Modeling Transportation Systems

SIMULATION MODELING AND ANALYSIS WITH ARENA
T. Altiok and B. Melamed
Chapter 12
Modeling Transportation Systems

Altiok / Melamed Simulation Modeling and Analysis with Arena Chapter 12 1
Examples of Transportation Systems

Examples of simulation modeling and analysis projects for transportation systems include
designing new traffic routes and alternate routes to satisfy demand for additional road capacity eliminating bottlenecks and congestion points in existing routes by appropriate placement of traffic lights and tollbooths designing traffic patterns on the factory floor, including transporters and conveyors, for efficient movement of raw material and product designing port facilities, such as berths and piers, and allocating vessels to berths, where such designs include material handling systems (loaders/unloaders, transporters, conveyors and others) for containers and bulk material transport designing new airports or adding runways to existing ones to satisfy demand for additional flight capacity, where such designs include air traffic patterns and routing, runway scheduling and planning cargo operations
Advanced Transfer Template Panel

The panel supports modules that provide additional mechanisms of time-lapse transfer of Arena entities among Station modules or geographic locations
Route modules may be used as dispatch points, and Station modules as destination points Transporter and Conveyor modules may be used for material transport the Enter and Leave modules may be used to transfer entities into and out of physical or logical locations the PickStation module allows entities to select a destination Station module using a selection criterion, such as the minimum or maximum of queue size, number of busy resource units, or an arbitrary expression alternatively, an entity can be endowed with an itinerary using the Sequence module to specify a sequence of Station modules (referred to in Arena as Step objects)
Altiok / Melamed Simulation Modeling and Analysis with Arena Chapter 12
Station and Route Modules

A Station module is used to designate a physical location or a logical location in the model
example: a physical location might be a milling station that physically houses milling machines example: a logical location might be a dummy station at a model site close to a cluster of related modules
A Route module is used to route (transfer) entities to Station modules at various locations in the model
the destination Station module may be specified in an entity attribute as an expression, as a Station module name, or as part of an itinerary defined in a Sequence module Route modules are not graphically connected to destination Station modules
Transporter and Conveyor Modules

The Advanced Transfer template panel also provides specialized transportation facilities for material handling in manufacturing-related systems
a Transporter module is used to model transporters (vehicles, such as trucks, forklifts, container carriers , etc.), which move material in discrete parcels a Conveyor module is used to model conveyors (continuous-mode conveyance facilities, such as conveyor belts)
The Arena Transportation Network

In order to implement transporters or conveyors, the modeler specifies a transportation network consisting of
locations (Station modules) topology (distances among locations)
Network topology is specified in

Distance (data) modules (for transporters) Segment (data) modules (for conveyors)
Once the velocities of transports and conveyors are known, Arena will automatically compute the corresponding travel times
Transportation Rules of Operation

When an Arena entity gets hold of a transporter,
the entity enters a Transport module for the duration of the transportation activity the entity and the transporter move as a group
When the group (entity and transporter) arrives at its destination Station module,
the entity frees the transporter (possibly after a delay for unloading), and exits the Transport module the transporter will stay at that Station module until requested again
when an entity accesses a conveyor

the entity enters a Convey module for the duration of the conveyance activity during the conveyance activity, the entity occupies a number of cells on the conveyor
On arrival at its conveyance destination Station module,

the entity exits the conveyor and releases the conveyor cells it had occupied before, and exits the Convey module.
Additional Transportation Modules

A number of additional modules regulate the operation of transporters and conveyors
the Free module is used to release a transporter engaged by an entity the Exit module is used to release a conveyor engaged by an entity the Activate module is used to start transporters the Halt module is used to stop transporters the Start module is used to start conveyors the Stop module is used to stop conveyors
the Move module is used to advance a transporter among stations
Animate Transfer Toolbar

The Animate Transfer toolbar supports visualization and animation of various transportation devices, such as transporters and conveyors This toolbars buttons are shown below
The Arena Animate Transfer toolbar
Animate Transfer Buttons

