King Abdulaziz University Faculty of Engineering

Department of Industrial Engineering

Industrial Systems Simulation (IE 422)
Spring 2021
Section: GA

Reducing Waiting Time in KFC’s

Drive Thru

Team 1

No. Name ID
1 Mohammed Hani Kashif 1847625
2 Abdulaziz Bandar Aldubaiban 1847317
3 Hilal Abdulaziz Aljuhani 1845513
4 Faisal Mohammed Bashmail 1847318
5 Omran Hatem Al-Absi 1847690

Instructor: Dr. Mohammed Basingab

April 15, 2021

IE 422 Reducing Waiting Time at KFC’s Drive Thru

Table of Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................2

Problem Description.............................................................................................2

Input Data and Data Sources................................................................................2

Building Valid ARENA Model & Alternative System........................................3

Results and Analysis (Use Replications)..............................................................5

Recommendation..................................................................................................7

Conclusion............................................................................................................7

Appendix...............................................................................................................8

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IE 422 Reducing Waiting Time at KFC’s Drive Thru

Introduction
There are several determining factors for restaurants to be considered a good or a bad one.
Time is the most important factor due to the current situation of covid-19 where waiting time
is closely related to perceived service quality and attract plenty of customers. The main
objective of this project is to minimize the waiting time in que line for dine in and drive thru
customers by applicated simulation system to discover a better alternative of the process and
some recommendation regarding the results. KFC, the world’s largest chicken restaurant. So,
there will be an arena simulation of KFC branch at Sari Road which have two type of
services. Din in and Drive thru customers when the customers arrive, and they go to the
taking order. After that they go to preparing order and waiting for preparing time, service
time and then the customers leave the system.

Problem Description
The KFC restaurant facing a huge problem which is a waiting time is long and many
customers leave the system due to the long queue. Many customers prefer to go somewhere
else which leads to losing customers and lowering the profit. The fast-food restaurants
Customers Satisfaction one of the most important things which will let the customers
repurchase. So, waiting time is an important determinant. So, short waiting time in high
customers satisfaction to determine whether they will return to a restaurant or not. The
problem is the long waiting time due the sequential process that the restaurant uses.
Employees cannot serve the customers after finishing the customer that they are serving now.
So, they will take a long waiting time where customers will be waiting for taking order,
preparing time, and serving time after that they will serve the next customers. The main
objective is to reduce the waiting time in queuing and increase the number of total customers
who have been served which will increase profits for the restaurant.

Input Data and Data Sources

Analyzing the data is one of the importance tools in order to optimize the system and
finding a new way to increase the productivity. In this section from our project, we will list
all the input data that we are going to use to build the simulation model. We will provide the
source for each input data and the unit for each data. In addition to the collection method that
have been used to generate the data. Data input such as the number of arrivals, number of
queues in the branch, time to prepare the orders, and the transfer time, the Serving Time and
so one. Since the heath pandemic in world started, it become hard to collect all the data
manual. So, we collect some data manual and the others by using data analyzer in Arena
Software.

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IE 422 Reducing Waiting Time at KFC’s Drive Thru

Table 1: Input Data with Data Sources, Units, and the Collection Method

Data Information Unit Data source Collection method

Software data Arena Data Analyzer

Time to taking order Min
collection Software
Time to preparing Software data Arena Data Analyzer
Min
order collection Software
Software data Arena Data Analyzer
Time to serving Min
collection Software
Time to Serving The
Software data Arena Data Analyzer
customers in Drive Min
collection Software
Thru
Time to taking Software data Arena Data Analyzer
Min
Order for drive thru collection Software

Manual data
Number of queues NO unit Observation
collection
Manual data
Number of workers NO unit Observation
collection

