Simulation of Call

Center
By-

Pradyumna Raghavendra
 Methodology

1. Identification of problem statement

2. Data collection for the identified problem
3. Data Analysis using Excel and Matlab
4. Simulation of the current scenario using ARENA
5. Improvements
6. Simulation of the improved scenario using ARENA
7. Comparison of the results
Business problem
 Business problem

Problem Statement and Impact Scope Outcome

● The project focuses on a call center ● The main focus of this project ● Improved cycle time and
for an electronic company that sells
analyze the data while improving employee productivity.
five different products, namely
television,refrigerator, air
the call center efficiency and
conditioning, toaster and washing lowering the call abandoned rate.
machine.

● Given the company’s requirements

of low cost and high customer
satisfaction, it was primal
importance to design a call center
model to find the optimal solution.
Data collection
Data collected
 Collected data introduction

●In this project, we have used the dataset for the call center model for the electronics
company. The data collected for January 2015 was collected.
●The data for the simulation is collected from Kaggle and is then processed using Excel.
●It was found that the calls arrive according to the exponential distribution. All the incoming
calls either goes to through the system or get abandoned depending on the availability of
the trunk lines.
 Collected data introduction

●There are a total of 8 trunk lines – meaning there are 8 operators. All the operators can work for any

of the 5 product departments.

●All the completed calls, attempted calls, and abandoned calls are recorded using the record module.

●The company works from 9 AM-7 PM. After 7 PM all the incoming calls are rejected and any work-

in-progress calls are completed using the terminating condition in the simulation run setup.
 Parts sold by the electronics company

Refrigerator Air Conditioner

Television
Parts sold by the electronics company

Toaster Washing Machine

Data Analysis
EXCEL ANALYSIS
 Assumptions made

1. There were missing and inconsistent data values for the dates January 1, 2015, to January 3,

2015. Hence, the data was cleaned by eliminating the values from January 1, 2015- to January 3,

2015. The analysis of the call center data was therefore performed in 4 complete weeks of

January. (January 4 to January 31)

2. As per the data, the call center remained closed on Sundays, since there is no data for the same.
 Distribution of calls by weeks

WEEK TOTAL CALLS AVG. ABANDONED OVERALL

ANSWER RATE SATISFACTIO
SPEED ( in N RATE
Seconds)

Week 1 (Jan 4 - 402 57.6 16.7% 3.47

Jan 10)

Week 2 ( Jan 11- 390 55.1 17.4% 3.44

Jan 17)

Week 3 ( Jan 18- 370 52.1 21.1% 3.52

Jan 24)

Week 4 (Jan 25- 434 55.1 15.9% 3.42

Jan 31)

Average 399 54.98 17.78% 3.46

 Observations made

●It is observed that the Week 4 (1/25/2015- 1/31/2015) receives the most amount of
calls.
●The abandoned rate is the lowest in the Week 4 ( Jan 25, 2015 to Jan 31, 2015).
●Week 3 has the highest overall satisfaction score with 3.52 and 370 total calls;
but also has the highest amount of the abandoned call rate.
●Week 3 had the highest rate of Satisfaction score.
Percentage distribution of calls by department

● The bar chart indicates the average of

all the calls in the month for the
respective department.

● It was observed that the Television

department had the highest percentage
of incoming calls at 22%, followed by the
Toaster department with 21% and next
Washing Machine Department with 20%
for January.
Monthly call data per agent

● The graph indicates the Monthly Call Data analysis for the
total calls, calls answered, the number of calls not answered
and the % of Abandoned calls sorted with respect to the
agents.
● It is observed that Stewart gets the highest amount of calls
(211) followed by Jim and Dan respectively. Martha has the
highest rate of abandoned calls at 21.83% followed by
Becky with 19.07%.
● We can conclude that Martha, Becky, Stewart, Greg, and
Jim need to improve on answering the total number of calls
by lowering the % of abandoned call rate.
 Call resolution rate per agent

AGENT NAME AVG ANSWERING CALL NO. OF CALLS

SPEED ( in Sec) RESOLUTION % RESOLVED

Diane 63.68 75.38 149

Becky 62.99 70.59 138

Stewart 64.77 72.06 152

Greg 67.81 74.03 143

Jim 67.18 76.79 157

Joe 70.15 75.11 148

Martha 73.03 71.40 140

Dan 66.47 76.85 160

 Observations made

● It is observed that Becky has the lowest Avg Speed of Answers of 62.99 seconds followed by
Diane with 63.68 seconds.
● Dan has the highest call resolution rate of 76.85% followed by Jim with a Call resolution rate
of 76.79%.
● In conclusion, all the agents should work on improving the Call Resolution rate and Abandoned
call rate.
Agent overall satisfaction rate