The Animate Transfer toolbar buttons are (left to right):
1. The Storage button is used to animate the contents of a storage, similarly to the Queue button of the Animate toolbar. Internally, the Store and Unstore modules (from the Advanced Process template panel) provide the functionality of entities entering and departing a storage, while the number of entities in storage is accessible in the SIMAN variable NSTO(storage) 2. The Seize button allows the modeler to define a so-called seize area to animate entities seizing a resource. 3. The Parking button allows the modeler to define a so-called parking area to animate parking area for transporters. 4. The Transporter button allows the modeler to design a visual representation (picture) for a transporter. 5. The Station button permits the specification an icon for Station module.
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Animate Transfer Buttons (Cont.)

6. the Intersection button permits the specification of an intersection in a network of automated guided vehicles (AGVs), which are transportertype objects that must keep track of their positions to avoid collisions 7. The Route button is used to specify the animation path for moving entities in the system 8. The Segment button is used to specify the animation path of a conveyor 9. The Distance button is used to specify the animation path of a transporter 10. The Network button is used to specify the animation path of an AGV 11. The Promote Path button is used to promote a visual line to an animation path of a desired object
11
Example: A Bulk Port Model

This example models bulk port operations, using the notions of
station entity routing among stations entity pick-up and drop-off by another entity the control of entity movements using logical gating
The example models a bulk port, called Port Tamsar, where

the port operates continually 24 hours a day and 365 days a year it has a single berth where the vessels dock, and a single ship loader cargo vessel movements in the port are governed by tugboats
We wish to simulate Port Tamsar for 1 year (8760 hours) and to estimate
berth and ship-loader utilization expected port time per ship
Modeling accuracy of operations at Port Tamsar

a number of operating details have been omitted to simplify modeling still, the foregoing description is quite realistic and applicable to many bulk-material ports and container ports around the world
Layout of Port Tamsar

Offshore Ship Anchorage 0.5 hour Tugboat Station
Tugboat 1 hour
1 hour
Coal-Loading Berth
Ship Loader
Coal Pile
13
Port Tamsar Ship Arrivals

Ship arrivals are governed by the following rules of operation:
while the annual coal production plan calls for nominal deterministic ship arrivals at the rate of 1 ship every 28 hours, ships usually do not arrive on time due to weather conditions, rough seas, or other reasons, and consequently, each ship is given a 5-day grace period commonly referred to as the lay period ships are assumed to arrive uniformly in their lay periods arriving ships queue up FIFO (if necessary) at an offshore anchorage location, whence they are towed into port by a single tugboat as soon as the berth becomes available
14
Port Tamsar Tugboat operations

Tugboats are governed by the following rules of operation:
the tugboat is stationed at a tug station located at a distance of 1/2 hour away from the offshore anchorage
travel between the offshore anchorage and the berth takes 1 hour
it is assumed that there is an uninterrupted coal supply to the ship loader at the coal-loading berth it is assumed that ship loading times are uniformly distributed between 14 and 18 hours once a ship is loaded at the berth, the tugboat tows it away to the offshore anchorage, whence the boat departs with its coal for its destination
higher priority is given to departing vessels in seizing the tugboat
15
Port Tamsar Tide Dynamics

An important environmental factor in many port locations around the world is tidal dynamics
cargo ships are usually quite large and need deep waters to get into and out
of port
water depth increases with high tide and decreases with low (ebb) tide the time between two consecutive high tides is precisely 12 hours assume that ships can go in and come out of port safely only during tidal window consisting of the middle 4 hours of high tide thus, every 12 hours, the tidal window at the port is closed for 8 hours and open for 4 hours
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Modeling Ship Arrivals

Vessel Arrivals
Lay Period
Mark Arrival Time
Get Berth
Check Tide_1
Inbound Wait for Tug Boat
Arena model segment implementing ship arrivals at Port Tamsar
17
Modeling Ship Arrivals (Cont.)

