Name:___________________________________________Signature:_______________ Date:_____

Customers arrive at a facility where they are serviced through one operation. The time between two customers is an
exponential random variable with average AT. The time required to service a customer is also an exponential
random variable with average ST1. The CEO of the service facility wants to estimate the effects of high utilization of
the service operation (due to change in arrival rate of customers) on the system performance (capacity and
responsiveness).

Customers Operation 1
Interarrival Time ~ Exp (AT) Service Time ~ Exp (ST1)

Through a simulation experiment for 100 days the CEO has obtained the following data.

1. Fill the remaining data.

Arrival Operation 1
(AT) (ST1) Theoretical
Number of Average
Avg. time WIP in front of Theoretical Theoretical system
S. Avg. time customers Customers
between required to Operation 1 Utilization MLT capacity
No. actually Serviced serviced per
two arrivals service a (Customers) (%) (in minutes) (Customers
(in 100 days) day (actual)
(in customer (in /day)
Minutes) Minutes)

1 10 5 14262 0.98
2 9 5 15825 1.22
3 8 5 17780 1.60
4 7 5 20436 2.53
5 6 5 23865 4.88
6 5.5 5 25966 8.76
7 5.1 5 27610 29.48

2. Plot the graph showing the variation of MLT with utilization of Operation 1.

3. Plot the graph showing the variation of actual system capacity with the utilization of Operation 1.
Now assume another facility with two operations. The objective of this exercise is to see the effects of change in
utilization of a non-bottleneck operation (Operation 1) on the system performance. The bottleneck operation
(Operation 2) still services customers with an exponentially distributed service time (ST2). The customer inter arrival
times follows an exponential distribution with average of 10 minutes.

Customers Operation 1 Operation 2

Interarrival Time ~ Service Time ~ Exp (ST1) Service Time ~ Exp (ST2)
Exp (AT)

4. Fill the remaining data.

Arrivals Op. 1 Op. 2 Op. 1

(AT) (ST1) (ST2) Theoretical
Average
system capacity
Number of Customers
WIP in the Theoretical (Customers/day)
S.No Avg. time Time customers Theoretical serviced
system MLT (in
. Avg. time required to required to Serviced (in Utilization per day
(Customers) minutes) [Ignore the arrival
between service a service a 100 days) of Op.1 rate for this
two arrivals customer customer (%) calculation]
(in (in (in
Minutes) Minutes) Minutes)

1 10 2 5 14302 2.17
2 10 2.5 5 14275 2.78
3 10 3 5 14339 3.75
4 10 3.5 5 14226 5.22
5 10 4 5 14277 8.40
6 10 4.5 5 14392 21.03

5. Plot the graph showing the variation of MLT with utilization of Operation 1 (non-bottleneck).

6. Redo exercises 2, 3 and 5 neglecting variability in arrival and service times. Should your answers change?