● The above chart shows the Satisfaction Score

Chart for all the Agents at the Call center for
January 2015.
● The cut-off for the Satisfaction score was
kept at 3.5. It can be observed that only 4
out of 8 operators are above the
Satisfaction score of 3.5 rest are below it.
● Martha and Becky have the lowest
customer satisfaction score.
MATLAB ANALYSIS
 MATLAB Analysis

● The MATLAB code simulates 28 days at the call centre for 100 cycles. Hence, the loop

is run 2800 times.

● The number of days can be increased if needed, but this increases the run time.
 Algorithm for MATLAB Code

1. Generate a Poisson random variable for the number of calls the call centre receives daily.

2. Divide the number of calls as per department. The percentage values of the calls received by each department are
obtained from the Excel analysis.
 Algorithm for MATLAB Code

3. Randomly assign an agent to the calls received by each department. The below snippet shows for
one department. The same is done for other departments as well .
Results obtained from MATLAB analysis

● It is observed that Diane had the highest

number of calls resolved, whereas Martha
has the least number of calls resolved.
Results obtained from MATLAB analysis
ARENA Modeling
Process Flow Chart
Modeling of current
scenario (Baseline
model)
Baseline model
 Baseline model

The baseline model is divided into the following categories:

1. Call arrival logic
2. Decision module
3. Departments logic
4. Call departure logic
Call arrival logic
 Call arrival logic

● The first section of the call center simulation model is the call arrival logic.
● It was found that the data was exponentially distributed with a mean of 9.4 minutes. It
was also observed that there were usually two calls for a given minute which leads to 2
calls per arrival.
● When the call arrives, it first goes to the record module, where it is recorded using the
count feature.
● Next, the call goes to the decide module. In this module, the call can either go further
through the call center process or get abandoned depending on the availability of trunk
lines.
 Call arrival logic

● There are total 8 trunk lines. If all the trunk lines are busy, the call is abandoned, and it is

recorded by the record module as a number of rejected calls or abandoned calls.

● If there is the availability of trunk lines, then the call goes to the seize module and then moves

further to the initial recording delay module.

● After the trunk line is seized by the caller, the call is recorded as a work in progress call by the

variable total WIP in the assigned module.

Decision module
 Decision module

● During the initial recording delay, the customer gets a chance to choose one of the five products
which they want to talk about to the call center worker.
● ,From the data collected , it was found that 20% of customers want to complain about the
washing machine, 21% want to talk to the toaster department, 18% want to talk to the
fridge department followed by 19% wanting to talk to air conditioning department and
remaining 22% wants to talk to television department.
● The call then goes to the decide module and depending on the above percentages, the call goes
to the respective departments.
Washing machine department logic
 Washing machine department logic

● The assign module in the washing machine department gives the call a specific color and assign

the entity type.

● The call then goes to the processing of the call which takes TRIA(3,10,15) minutes.

● The call then moves forward in the simulation model towards the end of the call and call

disposal.
Toaster department logic
 Toaster department logic

● The call then goes to the processing of the call which takes TRIA(3,10,15) minutes.

● The call then moves forward in the simulation model towards the end of the call and call

disposal.
Refrigerator department logic
 Refrigerator department logic

● The call then goes to the processing of the call which takes TRIA(3,10,15) minutes.

● The call then moves forward in the simulation model towards the end of the call and call

disposal.
Air conditioner department logic
 Air conditioner department logic

● The call then goes to the processing of the call which takes TRIA(3,10,15) minutes.

● The call then moves forward in the simulation model towards the end of the call and call

disposal.
Television department logic
 Television department logic

● The call then goes to the processing of the call which takes TRIA(3,10,15) minutes.

