SPREADSHEET BASED

SIMULATION OF SINGLE SERVER

MODEL

REVIEW ON SINGLE SERVER

MODEL AND QUEUING
THEORY

THIS IS THETIMEBETWEEN EACH

ARRIVAL INTO THE SYSTEM AND THE NEXT.

A. INTER ARRIVAL TIME

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B. ARRIVAL TIME

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CUSTOMERS DECIDING NOT TO JOIN THE

QUEUE IF IT IS TOO LONG IS CALLED
WHAT?

A. BALKING

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B. RENEGING

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CUSTOMERS LEAVING THE QUEUE IF THEY

HAVE WAITED TOO LONG FOR SERVICE IS
CALLED WHAT?

A.JOCKEYING
B. RENEGING

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FCFS, LILO, AND RANDOMLY, ARE CALLED

WHAT?

A. QUEUE DISCIPLINE

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B. QUEUE FACTORS

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The simulation model of the server

facility requires two basic elements:
1. A chronological list of the Models
events
2. A graph that keeps track of the
changes in facility utilization and queue
length

The input data allow representing the interarrival

and service time in one of four ways: Constant,
Exponential , uniform and Triangular.
The only other information needed to drive the
simulation is the length of the simulation run, which
in the model is specified by the number of arrivals
that can be generated in the model.

The spreadsheet calculations reserve one row for each

arrival. The inter arrival and service times for each arrival
are generated from the input data. The first arrival I
assumed to occur at T = 0. Because the facility starts idle,
the customer starts service immediately.

To determine the departure time of any

customer I, we use the following
formula:

An example of a simulation file done in excel is show in the OR

book, which will look like this:

You can hopefully see from the simulation how we

aresimulating (artificially reproducing)the
operation of our queuing system. Simulation, as
illustrated above, is more accurately
calleddiscrete-event simulationsince we are
looking at discrete events through time (customers
appearing, service ending). Here we were only
concerned with the discrete points
T=1.9,3.2,3.6,4.3,5.3,5.4,etc

Once we have done a simulation such as shown

above then we can easily calculate statistics about
the system - for example the average time a
customer spends queueing and being served (the
average time in the system).

THERE ARE A NUMBER OF

PROBLEMS RELATING TO
SIMULATION MODELS:

typically the simulation model has to be run on the computer

for a considerable time in order for the results to
bestatistically significant- hence simulations can be
expensive (take a long time) in terms of computer time
results from simulation models tend to be highly correlated
meaning that estimates derived from such models can be
misleading. Correlation is a statistical term meaning that two
(or more) variables are related to each other in some way.
Oftenvariance reduction techniquescan be used to improve
the accuracy of estimates derived from simulation

THERE ARE A NUMBER OF

PROBLEMS RELATING TO
SIMULATION MODELS:

in the event that we are modelling an existing

system it can be difficult to validate the model
(computer program) to ensure that it is a correct
representation of the existing system
if the simulation model is very complex then it is
difficult to isolate and understand what is going on
in the model and deduce cause and effect
relationships.

BUT ONCE WE HAVE THE MODEL,

WE CAN USE IT TO:

understand the current system, typically to explain why it is

behaving as it is. For example if we are experiencing long
delays in production in a factory then why is that - what
factors are contributing to these delays?
explore extensions (changes) to the current system,
typically to try and improve it. For example if we are trying
to increase the output from a factory we could:
add more machines; or
speed up existing machines; or
reduce machine idle time by better maintenance.

BUT ONCE WE HAVE THE MODEL,

WE CAN USE IT TO:

design a new system from scratch, typically

to try and design a system that satisfies
certain (often statistical) requirements at
minimum cost. For example in the design of
an airport passenger terminal what resource
levels (customs, seats, baggage facilities,
etc) do we need and how should they be
sited in relation to one another.

THE ADVANTAGES OF USING SIMULATION,

AS OPPOSED TOQUEUING THEORY,
ARE:

it can more easily deal with time-dependent behaviour

the mathematics of queuing theory is hard and only valid for

certain statistical distributions - whereas the mathematics of
simulation is easy and can cope with any statistical
distribution

in some situations it is virtually impossible to build the

equations that queuing theory demands (e.g. for features like
queue switching, queue dependent work rates)

simulation is much easier for managers to grasp and

understand than queuing theory.

CONCLUSION

One disadvantage of simulation is that it is difficult to find

optimal solutions, unlikelinear programmingfor example
where we have an algorithm which will automatically find an
optimal solution. The only way to attempt to optimise using
simulation is to:
make a change; and
run the simulation computer program to see if an
improvement has been achieved or not; and
repeat.
Large amounts of computer time can be consumed by this
process.