Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Using PROMODEL
Usages
Business Process Re-engineering Manufacturing Process Design Service Process Design Operations Supply chains As a planning tool As an innovation and improvement tool
Events are instants in time Activities are sometimes engaged in by entities Activities, events and entities have attributes
There are no balked customers Servers are busy 70% and 40% of the time, respectively
Notes
Generates a sequence on the entire interval of 32-bit integers--0 to 2147483647 Maps these onto the real interval of 0 to 1 If the first multiplication causes integer overflow, the resultant number I will be negative--it is made positive by adding the largest 32-bit integer representable +1 The last multiplication is like dividing the number by the largest integer possible 1/2147483647 = .4656613x10 to the minus 9
You can easily generate random numbers in an EXCEL spreadsheet using the function RAND()
Strategy
If the inverse of the cumulative distribution function F(x) exists so that x = F-1(y) can be determined, then 1) simply generate a random number uniformly distributed on the interval 0 to 1 2) call this number y and apply the inverse transformation F-1(y) to obtain a random number x with the appropriate distribution.
You can use a table function You can use specialized algorithms that have been developed by academics over thirtyfive years of cumulative research
Outputs
The animation reveals bottlenecks We are also interested in
idleness, productivity, cycle time (time in the system), wait time, blocked time number of trips made in a given period of time, system throughput within a given period of time
We can get this from the statistical reports provided after the simulation is finished
Discrete-stochastic simulation as
A statistical experiment
Running times must be long enough to ensure sufficient samples are collected Several runs are often averaged together The starting random number seeds are changed and the model is rerun The basic idea is to get the variance to converge to the actual real-world variance
Another scenario
A mufflers-shocks-brakes shop is turning away business. It is considering hiring another mechanic or adding another bay. It currently has four bays.
Another scenario
A shipping company has just picked up additional customers and needs to add capacity. At its loading warehouse, it has four loading docks. It also has 10 trucks. Trucks currently wait upon return for four hours before they can go out on another trip. Should the company add docks, remove trucks, or both.
Another scenario
A ski rental shop fits customers for boots and then skis. It currently has four people working in the boot area and four people working in the ski area. Lines are very long and waiting times unacceptable. Should the shop hire more help or just shift some of its existing help from skis to boots or vice versa.
PROMODEL
SELECT BACKGROUND--optional BUILD-->locations BUILD-->entities BUILD-->PATH NETWORK BUILD-->resources BUILD-->processes and routing BUILD-->arrivals RUN IT
Locations
Places where an event of importance to the model occurs
Like an arrival A beginning of customer checkout An ending of customer checkout
Entities
These are the temporary items that pass through the model of the system Chits Mail pieces Piece parts Students Cars People
Path network
The network that will be followed by the entities and/or the resources
Resources
Mobile permanent entities that can move over a network
Processes
A process is required everywhere the entity undergoes an operation An exit process is always required
Routing
You must specify how the entities move through the model Usually you inform PROMODEL what path network to use
Arrivals
The statistics of the arrival process for each entity type must be communicated to PROMODEL
Exercise 1. (15 points) A local convenience store has a self-service island from which it dispenses gasoline. Two lines of cars may form on either side of the island. The island will accommodate no more than two cars being filled with gas on a single side. There is space for no more than three cars in each of the two queues of cars waiting for each of the two service areas.
Cars arrive at the rate of one every minute with a distribution that is exponential. Service times are normal with a mean of seven minutes and a standard deviation of two minutes. Cars will drive away if more than six cars total are either waiting or in service (regardless of the line they are in). Once cars have entered the stores gasoline facility, they will en-queue themselves into the shortest queue. Formulate a model in BLOCKS to determine how many cars are turned away in a day. For BRANCH/ TRANSFERS, be sure to indicate the type, such as UNCONDITIONALLY to block 12. Assuming the store is open 24 hours, setup the model to determine how many cars are turned away in one 24-hour day.
Promodel
In order to get more than one arrival, the freq must be set to
INFINITE
In order to double the capacity of the number of turning machines and machining centers you would
Go to locations and increase the capacity from 1 to two for both of these locations
On the final you will be given a scenario like the ones above and asked to determine
Locations Entities Path networksmay be asked to draw these Resources Processes Arrivals