The Arena model segment implementing ship arrivals has the following logic:
ship arrivals are generated deterministically by the Create module, called Vessel Arrivals, one ship every 28 hours on creation, a ship entity immediately proceeds to the Delay module, called Lay Period, where it is delayed uniformly between 0 and 120 hours to model an actual arrival within its lay period in due time, the ship entity enters the Assign module, called Mark Arrival Time, where its (actual) arrival time is stored in its ArrTime attribute
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Ship Arrivals Modules
Dialog box of the Seize module Get Berth

Ship Arrivals Modules (Cont.)
Dialog box of the Hold module Check Tide_1
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Ship Arrivals Modules (Cont.)
Dialog box of the Hold module Inbound Wait for Tug Boat
Create Tug
Modeling Tugboat Operation
Port Ex Station it
Tug Station
Dropoff Departing Vessel
Monitor Need for Tugboat

O riginal
Members
0
Who Wants Tug Boat Tally Port Time
True
False
Go to Departing Vessel Station
Dispose
Go to Inbound Vessel
Arena model segment implementing tugboat operations at Port Tamsar
Pick Inbound up Vessel
Go to Loading Station Altiok / Melamed Simulation Modeling and Analysis with Arena Chapter 12
22
Modeling Tugboat Operation (Cont.)

The Arena model segment implementing tugboat operation has the following logic:
at time 0, a single tugboat is created at the Create module, called Create Tug the tugboat then proceeds to the Station module, called Tug Station, which merely serves as an entry point in the model the tugboat immediately proceeds to the Hold module, called Monitor Need for Tugboat, to monitor and wait for service requests the ship entity waits in the queue Inbound Wait for Tug Boat.Queue until the tugboat becomes available the tugboat segment will ensure that the tugboat constantly monitors the queue Inbound Wait for Tug Boat.Queue for ships waiting to be towed into port
23
Tugboat Operation Modules
Dialog box of the Create module Create Tug

Tugboat Operation Modules (Cont.)
Dialog box of the Station module Tug Station
25
Dialog box of the Hold module Monitor Need for Tugboat
26

The logic of the Hold module, called Monitor Need for Tugboat,
accomplishes the following functions: via the Condition field, the tugboat entity constantly monitors two queues, Inbound Wait for TugBoat.Queue and Outbound Wait for tugBoat.Queue, for ships calling on its services the monitored condition is the logical expression NQ(Inbound Wait for Tug Boat.Queue) + NQ(Outbound Wait for Tug Boat.Queue) > 0 which scans for ship entities waiting for the tugboat in either of the Hold modules queues housing inbound or outbound ships once the scan condition becomes true, the tugboat will immediately proceed to the Decide module, called Who Wants Tug Boat, to find out if the request is from an inbound ship or a (high priority) outbound ship
Dialog box of the Decide module Who Wants Tug Boat
28
Dialog box of the Route module Go to Departing Vessel Station
29
Dialog box of the Pickup module Pickup Inbound Vessel
30

The logic of a Pickup module accomplishes the following functions:
generally, a Pickup module is used by an incoming entity to pick up other entities residing in a queue the number of entities to be picked up is specified in the Quantity field, starting from the queue position specified in the Starting Rank field the queue itself is specified in the Queue Name field the picking entity and the picked-up entities form a grouped entity, where the picked-up members form an internal queue, and are identified by their rank (position) in it since the picking entity may make several pickups (at different times or places), picked-up members of the group maintain their identity ID via their rank rank information may be used in entity drop-off
Dialog box of the Route module Go to Loading Station
32
Modeling Coal Loading
Arena model segment implementing coal loading at Port Tamsar

Coal Loading Modules
Dialog box of the Station module Coal Loading Station
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Coal Loading Modules (Cont.)
Dialog box of the Dropoff module Dropoff Inbound Vessel
35
Dialog box of the Seize module Seize Loader

