[Source: Shannon] We want to simulate the checkout in a small store (say, a small gift shop). One cashier, one line of customers waiting for service. We are interested in determining the average time a customer spends ln the system (both waiting and being serviced) and the percentage of time that the checkout clerk is not occupied with work.
Let’s assume that
To simulate the system, we need to generate an artificial experience that would be characteristic of the situation. In other words, we need an artificial way to generate customer interarrival times and service times based on the distribution assumptions above. One way to do this is to obtain ten poker chips and a single die. Number the poker chips from 1 to 10, put them in a hat, and mix them up by shaking the hat. By drawing a poker chip out of the hat and reading off the number, we represent the time between the arrival of the present customer and the next one. Rolling the die and reading off the number on its face would represent how long it takes to service the customer currently at the checkout.
By repeating this process, we can generate a stream of customer arrivals and service times. The problem then reduces to being simply one of bookkeeping. This is done manually for 20 customers in the "Simulating By Hand" lecture notes and using MS Excel in the "Simulation Using Spreadsheets" lecture notes.
Part 1
Create a MS Excel spreadsheet to run a simulation of the Checkout Stand. The simulation is to calculate two measures of performance: Average customer time in system (W) and Proportion (or %) of time the server is idle (1-ρ).
Runlength:
A) Run for 20 customers
B) Run for 3 hours
Use the MS Excel Data Table to generate 50 replications.
Write up a brief report of your results. Submit HW through Blackboard, both the Excel file and a brief summary/overview of your results and how you got there (Word or pdf).
Part II
Repeat the Assignment above using CLOUDES instead of MS Excel as the modeling and simulation tool.