Department of Industrial Engineering and Management

R.V. College of Engineering, Bangalore – 59

07IM 55 - Simulation Modeling and Analysis

Assignment

Exercise 1

a. Simulate a simple processing system which consists of a drilling machine

and the processing time varies according to Triangular distribution of
minimum 1, value 3 and maximum 6. The part enters the system with a
random exponential value of 5 minutes. And then leaves the system. All
time units are in minutes. Animate the resource and queue. Simulate
the process for 20 minutes. Plot number waiting at drilling center queue
and number busy at drill press. And report the following data
i. The average total time in the system (part) and
ii. Utilization of drill press
iii. The last part number which entered the system
iv. Number of parts which leaves the system
v. Average and maximum number of parts in process (wip)
vi. Make 5 replications of the above simulation. And observe the changes
in output. Tabulate the readings.

b. Modify the above model with all of the following changes:

i. Add a second machine to which all parts go immediately after exiting
the first machine for a separate kind of processing (rewash).
Processing times at the second machine are the same as for the first
machine. Gather all statistics as before, plus the time in queue, queue
length and utilization at the second machine.
ii. Immediately after the second machine, there’s a pass fail inspection
that takes a constant 5 minutes to carry out and has an 80% chance of
passing result; queuing is possible at inspection, and the queue is first
in and first out. All parts exit the system regardless of whether they
pass the test. Count number that fail and number that pass, and
gather statistics on the time in queue, queue length and utilization at
inspection center.
iii. Add plots to track the queue length and number busy at all three
stations.
iv. Run the simulation for 480 minutes.

Exercise 2

Based on the runs test determine whether the following sequence of 40

numbers is such that the hypothesis of independence can be rejected where
α=0.05 using Promodel Input Analyser
0.41 0.68 0.89 0.94 0.74 0.91 0.55 0.62 0.36 0.27
0.19 0.72 0.75 0.08 0.54 0.02 0.01 0.36 0.16 0.28
0.18 0.01 0.95 0.69 0.18 0.47 0.23 0.32 0.82 0.53
0.31 0.42 0.73 0.04 0.83 0.45 0.13 0.57 0.63 0.29

Exercise 3

Using the input analyzer, open a new window and generate a new data file
containing 50 points for an Erlang distribution with parameters: Exp mean
12, k = 3 and offset = 5. Once you have the data file, perform a Fit all to
find the “best” fit from among the available distributions. Repeat this
process for 500, 5000 and 25,000 data points, using the same Erlang
parameters. Compare the results of the fit all for the different sample sizes.

Exercise 4

Three types of customers arrive at a small airport: check baggage (30%),

purchase tickets (15%), and carry-on (55%). The Inter-arrival-time
distribution for all customers combined is Expo (1.3); all time are in minutes
and the first arrival is at time 0. The bag checkers go directly to the check-
bag counter to check their bags – the time for which is distributed TRIA
(2,4,5) – proceed to X-ray, and then go to the gate. The ticket buyers travel
directly to the ticket counter to purchase their tickets – the time for which is
distributed EXPO (7) – proceed to X-ray, and then go to the gate.

The carry-ons travel directly to the X-ray, then to the gate counter to get a
boarding pass – the time for which is distributed TRIA (1, 1.5, 3). All three
counters are staffed all the time with one agent each. The X-ray time is
EXPO (1). All travel times are EXPO (2), except for the carry-on time to the
X-ray, which is EXPO (3). Run your model for 920 minutes, and collect
statistics on resource utilization, queues, and system time from entrance to
gate for all customers combined.

Exercise 5

Two types of customers visit a rental car agency according to the

exponential distribution with a mean of 3 minutes. Type 1 customers are
Gold customers and Type 2 customers are Regular customers. It is found
that based on arrivals 30% are of Gold and 70% are regular.
Gold customers go to the gold counter where a specific attendant, Mary
serves them. Regular customers go to the Regular counter where any
member of the group of counter attendants can serve them. The counter
attendants can serve them. The counter attendants are made up of Mary,
Joe and Sue. The counter attendant who serves a particular regular
customer is chosen randomly. If Mary is serving a regular customer when a
Gold customer gets in line , she finishes serving the regular customer
before serving the Gold customer.
Service times the counters (in minutes) are given below:

Gold TRIA(2,3,4)
Customers
Regular TRIA(4,6,10)
Customers

After being served at the counter, Gold customers leave the system at the
Gold Exit and Regular customer at Regular Exit. Moving from either
counter to the appropriate exit takes 4 minutes. Run the simulation for 2000
minutes.