Dialog box of the Release module Release Loader and Berth
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Dialog box of the Pickup module Pickup Vessel
38
Dialog box of the Hold module Check Tide_2
39
Dialog box of the Record module Tally Port Time
40
Modeling Tidal Windows
Arena model segment implementing tidal windows at Port Tamsar
41
Tidal Windows Modules
Dialog box of the Create module Create Tidal Window
42
Tidal Windows Modules (Cont.)
Dialog box of the Assign module Close
43
Port Tamsar Simulation Results
44
Port Tamsar Simulation Results (Cont.)
45
Port Tamsar Simulation Results For model with a shorter lay periods
46
Example: A Toll Plaza Model

This example models a toll plaza system on the New Jersey Turnpike, consisting of
2 exact-change (EC) lanes 2 cash-receipt (CR) lanes 1 Easy Pass (EZP) lane
The layout of the toll plaza is shown below

Toll Booths
Exact Change (EC) Lanes Incoming Cars to Toll Plaza Cash Receipt (CR) Lanes EZ Pass (EZP) Lane
Toll Plaza Car Arrivals and Service

Arriving vehicles select lanes (no jokeying allowed) as follows:
1) 50% of all arriving cars go to EC lanes, and their service time distribution is Norm( 4.81,1.01) (only the non-negative values are used) 2) 30% of all arriving cars go to CR lanes, and their service time distribution is 5 + Logn( 4.67,2.26) 3) 20% of all arriving cars go to the EZP lane, and their service time distribution is 1.18 + 4.29 Beta( 2.27,3.02 )
Traffic congestion is non-stationary (heavier during morning and evening rush hours and lighter during off-peak hours) as follows:
Time Period (in hours)
0 AM 6 AM 6 AM 9 AM 9 AM 16 PM 16 PM 19 PM 19 PM 24 PM
Inter Arrival Time Distribution (in seconds)
8 + Gamm( 4.4, 4.12 )

Tria(1.32, 1.57, 1.76) 2.64 + Weib(0.82, 4.5)
Tria(1.32, 1.57, 1.76)

4.2 + Gamm(0.87, 8.24)
48
Toll Plaza Cash-Receipt Booths

The number of operating cash-receipt booths varies over time as follows:
since such booths must be manned, and therefore are expensive to operate, one of them is closed during the off-peak hours only during morning and evening rush hours do all cash-receipt booths remain open
49
Toll Plaza Performance Issues

Performance analysis objectives for the toll plaza system address the following issues:
1. What would be the impact of additional traffic on car delays? 2. Would adding another booth markedly reduce waiting times? 3. Could some booths be closed during some light traffic hours without appreciably increasing waiting times? 4. What would be the impact of converting some cash-receipt booths to exact-change booths or to easy pass booths? 5. How would waiting times be reduced if both cash-receipt booths were to be kept open at all times?
We wish to address the last issue above, using the following performance metrics
average time to pass through the system booth utilization
50
Modeling Car Arrivals
51
Car Arrivals Modules
Dialog box of the Create module Cars Arriving
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Car Arrivals Modules (Cont.)
Dialog box for specifying sampling distributions (top) for time-dependent inter-arrivals in vector Int_Times (bottom)
Dialog box of the Assign module Assign Type and Modify Congestion Period
54
Dialog box of the Decide module Which Type
55
Dialog box of the Station module set for EC tollbooths
56
Dialog box of the PickStation module Exact Change Cars

