Background:
You have been hired by Birmingham County Council to help with the design of the train station's new service centre (which is part of the main entrance hall). It is supposed to provide all the services required from the "Cross Country" train company prior to the train journey. These include selling tickets (direct and self-service), collecting tickets (self-service), and providing information upon passenger requests.
There are two separate arrival processes: One for normal and one for VIP (first class) passengers. There are several different types of queues:
- One "normal" queue where people queue to buy tickets and ask for help (which at average requires different amounts of service time). This is used by normal passengers.
- One "VIP" queue where people queue to buy tickets and ask for help (which at average requires different amounts of service time). This is used by VIP passengers.
- One "Day Ticket" queue for day tickets only. This is used by normal and VIP passengers.
- One "Self Service" queue for self-service machines where passengers either collect prepaid tickets or buy tickets (which at average require different amounts of interaction time with the self-service machines). This is used by normal and VIP passengers.
Your task:
Take on the role of a consultant hired for optimising the service provided by the train station service centre. For this purpose you have to conduct a complete simulation study and write a consultancy report about your study considering all of the steps listed below in the given order.
Please note that this is an individual coursework. The model and the report have to be your own work. Please note that 50% of the indicated proportion in each section is given for providing sound explanations of activities and justifications for decisions made. It is recommended that you use Discrete Event Simulation.
The marking scheme for this exercise breaks down into the following specific parts.
1. Marketing: Please provide a brief description of three more opportunities of applying simulation to the design of the new service centre or other parts of the station (provide one for each type of simulation (SDS/DES/ABS)). Explain why the specific type of simulation is particularly well suited for the specific application you have chosen.
2. Conceptualisation: Develop a conceptual model by outlining: the objectives and the constraints; the experimental factors and the responses; the model scope and the model level of detail; and the assumptions and simplifications. You should also produce a graphical representation of your model (e.g. by using a process flow diagram).
3. Implementation: Implement the model in AnyLogic. Use some estimates (informed guesses) for your model data and describe briefly how you would collect them if this would be a real case. The two arrival processes and the service delays have to be modelled stochastically. The model has to provide graphical output for at least one of your responses.
4. Experimentation: For the experimentation we assume that we have a terminating system: the service centre is open every day from 7am-10pm. We also assume that the number of replications required to achieve statistical validity is 10. Run an experiment to investigate how you can achieve at least one of your objectives. For this you need a base scenario where the relevant objective is not achieved (just missed) and a solution scenario where it is just achieved.