Exercise 6

Parts arrive at a single workstation system according to an exponential interarrival distribution

with mean 21 seconds. Upon arrival the parts are processed. The processing time distribution is
TRIA(16, 19, 22) seconds. There are several easily identified visual characteristics that
determine whether a part has a potential quality problem. These parts, about 10%, are sent to a
station where they undergo an extensive inspection. The remaining parts are considered good and
are sent out of the system. The inspection-time distribution is 96 plus a WEIB(48.5, 4.04)
random variable, in seconds. About 14% of these parts fail the inspection and are sent to scrap.
The parts that pass the inspection are classified as good and are sent out the of the system. Run
the simulation for 10,000 seconds to determine the number of good parts that exit the system, the
number of scrapped parts, and the number of parts that are inspected (either completely or
partially).

Exercise 7
Develop a model of a simple serial two-process system. Items arrive at the
system with a mean time between arrivals of 10 minutes. They are
immediately sent to process 1, which has an unlimited queue and a single
resource with a mean service time of 9 minutes. Upon completion, they are
sent to process 2, which is identical to process 1. Items depart the system
upon the completion of process 2. Performance measures of interest are the
average numbers in queue at each process and the system cycle time. Using
a replication length of 10,000 minutes, make the following four runs and
compare the results:
 Run1 : exponential inter-arrival times and exponential service time.
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.

Exercise 8
Two different part types arrive at the same system for processing. Part Type
1 arrive according to a lognormal distribution with a log mean of 11.5 hours
and log standard deviation of 2.0 hours (note that these values are the mean
and standard deviation of this lognormal random variables itself). These
arriving parts wait in a queue designated for Part Type 1’s only until an
operator is available to process them. The processing time follows a
triangular distribution with parameters 5, 6, and 8 hours. Part Type 2
arrives according to an exponential distribution with mean of 15 hours.
These parts wait in a second queue until the same operator is available to
process them. The processing time follows a triangular distribution with
parameters 3, 7 and 8 hours. After being processed by the operator, all
parts are sent for processing to a second operations that does not require
an operator, which has processing time distributed as triangular with
parameters of 4,6 and 8 hours. Completed parts exit the system. Assume
that the times for all part transfers are negligible. Run the simulation for
5,000 hours to determine the average cycle time for all parts and the
average number of items in the queues designated for the arriving parts.

Exercise 9
An office that dispense automotive license plates has divided its customers
into categories to level the office workload. Customers arrive and enter one
of three lines based on their residence location. Model this arrival activity
as three independent arrival streams using an exponential interarrival
distribution with mean 10 minutes for each stream. Each customer type is
assigned a single clerk who processes the application forms and accepts
payments. The service time in UNIF(8,10) minutes for all three customer
types. After completion of this step, all customers are sent to a second clerk
who checks the forms and issues the plates. The service time for this
activity is UNIF(2.66, 3.33) minutes for all customer types. Develop a
model of this system and run the simulation for 5,000 minutes.

A consultant has recommended that the office eliminate the step of

differentiating between customers and use a single line with three clerks
who can process any customer type. Develop a model of this system, run it
for 5,000 minutes and compare the results with the first system.

Exercise 10

Travelers arrive at the main entrance door of an airline terminal according

to an exponential inter-arrival time distribution with mean 1.6 minutes. 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
follows a weibull distribution with parameters β = 7.76 and α = 3.91. Upon
completion of their check-in, they are free to travel to their gates. Create a
simulation model, with animation, 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.

Exercise 11

People arrive at a barbershop at the rate of one every 4.5 minutes. If the
shop is full (ie can hold five people altogether), 30% of the potential
customers leave and come back in 60  20 minutes. The other leave and do
not return. One barber gives a haircut in 8  2 minutes, whereas the
seconds talks a lot and it takes 12  4 minutes. If both barbers are idle, a
customer prefers the first barber. (Treat customers trying to reenter the
shop as if they are new customers). Simulate this system until 30 customers
have received a haircut.
(a) What is the average time spent in the shop?
(b)What is the average time spent getting a haircut (not including
delay)?
(c) What is the average number of customers in the shop?

Exercise 12

People arrive at a self service cafeteria at the rate of one every 30  20 seconds. Forty percent go
to the sandwich counter, where one worker makes a sandwich in 60  30 seconds. The rest go
the main counter, where one server spoons the prepared meal onto a plate in 45  30 seconds.
All customers must pay a single cashier, which takes 25  10 seconds. For all customers, eating
takes 20  10 minutes. After eating 10% of the people go back for desert, spending an
additional 10  2 minutes altogether in the cafeteria. Simulate until 100 people have left t he
cafeteria. How many people are left in the cafeteria, and what are they doing, at the time the
simulate stops?