I.

General Simulation Concept: (68%, Problems 1-7: 3 points each, Problem 8: 2 points each)
Use one sentence or a phrase to answer each question
1. a) What is the advantage of modeling in ARENA over modeling in SIMAN.
Get ease-of-use advantage of simulators without sacrificing modeling flexibility. Multiple levels of
modeling. Arena has a graphical user interface (GUI) built around the SIMAN language. Arena is far more
convenient than SIMAN, because it provides many handy features, such as high-level modules for model
building, statistics definition and collection, animation of simulation runs (histories), and output report
generation.
b) What is the advantage of modeling in SIMAN over modeling in ARENA.
Lowest modeling level is SIMAN simulation language. Model building tends to be particularly intuitive,
since many modules represent actual subsystems in the conceptual model or the real-life system under
study. Complex models usually require both Arena modules and SIMAN blocks. SIMAN- more
debugging.
2.

Identify one possible entity and a resource associated with the entity for each system below:
a) Toll way system
b) Chemical plant
c) Supermarket
d) Computer Network
3. List three major steps in distribution fitting: [SLIDE]
a) Deciding on distribution form (exponential, gamma, empirical, etc.)
b) Estimating its parameters
c) Best fit from among several distributions
4. Refer to the Hand Simulation example in chapter 2.
a) Determine the time when entity #3 completed the service.
8.05
b) What is the queue size at Time=13.00?
Queue= 0
c) How many parts are produced in 10 minutes?
3
5. a) Refer to Figure 4-29, page 181. Which test shows a stronger evidence to reject the fit?
Chi-square test
K-S test
b) What does p-value represents?
In statistical hypothesis testing the p-value is the probability of obtaining a test statistic at least as
extreme as the one that was actually observed, assuming that the null hypothesis is true. One often
"rejects the null hypothesis" when the p-value is less than the predetermined significance level (Greek
alpha), which is often 0.05 or 0.01, indicating that the observed result would be highly unlikely under the
null hypothesis. Although there is often confusion, the p-value is not the probability of the null hypothesis
being true, nor is the p-value the same as the Type I error rate. [source; wiki]
6.

Answer each question in one sentence or a phrase:

a) If Mean Time Between Arrival (MTBA) is exponentially distributed with a mean of 10 minutes, what is the
distribution and its parameter for the number of arrivals per hour?
Entities inter-arrival time (t) is considered to be exponentially distributed with a Mean Time Between
Arrival (MTBA) of 1/lamda where lamda is the arrival rate of entities (for example, customers per unit
time). The number of entities who arrive within the specified time interval is a random variable that
follows Poisson distribution with mean arrival rate of lamda = 1/MTBA.
b) If the MTBA is smaller than the average service time, what will happen in the waiting line?
Queue is keep going up.
7. Which distribution is commonly used in each of the following situations:
a) data are not available, but estimates of most likely value and extreme values are possible.
Triangular

b) lifetime of a device when failure rate increases over time

Weibull
c) all values over a range are equally likely
Uniform
d) process that appears to have a symmetric distribution
Normal
8. Determine whether the statistics collected below are time-persistent statistics (T), statistics based on observations (O),
or counter (C):
a) Daily production output measured by number of products produced in a day C
b) Average cycle time (average time required to produce a part) O
c) Work-in-process level (average number of parts in system) T
d) Resource utilization T
II. Modeling and Analysis with ARENA (32%, 4 points each) Show steps in ARENA to model the following situation.
Problems 1-4 are based on Model 4-1 from the textbook.
1. The system produces only 100 Part A per day.
Create,
Max arrival= 100
2. Parts from customer A have priority over the customer B parts.
Use assign attribute, Part Type =1
Queue, lower value first
3. The Part B Prep is not available in the first 10 minutes when the center opens.
Resource schedule
4. Collect the time between departures for the scrapped parts.
Record,
Type= time between
Problems 5-8 are based on Model 5-4 on page 251.
5. Identify (a) a logical entity and (b) a physical entity in this model (if any).
Logical > customer demand
Physical > not any
6. Which two blocks allow us to control the simulation run length in this model?
Replicate
Variable
7. Which two blocks allow us to change the inventory level?
variable
Assign
8. Change demand size to 25% for 1, 25% for 2, 25% for 3, and 25% for 4.
Expression= DISC( 0.25, 1. 0.5, 2, 0.75, 3, 1, 4)
9. What is the advantage of a serial processing problem?
Each of the processor in the system is specialized in some specific job.
10. What is the advantage of a parallel processing problem?
The inefficiency of the series processing is the waiting in queue. Its overcome by the usage of parallel
processing. This process generalizes or integrates the work so that each part completely process all of
the steps of one application at a time.
11. Two factors affecting s level.
Lead time, quantity of order
12. Two factors affecting S level.
Ordering cost (Fixed+ Incremental), Holding cost
13. Entity-activated program.
ARENA and SIMAN
14. Not based on entity-activated program.
Java, C++
15. How the TNOW is changed in discrete simulation?
Its a real-valued quantity. Not user assignable.

16. Two events in the event calendar at the same time?

Yes, in batch.
Entities arrive at the Assembly module and are placed in a queue named Assembly.Queue. When two
entities of the same entity type are accumulated, a single permanent representative entity leaves the
module. There is no representative entity type specified; therefore, the grouped entity will maintain the
entity type of the Last entity entering the queue.
17. Two statistical accumulator observational statistics.
Average total time, maximum total time.
18. Two statistical accumulator time-persistent statistics.
WIP, Average number of parts in queue, machine utilization
19. Two statistical accumulator counter statistics.
# parts in, # parts out.
20. Example of Time Interval and Time Between.
Time Between
Specify nature of time separating consecutive arrivals
Time Interval
Records time elapsed up to now (TNOW) from when an entity attribute was marked with a time
stamp upstream
21. Single machine problem, machine is busy and one part is waiting at time 0?
Create-> based on schedule
22. Service machine time 50% 5 min, 25% 7 min, 25%, 10 min.
Expression( DISC(0.5, 5. 0.75, 7, 1, 10)
23. Delete first 30 minutes of statistics.
eeee
24. Two types of part arrive in system: 70% part A, 30% part B
Assign-> part A arrive
Assign -> part B arrive
25. Arrival rate change every hour
NSExpo ( Schedule ID )Non-stationary exponential distribution (also referred to as a nonstationary or
nonhomogeneous Poisson process). This function is typically used in the Create module for specifying
inter-arrival times that vary according to a time-varying rate function expressed in Arena as a schedule.
The schedule must be specified as type Arrivals. The distribution is used in situations where arrivals
follow a nonstationary Poisson process where the arrival rate varies over time. For example, the arrival
rate at a fast-food restaurant will be larger during the lunch time rush hour than during mid-morning. In
this case, the arrival rate automatically changes to follow the values specified in its schedule.