IB3200 Group Work Project Brief 2023

IB3200 Simulation Module 2023: PROJECT BRIEF

Contents

Project Brief Introduction Page 1

System Information Pages 2-4
Tables and Figures Pages 5-6

Project Brief Introduction

The Print-It! Company in Oxfordshire, England, prints marketing materials such as magazines,
brochures, business cards, flyers, leaflets, posters, stationary, etc. They also design websites
for companies. Their shop floor is set out as shown in Figure 1. They feel that they are
currently struggling to cope with demand and are hoping to expand their operations. The
company have never collected data or analysed the functioning of their shop floor and
business system so they have asked your small consultancy company to come and observe
them working. They want your consultancy team to recommend improvements that could
be made to their shop floor system in order to allow it to run more efficiently and cope with
an increased demand of between 20% and 30%.

Your company colleagues observed and collected information / data about the system
processes over a one month typical period. They have now completed their observations of
Print-It! and have provided you with data and information on the various processes within
the system. You have been asked to build a DES model of the functioning of the Print-it! shop
floor over its opening hours.

The majority of the quantitative data your colleagues collected is shown in the accompanying
MSExcel file “IB3200 Group Work Assignment_Data” which can be downloaded from my.wbs.
The other information gathered by your colleagues about how the shop floor system
functions is contained in the rest of this project brief. Any assumptions / simplifications stated
in this document have been previously agreed as reasonable with the client. All the
information available for this project is contained in this document and the excel file. Any
information / data not provided in this document or the excel file should be considered as
unavailable (Category C data). You may decide to make further simplifications, assumptions
or parameter estimations as you feel necessary and applicable. Please make all assumptions,
simplifications and any parameter estimations very clear in the written report with clear
justifications (citing sources if applicable).

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IB3200 Group Work Project Brief 2023

System Information

The Print-It! jobs are grouped into four different job types:

Job Type 1 (JT1): Standard printing

Job Type 2 (JT2): Graphical printing
Job Type 3 (JT3): Complex printing
Job Type 4 (JT4): Web design

On the shop floor they have four different types of printing and graphics computerized
machines for processing job types 1, 2 and 3: Machines A, B, C and D. They currently have
one of each machine type on the shop floor. Job type 4 is done on a desk top computer and
they currently have two of these available: Comp1 and Comp2.

Printing Process - Machines:

Machines A, B and C can only process one job at a time. Machine D can process two jobs at
a time. JT1 can be processed on either machine A, B or C. JT2 can be processed on either
machine B or C. But JT3 needs to be processed on machine B first, then further processed on
machine C and then completes its processing on machine D.

Machine B has two outlets therefore, one of which is connected to Machine C so type 3 jobs
can automatically travel from B to C for further processing. Machine C also has two outlets,
one of which is connected to Machine D so type 3 jobs can automatically travel from C to D
to finish processing. The other outlet on machines B and C allows the other job types to exit
when they are completed. Machines A and D only have one outlet each where completed
jobs can exit.

Machines C and D have their own storage mechanism where JT3s can wait to be processed
on a FIFO basis. Machines A, B and C need staff to operate them throughout the processing
time, but Machine D works automatically without a staff member needing to be present.
Machines A, B and C cannot take on a new job until they complete the current job they are
processing. Machine D can process a maximum of two jobs at a time.

Shop Floor Staff:

They currently have five full time shop floor staff members who carry out the jobs on the
machines and computers. Of the five current shop floor full time staff there are three staff
members that work machines A, B and C: Printing Staff. The other two only process job type
4 (i.e. work at the two computers creating web sites): Computer Staff. Opening hours are
08:00 - 18:00, 5 days/week. All printing and computer staff take a lunch break from 12noon
to 1pm every day. There is also a staff member called a packer whose job and hours are
explained below.

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IB3200 Group Work Project Brief 2023

Printing Process - Packaging:

All completed jobs automatically leave the machines (A, B, C, D) exit outlets via a conveyor
belt that takes them to a packing area. They exit the conveyor belt via a machine that stacks
them in order of arrival so the most recent arrivals are at the top of the stack. The completed
jobs are taken off the top of the stack by the packer one at a time. The packer is a part time
staff member who works in the administration office of the company and comes to the shop
floor at 3pm each work day. They work on the shop floor only two hours per day (3-5pm).
They package the completed jobs up for dispatch using the packaging machine. There is only
one packaging machine on the shop floor. This machine can only process one job at a time
and requires the packer to operate it throughout the packaging process. The completed and
packaged jobs are stacked by the packer in the package collection area for pick up by a
separate parcel delivery firm employed by Print-It!

Printing and Website Processes – Job allocation:

The jobs to be processed are stored on electronic Job Lists. As the jobs arrive into the shop
floor they are sorted by a computer into four separate Job Lists: List 1 for JT1 printing jobs;
List 2 for JT2 printing jobs; List 3 for JT3 printing jobs; and List 4 for web design jobs. Thus,
these lists act as FIFO queues for each job type.