● The call then moves forward in the simulation model towards the end of the call and call

disposal.
Call departure logic
 Call departure logic

● Once the talk with the customer service representative is completed, the call then goes to
the release trunk line module where the trunk line is released by the call which is then
seized by another incoming call.
● The assigned module of decrement total WIP decreases the variable total WIP. The
record module of total completed calls records the total completed call using the count
feature and is reported in the crystal reports at the end of the simulation.
● The call finally leaves the system using the dispose module.
Improvements suggested
 Improvements suggested to improve the
baseline model

● From the analysis of the raw data collected and simulating the Baseline model, it was
observed that there is a need for additional agents at the call center, to make the whole
process more productive..
● The two improvements suggested are :
1. Hiring and training of additional agents
2. Splitting the call center into two departments namely- Tech Department and Sales
Department
Modeling of the
improved scenario
( Proposed model)
Proposed model
 Proposed model

● As per the improvement suggested,in this model, the departments have been divided
into two categories – the tech department and the sales department.
● The tech department is further divided into 5 product departments as in the baseline
simulation model.
● It was observed the need for more operators in the sales department than in the tech
department..
 Proposed model

● Hence, 6 operators have been assigned to the sales department and 4 operators to
the tech departments. Thus, there is a total of 10 trunk lines for the new proposed
call center simulation.
● The processing of the call in the proposed model takes the calls in TRIA (3,6,10) and
TRIA(3,5,8) minutes in the two replications.
● This proposed model is designed to achieve the maximum customer satisfaction and at
the same time to keep the company’s costs under control.
Results from the simulation
models
Results of the Baseline
model
Entities
 Entities

● The simulation model is run for 10 hours (600 minutes) from 9AM to 7PM .

● From the table, It is observed that there is a total of 128 incoming calls out of which the

highest calls are for the television department ( 34 calls) followed by AC, toaster, washing

machine and fridge.

Queue time

● It is observed that the waiting time for the

television is highest ( 4.58 minutes)
because the television department receives
the highest number of incoming calls

● The second highest waiting time is for AC

followed by washing machine, toaster and fridge.
Resource utilization

● The resource utilization of the

television (48.56%) is the highest
followed by AC, toaster, washing
machine and fridge departments. This
usage depends on the number of
incoming calls for each department.
Type of calls
Results of the Proposed
model
 Results from the Proposed model

● The table indicates the number of attempted, completed and rejected calls for the
proposed model.
● The proposed model has two major departments - tech department and sales
department.
● Two replications for the proposed model were performed to find the actual range of
the rejected calls.
● The number of rejected calls in the new proposed model ranges from 0 to 2.
Type of calls and their efficiencies
Replications and their efficiencies
 Replications and their efficiencies

● The efficiency for the total number of completed calls for the baseline model is
93.75% and the efficiency of the proposed model has been increased by 5-7%.
● The new proposed model has an efficiency of 98.63 to 100% for the total
answered calls. Hence, the new model is a better fit and more efficient than the
baseline model.
Comparison of results of
the Baseline and the
Proposed models
Baseline vs Proposed model

● It is observed that the percentage

reduction in the rejected calls
ranges from 75% to 100%.
● The increased rate of customer
satisfaction can significantly help the
company to increase its future service
by attracting more customers. The
profit earned by the company, in the
long run, can overcome the cost of
hiring newly trained operators.
Conclusion and future scope
of the project
 Conclusion

● The process to find the optimal solution for the call center involved a lot of trial and error.
● The baseline model built based on the raw data gathered from the electronic company’s website
showed that the company is not able to attain customer satisfaction as the number of rejected
calls were approximately 8 calls per hour..
● The proposed model with 98.63-100% efficiency for completing the incoming calls will help
the call center to improve its customer satisfaction ratings.
 Future scope of the project

● The call center model ultimately accomplished the most vital requirements of the project
while still needing a few minor adjustments, much like any real system, there will
always be areas for improvement.
● The future scope of this project includes working on a model to accomplish a higher rate
of resolving calls and problems by adding new skilled and trained agents in the
respective departments.
 Challenges faced

1. Inaccurate,inconsistent and missing data

2. Model complexity: Call center simulations can be complex, with many variables
and factors to consider. It can be challenging to build a simulation model that
accurately captures the complexities of a real-world call center environment.
3. Technical issues with ARENA software
 References

1. Pandey, A. (2020, December 4). Call center dataset. Kaggle. Retrieved May 11, 2022,
from https://www.kaggle.com/datasets/ashishpandey5210/call-center-dataset/code
2. Design and Simulation of Call Center Using Arena" by S. Karthikeyan, R. Ravi, and V.
Manikandan.
3. ."Call Center Performance Analysis: A Simulation Approach" by Y. F. Akgun, A. E. Aras,
and A. Kocak.
4. "Simulation Modeling and Analysis of Call Center Operations" by P. M. Pinto, D. D. D.
Ruiz, and G. B. Braga.
THANK YOU!