Dialog box of the PickStation module Cash Receipt Cars


In the PickStation module, called Cash Receipt Cars,
while tollbooth CR_1 is open, then 1-MR(CRS_1) = 0, and the expression for CR_1 evaluates to NQ(CRSQ_1), so that the tollbooth selection will be made based on the minimum of NQ(CRSQ_1) and NQ(CRSQ_2), as required conversely, while tollbooth CR_1 is closed, then 1-MR(CRS_1) = 1 and NQ(CRSQ_1) = 0, and the expression for CR_1 evaluates to 1000, and since this number exceeds NQ(CRSQ_2) by assumption, tollbooth CR_2 is sure to be selected, as required
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Car Services Modules
Dialog box of the Seize module Proceed to EC Booth
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Car Services Modules (Cont.)
Dialog box of the resource set EC Servers
61
Dialog box of the spreadsheet views of sets in the Set module (bottom) and of the members of resource set EC Servers (top)
Dialog box of the spreadsheet views of sets in the Set module (bottom) and of the members of resource set EC Servers (top)
63
Dialog box of the Delay module Pay Exact Change
64
Dialog box of the spreadsheet views of capacity schedules in the Schedule module (bottom) and corresponding durations of server CRS_1 at the tollbooth CR_1 (top)
65
Dialog box of the Release module Leave EC Booth
66
Dialog box of the Record module Record Flow Times
67
Toll Plaza Simulation Results
68
Toll Plaza Simulation Results (Cont.)
69
Toll Plaza Simulation Results (Cont.)
70
Improved Toll Plaza System

The dramatic impact of the closure of tollbooth CR_1 during off-peak hours leaves room for improvement
to what extent would the flow times of CR cars be improved, if tollbooth CR_1 were to remain open at all times?
It is easy to modify the tollbooth plaza Arena model to reflect this improved operating rule
merely set the capacity of server resource CRS_1 to 1 at all times
Simulation results show next the extent of the corresponding performance improvement
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Improved Toll Plaza Simulation Results
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Example: A Gear Job Shop Model

This example models a gear job shop consisting of
an arrival dock a milling station with 4 milling machines a drilling station with 3 drilling machines a paint shop with 2 spray booths a polishing area with a single worker a shop exit
Gear types are G1, G2, G3 with distinct operations plans (sequences) The layout of the job shop and gear sequences are shown below
Milling Station Painting Station
Arrival Dock G1 G2 G3
Shop Exit
Drilling Station
Polishing Station
73
Distances Among Job Shop Locations

The table below lists the job shop locations and their distances
From Location
Arrival Dock Arrival Dock Milling Station Milling Station Milling Station Paint Shop Drilling Station Drilling Station Paint Shop Polishing Area Polishing Area Shop Exit Shop Exit Shop Exit Shop Exit Shop Exit
To Location
Milling Station Drilling Station Drilling Station Paint Shop Polishing Area Polishing Area Paint Shop Polishing Area Arrival Dock Arrival Dock Shop Exit Arrival Dock Drilling Station Milling Station Paint Shop Polishing Area
Distance (in feet)

100 100 300 400 150 300 150 400 250 250 200 550 500 300 400 200
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Gear Operations Plans

The table below lists the gear operations plans
Gear Operations Processing Type Sequence (in Times minutes)
G1
Milling Drilling Painting Polishing Milling Painting Polishing

Drilling Painting Polishing
35 20 55 15 25 35 15
18 35 15
G2
G3
75
Gear Job Shop Performance Issues

The following statistics are of interest:
gear flow times (by type) gear delays at production stations machine utilizations
To analyze the performance of the job shop, we plan to run a simulation over 1 year of operation
76
Gear Arrivals and Departures Models
Arena model segment implementing gear arrivals at the arrival dock and transport to the job shop floor
Arena model segment implementing gear transport from the job shop floor to the shop exit and flow time statistics collection
Job Shop Floor Manufacturing Model
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Gear-Job Arrivals Modules
Dialog box of the Create module Create Jobs
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Gear-Job Arrivals Modules (Cont.)
Dialog box of the Assign module Assign Job Type and Sequence
80
Dialog boxes of spreadsheet views of sequences in a Sequence module (bottom), operations steps of type G1 gears (middle) and milling time assignment of type G1 gears (top)
Dialog box of the Request module Request a Truck

