Problem:

I would like to model arrivals that occur at a specific time, such as scheduled appointments.
Categories:
.Arrival Logic
Key Concepts:
Arrival Mode, Arrival Table, Arrival Time Deviation, Data Table, Floor Label, Status Plot
Technical Approach:
Scheduled arrivals are put into a Data Table in a DateTime property column. In this example, appointments are
scheduled every 15 minutes from 8:00am until 4:30pm. The Source object reads the arrival data table to see when
to create an entity. However, since the Sources Arrival Time Deviation property has a non-zero value, there will
be some deviation from when the entities are actually created from the time listed in the table. This simulates
that some people arrive early to their appointment and some people arrive late. Because the Sources Arrival No-
Show property is set to .05, there is a 5% chance of each arrival being a no-show, which simulates the scenario
when someone doesnt show up at all for their scheduled appointment. The plots and floor labels show how the
status of the Average Number of entities waiting to be served and the Average Time that each entity waits to be
served.

Details for Building the Model:

Simple System Setup
In the Data window, create a new Data Table by clicking on Add Data Table in the Table ribbon and name
this new table DailyAppointments. Create a Date Time column by selecting DateTime in the Standard
Property drop down in the Table ribbon. Name this new column AppointmentTime.
o Enter data into the table, beginning at 8:00am on the day the simulation begins and every 15
minutes for the rest of the day, with the last appointment occurring at 4:30pm.
Place a Source, Server and Sink into the Facility window and connect them with Paths. Alternatively, go to
the Project Home ribbon and select Place Source, Server, Sink from the Select Add-In drop down.
Select the Source object and set the following properties:
o Arrival Mode to Arrival Table
o ArrivalTimeProperty to DailyAppointments.AppointmentTime pointing to the DateTime
column you created.
o ArrivalTimeDeviation to Random.Uniform(-5,5) and the Units to Minutes
o Arrival No-Show Probability to .05
Select the Server object and set the Processing Time property to Random.Triangular(10, 16, 22)
Click onto the Run ribbon and change the starting time of the simulation run to be 8:00am and the ending
time to be 5:00pm on the same day. The date should match the date that was entered into the Data
Table.

Embellishments:
Place a Status Plot that displays statistics of interest, such as the expression
Server1.InputBuffer.Contents.AverageNumberWaiting or Server1.InputBuffer.Contents.AverageTimeWaiting.
Arrival Tables can also use a numeric property column that lists the amount of time the arrival should occur after
the start of the simulation run. For example, if the Arrival table had a Numeric column and had the entries of .25,
.5, an arrival would be generated at .25 hours after the start of the simulation run and again at .5 hours after the
start of the simulation run. This is just an alternate way to model scheduled arrivals.