection there is a 10% chance of rejection which are scrapped. The accepted parts are then
packed where Toy boats are packed in a batch of 8.The packing time for toy cars is 3 to 7
minutes and for toy boats is 4 to 9 minutes.

The painting machine is cleaned after every 10 cycles which takes 30 minutes. Simulate the
model for one week 24 hours/day.
Problem 5 (Group 6)

Consider a press shop where the material comes after every 10 seconds for loading. The
material is divided in to slow moving material and fast moving material (slow moving
material being the material which are quality sensitive, And fast moving material are not
much quality sensitive).There are 40% slow moving parts and 60% fast moving parts. The
loading time of slow moving material in to the press is 25 seconds to 29 seconds but most
likely it is 26.75 seconds, the loading time for fast moving material in to the press varies from
6 seconds to 8 seconds, but most likely it takes 6.2 seconds. The processing time for both
slow moving and fast moving material varies from 4.5 seconds to 6.5 seconds,mostly it is 5.5
seconds. The material then is unloaded
Problem 7 (Group 7)

Simulate the movie theatre

Customers arrive in a theatre for every 2 minute. Time taken to issue ticket is 1 to 3 minute
(uniform distribution minimum time 1 maximum time 3). Time taken to buy refreshments is
follows triangular distribution (minimum time =2, most likely 5, maximum=7 minutes).

Cost of ticket is 100Rs

Cost of the food is 150Rs

Ticket counter employ salary is 50/hr

Food employ salary is 75/hr

Run the model for 30 days and 16hr/day and find out total customer served and profit earned.

Additional constraints

1 If more than 2 persons are in the ticket counter queue customer will dispose without
entering in to the queue.

2 If more than 3 persons are in the food counter queue customer will dispose without
entering in the queue

Find out the profit in different scenario given below and suggest optimum number of
employees in ticket counter and food counter

(Note use process analyser and add 4 scenarios in single run)

Sl no Name Ticket counter Food counter Profit

1 Scenario 1 1 1
2 Scenario 2 2 2
3 Scenario 3 2 3
4 Scenario 4 3 3