Building Valid ARENA Model & Alternative System

The model basically shows the process of how KFC’s branch serving customers. At
first, there are two type of costumers arriving, first is the dine in customers and second is the
drive thru customers. The Dine in customers enters the system with an interarrival time of
EXPO(10) mins, while the drive thru customers enters with an interarrival time of TRIA(1.3,
12 ,25) mins. Each of the customers then enters a process of taking orders, they dine in
cashier then takes the orders with time of TRIA(1, 1.7, 2.8) mins, while the drive thru cashier
takes TRIA(0.5, 1.3, 2.3) mins to take orders. Then all orders from both customers goes to the
kitchen to get prepared by the kitchen staff with a preparation time of TRIA(8 , 20 , 25 )
mins, but with a higher priority to prepare and serve the drive thru customers so that they
don’t cause any traffic. Finally, after the order preparation, the staff then start serving
customers with a time of EXPO(1.3 ) for the dine in customers and EXPO(0.7) mins for the
drive thru customers. Noted that the branch closes in two different times a day. In order to
make sure that we reduce the time in queue as much as possible, we assumed different
scenarios such as, adding more kitchen staff, adding an extra cashier and adding more drive
thru serving employees. The figure below shows the arena model.

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IE 422 Reducing Waiting Time at KFC’s Drive Thru

Figure 1: Arena Mode

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IE 422 Reducing Waiting Time at KFC’s Drive Thru

Results and Analysis (Use Replications)

Table 2: Comparison of the Scenarios Based on the Performance Measures (Times in Minute)

Performance
Scenario 1 Scenario 2 Scenario 3 Scenario 4 Scenario 5 Scenario 6
Measure
Car
Customers
Waiting 117.769 11.91 2.566 2.465 2.595 11.331
Time in
Queue
System
168.229 187.257 184.657 184.971 184.886 186.743
Number Out
Preparing
Order
15.697 3.784 0.714 0.754 0.739 3.672
Waiting
Time Queue

Total Cost 490 560 560 630 630 630

Dine in
Customers 100.229 101.771 98.886 99.743 99.029 101.514
Number In
Dine in
Customers 100.229 101.771 98.886 99.743 99.029 101.514
Number Out
Dine in
Customers 39.149 25.73 21.994 21.997 21.991 25.528
Total Time
Drive Thru
Customers 84.8 86.029 85.629 85.057 85.714 85.486
Number In
Drive Thru
Customers 66 83.486 83.771 83.229 83.857 83.229
Number Out

Cashier
0.17 0.173 0.168 0.169 0.168 0.173
Utilization
Drive Thru
Serving 0.021 0.027 0.054 0.027 0.055 0.027
Utilization
Drive Thru
Cashier 0.086 0.108 0.108 0.106 0.054 0.054
Utilization
Staff
0.949 0.792 0.625 0.626 0.625 0.789
Utilization

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IE 422 Reducing Waiting Time at KFC’s Drive Thru

Figure 2: Scenarios Results (Times in Minute)

 All scenarios result in range of 184-188 served customers except scenario 1 which has
the minimum served customers (168.229).
 Scenarios 3, 4, and 5 have the lowest Car Customer waiting time in queue (2.465-
2.595). Also, they have the lowest preparing waiting time in queue (0.714-0.754).
 Scenario 1 has the lowest cost (490 SR).
 Scenarios 4, 5, and 6 cost the most (630 SR).
 Scenarios 2, and 3 have the moderate cost (560 SR).

Figure 3: Scenarios Results

The figures above (Figures 1 and 2) show the alternative scenarios for the KFC
branch at Sari Road. The comparison is based on the following aspects: total cost, queue time
as well as the total customers who have been served. In figure 2, the blue bar represents the
Car Customer waiting time in queue, the green bar represents the system number out, the
yellow bar represents the preparing order waiting time in queue, and lastly the light blue bar
represents the total cost. As a result, the best scenario is to have one cashier for the dine in
and another cashier for the drive thru service, and one drive thru serving employee, and
finally, five kitchen staff members. This scenario (scenario 3) has a low total cost and queue
time with a high number of total customers being served.

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IE 422 Reducing Waiting Time at KFC’s Drive Thru

Recommendation

Conclusion

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Appendix

Figure 4: Car Customer Queue and Preparing Order Queue (Waiting Time)

Figure 5: Total Cost and Number Out

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Figure 6: Number Out

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