Simulation Assignment

Question One
Orders for a Mail Order Company are sent in batches of 50 by the Post Office. The number of
orders arriving each working day varies according to the following probability distribution:

Number of orders Probability

150 0.05

200 0.15

250 0.30

300 0.30

350 0.15

400 0.05

These orders are opened and keyed into the company’s system by a data entry assistant who,
following the departure of a colleague, will handle this task by himself. The rate per day at
which he processes orders varies as follows:

Orders processed Probability

100 0.1

150 0.2

200 0.4

250 0.2

300 0.1

Any orders that are not processed by the end of one day are held over and dealt with first on
the following day.

i. Simulate the operation of this system for ten working days using the following random
numbers:Number of orders: 17 83 16 67 25 20 23 24 72 97
Orders processed: 73 46 36 76 11 94 35 23 87 40 (10 marks)

ii. From your results work out the average number of orders held over per day. (2 marks)
A new assistant may be appointed to help out. If this happened the distribution of processing
times is expected to be:
Orders processed Probability

200 0.15

250 0.15

300 0.40

350 0.20

400 0.10

Required;

Simulate the operation of the new arrangement for ten days using the same sets of random
numbers you used in part (i) above and compare your result to those you obtained for part (i).
(8 marks)

Question Two
Consider a single server model with the time distribution given in the table below;
The distribution of inter- arrivals probability
arrival time
1 ¼
2 ½
3 ¼

distribution of service time Service probability

1 ½
2 ¼
3 ¼

Carry out simulation trials for ten arrivals and determine their waiting time in the queue. Use
the two digit random numbers as 12, 40, 48, 93, 61, 17, 55, 21, 85, 68 to generate arrivals and
54, 90, 18, 38, 16, 87, 91, 41, 54, 11 to generate the corresponding service times.