When a machine A, B, or C becomes free and a printing staff member is also free, the
computer system can send the job at the top of a job list to that machine in the following
order of priority:

For Machine A: Only takes from List 1 (JT1)

For Machine B: Takes from List 3 (JT3) first. If no jobs are waiting on List 3 it takes from List 2
(JT2), if no jobs are waiting in Lists 3 or 2 it takes from List 1 (JT1)
For Machine C: If there are any JT3s waiting (having come automatically from Machine B) it
takes the oldest of these first. If there are no JT3s waiting it takes from List 2 (JT2). If there
are no JT3 jobs from machine B waiting and no jobs waiting on List 2, it takes from List 1 (JT1).

The same printing staff member is not needed to process JT3s all the way through, hence
when these job types move automatically from machine B to C, any available printing staff
member can process that job on machine C. Therefore, all printing staff effectively become
free at the end of processing any job on any machine A, B or C.

The two computers (Comp1 and Comp2) are used to carry out the website creation for job
type 4. Once a computer staff member starts a JT4 they complete it on that same computer
before taking a new job from Job List 4. Job list 4 is accessible from both of these two
computers.

At the end of each work day machines, computers and conveyor belts are turned off.
However, they all retain the information currently stored on them. Thus at the end of each
work day, any jobs in process are effectively paused, any jobs in Job Lists or on conveyor belts
etc.. are left in situ. All jobs in process or transit are continued where they left off at the start
of the next working day, when all machines, computers and conveyor belts are restarted.

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IB3200 Group Work Project Brief 2023

Shop Floor Data:

The number of printing jobs that arrive into the shop floor was collected as counts in one hour
intervals over the working day. Table 1 contains the results from the analysis of this data. It
was also noted that 35% of jobs are type 1, 40% are type 2 and 25% are type 3.

The number of web site jobs that arrive into job list 4 was also collected as counts in one hour
intervals over the working day. Table 2 contains the results from the analysis of this data.

Data was collected on how long it takes, in minutes, to process jobs on the four different
machines A, B, C and D. The processing times were collected only for machines rather than
for job types. The length of time, in minutes, it takes to complete jobs of type 4 were also
collected. The times were found to be independent of the computer used. This data
therefore includes variability from experience of staff and job characteristics. The data
collected is contained within the accompanying MSExcel file “IB3200 Group Work
Assignment_Data” which can be downloaded from my.wbs. The packaging process was also
observed, and it was found that the time it took to package each printing job followed a
Continuous Uniform distribution, with a lower bound of 1 minute, and an upper bound of 3
minutes.

Shop Floor Targets:

Print-It! has set target times within which it aims to complete the different job types. Targets
are that any JT1 should not wait longer than 2 working hours to start processing on a machine,
any JT2 should not wait longer than 3 working hours to start processing on a machine. JT3
jobs should not wait longer than 1 working hours to start processing on machine B. However,
they also have an overall target that all printing jobs (JT1, JT2, JT3), should be packaged and
ready for dispatch within 6 working hours of when they started being first processed on a
machine (A, B or C). Their target for Web site creation is that no JT4 should wait longer than
8 working hours before being started work on by a computer staff member.

Management believe that they need more staff, machines and computers, but are not sure
about the details. They also wonder whether the way staff are used to process jobs could be
changed to improve efficiency but have no clear ideas how this might be done. You have
been asked to build a DES model of this system in order to explore what resource mix or other
changes are required to keep jobs within targets, under both current demand and proposed
future demand increases, while using all resources as efficiently as possible.

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IB3200 Group Work Project Brief 2023

Tables and Figures

Figure 1: Layout of the Print-It! shop floor. (Not drawn to scale).

Table 1: Arrival process for printing jobs (JT1, JT2 and JT3).

Times of the day Probability Distribution describing the number

of jobs arriving in one hour intervals
Monday - Friday
08:00 – 09:00 Poisson (mean = 1)
09:00 – 12:00 Poisson (mean = 10)
12:00 – 14:00 Poisson (mean = 5)
14:00 – 17:00 Poisson (mean = 10)
17:00 – 18:00 Poisson (mean = 2)

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IB3200 Group Work Project Brief 2023

Table 2: Arrival process for website jobs (JT4).

Times of the day Probability Distribution describing the number

of jobs arriving in one hour intervals
Monday - Friday
08:00 – 09:00 Poisson (mean = 0.1)
09:00 – 12:00 Poisson (mean = 0.8)
12:00 – 14:00 Poisson (mean = 0.2)
14:00 – 17:00 Poisson (mean = 0.8)
17:00 – 18:00 Poisson (mean = 0.5)

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