Dialog box of the Transport module Transport to Shop Floor
83
Dialog box of the Free module Free Truck at Mill
84
Gear-Job Service Modules
Dialog box of the Process module Milling

Gear-Job Service Modules (Cont.)
Dialog box of the Request module Request Truck at Milling

Dialog box of the Record module Tally Flow Time
87
Dialog box of the Transporter spreadsheet module (bottom) and the dialog box of the Initial Position Status field (top)
88
Dialog box of the Distance spreadsheet module (left) and the dialog box of its Stations field (right)
Job Shop Simulation Results
90
Job Shop Simulation Results (Cont.)
91
Modified Job Shop Model

To reduce the wait at the paint shop, modify the job shop model by increasing the number of paint booths from 2 to 3
The simulation results of the modified job shop are shown below
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Modeling Transportation Systems

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SIMULATION MODELING AND ANALYSIS WITH ARENA

T. Altiok and B. Melamed

Modeling Transportation Systems

Examples of Transportation Systems

Advanced Transfer Template Panel

Altiok / Melamed Simulation Modeling and Analysis with Arena Chapter 12

Station and Route Modules

Altiok / Melamed Simulation Modeling and Analysis with Arena Chapter 12

Transporter and Conveyor Modules

Altiok / Melamed Simulation Modeling and Analysis with Arena Chapter 12

The Arena Transportation Network

Network topology is specified in

Altiok / Melamed Simulation Modeling and Analysis with Arena Chapter 12

Transportation Rules of Operation

when an entity accesses a conveyor

On arrival at its conveyance destination Station module,

Additional Transportation Modules

Altiok / Melamed Simulation Modeling and Analysis with Arena Chapter 12

Animate Transfer Toolbar

The Arena Animate Transfer toolbar

Altiok / Melamed Simulation Modeling and Analysis with Arena Chapter 12

Animate Transfer Buttons

Altiok / Melamed Simulation Modeling and Analysis with Arena Chapter 12

Animate Transfer Buttons (Cont.)

Altiok / Melamed Simulation Modeling and Analysis with Arena Chapter 12

Example: A Bulk Port Model

The example models a bulk port, called Port Tamsar, where

Modeling accuracy of operations at Port Tamsar

Layout of Port Tamsar

Altiok / Melamed Simulation Modeling and Analysis with Arena Chapter 12

Port Tamsar Ship Arrivals

Altiok / Melamed Simulation Modeling and Analysis with Arena Chapter 12

Port Tamsar Tugboat operations

higher priority is given to departing vessels in seizing the tugboat

Altiok / Melamed Simulation Modeling and Analysis with Arena Chapter 12

Port Tamsar Tide Dynamics

Altiok / Melamed Simulation Modeling and Analysis with Arena Chapter 12

Modeling Ship Arrivals

Mark Arrival Time

Inbound Wait for Tug Boat

Arena model segment implementing ship arrivals at Port Tamsar

Altiok / Melamed Simulation Modeling and Analysis with Arena Chapter 12

Modeling Ship Arrivals (Cont.)

Altiok / Melamed Simulation Modeling and Analysis with Arena Chapter 12

Ship Arrivals Modules

Dialog box of the Seize module Get Berth

Ship Arrivals Modules (Cont.)

Dialog box of the Hold module Check Tide_1

Altiok / Melamed Simulation Modeling and Analysis with Arena Chapter 12

Ship Arrivals Modules (Cont.)

Modeling Tugboat Operation

Dropoff Departing Vessel

Monitor Need for Tugboat

Go to Departing Vessel Station

Arena model segment implementing tugboat operations at Port Tamsar

Pick Inbound up Vessel

Modeling Tugboat Operation (Cont.)

Altiok / Melamed Simulation Modeling and Analysis with Arena Chapter 12

Tugboat Operation Modules

Dialog box of the Create module Create Tug

Tugboat Operation Modules (Cont.)

Dialog box of the Station module Tug Station